Category: China Shopping Sites

Confusing Store Name

When you see the website domain name, you may, like me, think that it is definitely a wholesale website, no matter what it sells. However, the site states clearly in its company info introduction: ”wholesale4ever.com is a B2C e-Commerce website serving Chinese sellers and global buyers.” This is really confusing! I was wondering how the Wholesale4ever.com staff could use such a weird name while the site is intended for retail business. The only explanation is: they are not professional.

Anyway, today on the Chinese international e-commerce arena, it is very common for websites to do wholesale and retail business at the same time. Many famous online shops do this way too: Lightinthebox.com, Dinodirect.com, Milanoo.com, Chinavasion.com, Focalprice.com, to name just a few. The only difference is: they won’t use such a confusing domain name or store name for their business! If I were the boss of Wholesale4ever.com, I would at least revise the company description in order not to mislead potential buyers.

Legitimate or A Scammer?

I searched Google as well as Baidu (the biggest Chinese search engine) for related information about Wholesale4ever but found almost nothing. The site is ranked globally 2,463,050 at Alex, which means it is a small site with few visits. Like Fangtrade.com (click to see review), it should be owned by an individual businessman instead of a company, if it is legitimate.

Based on my research, Wholesale4ever has set up a store at Aliexpress.com, the famous Chinese international trading platform connecting countless suppliers and buyers. This further proves that the site is an individual-owned shopping website. In China, such websites can be found everywhere. While a few of them are scammers selling nothing or crap quality products to steal people’s money, most are doing serious business with global buyers by offering products whose quality is worth or even exceeds the pricing.

Continue reading Wholesale4ever.com Review: Wholesaler or Retailer?

Is Fangtrade.com a legitimate shopping site?

When it comes to online shopping, security should always be considered the priority to all. Before I draft this Fangtrade.com review, I have done much research to confirm whether the site is a legitimate company or a scam. Here are my findings:

At the first glance at the homepage of the website, it seems like a small shopping website run by an individual seller or maybe a small couple-owned team with just one or two employees. My reason is very simple: the site looks not at all professional. I can easily find some spelling errors like the one shown below there. Besides, the homepage layout looks uncomfortable with too many wordings occupying the most important areas of the page. The most ridiculous part is, the domain name fangtrade.com does not match the logo showing the brand “AR SPORT”. And finally, the contact information they indicated on the left is too personal as the live chat contact method is MSN and the contact persons all use personal emails (e.g. xxx@hotmail.com) instead of work emails that contain the company domain after the @ mark.

Anyway, I do find three upsides to the site. First, the products are quite neatly categorized and the selection is huge. Second, the site has a shopping system and you can place orders there directly. Third, they seem to quite focus on certain product lines and the products look attractive.

Honestly, from the website alone, it is hard to trust the company as too many suspicious facts exist out there. On the other hand, I do know a few Chinese friends who are completely honest in their foreign trade business at famous transaction websites like Aliexpress.com and build such small sites simply to showcase their products. They don’t speak or write good English and as a result the contents they add or update onto the sites contain many grammar, spelling or translating errors.

So, is Fangtrade a scam site and is it safe to do business with them? Read further analysis below for more details.

 

Which company does Fangtrade belong to?

Fangtrade.com is owned by a company called “Lanxi Rose-team Sexy Lingerie”. An odd name, isn’t it? I discovered that the site has two sister websites that are run by the same firm and sell the similar products:

• www.arinternationaltrade.com: this URL will steer you to the same site Fangtrade directs to. It is weird and I don’t know why. Actually I think this domain name contains the initials of the site logo “AR”. I guess Fangtrade may be the back-up domain name and the shortness of the name is an advantage – one day when their business grows big enough, they may use this one to build a more professional shopping site.

• www.urcostumes.com: As lots of other small international online businesses do, this site uses the similar template to Lightinthebox.com. It looks much more professional than Fangtrade.com, although a closer look at the site reveals that it is also a small site. As shown below, when I visited the site, there are only 342 visitors online, indicating that the daily visits of the site are very limited.

At the same time, I noticed that the company has been running stores at three world-renowned China wholesale trading websites, including Alibaba.com, Aliexpress.com and Globalsource.com. Here are their store links:

• At Alibaba.com (third-year Gold Supplier)
• At Aliexpress.com
• At Globalsource.com (third-year Verified Supplier )

Continue reading Fangtrade Review: Scam Warnings, Sister Sites, Product Lines and Best Alternatives

Just now we received an email from a famous UK-based store review website, informing us that a new review about our site www.danviews.com has been posted by a user. This is not the first reminder of this kind to us. Out of curiosity I clicked on the link included in the email to see how our readers rate us. Not surprisingly, again, I found that it was a misunderstanding as obviously the content did not talk about our site. Instead, it was a review of Lightinthebox.com:

“I have purchased several pairs of dance shoes from LightInTheBox, and have been very satisfied with my purchases. The shoes are well made and are reasonably priced. The customer service is also outstanding. I would highly recommend LightInTheBox.”

I took a closer look at the title of the thread and confirmed that it was intended to rate Chinawholesalereviews. And the thumbnail of our site shown on the left further proved it.

