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Can't believe I'm seeing Ali Express compared to Amazon, and apparently in a favorable way. Ali Express is overrun with sellers with identical listings, but th

Can't believe I'm seeing Ali Express compared to Amazon, and apparently in a favorable way. Ali Express is overrun with sellers with identical listings, but the quality may vary greatly between them. You will only know when you receive the item. It's not uncommon to receive something that looks totally different than the listing images. Shipping something back on Ali Express is basically a total no-go. They get killer discounts on shipping to the US. Shipping something back to China is probably going to be more expensive than the product. With Amazon it is cheap or free to return things. Sorting by price on Ali Express is totally broken, because sellers can list a variation with the lowest price that is never available. This impossible-to-get lowest price is taken into consideration by the sort. People complain that sometimes Prime is 3 or 4 day shipping instead of actually 2 days. Ali Express is 2 weeks minimum. Probably 50% of the things I've ordered have taken 1+ month. Some things take 2 months. Some things never arrive at all. All that said, I still use Ali Express. It's great for small, cheap and generic items. I know what I'm getting into, and I accept the risks. There is no way it could replace Amazon. If you knew nothing about Amazon and only learned about it from HN comments you would think it was basically the Mos Eisley Cantina. The real eCommerce Mos Eisley Cantina is Ali Express. Shopping on Amazon is still cheap and convenient. Maybe not if you consistently buy things that are exorbitant to ship like ping pong tables or 6 foot ladders, but most people buy items that could fit in a shoe box.

fucking_tragedy 8y ago
> Shipping something back on Ali Express is basically a total no-go. My returns with AliExpress have all been full refunds without having to reship the items back to the supplier. One of my refunds was for a $100+ item, as well. > Ali Express is 2 weeks minimum. I've received items in a week or less. > Shopping on Amazon is still cheap and convenient. As of late, this hasn't been true. AliExpress, Walmart and even Best Buy have had better deals than Amazon.
- bootlooped 8y ago
  Admittedly it's probably not perfect to compare Amazon returns to Ali Express returns, because I too have received refunds without having to ship the product back. I have had significantly fewer products I've had to dispute through Amazon than Ali Express though. I don't know where you live, but I don't think receiving an item from Ali Express in 1 week or less is normal, unless maybe you live in mainland China. I'm in the US and I really think I've never received something quicker than 2 weeks. You said you have received things in a week or less. What do you think the average is though? I just don't believe that Amazon does not generally provide cheap products conveniently. There are outliers, as with everything, but I think it's the norm that the prices for the majority of products are competitive, and the user experience is convenient.
  - fucking_tragedy 8y ago
    > I don't know where you live, but I don't think receiving an item from Ali Express in 1 week or less is normal, unless maybe you live in mainland China. I'm in the US and I really think I've never received something quicker than 2 weeks. Shipping options and delivery estimates are displayed in both search results and each item's page. A good percentage of items do have delivery estimates that exceed two weeks, however either faster paid shipping options are available or other suppliers will offer the same item with a shorter delivery estimate. You can also sort by the country an item ships from. There are increasingly more distributors in North America than there were a couple of years ago. > I just don't believe that Amazon does not generally provide cheap products conveniently. There are outliers, as with everything, but I think it's the norm that the prices for the majority of products are competitive, and the user experience is convenient. That hasn't been my experience, unfortunately. I used to use Amazon for the majority of my online purchases because they consistently had lower prices. Eventually, they became my supplier even for goods I'd buy in person. However, as of last month, Walmart will ship the last item I regularly bought in bulk from Amazon at a lower individual retail price.
    - bootlooped 8y ago
      Paying for faster shipping from Ali Express totally kills the price advantage, which I think is really the only advantage to buying things there. Example of Raspberry Pi 3 Camera, product price $4.52, shipping to the US: Shipping prices (no free option) $0.34 - 20-39 days $2.84 - 19-39 days $38.16 - 12-21 days $40.53 - 8-16 days $46.03 - 6-13 days Which one of those would you pay for?
Izkata 8y ago
> Ali Express is overrun with sellers with identical listings, but the quality may vary greatly between them. You will only know when you receive the item. It's not uncommon to receive something that looks totally different than the listing images. I see comments complaining about this and similar all the time on Amazon, and on products with very high ratings. The strategy seems to be, sell good quality cheap stuff for a while to get a good rating, the change the listing completely to a low-quality expensive product. The high ratings stick around, resulting in more sales than it otherwise would have, and more resilience to new low ratings.
- bootlooped 8y ago
  Yes, and on the flip side of that you have other sellers wholesale copying a popular listing. I look at every purchase as a gamble. In the marketplace's defense, Ali Express dispute arbitration has always led to a satisfactory result for me, so the gamble is just on what I'm going to get, not on whether I'm going to lose the entire cost of the item or not.
sriram_sun 8y ago
> Can't believe I'm seeing Ali Express compared to Amazon, and apparently in a favorable way. I said Ali Express was OK. As in "meh" worth a look. True, stuff arrives a month to two months later. I bought the exact compression socks advertised on Amazon from Ali Express - Amazon price: $16 each. Ali Express: $3.75 each including shipping. Ali Express is catching up. A lot of products on Amazon are essentially a branding function (name tag) applied to a functionally finished product. The Chinese manufactures probably knew that. With Ali Express, that equation is changing. > Maybe not if you consistently buy things that are exorbitant to ship like ping pong tables or 6 foot ladders... The point is Walmart would have shipped it to me for cheaper. Now I know better... Shop around first and then order.
hakfoo 8y ago
Perhaps it's different with Prime, but Amazon has burnt a lot of my trust with their non-prime free shipping. They have a huge warehouse infrastructure in my city. They could drop a box in the mail at their warehouse and have it to me in a day or two. They could probably strap it to a stray dog, point it in my direction, and get it here in three. Yet, somehow, if I collect up a $25 order of in stock items, they can't get it to my door in less than about two weeks, unless I pay a premium for upgraded shipping. This makes it useless for time-sensitive orders. Now, I know there's QoS and framing as a marketing thing, but this just comes off as a tease.
- bootlooped 8y ago
  Yes, I noticed this too when I didn't have Prime. It seems like they would just sit on the order.
kkarakk 8y ago
yup, you can only shop on ali express with the same attitude as someone offering up a tender - you know the product you want and you know the price you want AND you have enough knowledge of the product to discern shoddy work. browsing on aliexpress is a nightmare

