AliExpress: New opportunities and product selection strategies for Chinese e-commerce

As an online trading platform built by Alibaba for the global market, AliExpress is vividly called “International Taobao”. It not only provides a stage for Chinese e-commerce companies to go global, but also brings many conveniences and development opportunities.

First of all, AliExpress guarantees transactions through Alipay accounts, ensuring the safety of funds for both buyers and sellers. This measure has greatly enhanced users’ trust in the platform, allowing Chinese e-commerce companies to expand overseas markets with more confidence. In addition, in order to better serve global users, the AliExpress platform also supports language translation functions, which simplifies the language translation operation of listed products, allowing even merchants who do not understand foreign languages ​​​​to easily manage their stores.

AliExpress currently mainly adopts the direct shipping model and has low demand for localized operations, which means that product weight and value have become important considerations when selecting products. Therefore, the best-selling products on AliExpress tend to focus on fashion products, accessories and small home and sports goods. This also reflects that the AliExpress platform has clear guiding significance for the product selection strategies of Chinese e-commerce companies.

From the perspective of market size, AliExpress’s potential buyers are located in more than 220 countries and regions around the world. In contrast, domestic e-commerce mainly targets the Chinese market. This means that companies engaged in cross-border e-commerce can reach a wider range of consumer groups. It is worth noting that although AliExpress has a wide coverage, its sales focus is still on emerging markets rather than mature markets in Europe and the United States.

In terms of operating costs, AliExpress has obvious advantages over domestic e-commerce platforms. For example, in terms of labor expenses, AliExpress stores usually only require a few people to operate effectively. In addition, for many AliExpress sellers, there is no need to stock up on large quantities of goods in the early stage, which greatly reduces the threshold and risk of starting a business. On the contrary, domestic e-commerce companies face high pressure on inventory management and logistics distribution.

When selecting hot-selling products, sellers need to comprehensively consider market demand and supply chain capabilities. Taking necklaces as an example, by analyzing hot-selling attributes such as price range, material, design style and other information, the target product can be accurately located on the 1688 platform. However, in the actual operation process, we should not only pay attention to the quality and price of the product itself, but also pay attention to the supplier’s service capabilities and willingness to cooperate. Prefer suppliers who can provide high-quality pictures and support drop shipping services, which will help improve product competitiveness and reduce costs.

In short, AliExpress has opened the door to the global market for Chinese e-commerce companies, but while enjoying the convenience it brings, they also need to reasonably plan their development strategies based on their own conditions, especially in product selection and supply. Make informed decisions about chain management.