Alibaba?

[fettman1176]

Can anyone explain how Alibaba works?

[Travis]

Alibaba is China’s — and by some measures, the world’s — biggest online commerce company. Its three main sites — Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com — have hundreds of millions of users, and host millions of merchants and businesses. Alibaba handles more business than any other e-commerce company.

E-COMMERCE

Alibaba is the most popular destination for online shopping, in the world's fastest growing e-commerce market. Transactions on its online sites totaled $248 billion last year, more than those of eBay and Amazon.com combined.

[fettman1176]

Yea I'm just trying to figure out how to order some shocks on there

[Dan B]

You could say it's China's answer to eBay or Amazon.com.  It appears that it's businesses selling through Alibaba's website. 

[Kelly Stump]

On 4/16/2019 at 6:07 PM, fettman1176 said:

Can anyone explain how Alibaba works?

I used them not long ago for fuel injectors. They were perfect. Joyner wanted $400 for them. All 4. And i got them for $40 through Alibaba. Delivery was slow but spot on price and parts. Took about 3 weeks to get them.

[Neil Wilson]

From what I have seen, Alibaba is oriented toward wholesalers who buy in bulk quantities. Most of the products I've seen have minimum order quantities that are well beyond what a consumer needs. You can't buy 1 or 2 shock absorbers for example. You have to buy 4 or more.

[Neil Wilson]

Alibaba is not an ecommerce service. In other words you can't just purchase an item on Alibaba. It is more of a directory for Chinese vendors. If you are a wholesaler you might find and make deals with vendors through Alibaba.

Aliexpress is more like ebay or Walmart where you can purchase products  from vendors who are vetted by the service. Alibaba and Aliexpress are run by the same company.

Here is a link that explains it: https://mywifequitherjob.com/is-aliexpress-safe/