There are good things and bad things about selling and shopping online. When it comes to online businesses, there are people who want to do real business and people who don’t. To avoid being scammed, you need to make sure the platform you use has some safety features and take some safety steps yourself.
How does AliExpress work?
AliExpress is a place where Chinese manufacturers and small businesses can sell their goods to customers all over the world. It is a place where people can buy and sell things online. AliExpress is one of the top 50 most-visited websites in the world.
People often mix it up with the Alibaba platform. But Alibaba is a global market for wholesale goods, while AliExpress is a global online market for retail goods. Both AliExpress and Alibaba, the company that owns it, are reputable. But this doesn’t mean that the quality of the seller is always the same.
How safe is AliExpress?
AliExpress is safe to use, yes. But you need to use the safety measures the platform has set up and some of your own to keep yourself safe.
Here are some safe ways to use AliExpress:
Use the Buyer Protection Act.
There are usually a lot of risks that come with running an online business. You can’t look at an item like you would in a store. For example, you can’t check out the features of an electronic device or the quality of an item from an online store.
When you buy a well-known brand with many online reviews, you may feel safer. But that wouldn’t be true in every way on AliExpress. This is because many products from brands you haven’t heard of aren’t easy to find at your local store. You will only be able to choose a product based on the pictures and descriptions.
AliExpress has buyer protection policies in place to protect you from dishonest sellers. There are two types of guarantees for buyer protection. Among them are:
- If You Don’t Get An Order, You Get Your Money Back In Full. AliExpress will give you a refund within 15 days if the seller doesn’t send you the goods or if it takes longer than the seller said it would.
- If The Product Is Not As Described, You Can Get Some Or All Of Your Money Back. If you get a product that is not what you expected or what it says it is, you can send it back and get your money back. You can also keep the product and get part of your money back.
Check out the seller’s promise.
A seller can also give you a guarantee when you buy something from them. More guarantees mean that you can trust the seller more. AliExpress is also more reliable because sellers offer guarantees. You will find that AliExpress seller guarantees depend on what they are selling.
There may be a lot of guarantees for one product. This doesn’t mean, though, that these guarantees will show up in the other products. You shouldn’t assume that all seller guarantees are the same. Instead, you should look into what each seller guarantees.
There are four kinds of product guarantees that sellers on AliExpress can offer. Among them are:
- Returns And Refunds. The seller will take the item back and give a full refund if it doesn’t match what they said it would be.
- Delivered On Time. With this guarantee, the seller agrees to give a full refund if the product doesn’t arrive within the time they say it will.
- Guaranteed Genuine. Most expensive items, especially electronics, are covered by this guarantee. This means that AliExpress has checked to make sure that the product is real.
- Homeward Bound. When the seller has a warehouse in your country, you can use the domestic returns guarantee. So, when you send something back, they won’t charge you any customs fees or shipping costs.
How to Look at the Seller’s Guarantee for a Single Item
- Go to the page about the item.
- Click on Quick Info for more information.
- Check out the information about buyer protection.
Or
- Go to the page about the item
- Look at the pictures of the items.
- Just below the pictures, click on “Seller’s Guarantee.”
Use the Feedback Page for Sellers
The easiest way to find a good seller on AliExpress is to look at the seller feedback page. You can find out how happy the seller’s previous customers are with the seller’s products. Most of the time, a seller with thousands of happy customers is more reliable than a seller with only a few happy customers.
How to Check Feedback Ratings for a Seller on AliExpress:
- Select a seller’s page.
- Click on the tab for feedback.
AliExpress makes it easy to figure out which sellers you can trust. They give you a feedback score and a percentage of people who gave them positive feedback to help you decide. AliExpress adds up all of the ratings and turns them into points to make the feedback score. One- and two-star ratings are worth one point less, three-star ratings are worth nothing, and four- and five-star ratings are worth one point.
The positive feedback percentage is the percentage of a seller’s total feedback that is positive. AliExpress further divides the ratings into shipping speed, whether the item is as described, and how well the seller communicates.
As you scroll down the seller’s page, you will see these categories. They use these categories to figure out whether a seller is above or below the average for the site. You can also see a seller’s average price over time.
