Is Alibaba safe?

Alibaba is not the drop shipper’s paradise you think it is. Big names like Estee Lauder and Farfetch are using it to promote their products. Alibaba is the internet’s biggest digital shopping mall. It connects consumers with manufacturers and provides a marketplace for merchants, big and small, to sell their products. 

While retail is their bread and butter, Alibaba has spent the last 10-15 years expanding its operations into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital entertainment. In 2021, it was the 8th most valuable company in the world. Even though they’ve fallen down the ranks, they’re still the world’s largest retailer, beating eBay and Amazon at a net worth of almost $190 billion. 

Alibaba’s whole shtick is that it brings together buyers and sellers across the world. They're the middleman in business-to-business transactions, wherein products are bulk-bought at wholesale prices. While the process of purchasing from Alibaba might look different to your standard online shopping experience, it’s still straightforward. 

1. Create an Alibaba account.

2. Search for the product(s) you want.

3. Search for and contact suppliers for price quotes.

4. If you’re buying in bulk, order a few samples to verify the quality. 

5. Place and pay for your order.

Not even the world’s largest e-commerce portal is immune to scams. While the platform itself is safe and legitimate, the sellers are a different story. Both products and sellers will vary in their legitimacy, so it's important to do your research and ensure you don’t unknowingly give in to a scam. 

Alibaba controls some of the biggest names in e-commerce, like Aliexpress and Taobao. If you’ve ever shopped on Aliexpress, use the same strategy while shopping on Alibaba. Screen the supplier, look for positive and negative reviews, and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The existence of scams and dishonest sellers can discourage people from buying online. Alibaba implements several measures to protect its buyers from the scammers that lurk in its global marketplace. 

Secure transactions are the key to shopping safely on Alibaba. Their Trade Assurance service provides buyers with three guarantees upon placing their order. 

1. Payment for the goods won't be sent to the supplier until you receive and are satisfied with your order.
2. If your order is late or it doesn't arrive, you’ll get a full refund.
3. If the product is different to how it was described on the website, you’ll get a partial refund.

If you’re unhappy with a product or you think the seller is exhibiting fraudulent behaviour, you can report the seller for fraud. Otherwise, you can open a dispute up to 30 days after your products have been delivered. When searching for suppliers on Alibaba, ensure you filter the results by ticking the ‘Trade Assurance’ and ‘Verified Supplier’ boxes.

While Alibaba does have protocols like verification and Trade Assurance in place, you still need to do your due diligence. Some fraudulent suppliers will slip through the cracks, so it’s up to you to keep an eye out for any red flags.

If you need it, Alibaba probably has it. Alibaba’s suppliers offer a whole range of niche goods, like homewares, computer software, and heavy machinery (want to go halves in a tractor?). While some sellers are genuine, others are bait for counterfeiters. Even though Alibaba is said to have the ‘best anti-counterfeiting processes in the e-commerce industry’, some slip through the cracks.

If you come across a popular Western brand like Nike, Sony, Apple, or Marvel at a heavily discounted price, it's likely a scam or a counterfeit. We’d recommend avoiding any suppliers that offer branded products and instead contacting Alibaba to have the listing removed for copyright infringement. 

If you’re unsure whether a brand sold on Alibaba is legitimate or not, do a quick Google search. Try to find an identical or reasonably similar replacement. If the price of the product on Alibaba is 50% (or more) cheaper, then you could be dealing with a scammer. 

Sellers who hold verification and Gold Supplier memberships are the gold standard for reliable transactions on Alibaba. 

Verified suppliers are confirmed by a third party to be working for Alibaba. To become verified, the seller has to prove their operations and abilities are legitimate. Filtering the site to only show verified suppliers that use Trade Assurance can help you avoid getting scammed or bulk buying from a fraudulent supplier. 

To further reduce your chances of getting scammed, prioritise suppliers who have a Gold Supplier membership. This indicates the supplier has a paid membership with Alibaba and has had the validity of their company assessed. To pass the authentication and verification process, the seller needs to prove their business is legally registered and operating. They’ll also need to provide official documents and nominate an employee to represent the business on Alibaba. 

When you’ve selected a supplier, look for the gold coin logo. It might also be accompanied by a number to show how long they’ve held the membership for. Prioritising sellers who hold Gold Supplier memberships can reduce your chances of dealing with scammers since they have more to lose if they scam you.

We’d recommend looking for suppliers who have been active on the platform for at least 3 years. You can find out if a seller has a Gold Supplier membership by searching for ‘supplier details’ in the upper right section of a product’s page.

It's important to assess the supplier before you purchase from them. Look up the company to see if they’re authorised to sell what they’re listing. Check the product images from all angles and thoroughly read the product description.

This is where samples are your best friend. If you like the look of the product but don’t want to invest in bulk just yet, request a sample. Before you make a purchase, read the seller’s reviews. If you can’t find any reviews through Alibaba, take to Google instead. Above all else, if your intuition is telling you something is off, look for another supplier.

Some sellers might insist you contact them or pay outside of the Alibaba website. This increases your risk of getting scammed tenfold. Any payments you make outside of the platform are not protected by Alibaba’s Trade Assurance service. So if you do get scammed, it’s unlikely you’ll get your money back. Even if the seller is legitimate, they might be trying to avoid selling fees or taxes by asking for payment outside of the Alibaba website. Whatever the case, do not do business with these suppliers. 

While it might seem intimidating, Alibaba can provide you with high-quality products at wholesale prices. But like any online shopping marketplace, you need to take precautions to ensure you don’t get scammed.