It has long been no surprise that 90% of the store assortment is made in China. But until the product reaches the hands of a domestic buyer, its price will rise significantly: in addition to the seller, a large wholesale intermediary and the final distributor will lay down their percentage of the profit. And it happens that even more participants appear in this scheme, and this only increases the final cost. To avoid such markups, many buyers directly order cheap items from China. We will tell you about how to make economical shopping in China in this article.
Where to buy cheap things from China?
China's e-commerce giants are three marketplaces that are similar in principle to 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 a different 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 andproduction possibilities. The buyer can contact him and discuss the terms of delivery. Recently, Alibaba has been developing a small wholesale direction, providing customers with order protection, the possibility of a refund in case of non-receipt or non-compliance of goods.
- Taobao.com is an online retail store. Here you can order things from China inexpensively. It may seem that the prices here are the lowest, but the site has its own significant disadvantages. Thus, delivery from Taobao is carried out only within China, foreign buyers have to use the services of an intermediary who will receive the ordered goods and send them abroad. For this, you pay him a percentage of the purchase and additionally reimburse the cost of shipping (depending on the weight and dimensions of the parcel). At the same time, the price increases significantly. If the goods are of poor quality, you will not be able to file a claim with 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, this 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 site also acts as a controller of the transaction. So, you pay the cost of a thing from China, but the seller receives the money for the purchase only after you confirm the completion of the transaction. If the product is not delivered on time or does not match what was ordered, you will be reimbursed. The system for protecting purchases from Aliexpress is quiteimpressive and constantly improving.
"Aliexpress" is the 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 transaction protection, permanent discounts, promotions and cashback are available. Russia is one of the largest markets for Aliexpress, so a Russian-language interface is available, which greatly facilitates the use of an online store. You don't even need to translate queries to search for goods, the site will understand you.
Official communities on social networks help you learn how to shop, find links to trusted sellers and connect with other fans of ordering 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. Selecting a seller
Be sure to pay attention to the merchant's rating: the higher it is, the more reliable it is to cooperate with him. However, there are no rules without exceptions. Some growing stores try to serve their first customers the best they can in order to get good reviews. And high-ranking stores can afford to ignore a disgruntled customer. Therefore, before buying, it is advisable to communicate with the seller using chat or internal mail: clarify the size, askreal 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. This is due to two reasons:
- Increase in demand. Young stores often make large discounts to attract customers (scammers also use this - be careful). But even sellers with high ratings can afford to lower the price, as they have large sales volumes. And a strongly inflated price is set by the seller in order to be able to indicate a large discount value. It's not uncommon for an item marked "-90%" to end up costing the same as the market average.
- Miscellaneous goods. Just because sellers use the same photos doesn't mean they're selling the same item. This is especially true for down jackets: the spread in prices for one model - from 20 to 100 dollars - can mean that they are sewn by completely different manufacturers and from different materials. Fake to fake in China is normal.
So don't be lazy to spend some time studying the results of the search results and sensibly estimate the cost 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 online purchase. You can add products to the cart and place orders from there, or you can immediately buy a specific item on its page. Please note that each seller sends the package separately.
When you first purchase, the service will prompt you to fill in the data for delivery. Make sure you enter them correctly. Buyers from Russia who order things from China must indicate their last name, first name, patronymic in full in order to avoid problems with delivery. Do not try to translate street names, write in English "house", "apartment". It is important that the country of destination is written correctly. All other data will be of interest only to local postmen, do not complicate their work.
Step 4. Payment
There are a lot of payment methods on Chinese sites. Bank cards Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Western Union, WebMoney, Qiwi, Yandex. Money and others are available. In the case of a refund, the money comes to the card or wallet from which the payment was made. In order to make it easier to navigate the prices, you can select the currency in which the cost will be displayed on the right side of the top panel of the site.
Step 5 Delivery
Many buyers do not order from China because they are afraid that the package will be lost or that they will have to pay customs duties. But most often these fears are far-fetched.
Delivery is carried out either by public services, such as China Post, Russian Post,or international courier companies such as UPS, Fedex, etc.
After the buyer's payment is verified, the seller ships the goods within a certain period. Its duration is 5-90 days, it is always indicated in the product card next to the delivery method. Conscientious sellers ship goods as soon as possible, and scammers often delay it.
After sending, the merchant provides the buyer with a tracking number. This is a combination of letters and symbols that you need to enter on the website of the postal company, and you will be able to track the movement of the package. Please note that the package will not be tracked on your postal website 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 of the order does not end before you receive it.
After receiving the item, don't forget to leave a review to help other customers.
Track fraud
According to the rules, the seller is obliged to issue a valid track number to the buyer. But sellers of inexpensive goods are trying to save on shipping and send them without tracked tracks. Of course, this is inconvenient for the buyer: there is no way to track the progress of the purchase.
In this case, you can open a dispute, but here the unspoken laws come into force. If the seller warns that he sends without a track or sets a minimum order fora certain amount, it is difficult to blame him for something. You yourself agreed to this risk when you decided to buy the goods cheaper. But if the seller silently gave you a fake number for a package worth more than $10, then this is a reason to open a dispute.
