Alibaba.com is one of the biggest e-commerce portals in China, if not the world. As such, it has many reliable suppliers for you to buy from at low cost. It also specializes in allowing the purchase of large quantities of products at once, so it’s ideal for filling bulk orders for items (if you wish to re-sell them later). However, the low prices mixed with often-high minimum order quantity requirements increase the risk of scams or counterfeiting, and give you much more to lose in the unfortunate even that you get defrauded.
Whatever your e-commerce needs, here are 7 popular sites like Alibaba that can help fill them.
1. AliExpress
AliExpress is owned by the same company as Alibaba, but it’s an alternative to Alibaba because it works slightly differently. Whereas Alibaba is mainly a trading platform for businesses to purchase products in bulk from wholesalers to re-sell, AliExpress focuses more on the ability to purchase from wholesalers as an individual consumer.
2. Amazon
This Alibaba alternative and former bookstore has become the largest online marketplace in the United States, and one of the largest e-commerce portals in the world. You can use it to buy stuff from other Amazon users, or from Amazon itself (including some of their original tech products). Or, you can sell things you no longer want to Amazon users, or trade them in to Amazon for store credit. Amazon also features online libraries of movies and music that you can rent or buy.
Want to see more of what Amazon has to offer? Check out our Amazon course!
3. eBay
Besides Amazon, eBay is probably the most well-known website like Alibaba in America (or worldwide, for that matter). It started out as an auction-only website for person-to-person item sales, and is still mostly known for this. Over time, however, it has incorporated options for buying things at fixed prices. For some items, you can also submit a price offer to a seller and see if they’ll part with the item for the amount that you suggested.
Our eBay course will explain more about how eBay and all of its functions work.
4. Target.com
Target is a website somewhat like Alibaba, in that it offers goods at discounted prices that you can ship to your home (or pick up at one of their brick-and-mortar stores). Though Target isn’t quite as committed to low prices as some other companies like Alibaba, it does place emphasis on stocking very trendy and fashion-forward goods.
5. Walmart.com
While Alibaba is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, this Alibaba alternative is one of the largest companies in the world… period! Like Alibaba, Wal,art’s focus is on offering goods at low prices, which you can order online or pick up at a nearby brick-and-mortar store. Wal-Mart also operates other services, such as Vudu.com (a video-streaming service like Netflix) and its own global e-commerce portal.
6. JD.com
Short for “Jiandong Mall”, this website that was previously known as “360Buy” is one of the biggest Alibaba competitors in China. It began as an electronics speciality store, but has now diversified to sell clothing, accessories, and home & garden fixtures. It is one of the most respected and trustworthy e-commerce companies in China. However, you can only sell with them if you’re a company based in China (though that includes Hong Kong and overseas territories).
7. Doba.com
Doba.com is similar to Alibaba, but works slightly differently as a “drop-shipping” service. Basically, this means that you find products that you want to sell in your store on an e-commerce website, such as eBay or Amazon, on Doba.com. Then, you list those products in your e-commerce store, and when someone buys them, you go back to Doba.com and order them. Fill in the shipping addresses of your customers, and Doba.com will deliver your products for you! Plus, you get to keep the difference between your listing price and your order price! The catch is that Doba.com isn’t free to use, but you can get a free trial for a week.
There you have it: 7 other online marketplaces like Alibaba that you can try! If you’ve used any of them already, let us know what you thought of them! Was their product selection good? How about their prices? Customer service? Delivery time? Leave us a comment below, or on our social media pages.