Interesting enough, it seems quite a number of our readers have mistaken us for a specific online store like Lightinthebox.com, Milanoo.com or Aliexpress.com. I often receive emails or find comments here asking us about the product details offered by some store or commenting on the products or services they’ve got from an online shopping website, which has been reviewed by us on this site.

Continue reading We Are Not Light In The Box

Thanks to Google or other search engines, now we can easily find reviews of a certain company to confirm their nature, namely, are they trusted? Especially when it comes to online shopping from a foreign country, it is a must to do research before you place the very first order. For people who are interested in purchasing something from Tmart.com (reviewd here), searching for Tmart reviews may help you learn the actual facts and then make a smart decision.

Most people do their due diligence before purchasing though, interested parties may find it a little bit time-consuming to do the research work by googling Tmart and reading the plenty of reviews of Tmart one by one. If you are one of them, my summary of the key points about Tmart reviews available on the internet may inspire you in an easier way.

Based on the customer reviews I found on some famous review websites, Tmart is rated 4.5 out of 5 on average. Compared with the company’s Chinese competitors, this is a good mark. While the site has some flaws like orders go missing or no phone contact number, it is highly recommended by some customers who have had great shopping experience with the cheap electronic online supplier. Remember, so far no online shopping websites are perfect – even eBay or Amazon has negative reviews or complaints!

From the big number of Tmart reviews, we can at least confirm that it is a legitimate company as no scammers would be rated so extensively among so many customers. The greatest part about the site is, all items there have a very attractive price tag. Besides, like Dinodirect.com, Tmart.com offers free shipping worldwide. Another upside to them is their satisfactory customer service. Although no phone all number is provided, buyers can contact them by email or live chat. People said they usually got a prompt response from their service representatives. For after-sale service, most customers claimed that their problems had been solved in a quick way. Also, people rave about the amazing varieties of products offered by the store, including electronics, computers & networkings, flashlights & lamps, laser points, video games, car accessories and much more.

Continue reading Key Points about Tmart Reviews Online

Technically, Lightinthebox.com and Aliexpress.com are completely different from each other. Aliexpress is a transaction platform connecting lots of Chinese suppliers and global buyers while Lightinthebox itself is a super big supplier. However, if you are looking for best websites to shop for wholesale or retail products from China, you can’t afford to miss out either of them. Below let’s see what are the respective advantages and disadvantages of buying from the two sites.

Who is more popular on the global market?

In terms of global popularity, Lightinthebox and Aliexpress are equally famous. Lightinthebox is more extensively known among end consumers although the online store also does wholesale business. Comparatively, as an express channel for wholesale transactions, Aliexpress is more popular among merchants, resellers or retailers, though it also has a great number of customers who shop there regularly for personal needs.

Continue reading Lightinthebox VS Aliexpress: Global Popularity, Business Models & Product Categories

Sourcing goods from China to resell in Western countries can mean huge profits. At the same time, many end consumers choose to buy products from Chinese online retail stores as they can save really much by bypassing the various levels of middle men. However, it is never easy or hassle-free to trade with Chinese suppliers before trust is established. This post is going to talk about the major concerns over doing business with Chinese suppliers online and a few small recommendations on how to cope with them.

Payment Security

The biggest concern is about the security of payment: Which payment method do I use? Will my money go forever while my order never arrives? If the product I receive does not work as described or is damaged, can I get my money back?, and so on. We all know that paying by credit card is the safest option as we can file a chargeback on the purchase if we are not satisfied for whatever reason. Or, at least we should use Paypal to make the payment as it is an internationally reputable payment service provider. Nevertheless, we have to face the fact that most Chinese suppliers, especially smaller ones, have great difficulties in applying for credit card because of the strict government regulations and criteria. As a result, while being the least safe to buyers, Western Union and wire transfer are the most popular payment methods accepted by the vast majority of Chinese sellers.

If you pay direct to the seller by either of them, your money is completely exposed to any potential risks. Anyway, to minimize such risks, you use transaction websites like AliExpress.com (similar to eBay) as such they provide payment protection service – money is sent to the sites first and then released to the suppliers after items are received. Of course, you are encouraged to choose suppliers who provide safer payment options as possible as you can. Generally, bigger China-based online stores all accept Paypal and credit card payments: Lightinthebox.com, DinoDirect.com (also see DinoDirect Alternatives), Milanoo.com, FocalPrice.com, to name just a few. If you really want to try smaller Chinese online shopping websites that only accept Western Union or wire transfer, we would suggest you start with a fairly small order first to test the water before you build up your order over time.

Quality & Name-Brand Products

The quality issue is the second biggest concern. Made-in-China products tend to be viewed as poor quality, partly because they are extremely low priced. In our experience, it all depends. Comparatively speaking, products offered by more world-renowned companies are better in quality as reputation is what they are striving hard to gain and maintain in order to keep long-term business relationships with buyers. However, it does not mean that all small suppliers sell inferior quality merchandise. On the whole, apparel and accessories have less complaint in terms of quality while consumer electronics, computers and communications products have more.

Continue reading Major Concerns about Online Shopping from Chinese Suppliers