AliExpress explained

Type:Online shopping
Owner:Alibaba Group
Commercial:Yes
Current Status:Active

AliExpress is an online retail service based in China and owned by the Alibaba Group.[1] Launched in 2010,[2] [3] it is made up of small businesses in China and other locations, such as Singapore, that offer products to international online buyers. It is the most visited e-commerce website in Russia[4] and was the 10th most popular website in Brazil.[5] It facilitates small businesses to sell to customers all over the world. AliExpress has drawn comparison to eBay, as sellers are independent and use the platform to offer products to buyers.[6] [7] As of March 2024, the number of global users of the AliExpress mobile app reached 8.18 million, a 130% year-on-year increase, setting the highest record since statistics began in 2016.[8]

Business model

AliExpress started as a business-to-business buying and selling portal. It has since expanded to include business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, cloud computing and payment services. As of 2016 AliExpress ran websites in English, Spanish, Korean, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Polish, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Russian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and other languages - English being the default offered to those countries with languages outside the preceding list.[9] AliExpress is often used by e-commerce stores that use a dropship business model.

Sellers on AliExpress can be either companies or individual industrial and commercial households.[10] AliExpress is different from Amazon because it acts only as an e-commerce platform and does not itself sell products directly to consumers.[11]

Although most of the retailers are Chinese, AliExpress is aimed at international import buyers, as it serves as the international version of Alibaba's Taobao platform, which targets the Chinese market.

Abroad

Since 2013, AliExpress has transitioned fully from small-scale wholesale to a To-C (consumer-oriented) platform. During this phase, the platform invested heavily in recruiting Chinese brands and focused on localized efforts in key markets such as Russia, aiming to enhance e-commerce infrastructure capabilities like logistics and payment systems. With the support of AliExpress, the delivery time of Russian postal services was reduced from several weeks to as fast as 5-7 days.[12]

On September 25th, 2024, AliExpress Korea Held a forum conference in the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas, in Gangnam, South Korea, Introducing various programs aimed at helping local Korean sellers to expand internationally through AliExpress, including benefits such as no fees & seller deposits for 5 years for Korean sellers on AliExpress.[13]

Government responses

In November 2020, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned the AliExpress mobile phone app along with 42 other Chinese apps.[14]

In 2022, the Office of the United States Trade Representative added AliExpress to its list of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy.[15] [16]

In November 2023, the European Commission opened a probe into AliExpress regarding "potential dissemination of illegal products such as fake medicines, non-compliant food, and ineffective dietary supplements." On the nature of the investigation, an EU official said, "We have not found yet at this stage that AliExpress is not compliant. We are simply suspecting we have elements that they are not compliant with. This is not a finding of a breach".[17]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Can you tell me the diffrence [sic] between Alibaba and Aliexpress?]. Alibaba.com. Help Center. 2021-01-06. dmy-all. 9 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210109001617/https://service.alibaba.com/page/knowledge?pageId=128&category=9207655&knowledge=20153593&language=en. live.
  2. Web site: Dowsett . Sonya . Alibaba's AliExpress warns of possible coronavirus delays . U.S. . 2020-03-03 . 2020-09-09 . 2 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220302195217/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-aliexpress-idUSKBN20Q23G . live .
  3. Web site: How a pandemic led the world to start shopping on Alibaba . Financial Times . 2020-04-28 . 2020-09-09 . 13 April 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220413062857/https://www.ft.com/content/4b1644b1-aeee-4d02-805a-c3ac26291412 . live .
  4. News: Tsydenova. Nadezhda. 2020-07-10. AliExpress Russia eyes $10 billion turnover by 2022-2023, up an estimated 66%. en. Reuters. 2021-07-26. 2 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220302195912/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-aliexpress-idUSKBN24B1N3. live.
  5. Web site: What is Aliexpress? . Matt . Slater . China Checkup . 18 December 2014 . 15 December 2021 . 14 August 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210814182451/https://www.chinacheckup.com/blogs/articles/what-is-aliexpress . live .
  6. Web site: Ebay vs Aliexpress - Which is better?. 2017-08-12. Top Reviews for You. en. 2019-08-02. 2 August 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190802162438/https://www.tollotoshop.com/ebay-vs-aliexpress-better/. live.
  7. Web site: ebay Versus AliExpress? Where You Should Be Shopping. Hsiao. Aron. The Balance Small Business. en. 2019-08-02. 2 August 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190802162441/https://www.thebalancesmb.com/ebay-or-aliexpress-reasons-to-shop-at-each-1139927. live.
  8. Web site: 机构：中国三家跨境电商APP在韩国用户数量猛增，均创历史新高界面新闻 · 快讯 . 2024-11-17 . www.jiemian.com.
  9. News: A Brief History of Jack Ma, Alibaba and AliExpress. 2016-03-23. Alixblog. 2017-05-22. 14 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170814224329/https://alixblog.com/en/history-aliexpress-alibaba/. live.
  10. Web site: 大数跨境｜跨境从业者专属的媒体平台 . 2024-11-17 . www.10100.com . zh.
  11. Web site: AliExpress Is Cheap, But Is It Safe to Shop There?. 4 December 2019. 28 April 2017. 9 July 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190709112905/https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/safe-shop-aliexpress/. live.
  12. Web site: 阿里速卖通：十年磨砺，助力中国品牌数字化出海 - 中国新闻周刊网 . 2024-11-17 . news.inewsweek.cn.
  13. Web site: 2024-09-25 . 알리, K셀러 해외진출 교두보…"5년간 수수료·보증금 면제"(종합) . 2024-11-17 . 아시아경제 . ko.
  14. Web site: 2020-11-25. AliExpress among 43 new Chinese apps banned in India: Check full list. 2020-11-25. The Indian Express. en. 24 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201124214026/https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/aliexpress-and-more-govt-bans-43-more-chinese-apps-in-the-country-7063997/. live.
  15. News: Singh. Kanishka. 2022-02-18. U.S. adds e-commerce sites operated by Tencent, Alibaba to 'notorious markets' list. en. Reuters. 2022-02-18. 19 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220219150728/https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-adds-e-commerce-sites-operated-by-tencent-alibaba-notorious-markets-list-2022-02-17/. live.
  16. Web site: USTR Releases 2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy. 2022-02-18. United States Trade Representative. en. 19 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220219145352/https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2022/february/ustr-releases-2021-review-notorious-markets-counterfeiting-and-piracy. live.
  17. News: March 14, 2024 . EU probes AliExpress over possibly illegal online products . March 14, 2024 . Reuters.

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