Shop Deals Directly From China?: Alibaba, AliExpress, and Taobao
As the lines and multiple stops I have to make in traffic congested Los Angeles get worse, it is not a pleasure to just "go shopping" anymore. If I need to get household supplies, I need to drive to Target in Los Angeles traffic to get things at a reasonable price. Otherwise, the local CVS is a rip off, let alone the strip mall it is located at never has enough parking space. To get a household tool, it's a slog driving to Home Depot, or pay extra to shop at the local Anawalt Lumber. Anyone who has purchased professional art supplies knows how expensive they are at Blick Art, or even at Michaels. I bet the profit margin is huge on those things. No wonder people have turned to Amazon
for most of their shopping needs just to avoid the waste of time waiting in traffic, circling parking lots, and making multiple stops. The ability to compare prices and delivery fees without getting out of your house is invaluable in today's world. For $99 per year to join Amazon Prime, most deliveries are free. No wonder Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is the richest man in the world.
Well, I read somewhere that a Chinese company called Alibaba, is the ecommerce central in China. A few years ago, Alibaba established "Singles Day" on November 11 (11/11) to promote sales on the Alibaba site has become one of the highest grossing shopping days in the world. Apparently Alibaba made $25.9 billion USD in transactions on singles day in 2017, more than vendors in the United States saw on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. But does Alibaba sales extend to people shopping from the United States? I decided to do some research and try it out a bit. First, I discovered that Alibaba is indeed one of the largest ecommerce companies in the world. It operates three separate ecommerce websites: Alibaba, Aliexpress and Taobao. But how do you shop from them?
After some digging, I found out something quickly:
Taobao is a platform that allows businesses to sell to customers directly. However, it's website is strictly in Chinese only, so it is not very helpful to shoppers who cannot read Chinese. Well, I actually can read Chinese, albeit with a little bit of difficulty, but I can make out what the Taobao website seems to indicate: that while it ships to the United States, Canada, other Asian countries, it is mainly aimed at the Chinese market. An English speakers will have to use an online translation tool such as Google Translate to figure out what is being sold and how. The prices listed are in Chinese Yuan, so you have to figure out the currency exchange rate between the Yuan and the Dollar to figure out whether you are getting a good deal. Even if you realize that the deal is fantastic, it is difficult to figure out how the product is shipped to the United States. It appears that you will need to find sellers who are willing to ship to the U.S., chat with them online to arrange for shipping the product, or find yourself a third party shipping agent. The hurdles to jump over seem too high and too numerous to make shopping a pleasure for most casual shoppers like myself despite the possible deals on the site.
Alibaba, by contrast, is a platform for business wholesale buyers, suppliers and manufacturers. You can use Alibaba to find manufacturers to help make your orders in large quantities. I happen to need to purchase art supplies for my daughter's college art projects. However when I search for the Japanese made"Sakura Pigma pens", for example, I get directed to a Japanese manufacturer of Sakura Pigma set of 8 black pens and a brush (total of 9) at $6.68 a set. This is a HUUUUGE discount from a Sakura Pigma pen set of only 7 pens and a brush found at Blick Art supplies for $11.69. With a 9th pen, the pen set at Blick Art would surely be over $13 a set. On Amazon, a set of only 6 pens of the same brand costs $14.81 with Amazon Prime. What is the catch? You have to purchase 300 sets on Alibaba to get that price. Unless you are planning to resell the sets yourself to make a profit, most casual shoppers are not going to purchase 300 sets of pen in one go. This is the situation with products listed on Alibaba. A high MOQ (minimum order quantity) is usually required, which only makes sense if you are a business owner buying in bulk for resale.
