e-commerce is now a mainstay. I bet many of us have experienced it in the form of online shopping. Some of us might have even ventured into buying direct from China.

The good thing about shopping online is that the marketplace is forever open. Couple to that lower prices for most goods and we get a huge and hungry crowd. You got it: shoppers raring to go and ready to part with their money!

That’s the draw of buying stuff from the Web, really.

There’s so much to look over and so many discounted deals to be had. No wonder many people are browsing — the equivalent of window shopping, but done online — all the time and hunting for the best offers.

I have done my fair share of that 🙂 All without having to step outside of the house or step into a physical store!

So here I am, sharing with you the various avenues at which I’d bought item after item.

In this first installment of my 2-part article, we’ll look at shopping the Chinese market in English. At Lazada and AliExpress, both familiar names to avid online purchasers.

While in part 2, I’ll share my experience taking a deep dive into shopping in Chinese at Taobao, often referred to as China’s very own eBay.

Lazada — Looking Much Like the Amazon of Southeast Asia

Founded by Rocket Internet in Singapore in 2011, and also headquartered here, Lazada Group is actually a German-owned e-commerce company. Lazada’s focus is in Southeast Asia, starting off with Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in 2012.

It was not until 2014 that Lazada established its Singapore online shopping services. Their presence here is so important that our government’s investment arm Temasek Holdings bought a stake in the company and way of doing business.

Aiming to be the Amazon of this region, Lazada has definitely succeeded in their mission in just a few short years. They had figured out what this region wants. More importantly, they conquered the logistical challenges of providing quick-turn delivery to consumers.

So much so that in 2016, China’s Alibaba Group bought a controlling stake in the company for a cool 1 billion US dollars!

This allowed Alibaba a quick entry into the growing S.E. Asian e-commerce space, skipping the hassles of setting up shop online (which they already have a rich experience doing so in China!). A strategic move which let them tap straight into a ready pool of savvy customers.

Shopping at Lazada Feels Just Like Amazon

If you’ve shopped on Amazon before, you’d find that buying stuff at Lazada feels very much the same.

Whether you use a Web browser or mobile app, Lazada provides an online shopping experience that is memorable. Their platform is clean and well-organized, easy to navigate and much fun to use. Prices are clearly stated, product descriptions have all the details you need and yes, everything is in English.

Plus, there’s the usual discounts using promo codes and the ubiquitous premium and free shipping options. Not much different from Amazon, really.

Lazada is where I actually bought bigger ticket items from, like our Dyson DC61 Motorhead vacuum cleaner. There are lots of items which you’d find in local retail stores, but with one clear difference: most are priced lower online!

It’s no wonder that brick and mortar businesses are feeling the heat.

Also available are branded products from overseas, Again, these could be had cheaper than going to our shopping district (which is aimed at tourists actually, mind you).

Of course, Lazada also sells products produced in China. In fact, they had adopted a similar collaborative business model like Amazon’s, where third-party sellers list their products on the platform and transact through the same ecosystem.

All making for a seamless buying experience for consumers.

I’ve bought electronics, tools and gadgets this way. There are so many choices on this shopping platform such that if one isn’t decisive, hours may be spent going through, and to and fro, listing after product listing!

Lazada’s Taobao Collection — A Stab at Buying Direct from China

How do you know if a product you ordered on Lazada is coming from China?

The usual clue would be the line “Ships from Overseas” seen after the shipping options. At times, this may be accompanied by the absence of free shipping, especially when the item is priced real cheap; though not always.

Another dead giveaway is of course the label “Taobao” in the product listing.

With Alibaba’s participation, Lazada now proudly makes available some 400,000 items sourced direct from China. This is accomplished through a dedicated section called the “Taobao Collection”, which curates popular Chinese products from more reputable sellers.

Just visit taobao.lazada.sg and be prepared to be overwhelmed! Via this channel, you actually get to have a stab at buying direct from China without having to read or write the Chinese language. How nice 🙂

AliExpress — Bringing China Direct to You in English

While you can buy many popular made-in-China products at Lazada, there are a million other items not found on their platform.

For example, if your old video game console has a broken door (to an accessory compartment) or a bad game controller needs to be replaced, you’d have better luck with AliExpress. You can source for all sorts of spare parts, even some obscure ones.

AliExpress is the sister site to Alibaba.com. The latter is The Alibaba Group’s namesake business-to-business (or B2B) platform, set up to supply Chinese goods in volume to the world market.

At Alibaba.com, you’ll meet suppliers who deal only in bulk. Quantities can be in hundreds of units; thousands; a truck load or even several containers worth. A minimum order quantity, or MOQ, is usually specified.

