13 Sep Amazon or AliExpress? Which of the two giants wins the e-commerce race?

• Both platforms offer a wide catalog of products and a good shopping experience, but with different business models.
• For now, Amazon controls the Western market and AliExpress controls the Eastern one. The two companies are vying to expand in European countries.

The competition between Amazon and AliExpress to expand their markets has been accelerated due to the increase in business volume that e-commerce has suffered in the last year and a half. Both platforms share similarities, but each has its own business model and offers particular characteristics.

Now that the two companies are trying to take over the European market, it is necessary to know the pros and cons of each of them.

How are Amazon and AliExpress similar?

Both are platforms where customers can find all kinds of products. They focus their efforts on making the shopping experience as fast and satisfactory as possible and seek the greatest accessibility for their users. That’s why, in addition to their desktop versions, they offer free mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Both AliExpress and Amazon try to avoid fraudulent or unethical practices, although it is true that Jeff Bezos’ company invests more resources to achieve this. If you want to know the product categories restricted to sale by Amazon, click here.

Why choose Amazon or AliExpress?

Amazon offers shoppers an extensive catalog of products that includes a diverse range of categories, including its own brands. Try to give the best customer service by improving the user experience, investing in new technologies, boosting traffic and generating more sales.

Unlike AliExpress, it has its own suppliers, has exclusive products and offers its logistics and warehouses to sellers, depending on the logistics model chosen by the seller, FBA or FBM. In addition, it has a program for Vendor customers who, by invitation, supply their inventory to Amazon so that it can advertise its products and sell them to the end customer; and another for Seller customers who want to maintain control of their inventory and only use it as an intermediary.

Among the main advantages of Amazon are: its prices, usually lower than in physical stores; their delivery times, in some cases less than 24 hours; the high quality of their customer service; its Prime subscription, with special prices and perks to attract more buyers; and its investment in the most innovative technology.

However, the number of categories and products offered by the U.S. giant can overwhelm buyers a bit and make sellers who pay somewhat higher prices to advertise on its platform and who have to compete with other brands, including Amazon’s own, despair.

For its part, AliExpress is essentially an intermediary that uses cutting-edge technology to help brick-and-mortar stores go virtual.

AliExpress offers: very low prices for products of any kind; a website for each country to eliminate the language barrier; quality assurance for genuine products; and the mobile payments service Alipay, which has millions of active users.

However, as a clear disadvantage compared to Amazon, the quality of customer service offered by the Chinese giant is lower. Shipping times are quite a bit longer and can take weeks since most of their sellers come from China, a feature that delays returns as well.

If you are still not clear about all the advantages that Amazon can offer you over AliExpress, contact us!