Description
AliExpress is an online retail service based in China and owned by the Alibaba Group. Launched in 2010, it is made up of small businesses in China and other places, such as Singapore, that offer products to international shoppers online. It is the most visited e-commerce website in Russia and the 10th most popular website in Brazil. It allows small businesses to sell to customers around the world. AliExpress drew a comparison with eBay because sellers are independent and use the platform to offer products to buyers.
AliExpress started out as a business-to-business buying and selling portal. It has since expanded into business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, cloud computing and payment services. Since 2016, AliExpress operates websites in English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Polish, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian and Russian. Customers outside countries for these languages automatically receive the English version of the service. AliExpress is often used by e-commerce stores that use a drop-shipping business model.
Sellers on AliExpress can be businesses or individuals. AliExpress is different from Amazon because it only acts as an e-commerce platform and does not itself sell products directly to consumers. It connects Chinese companies directly to buyers.
Although most retailers are Chinese, AliExpress caters to international buyers and does not sell to customers in mainland China. Customers in China use Taobao, a subsidiary of Alibaba, because of its delivery and service convenience, especially the payment method, Alipay.