AliExpress[1] belongs to the Alibaba group and is based in China. It began operations in 2010 and is based on offering products from Chinese manufacturers to buyers around the world. It is one of the most visited e-commerce pages on the planet. Temu, for its part, made its appearance in September 2022 and is based in Boston, USA, although shipments are made directly from China. It belongs to Pinduoduo, a large Chinese trading company, and allows buyers to contact stores to find a multitude of products at low prices.
App and website
Both Temu and AliExpress have their own website and application, so that users can choose whether to make purchases from the browser or through the app. Temu’s mobile app is lighter than AliExpress’s, which may be an advantage for those users who do not want to consume a lot of space.
Your website may also be more modern, since it is a recent launch while AliExpress has more years on the market.
Security and payment protection
Here we do not have to worry because both its web pages and its applications have an SSL certificate, that is, they are protected. With the presence of this certificate we ensure the authenticity of the website and that the connection is encrypted, so that the data we enter at the time of purchase cannot be stolen.
It is one of the biggest concerns of users when it comes to pay in less known or distant stores, like this case. But both AliExpress and Temu offer protection to our banking data.
Products
On both platforms we will find thousands of different products at low prices, but there are differences here. While on Aliexpress we can find absolutely everything, including smartphones and a wide variety of electronic products such as Smart TV, These products are not found in Temu. There are many categories, such as clothing, sports accessories, home and kitchen products, beauty and personal care, toys, jewelry… but in electronics we will find accessories and not products as such.
In the rest of the products We did not find much difference and There may even be salespeople who are present in both stores to expand the sales reach of your business.
Purchase prices
The main feature of these two platforms is the low price of their products. It is their great claim and what the millions of consumers who make their purchases on AliExpress or Temu are looking for. Here we are going to have to make a distinction when comparing their prices. In both cases we make the purchase directly from the producer, without going through intermediaries, which greatly reduces costs. But the purchasing conditions are not the same if we are going to buy wholesale, that is, a large number of products, or retail, perhaps a single unit of a product.
If we are going to buy in bulk, AliExpress offers better conditions and the final purchase price will probably be lower. But if we make individual purchases, because Temu does not apply a sales commission to manufacturers As AliExpress does (between 5% and 8%), it is possible that its starting prices could be lower than those of its competitor.
Shipping and delivery
Another of the basic questions a buyer asks when placing an order is to know what day they will receive it. Temu and AliExpress have two somewhat different delivery policies for their products. In the Alibaba company we will find many more shipping options, always depending on what we want to pay to advance receipt of the package, while in Temu we will have two, the free shipping option and the paid express shipping option.
In cases of free shipping of products arrived from China, Temu is a little faster and its packages arrive sooner in Spain than those sent by AliExpress. But AliExpress has an advantage and that is that it has warehouses in Europe and Spain and, if we buy items that are in these warehouses, the delivery is much faster.
Customer service and returns
In both cases we have a Help section where we can resolve our questions and also various forms of contact. Temu has a telephone and chat service that can be faster than AliExpress contact method, in which we will have to open a query that will usually be resolved in one day. If what we want to make is a claim or a dispute, AliExpress wins since it acts as an intermediary between buyer and seller, while in Temu we will have to speak directly with the seller.
To return a product or claim a shipment that has not arrived, the solution is similar in both cases. We will have to try to reach an agreement with the seller and, if we do not succeed, we will open a dispute to get our money back. There are differences here, since AliExpress will take about 14 days to return our money, a time that is extended to 30 days in the case of Temu.
References
- ^ AliExpress (www.gearrice.com)