AliExpress (全球速卖通) is an online retail portal that allows small Chinese businesses to sell their products directly to domestic and international consumers and resellers. Noted for the affordability of products sold on its platform, AliExpress can be compared to Temu (which has a bad reputation).
But does this also hold true for AliExpress? In this article, we’ll examine how safe AliExpress is to buy from, and look at how you can improve your safety when shopping on AliExpress.
- Is AliExpress safe to buy from?
- Why is AliExpress so cheap?
- How to stay safe on AliExpress
- It’s mainly a matter of using common sense
Is AliExpress safe to buy from?
Much like eBay, AliExpress is simply an online portal through which (mainly) small businesses sell their wares. As such, how safe it is to purchase goods on AliExpress largely depends on how trustworthy each individual seller is. Fortunately, AliExpress provides a number of tools to help protect you from scams. These include:
Customer reviews and star ratings
While hardly unique to AliExpress, the one-to-five star rating system is helpful for anyone trying to determine if a seller is reliable and their product good. AliExpress also provides valuable details such as how long a seller has been in business, how many items it has sold recently, its track record for delivering items on time, and more.
Even better, most listings appear to have many detailed reviews (often with photos).
Secure payment platform
Transactions on AliExpress are processed through its secure payment platform, which protects your financial information from dishonest sellers. AliExpress also offers other protections for purchases made on its platform (see below).
Escrow scheme
AliExpress operates an escrow system that holds your payment until your goods have been successfully delivered and you’ve confirmed that they match the seller’s description and aren’t defective or damaged. Only then will it pass your payment onto the seller.
However, you should be aware that the escrow system only covers payments made using Visa, MasterCard, or bank transfer. Payments made using PayPal and Western Union are not covered.
Buyer protection
AliExpress has a buyer protection(new window) program for goods purchased through its secure payment platform (items purchased outside the platform or through unsupported payment methods may not qualify). It lasts for 15 days after you confirm you have received your item, and you can request a refund during this period if the item is damaged or misdescribed.
Although this money-back guarantee covers many goods, you should be aware that it doesn’t cover everything(new window). These include items you damaged yourself, personalized and custom-made items, perishable items (such as flowers), and items unsuitable for return due to hygiene or health reasons.
If there is a fault with the product or delivery, the seller must cover any return costs. You can also simply change your mind within the 15-day period and return the item at your own cost.
In 2023, AliExpress launched Choice(new window), a premium shopping and shipping logistics program directly under its own control. In addition to promotional benefits such as free shipping on orders over a specified amount, buying through Choice offers similar (or enhanced) money-back guarantees to its buyer protection program.
Why is AliExpress so cheap?
AliExpress is inexpensive because it connects you directly to manufacturers and sellers in China. This eliminates middlemen and their associated costs, but more importantly, most products sold on the platform are typically mass produced in a country with much lower labor expenses than many other regions of the world.
The platform’s competitive pricing strategy and lower marketing overhead further contribute to its affordability.
How to stay safe on AliExpress
AliExpress is generally safe to use, but the following tips will help ensure you have a positive experience shopping on the platform:
1. Research the seller
Check the seller’s ratings and reviews, looking for sellers with a high percentage of positive feedback (above 90%) and detailed customer reviews. Avoid sellers that have sold only a few items (only consider vendors that have completed at least 100 orders), and carefully check their refund policies.
2. Use the buyer protection or Choice programs
Ensure your purchase qualifies for AliExpress buyer protection, which guarantees refunds for undelivered or misrepresented items, or that AliExpress will handle its delivery (via its Choice program). At the very least, ensure your payment method is covered by AliExpress’s escrow system (don’t pay using PayPal or Western Union if no other protections are in place).
If there’s a problem, always communicate and dispute the issue through AliExpress’s platform to keep your buyer protections valid.
3. Avoid low-cost brand names
A common bit of advice is to be wary of deals that seem too good to be true. But the reality is that sellers on AliExpress do routinely offer goods at much lower prices than can usually be found in many parts of the world. You can find such good deals on AliExpress because most items sold on the platform are mass produced and unbranded.
It’s unlikely that small sellers in China can offer genuine branded products at ultra-low prices, so there’s a high chance these are counterfeit and therefore best avoided.
4. Check product descriptions carefully
Read the product details and reviews thoroughly and compare product photos and specifications with images uploaded by customers to ensure you understand exactly what’s being sold. This is important because most buyer protections AliExpress offers don’t apply if the item arrives as described. If you just don’t like what you ordered or ordered the wrong thing, you won’t qualify for a refund (you’ll be able to return the item at your own cost in most cases, but this is annoying and can’t be guaranteed).
You should be particularly careful about clothing sizes, as these are often a size or two smaller than advertised.
5. Check shipping times
Not really a safety issue, but unexpectedly long shipping times can catch you unawares and leave you dissatisfied. In the UK (for example), many items have a guaranteed five to seven-day delivery time. But goods shipped directly from China can take weeks to arrive.
With AliExpress, it’s mainly a matter of using common sense
The fact that items on AliExpress are so cheap, combined with the fact that less salubrious platforms such as Temu can give Chinese services a bad name, means it’s quite reasonable to be wary of buying products on the platform. And given its open nature, which allows basically any small business in China to sell their goods on it, it’s inevitable that some sellers will be dishonest scammers.
However, AliExpress provides in-depth tools for assessing a seller’s trustworthiness and several mechanisms to guarantee you’re happy with an item when (and if) it arrives or you’ll get your money back. If you use these tools — that is, you do your research and only purchase items via a method safeguarded by AliExpress, it’s unlikely you’ll run into problems.
At Proton, our mission is to help make the internet safe for everyone. Our extensive range of privacy-focused services (such as Proton VPN, Proton Mail(new window), Proton Drive(new window) (with collaborative document editing(new window)), Proton Pass(new window), Proton Calendar(new window), and Proton Wallet(new window)), are a key part of this mission, but we also investigate the security practices of other services our community is interested in. Check out our articles taking an in-depth look at Temu, TikTok, Google Calendar(new window), and Telegram.
