It has long been no surprise that 90% of the store's assortment is made in China. But until the product reaches the hands of a domestic buyer, its price will increase significantly: in addition to the seller, a large wholesale intermediary and an ultimate distributor will lay their percentage of profit. And it happens that in this scheme there are even more participants, and this only increases the total cost. To avoid such markups, many buyers directly order cheap items from China. About how to make an economical shopping in the Middle Kingdom, we will tell in this article.
Where to buy cheap things from China?
China’s e-commerce giants are three sites that, in principle, resemble a regular market. This is not one big store, but a collection of many sellers. All these markets belong to one company - Alibaba Group, however, each of them is aimed at its category of buyers who order things from China:
- Alibaba.com is designed for wholesale. As a rule, goods are not sold individually, but in batches. Here, the seller provides his goods, contacts, approximate prices and production capabilities. The buyer can contact him and discuss the terms of delivery. Recently, Alibaba has been developing a small wholesale business, providing customers with protection for the order and the possibility of a refund in case of non-receipt or non-compliance of the goods.
- Taobao.com is a retail online store. Here you can order things from China inexpensively. It may seem that prices are the lowest here, but the site has its own significant disadvantages. So, delivery from Taobao is carried out only within the territory of China; foreign buyers have to use the services of an intermediary who will receive the ordered goods and send it abroad. For this, you pay him a percentage of the purchase and additionally reimburse the shipping cost (depends on the weight and dimensions of the package). The price increases significantly. If the product is of poor quality, it will not be possible to make a claim to the seller. An unscrupulous intermediary can disrupt delivery times or even buy the wrong things, so ordering from Taobao is quite risky.
- Aliexpress.com - by and large it is an analogue of "Taobao", designed for a foreign retail buyer. The choice of goods is huge, prices are much lower than outside of China, and the platform acts as the controller of the transaction. So, you pay the cost of the item from China, but the seller receives money for the purchase only after you confirm the completion of the transaction. If the goods are not delivered on time or do not match the order, you will be reimbursed. The purchase protection system at Aliexpress is quite impressive and is constantly being improved.
"Aliexpress" - a leader among online stores
Summing up, we can say that ordering things from China cheaply for a retail buyer is best on Aliexpress. In addition to protecting transactions, constant discounts, promotions and cashback are available. Russia is one of the largest markets for Aliexpress, therefore, a Russian-language interface is available, which greatly facilitates the use of the online store. You can’t even translate requests for goods search, the site will understand you.
Official communities on social networks help you learn how to make purchases, find links to trusted sellers and communicate with other fans to order things from China. Also recently, it became possible to leave reviews with photos in Russian, so you can always find out the objective opinion of compatriots.
Let's take a closer look at how things are ordered from China.
Step 1. Choosing a seller
Be sure to pay attention to the merchant rating: the higher it is, the more reliable it is to cooperate with it. However, there are no rules without exceptions. Some developing stores are trying to serve the first customers as best as possible in order to get good reviews. And high-rated stores can afford to ignore a disgruntled customer. Therefore, before buying, it is advisable to chat with the seller using chat or internal mail: specify the size, ask for a real photo, especially if the thing is expensive. If the seller does not respond at this stage, then imagine how you will be treated if disputes arise.
Step 2. Finding the best price
When you start looking for a product, you will notice that many people sell it, and sometimes the cost is very different. There are two reasons for this:
- Increased demand. Young stores often make large discounts to attract customers (scammers also use this - be careful). But sellers with high ratings can also afford to lower the price, since they have large sales volumes. A very high price is set by the seller in order to indicate the great value of the discount. There are frequent cases when a product marked “–90%" ultimately costs the same as the average on the market.
- Different goods. The fact that sellers use the same photos does not mean that they are trading the same product. This is especially true for down jackets: the price range for one model - from $ 20 to $ 100 - can mean that they are sewn by completely different manufacturers and from different materials. Counterfeiting in China is normal.
Therefore, do not be lazy to spend some time studying the results of search results and sensibly evaluate the value of the goods. For example, a bag made of genuine leather, even in China, cannot cost $ 5, this is a clear sign of fraud. For convenience, the search can be sorted by price, number of orders, seller rating or reviews.
Step 3. Checkout
The procedure is not much different from a standard purchase on the Internet. You can add goods to the basket and place orders from there, or you can immediately buy a certain position on its page. Please note that each seller sends the package separately.
At the first purchase, the service will offer you to fill out the delivery data. Make sure you specify them correctly. Buyers from Russia who order things from China must definitely indicate their surname, name, middle name in full to avoid delivery problems. Do not try to translate street names, write in English "house", "apartment". It is important that the destination country is spelled correctly. All other data will be of interest only to local postmen, do not complicate their work.
Step 4. Payment
There are many payment methods on Chinese sites. Bank cards Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Western Union, WebMoney, Qiwi, Yandex.Money and others are available. In the event of a refund, the money comes to the card or wallet with which payment was made. In order to make it more convenient to navigate in prices, you can choose the currency in which the price will be displayed in the right part of the top panel of the site.
Step 5. Delivery
Many buyers do not order things from China, because they are afraid that the parcel will be lost or that they will have to pay customs duty. But most often these fears are far-fetched.
Delivery is carried out either by government services, such as China Post, Russian Post, or international courier companies, such as UPS, Fedex, etc.
After the buyer’s payment has been verified, the seller will ship the goods within the specified time period. Its duration is 5-90 days, it is always indicated on the product card next to the delivery method. Conscientious sellers ship the goods as soon as possible, and fraudsters often drag out this.
After sending, the merchant provides the buyer with a tracking number for tracking. This is a combination of letters and symbols that you need to enter on the website of the postal company, and you can track the movement of the parcel. Please note that the parcel will not be tracked on your mail site until it arrives in the country. Delivery time depends on many factors and ranges from 14-60 days, less often this figure reaches 100-120. Therefore, it is better to plan purchases in advance. Also make sure that the protection period for the order does not end before you receive it.
After receiving the goods, do not forget to leave a review to help other buyers.
Frauds with tracks
According to the rules, the seller must issue a valid track number to the buyer. But sellers of inexpensive goods try to save on shipping and send them without tracked tracks. Of course, this is inconvenient for the buyer: there is no way to monitor the movement of the purchase.
In this case, you can open a dispute, however, unspoken laws come into force here. If the seller warns that he sends without a track or sets a minimum order for a certain amount, then it is difficult to blame him for something. You yourself agreed to this risk when you decided to buy a cheaper product. But if the seller silently gave you a fake parcel number for a parcel worth more than $ 10, then this is an occasion to open a dispute.