This leaves most casual US shoppers with Alibaba's third platform: AliExpress. AliExpress is a global retail marketplace targeted at consumers worldwide. If you look at customer comments on the site, you will notice that many of them are located in Russia, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, the United States and many other countries. The site offers products in small quantities and you can order just 1 item and pay with a stored credit card using the site's Alipay system with Buyer Protection service. I found it easy and convenient to add my payment information on the site and started shopping on the much ballyhooed 11/11 2017, Singles Day. Looking for the same Sakura Pigma 9 pen set on AliExpress, I found it through a vendor called Promspland Pen Store for $8.84. Shipping was free to the the United States, and there was no tax. Definitely pricier than the $6.68 a set described on Alibaba, but still much cheaper than $13 at Blick Art. Actually, with Blick Art, I would have had to pay a $4.95 shipping fee if I purchased this one item only, and $1.11 tax, bringing the total to $19.06. Now, this is makes AliExpress cost 53.6% cheaper, a no brainer. I clicked on the "add to cart" button and paid with my stored credit card. The rest was just waiting for the purchase to arrive.
I made a few other separate purchases on Singles Day on AliExpress, all with no shipping cost or tax. I knew that shipping from China will take longer than the two day guaranteed shipping from Amazon given the distance of shipping, the need to clear customs, etc. The the wait wasn't too bad at all. The items I ordered all arrived between November 24, 2018 and December 11, 2018, which were between 13 days and one month from the day I placed the order: just in time for Christmas. Along the way, I received purchase confirmation, payment confirmation, shipping status, estimated delivery time and date, tracking link, from each of the vendors I purchased from: the same kind of service an American customer would expect from Amazon. Given the significant savings you can get on AliExpress, the wait time is reasonable.
In future blogs, I will describe and compare other items I got from AliExpress with prices and quality of similar items here. I need to caution though: Not all items can be compared because I purchased some products specifically made in China to check out their quality in comparison to American manufacturers. Also, not every item had the same huge savings I found on the Sakura pigma pens on Singles Day. I noticed that the prices of those pens, after the Singles Day sale, jumped to $10.41, although still significantly cheaper than what you can get on line here. Some heavier items were not worth purchasing because vendors' added shipping costs made the items not so competitive anymore. It is understandable that not everything can be shipped for free and still allow the vendors to make a profit. Finally, I have read about fake good sold by unscrupulous vendors in China. The items I purchased seemed genuine and of good quality. However, I am not the best detector of fake goods, so I am not an authority when it comes time for me to say: this is genuine, or that is fake. But overall, I am happy with the AliExpress products and its vendors.
In short, if you have heard about the big hoopla about Alibaba and its Singles Day sales, you can now participate not through Alibaba.com, or Taobao.com, but through AliExpress. However, be prepared that you will not get same day, next day, or even two days delivery you might be used to getting from Amazon. You have to patiently wait for your purchases to arrive. When they do, you will be happily surprised at the quality and discount pricing you are able to get.
Happy shopping!
for most of their shopping needs just to avoid the waste of time waiting in traffic, circling parking lots, and making multiple stops. The ability to compare prices and delivery fees without getting out of your house is invaluable in today's world. For $99 per year to join Amazon Prime, most deliveries are free. No wonder Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is the richest man in the world.After some digging, I found out something quickly:
Taobao is a platform that allows businesses to sell to customers directly. However, it's website is strictly in Chinese only, so it is not very helpful to shoppers who cannot read Chinese. Well, I actually can read Chinese, albeit with a little bit of difficulty, but I can make out what the Taobao website seems to indicate: that while it ships to the United States, Canada, other Asian countries, it is mainly aimed at the Chinese market. An English speakers will have to use an online translation tool such as Google Translate to figure out what is being sold and how. The prices listed are in Chinese Yuan, so you have to figure out the currency exchange rate between the Yuan and the Dollar to figure out whether you are getting a good deal. Even if you realize that the deal is fantastic, it is difficult to figure out how the product is shipped to the United States. It appears that you will need to find sellers who are willing to ship to the U.S., chat with them online to arrange for shipping the product, or find yourself a third party shipping agent. The hurdles to jump over seem too high and too numerous to make shopping a pleasure for most casual shoppers like myself despite the possible deals on the site.
