(AliExpress is slightly different as it uses the Alipay escrow service, but I suggest you take a look at some of the offers on there. AB encourage companies to offer free shipping, so to get round this, sellers increase their unit cost to cover the shipping. As we all know - shipping is NOT free!)
However, I am also concerned about the counterfeit business. Several points come to mind: firstly, Ali Baba is choc-full of companies openly selling fake designer goods. Why don't they crack down on this? Secondly, eBay don't allow the sale of fakes (supposedly) so how will they feel about Ali Baba's acquisition of Auctiva, bearing in mind this will open the floodgates for more sellers to easily source fake goods? Let's hope they don't end their agreement with Auctiva because of it - where would that leave us all?
Thirdly - and this is a constant mystery to me: if you and I can easily find fake stuff on eBay, why don't eBay ban the sellers? Whenever I have reported such things to them, the listings have remained in place and the sellers continue to sell. I can only believe (being a cynic) that eBay make too much money from these sellers to care all that much... On the other hand, if the designer companies are so concerned, a simple daily search for their own goods would bring up lots of fakes. If they spent a few weeks reporting all these to eBay (and getting them removed) it would improve the situation considerably. I realise that unscrupulous companies will just set up new IDs and continue selling (something else eBay does nothing about...) but if they were continually removed it would surely discourage a lot of them.
None of this would be difficult to do, and considering the ease with which eBay have removed a couple of my listings in the past, (for reasons they later admitted were mistaken!) it makes me wonder what their VERO department staff do all day...
Fakes abound on eBay. Fakes are easily sourced through Ali Baba. Maybe we should all start selling dodgy Uggs, Ed Hardy, Prada bags, Pandora bracelets, Nike trainers, etc etc etc. Until Ali Baba start removing the companies selling counterfeit goods from their site, I will continue to believe that they really don't give a *%#* about it. (After all, they make a lot of money from these companies.)
And now Auctiva has become part of this company - sheesh.
Jane
Silk Dreams Lingerie