fucking_tragedy 8y ago

> Shipping something back on Ali Express is basically a total no-go. My returns with AliExpress have all been full refunds without having to reship the items back to the supplier. One of my refunds was for a $100+ item, as well. > Ali Express is 2 weeks minimum. I've received items in a week or less. > Shopping on Amazon is still cheap and convenient. As of late, this hasn't been true. AliExpress, Walmart and even Best Buy have had better deals than Amazon.

bootlooped 8y ago
Admittedly it's probably not perfect to compare Amazon returns to Ali Express returns, because I too have received refunds without having to ship the product back. I have had significantly fewer products I've had to dispute through Amazon than Ali Express though. I don't know where you live, but I don't think receiving an item from Ali Express in 1 week or less is normal, unless maybe you live in mainland China. I'm in the US and I really think I've never received something quicker than 2 weeks. You said you have received things in a week or less. What do you think the average is though? I just don't believe that Amazon does not generally provide cheap products conveniently. There are outliers, as with everything, but I think it's the norm that the prices for the majority of products are competitive, and the user experience is convenient.
- fucking_tragedy 8y ago
  > I don't know where you live, but I don't think receiving an item from Ali Express in 1 week or less is normal, unless maybe you live in mainland China. I'm in the US and I really think I've never received something quicker than 2 weeks. Shipping options and delivery estimates are displayed in both search results and each item's page. A good percentage of items do have delivery estimates that exceed two weeks, however either faster paid shipping options are available or other suppliers will offer the same item with a shorter delivery estimate. You can also sort by the country an item ships from. There are increasingly more distributors in North America than there were a couple of years ago. > I just don't believe that Amazon does not generally provide cheap products conveniently. There are outliers, as with everything, but I think it's the norm that the prices for the majority of products are competitive, and the user experience is convenient. That hasn't been my experience, unfortunately. I used to use Amazon for the majority of my online purchases because they consistently had lower prices. Eventually, they became my supplier even for goods I'd buy in person. However, as of last month, Walmart will ship the last item I regularly bought in bulk from Amazon at a lower individual retail price.
  - bootlooped 8y ago
    Paying for faster shipping from Ali Express totally kills the price advantage, which I think is really the only advantage to buying things there. Example of Raspberry Pi 3 Camera, product price $4.52, shipping to the US: Shipping prices (no free option) $0.34 - 20-39 days $2.84 - 19-39 days $38.16 - 12-21 days $40.53 - 8-16 days $46.03 - 6-13 days Which one of those would you pay for?

Izkata 8y ago

> Ali Express is overrun with sellers with identical listings, but the quality may vary greatly between them. You will only know when you receive the item. It's not uncommon to receive something that looks totally different than the listing images. I see comments complaining about this and similar all the time on Amazon, and on products with very high ratings. The strategy seems to be, sell good quality cheap stuff for a while to get a good rating, the change the listing completely to a low-quality expensive product. The high ratings stick around, resulting in more sales than it otherwise would have, and more resilience to new low ratings.

bootlooped 8y ago
Yes, and on the flip side of that you have other sellers wholesale copying a popular listing. I look at every purchase as a gamble. In the marketplace's defense, Ali Express dispute arbitration has always led to a satisfactory result for me, so the gamble is just on what I'm going to get, not on whether I'm going to lose the entire cost of the item or not.

sriram_sun 8y ago

> Can't believe I'm seeing Ali Express compared to Amazon, and apparently in a favorable way. I said Ali Express was OK. As in "meh" worth a look. True, stuff arrives a month to two months later. I bought the exact compression socks advertised on Amazon from Ali Express - Amazon price: $16 each. Ali Express: $3.75 each including shipping. Ali Express is catching up. A lot of products on Amazon are essentially a branding function (name tag) applied to a functionally finished product. The Chinese manufactures probably knew that. With Ali Express, that equation is changing. > Maybe not if you consistently buy things that are exorbitant to ship like ping pong tables or 6 foot ladders... The point is Walmart would have shipped it to me for cheaper. Now I know better... Shop around first and then order.

hakfoo 8y ago

Perhaps it's different with Prime, but Amazon has burnt a lot of my trust with their non-prime free shipping. They have a huge warehouse infrastructure in my city. They could drop a box in the mail at their warehouse and have it to me in a day or two. They could probably strap it to a stray dog, point it in my direction, and get it here in three. Yet, somehow, if I collect up a $25 order of in stock items, they can't get it to my door in less than about two weeks, unless I pay a premium for upgraded shipping. This makes it useless for time-sensitive orders. Now, I know there's QoS and framing as a marketing thing, but this just comes off as a tease.

bootlooped 8y ago
Yes, I noticed this too when I didn't have Prime. It seems like they would just sit on the order.

kkarakk 8y ago

yup, you can only shop on ali express with the same attitude as someone offering up a tender - you know the product you want and you know the price you want AND you have enough knowledge of the product to discern shoddy work. browsing on aliexpress is a nightmare