Is Alibaba Legit and Safe?: A Definitive Guide to Safe Shopping (2023)

Alibaba is a well-known name in e-commerce, especially when it comes to online businesses. It's even more. Starting from a simple online marketplace aimed at buying and selling things online, it has grown into a group of companies.

Even though it has reached a high level of popularity, people still ask the two most famous questions. Is Alibaba Legit and Safe?

This article attempts to answer these questions. By the end of this article, you will have cleared all your doubts about the legitimacy and safety of transactions on Alibaba.

Let us begin.

What is Alibaba?

Alibaba is a group of companies that started out primarily as an e-commerce platform. It is based in China and has expanded to many companies including AliExpress,1688, and Taobao to name a few.

Alibaba currently serves as a B2B e-commerce platform. Here you can buy and sell products, preferably in bulkMOQare applied.

It has dominated the world of big online sales since 1999. But people still ask questions like: is Alibaba legit or safe?

Let's answer these questions once and for all.

Is Alibaba legal?

Yes, Alibaba is a legitimate company. It is listed on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) under the name BABA. For American readers and people who believe American companies are legit, it is proof enough that Alibaba is legit.

Alibaba legal certainty

How do you know if the products you ordered from Alibaba are legal? Alibaba has also addressed this concern.

Alibaba does not allow prohibited items through its platform, which can cause problems for both sellers and buyers.

Alibaba has a list ofprohibited itemsthat you have shared on your website.

These items include hazardous materials, drugs, prohibited firearms, etc.

If Alibaba weren't legitimate, it wouldn't have followed international rules governing trade in legal goods.

Therefore, it is also safe and legal to shop at Alibaba in terms of the type of products.

Is Alibaba safe?

Alibaba is a safe company. Alibaba has a matching International Securities Identification Number (ISIN).

This is enough to prove that Alibaba is a globally recognized legally registered entity. People invest in this company by buying its shares.

People don't invest in companies that aren't legitimate and safe to work for them.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd had a maximum share value of HKD300 in 2020. That means people had trusted this company for many years to get their share to this level.

Let's discuss more security factors if you decide to buy from Alibaba.

Alibaba Website Security

When browsing Alibaba website, you may wonder if your information is safe on this website. Your data may include your email address, password and other information such as your phone number and address, etc.

Alibaba is very fair about itRevealingthat they can share your data with other parties as long as the data is not sensitive. That means Alibaba will never share your passwords with anyone.

General information like your email address may be shared with other third party groups including Google and Facebook etc.

This is considered normal activity in the online world. You must have noticed that you see Alibaba ads on Facebook and Google after doing some activity on Alibaba.

This is due to this exchange of data between these groups. The basic purpose of this exchange is to refine your search and help you find the product you want.

This creates a win-win situation between you and Alibaba. So you can browse Alibaba safely.

Alibaba payment security

Alibaba added a total of 1.28 billion active customers in 2021. This corresponds to about 16% of the world population.

If you only look at the world's adult population, Alibaba has around a quarter of the world's population as customers.

These stats should be enough to give you confidence that Alibaba is a safe and solid platform to shop from. If everyone buys from Alibaba, it means Alibaba has secure payment methods.

You just have to play by the rules when it comes to paying your suppliers on Alibaba. We believe that you must follow standard and acceptable payment procedures while paying your suppliers on Alibaba.

The payment methods accepted on Alibaba are as follows.

• Credit card
• Bank Transfer or Telegraphic Transfer (TT)
• Online bank transfer (for some European countries via Trustly, Klarna, iDeal)
• Western Union for US citizens
• PayPal (not available with Alibaba Trade Assurance)

These are the safest payment methods and are also covered by Alibaba.

Alibaba product security

A question about the safety of the ordered products may arise in the minds of buyers.

If you have used Alibaba's secure methodsPurchase from alibaba, you can rest assured that you will receive these products. Alibaba is responsible for that.

Alibaba has developed a mechanism to ensure that you get what you order from Alibaba. How is that? let's discuss

When you make a payment to the Provider, it is not immediately credited to the Provider's account. Alibaba holds this payment until you confirm that your order has been received.

Alibaba doesn't allow suppliers to take your payment without a green signal from you. So it's all in your hands.

This mechanism makes Alibaba orders more secure.

Tips for safe shopping on Alibaba

We found it very fitting to share some of the pro tips for safe shopping on Alibaba.

Below are the tips to help you shop safely on Alibaba.

Choose the right types of providers

When you search for a product on Alibaba, you will find various filters on the left side of the website. These filters also include provider types.

Currently, Alibaba offers the following three types of consumables, which you can choose by checking the options.

• Commercial Insurance Providers
• verified providers
• ≤1 hour response time suppliers

Check out the screenshot below.

Let's briefly discuss each of them.

Commercial Insurance Providers

These are the suppliers where Alibaba assures you that your orders are protected in case of non-compliance by the sellers.

According to the official information on Alibaba website, a Trade Assurance will cover you in the following two cases.

