Lazada/AliExpress

[dddave]

There have been many threads on this forum over the past few years regarding the virtues and frustrations of ordering goods online from both Lazada and AliExpress-AliBaba. According to a news item yesterday, AliBaba is acquiring Lazada SA, the parent of Lazada, Thailand and Lazada, Philippines. I hope they continue to operate as stand alone outlets, just to maintain some variety and options.

Apparently, AliBaba is now bigger than Amazon...until now the world's largest retailer.

One wonders what will happen a few years down the road when China controls nearly 100% of electronics manufacturing and distribution. Some interesting implications to consider.

Edited April 13, 2016 by dddave

[crabdog]

Yes I do hope Lazada stays on. It's great to have a cash on delivery option. I actually just started using Aliexpress recently. Have ordered about 7 items all from China and so far it's been good. Average wait is about 12-14 days.

[Dellboy218]

I have found Lazada to be very good, generally, on their delivery of items. Where they are not good, is when the wrong item is sent. I have had 3 occasions in the past few months where I have been sent items that were either rubbish or fakes. There is little attempt at reimbursement for packing and posting the item back. Where they do reimburse they want your bank account to pay it directly. I refuse this option and go for a credit off the next purchase. Unfortunately they seem to have forgotten to reimburse me for their last 'mistake'

[Langsuan Man]

I doubt that there will be much change since Lazada markets themselves as a retailer, whereas AliExpress, positions themselves as a wholesaler, who allow their members to deal directly with the public

[dddave]

I doubt that there will be much change since Lazada markets themselves as a retailer, whereas AliExpress, positions themselves as a wholesaler, who allow their members to deal directly with the public

That's interesting. I was under the impression that AliBaba was the wholesale portal and that AliExpress was basically retail, though there were wholesale options.

[Inn Between]

I doubt that there will be much change since Lazada markets themselves as a retailer, whereas AliExpress, positions themselves as a wholesaler, who allow their members to deal directly with the public

I always got the impression that Alibaba was the wholesale end (bulk purchases only) and Aliexpress is the retail part, where we can just buy one of an item. But regardless of that, they don't use PayPal and instead have there own scheme called Alipay. The only time I tried to make a purchase, they refused the same CC that is tied to my PayPal account. (EDIT: Didn't see dddave's post -- info repeated)

I find it hard to believe that they don't trust Paypal. I get a "security error" message, apparently because my CC billing address is a different country from the delivery address country. This seems to be a common problem, and I understand that I could likely resolve it by getting a Thai bank CC, but I really don't want one. I'll just use the many other online companies that are very happy to take my money.

Haven't tried Lazada yet, but they do have one or two items that are too tempting for me to resist much longer. I'll try the COD option first.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Inn Between

[B1TcoinLife]

I doubt that there will be much change since Lazada markets themselves as a retailer, whereas AliExpress, positions themselves as a wholesaler, who allow their members to deal directly with the public

I always got the impression that Alibaba was the wholesale end (bulk purchases only) and Aliexpress is the retail part, where we can just buy one of an item. But regardless of that, they don't use PayPal and instead have there own scheme called Alipay. The only time I tried to make a purchase, they refused the same CC that is tied to my PayPal account. (EDIT: Didn't see dddave's post -- info repeated)

I find it hard to believe that they don't trust Paypal. I get a "security error" message, apparently because my CC billing address is a different country from the delivery address country. This seems to be a common problem, and I understand that I could likely resolve it by getting a Thai bank CC, but I really don't want one. I'll just use the many other online companies that are very happy to take my money.

Haven't tried Lazada yet, but they do have one or two items that are too tempting for me to resist much longer. I'll try the COD option first.

I find it hard to believe that anyone WOULD trust PayPal

They made the right choice if they're big enough to make their own version of paypal anyway

This is not good news for the customer service I'll bet, every time there's a merge like this it leaves less retailers for the consumer to compare and more of a monopoly than before in this sector

[impulse]

Keep in mind that TaoBao and its many offshoots are the retail face of Alibaba.

Alibaba.com is a wholesale site, and AliExpress.com is a confused fusion of wholesalers who may and may not be willing to sell to retail customers- if they can get the terms and prices they want.

Like Inn Between, I'm hoping their acquisition of Lazada will mean they adopt payment methods like ATM and paying at physical locations, because I've no desire to give my account information to any Asian vendors, especially Chinese vendors.

Edited April 15, 2016 by impulse

[JetsetBkk]

<snip>

Haven't tried Lazada yet, but they do have one or two items that are too tempting for me to resist much longer. I'll try the COD option first.

I was tempted recently. Electric shavers that looked identical to my Philips Aqua Shave (3000 baht) for just 390 baht!

These were made by Kemei and not waterproof.

I got two! Even if they last only 3 months, they'll be worth it, but so far (2 months) they've worked perfectly.

[JetsetBkk]

I have found Lazada to be very good, generally, on their delivery of items. Where they are not good, is when the wrong item is sent. I have had 3 occasions in the past few months where I have been sent items that were either rubbish or fakes.

<snip>

I bought a smart phone that was full of malware from a Lazada retailer (forum rules forbid me to name and shame, I presume?).

Took me ages to find out how to do download a vanilla O/S from the manufacturer's site to my PC and recover the phone from it. But I did and it worked and now zero malware + latest Android O/S.

[kekalot]

bought quite a bit of things from Aliexpress, always cheap stuff, never over say 600 baht. we're talking 50 or so small items I couldn't find locally

ended up getting 90% of the stuff from China, every few days the postman would drop 1-2-3 packages

one day, the packages stopped and I have never received a single one after that.. there was I think 24 small items left that never made it here.

not hard to figure out that my mail is being intercepted by having a farang name, quite possibly by mailman,

some of those items had tracking numbers (they are from China) that end at the province step (not city step) and disappear.

anyways, not a major problem since Aliexpress will refund you if you don't get the packages..

problem here is that one of those orders had 12 or so items, and instead of being able to open a dispute on the full order for not receiving.. only after about 3 months, and after the seller has extended the purchase protection for another month (so possibly 120 days total). they make you open a dispute for EVERY single item.. then the seller usually declines responsibility and tries to offer you to ship again.. which you have to decline 12 times.. or you can choose to repeat the cycle a second time for another up to 4 months

12 disputes, 12 dispute offers to decline, 12 disputes to escalate to Aliexpress..

they don't get reviewed by the same person, some of the 12 were instant refunds, some of them I was told to wait 3 days while they were looking if the seller had a tracking number... some of them had to wait 5 days for a tracking number.

if you don't get an order, you should only have to do a dispute at the order level, not at the item level. if i ordered 500 different little knick knacks they'd make me have to deal with over 2000 steps to get refunded instead of 2-3 steps

nothing can be done about the packages being stolen, the main post office don't care, tracking number stopped at province or not, they don't care.

on the other hand:

Lazada is much better, especially since Cash on Delivery no one is holding my funds for 4 months while I get my stuff stolen and then have to waste time to get refunds..

Lazada delivers quickly but tend to ALWAYS call me and ask me where I live even tho my address is quite clear and they have been here like 5 times (same guy every time too)

but, at least I get the damn things.

Edited April 21, 2016 by kekalot

[happy Joe]

More than 150 orders on Aliexpress and around ten for Lazada.

For me Ali is superior in everything except for products stored in Thailand by Lazada. Usually it is the bulky goods.

In this case only Lazada was better. (Imho, eh!)

I hope that Ali will continue this service better although in principle the establishment of a near monopoly is rather a bad news.

[JetsetBkk]

Lazada uses Kerry Logistics in Phuket to deliver stuff - postman not involved.