Use AliExpress in a smart way.
AliExpress might use a lot of safety measures to protect both buyers and sellers. But you have to do a few things on your own to make sure you can use AliExpress safely. Even so, the platform will still give you some tips you can use to avoid scams. Among them are:
Talk to the Seller
AliExpress gives buyers a way to get in touch with the seller. Make sure you talk to the seller before you buy something. Ask about the return policy, the quality of the product, the warranty, and anything else you think is important.
As you look at the answers, check to see if the information is correct. Instead of trying to sell the product, a good seller will give as much information as they can to help. A good seller will also know everything there is to know about the product and, in some cases, have other options that might be better for you or your budget.
Don’t get free shipping on expensive items.
Most of us are tempted by deals that offer free shipping. But if it’s a pricey item, you should think twice because that makes the risks your product faces bigger. The postal service is used by sellers who offer free shipping.
The post office makes no promises about how they will handle your package. This means that if your item is fragile, it could get lost or broken, which could be a big problem for something like a laptop.
Spend the extra money to get shipping that you can trust. The seller could work with a trustworthy company like UPS, DHL, or another.
Before you confirm receipt, use the item.
Soon after you get your product, either AliExpress or the seller will ask for feedback. Test the product to see if it lives up to the description and meets all of your needs. Don’t confirm that you got the goods until you’re happy with them.
This tip also works when reviewing both the seller and the item. Spend some time looking at all the different parts of the product. For instance, when you buy a home theater system, make sure that the volume knob doesn’t fall off and that all the buttons on the remote work.
Also, make sure that, among other things, the Bluetooth works well.
Don’t send money straight to their account by wiring it.
Some sellers might ask you to send the money straight to their bank account. This is a terrible idea. AliExpress won’t offer buyer protection to people who pay with their bank accounts directly. There is a big chance that the seller won’t send the items, and you can’t file a claim with AliExpress.
Does the price seem too good to be true? Check Again
It makes no sense to buy the newest thing for $20 or $10. Scammers set these prices very low because they know people will risk a small amount of money to get the product. They will make a lot of money because a lot of people will probably fall for it. Even $10 or $20 from a lot of people will add up to a lot of money.
For the iPhone, it’s possible that they’re selling a case or keychain for it. Make sure you read the product title and description carefully so you don’t fall for these scams. Also, these products won’t have guarantees from AliExpress like the money-back guarantee or the “Genuine Guarantee.”
Use AliExpress payment methods that are accepted.
AliExpress lets you choose from a number of ways to pay. Credit Card and Paypal fall into these two main groups. On AliExpress, there are two types of payment methods: those that work on the app and those that work on the web platform.
On the PC version of the website, you can use the following ways to pay:
MasterCard, Visa, Maestro, Diners Club, and Discover Card, Webmoney, Wire Transfer, Yandex, American Express, QIWI, Western Union, DOKU, bancontact, Boleto, Pago, Mercado, iDeal, Giropay, TEF, Sofort Banking, Przelewy24, AliExpress Pocket, PayPal, Carte Bancaire (Carte Bleue), SMS Payment in Russia (MegaFon, MTC, TELE2, Beeline).
The AliExpress app supports the following ways to pay:
Visa, Maestro, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Card, Diners Club Card, Boleto, QIWI, iDeal, bancontact, Przelewy24, AliExpress Pocket, PayPal, and SMS Payment in Russia (MegaFon, MTC, TELE2, Beeline).
You can get protection from AliExpress as a buyer in either of these two ways. Also, if you want to earn points, you should use a credit card.
Use AliExpress Agents to help you.
AliExpress Agents make it easy and worry-free to buy things on AliExpress. You can trust AliExpress agents because they know how to ship internationally and work with AliExpress suppliers.
Agents for AliExpress offer the following:
- Buy Something For You. To buy with an AliExpress Agent, all you have to do is choose the items you want to buy and place an order with them. They are always ready to help you out and show you the way if you need it.
- Make Sure The Quality Is Good. The agents will help you get what you need. They will use the details of your order to check each product and make sure it meets the requirements.