• If the seller does not ship its products in accordance with the obligations.
• If the quality of your product does not meet the seller's commitment.

In the above two cases, your orders are covered by Alibaba as an intermediary if you select the "Trade Assurance" option in the supplier types.

Commercial insurance providers do their due diligence because they always want to stay in that category. Therefore, you will always be treated well by them.

verified providers

These are the providers who have checked the third-party services for the quality of their products and services.

If you activate this option when searching for products on Alibaba, you will get the results of the suppliers who have been verified for their production capacities, the quality of their products and services, etc.

This vendor rating gives you the assurance that these vendors mean business. Because of this, they have access to their products and services through external testers.

So you can rest assured that you've eliminated the clutter in search results when it comes to provider quality.

≤1 hour response time suppliers

As the name suggests, these are the types of suppliers that have a response time of less than or equal to an hour at Alibaba.

When you search for the products on Alibaba, mostly you have inquiries. In order for these to be answered, you must contact the providers.

These suppliers are shortlisted by Alibaba based on their activity and response behavior to customer inquiries. Because of this early timeliness of responses, they fall into this category of providers.

Therefore, you can also click this option if you want to include providers who respond quickly to your queries in your search results.

In addition to the above types of suppliers, Alibaba used to have another category of suppliers called "gold suppliers". Gold supplier status was given to those who paid Alibaba to appear in the top search results.

Check provider history

When searching for products on Alibaba, check the brief supplier details attached to each search result. See screenshot below.

As you can see, the featured supplier has been with Alibaba for around 18 years. Such an old provider is most likely the real provider.

No scammer could have survived 18 years on a platform like Alibaba.

Therefore, you should always look out for vendors who have been selling on Alibaba for many years.

It's not that new providers are always fakes or scammers. But to be safer, you can opt for the old providers.

If you want to see a bit more details about the providers, you can hover over the provider information to get a summary about that provider as shown in the screenshot below.

Evaluate supplier communication

When contacting the vendor, you should check the level of their communication and whether or not they are paying attention to your requests.

This will give you an idea of ​​how the provider will behave in the future.

If you place an order with this supplier and contact them for shipping information in the future, they will respond politely to your inquiries.

The other communication factor is that the supplier, who will be professional and have an established Alibaba business, will have a team of representatives to speak to their customers or prospects.

Therefore, good communication and timely response are the keys to choose supplier on Alibaba.

Ask for references and comments

A legitimate and trustworthy supplier on Alibaba would have a track record of successful transactions. Therefore, they will always be able to share pictures of their customers' happy reviews.

You just have to make sure that the reviews are real and not made up. If a vendor has a website, you can request the link to their website and see for yourself.

You will most likely find the reviews on their websites. From there you can also go to their social media pages to verify that they are legitimate sellers.

It is always in the provider's advantage to have reviews from their customers so that they can attract more customers in the future. So if a supplier lacks positive ratings and feedback, it may be a new supplier or an unsuccessful supplier on Alibaba.

Ask about manufacturing facilities

Most buyers on Alibaba have a strong preference for buying from factories. That's true in most cases. It gives you the best prices with original products.

However, you should be careful when checking whether the provider is a real manufacturer or only posing as such.

You can request the live images or videos of the manufacturing facilities that the supplier claims to have.

This allows you to determine whether the supplier is a manufacturer or not.

You can also ask related questions including daily production capacity.

A good technique to confirm if the supplier is a genuine manufacturer is to ask if they can make custom products.

Customized products can only be made by real factories. By personalization we mean giving detailed instructions about a product and not just putting a logo on the product.

Small changes can also be made by a trading company and a middleman to service large orders.

Alibaba reviews in US and European countries

Alibaba is a verified company on Trustpilot with a rating of 4.1 out of 5. Alibaba has 81% excellent feedback from over 18,000 reviews on this independent review service.

In addition, Alibaba has a large customer base from the US and European countries. This makes Alibaba a trusted platform for shopping in these countries.

In these countries, you will see a huge increase in Alibaba sales during the holiday season. These days are mainly Halloween, Black Friday, Christmas and New Year's Eve.

All these days are celebrated in these countries and Alibaba's sales skyrocket during these times. That's enough to make you believe that consumers in these countries are fast shopping online from Alibaba and its subsidiaries these days.

This shows that Alibaba also enjoys great trust in these countries.

If you want to take a closer look, you can look at the reviewer details on Alibaba products. You will find many customers from USA, Canada and European countries.

Frequently asked questions about Alibaba's legitimacy

We've answered frequently asked questions about Alibaba's security and legitimacy. So please read the answers to these frequently asked questions below to clear your confusion.

Is Alibaba reliable when it comes to suppliers?

Not all Alibaba suppliers are trustworthy. Alibaba has no sellers. You have to understand that it is just a platform that brings buyers and sellers to your platform and allows them to interact with each other.

Therefore, you need to pay attention to the reliability of Alibaba suppliers. You cannot just log into your Alibaba account and start shopping thinking that all of them are trustworthy suppliers.

You can also be a seller on Alibaba. You just have to meet certain requirements to be a seller on Alibaba.

