Have you ever wondered about the difference between AliExpress vs Wish?
On the surface, the two solutions seem pretty similar. Both will allow buyers (from business owners to everyday consumers) to purchase a huge range of products from different vendors. Both also allow access to products for a much lower cost than you’d expect from a general supplier.
However, there are some major differences between AliExpress and Wish too. For instance, AliExpress is a global ecommerce business with special solutions designed specifically for dropshipping companies. Wish, on the other hand, doesn’t have any dedicated dropshipping functionality, and there’s often a maximum number of products you can buy at any given time.
Today, we’re going to take a closer look at the differences and similarities between AliExpress and Wish, to help you decide which is best for your needs.
Which Should You Use?
AliExpress is well-suited to buyers looking for a range of low-cost products, and a convenient connection for dropshipping. AliExpress has tons of suppliers offering dropshipping services, and the site is relatively simple to use with a slight learning curve.
Wish is best for people who don’t mind paying slightly more for faster shipping, and sometimes a higher quality of products. The company is US-based, and the platform is easy to navigate, with plenty of information to guide you.
Both options offer a great source of relatively low-cost products, but it’s up to you to determine which one is best suited for your needs.
AliExpress vs Wish: An Introduction
Let’s start with the basics: What are AliExpress and Wish?
Both of these tools are essentially huge online marketplaces where vendors can sell a wide range of products. Wish is a gigantic online marketplace with a wide range of products, selling items throughout the US, UK, and other regions in the world.
What is Wish?
Many of the vendors on Wish are located in China, but you can find vendors from all over the world. Wish also charges a higher commission to sellers than AliExpress, which sometimes means higher prices for the products on offer.
What is AliExpress?
AliExpress, on the other hand, is a global ecommerce marketplace, and an international arm of the larger ecommerce giant, Alibaba. AliExpress was designed in 2010 to compete with other major retail marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. The company sells a huge number of products from vendors in multiple locations.
AliExpress not only appeals to standard consumers, but business buyers too. The large-scale professional platform has a number of official partner tools, like DSers, and AliDroship, which allow ecommerce companies to add products to their online store directly.
Using one of these apps, it’s possible for a business owner to list products from another vendor on their store, and inform the supplier whenever a purchase is made. The supplier then handles the fulfilment and shipping process on their end, keeping initial expenses low.
What Kind of Products are Available on AliExpress and Wish?
In general, both AliExpress and Wish offer a lot of similar items. They’re great for buying jewelry, electronics, accessories, novelty items, homeware, clothing, and décor. However, they’re not ideal for things like raw materials, books, and foods.
Wish products
The Wish marketplace is home to a huge range of products at inexpensive prices. Vendors can sell everything from:
- clothing
- shoes
- wallets
- accessories
- gadgets
Wish doesn’t produce any of the products listed on its website directly. Instead, they receive all the products in their warehouses from different regions, to ship to customers.
Merchants on Wish send products to the company, who then ship those items out to consumers. Most of these merchants are based in China, but they can be located elsewhere in the world. Wish also charges their sellers a 10% commission per sale – double that of AliExpress. This may be why you see products listed at slightly higher prices on Wish.
AliExpress products
AliExpress has a lot more products on offer than Wish. The marketplace is packed full of items you can buy at reasonable prices, either individually, or in bulk. AliExpress has a large number of sellers and dropshippers offering everything from consumer electronics, to educational supplies.
Most products are sold out of China, so they do come with long shipping times (up to 45 days).
Any supplier can sign up to be a vendor on AliExpress, and there’s little to no vetting process, so you’ll need to tread carefully to ensure you’re getting good quality.
Merchant Platform
There are a number of ways for businesses to get involved with both AliExpress and Wish. You can purchase items directly from existing vendors and sell them through your online store. Alternatively, you can even look into selling your own products on these platforms.
Wish has an exclusive “Merchant” section, which you’ll need to apply to join. You can’t sell certain products (such as those with copyrights you don’t own).
Alternatively, AliExpress allows anyone to join the merchant pool, though you won’t be able to sell all kinds of products, like food, beverages, or illicit items.
For sellers, Wish charges a 10% commission on every purchase, which is why a lot of merchants increase the prices of their items to cover the extra fees. Shipping fees can also be extremely high, because Wish doesn’t offer a flat rate for all regions. After sellers upload products and set a price, Wish uses a dynamic feature to maximize sales volume.
AliExpress only charges a 5% percent commission on every purchase, or eight percent for certain products like office supplies and apparel. This allows merchants to set much higher profit margins. However, there’s a lot of competition to fight against, and the shipping times are pretty lengthy.
Merchants on AliExpress and Wish can also take payments in a range of different ways. Wish supports payment methods like:
- PayPal
- Google Pay
- Visa
- Apple Pay
- Mastercard
- Klarna
- Afterpay
The methods customers can choose for payment depend on where they’re shopping from.
