AliExpress' recently launched Choice service is intended to provide consumers with delivery guarantees and more affordable prices. Screenshot from AliExpress' website

Chinese e-commerce giants are rising as the fastest-growing online platforms for Korean consumers, but they are still grappling with problems of long delivery time and unstable product quality, according to consumers and retail industry officials, Thursday.

Alibaba and PDD, two of the largest e-commerce companies in China, have been expanding their footholds in Korea aggressively with prices of as low as $1 for some small gadgets on their overseas platforms — AliExpress and Temu, respectively.

AliExpress, launched in Korea in 2018, saw its monthly active users surpass 7 million as of last November, nearly doubling from the number seen a year earlier, according to mobile market research firm WiseApp. Temu, launched in July, averages 3.5 million users per month. Both were ranked as the fastest-growing apps in Korea in 2023.

But on the flip side, some consumers in Korea are cautious of replacing local platforms such as Coupang and Gmarket, as the Chinese platforms still have a slew of supply chain problems such as longer delivery time and unstable product quality.

Lawrence Woo, a 38-year-old office worker in Seoul, started using AliExpress a year ago. He was lured by the unbeatable low prices, such as a laptop stand for 30,000 won, which he found to be around 50 percent cheaper than local platforms, with free shipping.

However, he was confused about the delivery time, mentioning that it took two months for him to receive a smartphone camera protection film that he purchased last autumn.

“The delivery time is too long,” Woo said. “I tried to cancel the order but the customer service is not working.”

According to Temu's website, the product's shipping time would range from six to 20 days. In comparison, Korean e-commerce giant Coupang is able to shorten the delivery time to within a day with its Rocket Delivery service. Both AliExpress and Temu are cooperating with local logistic companies such as CJ Logistics.

The logo of Temu is seen on a mobile phone displayed in front of its website in this April 2023 photo. Reuters-Yonhap

“It depends on their supply chain,” said Zhuang Shuai, founder and chief analyst at Chinese market consultancy Bailian. “For instance, whether the sellers are local merchants or Chinese merchants, and whether the platforms have their own warehouses.”

Zhuang added that Chinese platforms face both policy and cultural barriers in their overseas expansion. “Just like Amazon did not succeed in China, it is also not easy for Chinese companies to go overseas,” he said.

Despite such challenges, the platforms have been working to improve their supply chain efficiency.

Last March, AliExpress launched a new service called AliExpress Choice, aiming to provide consumers with "delivery guarantees and more affordable prices," while Korean users can expect “as fast as three-day delivery window.” It had also expanded the capacity of its warehouses in Weihai and Yantai, two cities in China's Shandong province, which is close to Korea.

Lee Ye-seul, a 35-year-old in Seoul and a long-time user of AliExpress, noted that the speed of delivery has been improving, as some products she ordered recently arrived within four days. But she noted another major problem: the copycat designs widely seen on the platforms.

As characters from Korean and Japanese brands such as Sanrio have become popular, there are many sellers that are copying and selling phone cases with such characters on AliExpress, Lee said. “It's hard to tell if the product you're buying is a plagiarized or original design.”

Her view was echoed by Woo, who also said it is hard to tell the authenticity of any branded products on the platforms. He suggested there could be a “patrol system” for these platforms to punish any counterfeiters.

Kang Hyoung-goo, a professor of finance at Hanyang University, noted that products purchased from AliExpress are “unknowingly circulating” on Korean second-hand sales sites as counterfeits. “It is a stumbling block to expanding global outreach through K-fashion exports,” Kang said.

Both Alibaba and PDD are counting on the overseas market to maintain their growth momentum, amid a domestic slowing of user growth and a trend of consumption downgrading.

Korea has become one of the major battlefields. According to a report from online database ECDB, the country is ranked as the fourth-largest market for e-commerce with a predicted revenue of $139.8 billion by 2023, followed by Japan.

Still, for many Korean consumers like Woo and Lee, although the online marketplaces made by Chinese companies offer ways for them to get direct access to China-made goods with extremely low prices, they noted such platforms might not become a major choice for online shopping.

“I will keep using such platforms, but for daily necessities or fashion items, I'd rather turn to Coupang or Naver Shopping,” Woo said.

Ann Cao is a tech reporter with the South China Morning Post. She is currently based in Seoul, reporting for both The Korea Times and the South China Morning Post under an exchange program.