Of course, prices at Alibaba.com are much much lower — buying from here is absolutely buying direct from China, dealing straight with the source.

AliExpress complements Alibaba nicely by being a smaller-scale B2C player. Possibly, dealers on this platform are buying from Alibaba.com (at the MOQ) and reselling piece-meal or in small quantities. This definitely helps to satisfy market demand, meeting the needs of the large base of international customers.

It could even be that Alibaba merchants represent themselves at AliExpress, so that they can provide samples to prospective (medium- to large-scale) customers.

Buy Anything and Everything Chinese at AliExpress

Whatever the case, AliExpress is where one can literally buy anything and everything available for sale in China. As long as someone sets up an AliExpress account and lists those products.

Get the latest fidget spinners; mobile phone accessories; household and electronic gadgets; electronic components (like integrated circuits, SMT resistors, capacitors, etc) and tools; and more.

Even if you think no one may be selling a particular item, just give it a search. You can even post a photo of an item and AliExpress will find you the exact match or look-alike products.

Yes, anything. And everything. Direct from China. (Sorry, had to reiterate this most important aspect.)

Most times, free shipping to Singapore is provided. If not, a token amount is charged. Look around, as there are more than a handful of sellers with the same items for sale, but priced differently depending on their delivery options (and possibly where they sourced their goods).

Also, pay attention to customer reviews and each seller’s monthly transaction volumes to get a better idea of who would be better at meeting your requirements. With prices not far off from seller to seller, factoring in other considerations can help to reduce disappointments.

That said, if the Chinese language is your handicap, you no longer need to feel helpless. Shop online at AliExpress — everything there is in English 🙂

Hang on… there’s more…

Drop Shipping is the Name of The Game

Have you ever looked into or wondered about how online stores are doing business, especially in the area of inventory management?

Well, you might have come across the novel concept of drop shipping. It works like this:

  1. Shopper orders an item and pays for it (at online selling price).
  2. Seller places order for said item from manufacturer (at cost price), supplying shopper’s delivery details.
  3. Manufacturer packages item and sends it straight to shopper, informing seller of such.
  4. Shopper receives item, not (necessarily) knowing it came from elsewhere rather than seller’s shop.

As you can see, the online shop seller never touches the actual item being sold. In fact, the shop owner does not have to keep a single piece of stock! Essentially, there are no inventory woes and worries — especially tying up funds to keep stock.

This is where AliExpress comes into the picture beautifully. Many sellers on the platform are actually well-versed in drop shipping. They will send out their products quickly, keeping in mind not to invoice recipients nor reveal the source of goods.

This collaborative manner of doing business benefits all parties. China producers get to sell to international customers; online (re)sellers earn by bringing in such customers; and consumers gain by getting myriad choices and (hopefully) better-priced and quality products.

Buying Direct from China — Online Sellers Can Score Big with AliExpress

Without much fuss, online sellers can easily make available a wide range of products for sale to their customers. All with the comfort of knowing that AliExpress suppliers will take care of stocking inventories and delivering goods. Transparently.

To up the game, sellers can even brand their products by asking manufacturers to tweak designs and customize by adding their brand names and logos.

So, if you want to set up shop online, like many of those Shopify websites out there, consider the drop shipping model when starting up.

When transaction volume gets bigger for certain items, you can always seek out Alibaba.com to enjoy bulk pricing for these goods. At that point, you’d have to deal with shipping to customers yourself. This is a good problem to have though, as your online business would have boomed.

Not Yet Buying Direct from China? Hey, You’re Missing Out!

Now that we’ve seen how easy it is to buy stuff directly from China, isn’t it time you consider doing so if you haven’t yet tried it?

Better still, make this a primary choice when you are shopping online. You get lots of variety, can save a ton of moolah, all at your own convenience.

(Plus with Lazada, you can shop the local market instead of going to the stores; buy imported beauty and fashion products too!)

And the best part? No need to know much Chinese at all. In fact, shop all you want in English, all the whole time, at Lazada and AliExpress.

If you are registering for new accounts, I’ve provided some useful info below:

**These aren’t my referral links. I don’t get rewarded for signing you up.

General Tips

  1. Before you make your first purchase, check if there are rewards for new users given by credit card issuers. You could enjoy a hefty one-off discount with their promo codes.
  2. Download their shopping app onto your mobile device for convenient access when you are outdoors. Look out for any promotions tied to first-time use of the app; at times you may have to consider and decide which new-user reward gives you the most mileage.
  3. Search the Web periodically for discount codes to use on your next purchases.

So, don’t feel that you are missing out anymore. Start enjoying shopping online and buying direct from China. You’d be much pleased.

I just know 🙂