Oh, this eternal question. Which is better: Taobao or AliExpress? Many fans of Chinese goods ask themselves this. We decided to conduct a new study and get to the bottom of the question — who is better.
First of all, let us recall that AliExpress is Taobao's younger brother. The creator of these marketplaces is the world-famous company Alibaba. Only AliExpress is oriented toward foreign markets and represents Chinese goods in other countries, while Taobao works exclusively on the domestic Chinese market. Therefore it is quite problematic for residents of other countries to make purchases on Taobao. Nevertheless, Taobao goods are very popular all over the world. To buy them, people turn to Taobao intermediaries.
At first glance it may seem that Taobao and AliExpress are one and the same. So why bother, you can order on AliExpress, since Taobao is in Chinese. But that's only at first glance. Advanced users know how to save money by buying on Taobao. We analyzed both platforms by four parameters:
- product range;
- product quality;
- price level;
- delivery.
Toys on Taobao
Let's start with the fact that on Taobao the choice of goods is much larger. There you can find almost anything: from a submarine to a lighter. While AliExpress has about 54 million products, Taobao has more than 800 million. The difference is colossal. If you are an avid shopper, there is plenty of room to roam. Moreover, on Taobao the emphasis is on the Asian population, so the goods differ somewhat from those presented on AliExpress. AliExpress is tuned for the average European buyer, so the range compared to Taobao can be called "boring". On Taobao you can find something special.
Although, of course, it's a matter of taste. As they say, there's no accounting for taste. By the way, besides this, on Taobao you can get both branded items and their fakes, well, if customs lets them through, of course.
And now let's see how things stand with prices. The price level for Chinese goods is, of course, low on both platforms. Moreover, AliExpress promises free shipping. But smart buyers can't be fooled. Everyone knows that the delivery cost is already included in the product price. And it is "free" only in name, and was so until recently. Since 2017 Alibaba has canceled free shipping for goods more expensive than two dollars. And for Belarus and Ukraine they canceled it completely.
The price on AliExpress is in dollars, although you can also view it in rubles. But it still depends directly on the dollar exchange rate. On Taobao all prices are in yuan. Therefore the price on a Taobao intermediary's site depends on the yuan exchange rate. This is more advantageous. Practice shows that prices on Taobao are on average still lower than on AliExpress. Here is an example from this year.
One of our friends ordered carnival wigs on Taobao for a party.
The price of a wig on Taobao.
In a group buy the wig cost her about $5. That price includes delivery. Meanwhile, on AliExpress a wig costs from about $7.
The price of a wig on AliExpress
A few words about delivery. Delivery from China to Russia, both on AliExpress and on Taobao, takes on average from 14 to 45 days. So there are no differences here, you will have to wait either way. If you estimate the distance from China to your region, the waiting time is justified.
Here the question arises: but Taobao is all in Chinese, go figure it out. How then can you buy on Taobao using all its advantages?
How to buy on Taobao?
To order on Taobao you need an intermediary who sells Taobao goods. It is the intermediary who buys out the goods on Taobao, checks them and delivers them to buyers. There are now many good sites reselling goods from Taobao. We can advise you which intermediaries are better to work with. Therefore it is more reasonable to compare AliExpress with the online stores of Taobao intermediaries, since they work for the foreign market, unlike Taobao, which is oriented only toward China.
When choosing an online store, for the buyer, besides the range and prices, a good catalog, convenient search and filters, delivery terms and the presence of a support service are important. Let's look at AliExpress and the operation of Taobao intermediaries' online stores from the buyer's perspective.
Example of a translation from Chinese
The common trouble of online stores with Chinese goods is machine translation from Chinese. Both on AliExpress and on Taobao intermediaries' sites the catalog is well translated. Doing the same for product descriptions is essentially impossible. Why? Let us explain. Translating that many products manually is unrealistic, plus they are constantly updated. That is, today you translate a product description, and tomorrow it will no longer be in stock. Time wasted. Therefore everyone has long since gotten used to the funny names of Chinese goods.
The Taobao catalog and the AliExpress catalog differ very greatly. First of all, part of the product categories on AliExpress is hidden. For example, these include adult goods, home and garden goods, some clothing categories. On AliExpress such goods can only be found through search. And search by Russian words works poorly. Simple queries like "dress" or "high-heel shoes" the search will of course return, but more complex queries are already problematic.
For example, on the query "colored contact lenses" AliExpress returns lens cases or colored lenses for glasses.
We can't judge the convenience of all Taobao intermediary sites. But we can tell how the search and catalog work for intermediaries operating on the basis of the Taobao API. All goods and data about them are taken directly from Taobao. There are far more product categories in the catalog than on AliExpress. The search is adapted to the Russian language, and moreover, when creating our system, Chinese characters were checked by many people, so the accuracy of queries is higher.
The query "colored contact lenses" on the OT Box demo site.
In our opinion, the biggest advantage is that there are very many Taobao intermediaries. They all have different working terms. Therefore the buyer has a large choice and can find an intermediary with the most favorable terms for themselves. For example, you can choose an intermediary from a certain region where the delivery terms for a particular buyer will be more favorable. AliExpress does not have such an advantage, it is a single platform with the same terms for everyone.
Another important advantage is related to the work of the Taobao intermediary. It ensures reliability. When you order a product in a Russian online store selling Chinese goods, you can communicate with the agent themselves. If any problems arise, the agent resolves them. On AliExpress you have to write to the seller yourself, and all communication is exclusively in English. To determine the size, you have to dig through a bunch of reviews, because the size chart is inconvenient and made for the Chinese. In a Taobao intermediary's online store everything is done for the customers' convenience. You can clarify the size with managers in Russian. Intermediaries who have been on the market for a long time know their goods and can always advise what is better to buy.
Intermediaries also check the goods for defects. There is no need to open a dispute and wait for the seller to respond to you. Here the risk of receiving the wrong product is minimized. Again, the intermediary will advise whether it is worth ordering a product from this seller, or whether they are not trustworthy. Moreover, you can always request a photo of the product when it has just been received from the seller at the warehouse in China.
It is very important to know that you will receive exactly the product you ordered. And if any difficulties do arise, there is someone to resolve them with as quickly as possible. On AliExpress there are far more risks. But there are a large number of discounts and promotions, which attracts buyers. This is a big plus of AliExpress. Taobao intermediaries also have discounts and promotions, but not all of them. Here again it all depends on your choice of online store with Taobao goods.
Let's draw a small conclusion. If you need to order one cheap little phone case, you don't have to go to Taobao for it. And the savings would be dubious. For this it's better to order on AliExpress. But if you are a fan of online shopping and order things by the box on the internet, then Taobao is for you. Again, you won't have to run to the post office every time for goods. With Taobao everything comes in one package. And there is the option to order courier delivery to your home for an additional fee.
When writing this article, various internet resources were used, as well as information obtained from regular buyers of AliExpress and Taobao goods. We are not trying to convince anyone, but simply advise you to try it in practice and make your own choice :)
Taobao or AliExpress. Catalog comparison.