Reliability of suppliers on Alibaba requires you to go through certain checks that we discussed earlier in this article.

Just don't forget to choose the type of suppliers based on your needs while you start shopping on Alibaba.

Is it safe to order Alibaba from my bank account?

Yes, you must have realized that you can trust Alibaba with your financial information, such as your credit card numbers and bank account details.

Alibaba isn't a company that grew overnight. You certainly won't lose your customer base by failing to protect critical customer information.

The buying trend on Alibaba shows us that they are striving to become the world's leading e-commerce company. So it is safe to order Alibaba from your bank account.

How to shop on Alibaba without a company?

People often worry about whether they could attract the best suppliers on Alibaba if they didn't have the companies. That's nothing to worry about.

It's true, of course, that most Alibaba suppliers are interested in working with direct companies rather than individuals. That's why it's a B2B platform.

They have a separate international platform called AliExpress for selling to consumers. But you can also shop on Alibaba as an individual.

Certain vendors make it easy with their lenient MOQs. You will find products that have a MOQ of just one or two pieces per order as below screenshot shown.

But to have a larger pool of vendors, you can pose as a company. You just need to be connected to a website that needs the items you want to buy on Alibaba.

You can create a website using cheaper methods or partner with a website to use your company email id.

That way, Alibaba suppliers will start taking it as a business and being generous enough to offer free samples and lower minimum order quantities for now.

How to avoid a scam or scam on Alibaba?

It is possible to come across a scam on any platform. Alibaba is no exception. If you don't follow the instructions or tips in this article to shop safely on Alibaba, you are vulnerable to scams or scams on Alibaba.

We share some additional tips to follow if you want to avoid fraudulent activity on Alibaba or any other website.

• Always follow Alibaba rules when dealing with suppliers.
• Make a price comparison between the providers. If you find a provider that offers incredibly low prices, you should be suspicious. Either the supplier is not genuine or the quality of the product will be affected.
• Avoid buying big branded products at cheaper prices on Alibaba. Your subconscious tells you that too. Think twice if they offer you the latest iPhone half price on Alibaba. It is most likely a scam.
• Direct communication with suppliers is not a problem. Try not to make direct payments to Alibaba suppliers. If you get scammed in the process, it's not technically an Alibaba scam.
• You can look for Alibaba scams by doing basic research online. People share their experiences in discussion forums. They can learn from their experiences and try not to repeat them.
• Ask for references in your own country. If the supplier has references in your country, you can contact them and ask about their experience with that particular Alibaba supplier.

These are just some of the tips that can be helpful to avoid scams on Alibaba. The button reads: If you follow the book, everything will be fine in Alibaba.

Is Alibaba the best source to buy products from China?

Alibaba is a good source forBuy porcelain products. It's certainly not the only source to buy products from China. There are also other methods for importing from China.

Two of the most popular ways to source products from China are discussed below.

Ecommerce Platforms

There are other B2BSites like Alibababuy in china you can use. Some of the most popular sites are listed below.

• made in China
• Chinavasion
• chinese brands
• 1688.com
• dhgate
• Taobao

Of the above websites, 1688 and Taobao are owned and operated by the Chinese language Alibaba Group itself. However, you can still use them with techniques like Google Translate.

You should always do a price and service comparison before deciding to make a purchase on any of these Chinese ecommerce platforms.

business fairs and exhibitions

Trade shows and fairs are great ways to connect with Chinese suppliers. You can attend these fairs if you want to communicate with the real manufacturers and factories in China.

Trade fairs are held throughout the year in and outside of China. The most popular fairs in China are the Canton Fair and the Yiwu Fair.

Product Sourcing Agent

This is probably the smartest and easiest way to source products from China in the most efficient way.

You must have realized by now that product comparison or research is very important when buying anything, especially from China.

Because China is full of suppliers. There are millions of providers on Alibaba alone. Therefore, finding the right vendors for your business can take a lot of valuable time and effort.

After all this research, there is no guarantee even that you will find the right provider for your business or not.

Here the China Sourcing Agent will help you. It is aThird Party Sourcing Companiesthat takes the whole mess for you.

It ensures that you communicate with the best supplier for you and find the product solutions with the best quality and prices.

a good andprofessional sourcing agentas NicheSources is all you need to fulfill your product needs.

A good sourcing agent has experience in finding the best products from the best suppliers. That's because they've done it many times before.

It will certainly cost you a bit more money to pay for Bitter Agent's services, but you have to think about what you're getting in return. After all, contentment and peace of mind is all a good business needs to keep its sales skyrocketing.

Summary

Alibaba has been the main source of product organization for many companies around the world. It is very reliable and safe for regular buyers to get products from Alibaba.

Much has been said and discussed about new buyers who keep asking themselves questions like: Is Alibaba legit, is Alibaba safe? The best way to face your fears of buying on Alibaba is to break the ice and buy on Alibaba by following the tips we share.

If you need our help to source products for you,Request a free quoteand our representative will be there for you with the best possible product solution.