Everyone has heard the name ‘Ali Express’ at least at one point in their life. This shopping forum is basically like the Amazon of China because it quite literally contains anything and everything.
However, unlike Amazon, this shopping forum has prices so low that you cannot even fathom. While intriguing many purchasers, these low prices also leave them questioning whether is AliExpress legit or not. If you were thinking the same and wanted reassurance before purchasing from this site for the first time, we have you covered. Hop on below to read everything you need to know about the safety factor that comes with AliExpress.
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Part 1. Is AliExpress Legit?
Yes! AliExpress is usually a safe place to shop online, but like any other online shopping forum, you must be careful when shopping from this website. AliExpress cannot take ownership or ensure the quality of the product or delivery as it only hosts third-party sellers from whom a purchaser buys the product. So, while the site is legit and provides users with great products at exceptional prices, it still requires them to stay vigilant when purchasing.
Part 2. Is AliExpress Safe to Buy From?
While we did mention above that AliExpress provides a forum for third-party sellers to sell their products to purchasers and hence does not take ownership of the quality or delivery. This does not mean the platform does not care about what its purchasers receive. In fact, AliExpress has developed ways to assure sellers that the site they are purchasing from is safe. Here are a few of these measures:
1. Buyer Protection
While the service cannot help if you do not receive your parcel from a seller or do not receive what you expected, it still can help or protect a buyer through a money-back guarantee. According to AliExpress policies, a purchaser can ask for their money back if they have not received their parcel within the buyer protection period of 75 days. Moreover, if something a purchaser receives is broken, not good, or fake, they can also ask for a partial to full refund, replacement, or a voucher to compensate for it.
2. Payment Handling
Your payments are one aspect that AliExpress protects. The service handles all the payment information; hence, you won’t have to worry about third-party sellers accessing your credit or debit information.
Part 3. Why is AliExpress so Cheap?
One of the primary reasons why many people often think about whether or not ‘is AliExpress safe’ is because of the low prices this forum holds. This also makes them question why the prices are high. Well, there are several reasons why the prices of AliExpress are cheap. Some of these reasons are:
1. You are Buying Directly
One possible reason why the price of a product on AliExpress is so low is probably because you are purchasing directly from the manufacturer. The production cost in China is low; hence, when you buy from a manufacturer, little profit is implemented. Therefore, this eventually reduces the price of the overall product.
2. It’s Fake
Another possibility that the product you are eyeing is so cheap is that it is either fake or fell off the production line during manufacturing due to rejection during the brand quality assessment. China is known as a hotbed for counterfeit products globally, and hence, a site as legit as AliExpress also holds no exception when it comes to bearing a few fake products here and there.
3. Listing Trick
AliExpress bears multiple sellers who sell the same product. Hence, to compete against hundreds of other sellers in the market who have the same product and price, these third-party sellers start to employ shady listing practices. What does this mean?
A typical example is that the seller includes a small accessory as an optional purchase with the main product, which is much cheaper than the latter counterpart. Then, instead of listing the price for the main product, the seller lists the price for the optional product in the displayed results. This immediately makes the purchaser think the price is for the main product, luring them to tap on the link.
Part 4. How to Avoid AliExpress Scams?
Now that we have helped clear the air on whether is AliExpress legit, the next step would be to understand how to avoid the few scams we discussed to ensure you can avail the best purchase from the forum. Here is how you can easily spot fake products, scams, and misleading listings to ensure you buy the best product for yourself:
– Avoid popular brand deals
Fake items are a problem on AliExpress, and any seller listing a famous brand at prices too reasonable to be true is always an indication of a scam. So, if you see a brand new Apple Airpod on the site sold by a seller at a price so much cheaper than what the original Airpods would cost you, then you should know that they are most likely fake and avoid tapping the purchase button.
– Check User Reviews
When purchasing on any online forum, any new buyer tends to read the user reviews before hitting that purchase button. So, why wouldn’t you do the same on AliExpress? The platform allows its users to leave comments for sellers. These ratings and reviews, in turn, can help other users find great items or miss out on those that turn out to be scams.
– Read Listings Carefully
If one issue on AliExpress is massively evident, it is the misleading listings. This can be understood in an example where a flashlight is listed for only $0.50. Have you ever seen a flashlight this cheap? No, right!
Hence, any user would immediately be lured towards it. Still, upon tapping the product to open the complete listing, they would find that the prices go up because the lower price mentioned was for just an aspect of the part that comes with the flashlight, i.e., the batteries. Hence, it is always essential to properly open each product and ensure the pricing is mentioned.
– Brushing Scam
Brushing scams are not very common but are still a part of AliExpress’s workings. What happens in this scam is that some sellers use fake accounts to purchase their products and, in turn, leave a positive review. This gives other buyers the impression that the product is worth the purchase.
Wrapping Up!
If you have never shopped from AliExpress before but are planning to do so now, we are sure that the thought of AliExpress legit might have crossed your mind at least once. If this thought led you to do a Google search, which brought you here, we hope this article helped remove all your worries. While AliExpress is excellent, another great shipment company we’d like to bring to your attention is NextSmartShip. Check it out today and see the exceptional services it provides for yourself.