Alibaba, by contrast, is a platform for business wholesale buyers, suppliers and manufacturers. You can use Alibaba to find manufacturers to help make your orders in large quantities. I happen to need to purchase art supplies for my daughter's college art projects. However when I search for the Japanese made"Sakura Pigma pens", for example, I get directed to a Japanese manufacturer of Sakura Pigma set of 8 black pens and a brush (total of 9) at $6.68 a set. This is a HUUUUGE discount from a Sakura Pigma pen set of only 7 pens and a brush found at Blick Art supplies for $11.69. With a 9th pen, the pen set at Blick Art would surely be over $13 a set. On Amazon, a set of only 6 pens of the same brand costs $14.81 with Amazon Prime. What is the catch? You have to purchase 300 sets on Alibaba to get that price. Unless you are planning to resell the sets yourself to make a profit, most casual shoppers are not going to purchase 300 sets of pen in one go. This is the situation with products listed on Alibaba. A high MOQ (minimum order quantity) is usually required, which only makes sense if you are a business owner buying in bulk for resale.
This leaves most casual US shoppers with Alibaba's third platform: AliExpress. AliExpress is a global retail marketplace targeted at consumers worldwide. If you look at customer comments on the site, you will notice that many of them are located in Russia, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, the United States and many other countries. The site offers products in small quantities and you can order just 1 item and pay with a stored credit card using the site's Alipay system with Buyer Protection service. I found it easy and convenient to add my payment information on the site and started shopping on the much ballyhooed 11/11 2017, Singles Day. Looking for the same Sakura Pigma 9 pen set on AliExpress, I found it through a vendor called Promspland Pen Store for $8.84. Shipping was free to the the United States, and there was no tax. Definitely pricier than the $6.68 a set described on Alibaba, but still much cheaper than $13 at Blick Art. Actually, with Blick Art, I would have had to pay a $4.95 shipping fee if I purchased this one item only, and $1.11 tax, bringing the total to $19.06. Now, this is makes AliExpress cost 53.6% cheaper, a no brainer. I clicked on the "add to cart" button and paid with my stored credit card. The rest was just waiting for the purchase to arrive.
I made a few other separate purchases on Singles Day on AliExpress, all with no shipping cost or tax. I knew that shipping from China will take longer than the two day guaranteed shipping from Amazon given the distance of shipping, the need to clear customs, etc. The the wait wasn't too bad at all. The items I ordered all arrived between November 24, 2018 and December 11, 2018, which were between 13 days and one month from the day I placed the order: just in time for Christmas. Along the way, I received purchase confirmation, payment confirmation, shipping status, estimated delivery time and date, tracking link, from each of the vendors I purchased from: the same kind of service an American customer would expect from Amazon. Given the significant savings you can get on AliExpress, the wait time is reasonable.
In future blogs, I will describe and compare other items I got from AliExpress with prices and quality of similar items here. I need to caution though: Not all items can be compared because I purchased some products specifically made in China to check out their quality in comparison to American manufacturers. Also, not every item had the same huge savings I found on the Sakura pigma pens on Singles Day. I noticed that the prices of those pens, after the Singles Day sale, jumped to $10.41, although still significantly cheaper than what you can get on line here. Some heavier items were not worth purchasing because vendors' added shipping costs made the items not so competitive anymore. It is understandable that not everything can be shipped for free and still allow the vendors to make a profit. Finally, I have read about fake good sold by unscrupulous vendors in China. The items I purchased seemed genuine and of good quality. However, I am not the best detector of fake goods, so I am not an authority when it comes time for me to say: this is genuine, or that is fake. But overall, I am happy with the AliExpress products and its vendors.
In short, if you have heard about the big hoopla about Alibaba and its Singles Day sales, you can now participate not through Alibaba.com, or Taobao.com, but through AliExpress. However, be prepared that you will not get same day, next day, or even two days delivery you might be used to getting from Amazon. You have to patiently wait for your purchases to arrive. When they do, you will be happily surprised at the quality and discount pricing you are able to get.
Happy shopping!
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