AliExpress mainly focuses on sales through credit and debit card, PayPal, and iDeal. There are some other options like AliPay, DOKU, and Giropay too, as well as Google and Apple Pay, or Klarna.
Shipping and Returns
Shipping options from Wish and AliExpress have some major differences.
Wish’s main shipping option is Wish Express, which offers expedited delivery times, with some products only taking 2 days for delivery, and others taking 5-10 days. However, this option isn’t available in all countries. Wish also uses Wish Pickup, which involves delivering products to local shops where customers can access them.
Wish also partners with different shipping companies in countries around the world. Customers can track locations of orders via their order history.
AliExpress offers certified shipping, ordinary shipping, and private courier shipping. Private courier shipping and certified shipping offer tracking features, while ordinary shipping does not.
AliExpress also has dedicated shipping options like AliExpress Standard, AliExpress Premium, and AliExpress Saver. Because most products are shipped from China, it can take up to 45 days for the item to arrive at your customer’s destination, or your warehouse if you’re buying to re-sell.
For returns, Wish customers can return products and get refunds within 30 days of delivery. Vendors also need to refund customers if they don’t get orders after 30 days of making a purchase, and if the product sold is damaged, defective, or incorrect.
AliExpress offers a free return service which is great for buyers. It allows users to return products within 15 days, if the products are in good condition with the correct seals and labels. Customers can also return items for a specific reason (such as an incorrect order) within 15 days of purchase.
Further reading 📚
AliExpress vs Wish: Dropshipping
If you’re looking for a way to sell Chinese products from the Alibaba group, or a wide range of affordable items from elsewhere, dropshipping is a good choice. The obvious pick between AliExpress and Wish for this purpose is AliExpress, because it’s the only solution with a dropshipping service natively included.
AliExpress can integrate with a range of e-commerce platforms, so every time a customer makes buys something with a credit card or debit card on your store, an automated order is sent through to your dropshipping supplier. Tools like AliDropship, DSers, and more make it easy to get AliExpress products for a range of online shopping platforms.
Tons of small businesses are emerging around the world right now to take advantage of the discounted prices and convenience AliExpress offers. However, it’s worth remembering you may need to shop around for quality products, and express shipping is rarely an option.
Wish doesn’t have a native solution for dropshipping. However, there’s always the option to order products on the behalf of your customers through the Wish app. There are many apps and plugins for WooCommerce and Shopify that allow you to import products from Wish to your store.
Most of these plugins and apps support automatic order fulfillment, price automation, and product customization, for a streamlined business model. You can also dropship through Wish by creating a store on Wish and selling products from other companies if you have their consent.
It’s much easier to get involved with AliExpress sellers to access all kinds of home products, men’s and women’s clothes, and replicas. However, there are options for Wish dropshipping if you’re willing to use a workaround.
Useful resources 📚
AliExpress vs Wish: Customer Support
Choosing between AliExpress and Wish doesn’t just mean researching the shipping service and looking at payment options like Google wallet. You’ll also need to ensure you have access to the right support if anything goes wrong with an order.
Wish makes it relatively easy to get in touch, whether you have questions about shipping prices or wishlists. The customer support team is available 24/78 via email or phone, and there’s a live chat option too. You’ll also find a help center with lots of articles on payments, refunds, how to avoid a scam, how to use the mobile app and so on.
AliExpress has a few ways to offer customer support. Sellers or merchants can offer support directly, or refer customers to AliExpress mods.
There’s the option to open a support ticket, or use the mobile app. There’s also an FAQ environment, and help articles to assist with all kinds of questions about buyer protection, returns, and account settings.
Wish vs AliExpress: Verdict
There’s no one-size-fits-all when you’re looking for an online retail environment or vendor directory. Wish and AliExpress both have a lot of overlapping elements, from varied shipping costs and times to low prices for a range of items. Each solution also offers a mobile app so you can access the functionality on your Android or iOS phone.
AliExpress is a well-known Chinese platform where you can unlock some of the best prices for products on the web, and perhaps the largest range around. You can access extensive useful filters for sorting through vendors, like minimum price, free shipping and more. Plus, there’s a 60-day money back guarantee if orders don’t arrive.
However, AliExpress wasn’t exactly designed for an audience in the USA, with a complex environment to sort through, and a time consuming process to sort through all the products. Shipping can be extremely slow, and you might find it hard to communicate with sellers due to a language barrier.
Alternatively, Wish offers a fantastic user experience with an easy-to-navigate ecosystem, and relatively reasonable shipping times compared to AliExpress. You can access a range of payment options, and get a 30-day general refund policy for peace of mind.
On the other hand, Wish has fewer products, less search filters, and higher prices overall to consider. There are also higher shipping costs, which makes sense if you consider you’re paying for speed. If you don’t mind paying a little extra, the quality of some products might be slightly better too, but you will need to shop around to get the best items.
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