- Have Reliable Shipping Suppliers If You Want To Ship Around The World. The agents work with reliable shipping companies to avoid problems like deliveries being late or not being made at all. You will choose your preferred shipping method, and depending on where you live, your items will arrive in 3 to 14 days.
- Get Rid Of Packaging That Isn’t Needed And Combine Orders. Agents from AliExpress will get rid of any extra packaging and combine orders into a single package. This makes shipping faster and cheaper, saving you up to 70% on shipping costs.
- Offer Services For Dropshipping. With the help of AliExpress Agents, you can choose to dropship from suppliers on AliExpress.
The following dropshipping services will be offered by AliExpress agents:
- A Vast Supplier Network. You can pick as many suppliers as you want to do dropshipping for you.
- Make Your Own Name. You will be able to brand your store and products with your logo.
- Get Rid Of Price Tags. They will help you put your own prices on the tags for the items.
How to Make Things Right on AliExpress
AliExpress works the same way as other shopping sites when it comes to refunds. You can’t just click a button for a refund and get your money back. You have to go through their whole dispute process.
A dispute can be brought up on AliExpress if:
- You get your order after the date on the confirmation.
- The product is not in a good enough state.
You have 15 days after the order is done to file a dispute with AliExpress. There are three main steps in the AliExpress dispute process. Among them are:
Reach out to the seller and let them know what’s wrong.
If you want to make a complaint after 15 days, this is the only way to do it. If you have a problem with your order before it’s done, you have to wait until it’s done before you can talk to AliExpress about it.
But you won’t be able to do anything if you have a problem after 15 days and the seller won’t help. If it’s been less than 15 days, you can still start with this option, and most sellers will be happy to help.
If the seller’s answer doesn’t make you happy, you can open a dispute ticket.
You only have 15 days to file a claim. File the dispute if the seller won’t work with you after you’ve tried to get in touch with them. With the dispute ticket, the dispute will become official, and you and the seller will talk about it in a formal way. If there is a formal dispute, AliExpress is keeping an eye on it, but they haven’t done anything about it yet.
AliExpress is the place to go.
If the formal talks don’t go well, you can now ask AliExpress to act as a middleman. AliExpress will help you work things out with the seller.
AliExpress is a safe place to shop.
AliExpress is safe, thanks to measures like the seller and buyer guarantees, which are in place. Also, the safety steps you take as a buyer, like looking at the seller’s guarantee or asking questions, help make the platform safer. You have a big part to play in making sure your purchase is safe.
AliExpress is an online shopping site that is part of the Alibaba group. The Alibaba eCommerce site is a B2B (Business to Business) platform for selling products in bulk. There are worries about how safe AliExpress is, just like there are worries about how safe Amazon or eBay are. However, both AliExpress and its users can make sure that all transactions are safe.
The following seven steps will help make your transactions on the platform safer:
- Putting Buyer Protection To Use. AliExpress has put these steps in place to keep buyers safe. They include refunds for products that don’t work or aren’t delivered on time.
- Taking A Look At The Seller’s Guarantee. Seller guarantees are promises that the seller makes to the buyer to give them peace of mind when they buy something from them. There are domestic returns, returns and refunds, deliveries on time, and a guarantee that the product is real.
- Use The Feedback Page For The Seller. On the page called “Seller Feedback,” you can rate the seller. AliExpress gives sellers a feedback score and sorts ratings into three groups: shipping speed, whether the item is as described, and how well the seller communicates.
- Be Smart About What You Buy On AliExpress. You need to take some steps on your own to be a smart shopper. You can contact the seller, for example, to ask about the products, see if a deal seems too good to be true, and more.
- Use A Payment Method That AliExpress Accepts. Both PayPal and credit cards can be used on AliExpress. Other direct payments to suppliers may be risky because AliExpress doesn’t know about them or keep track of them.
- Use AliExpress Agents To Help You. Agents from AliExpress will buy and ship the items for you. They make sure the product is good, ship it all over the world, and even offer dropshipping services.
- Sort Out Disagreements On AliExpress. You can file a complaint with AliExpress if the delivery or products are not what you expected. It will start with direct contact and negotiations with the suppliers. If that doesn’t work, you can try a formal conversation, and if that doesn’t work, you can use AliExpress as a middleman.
