I don’t understand Wish, or perhaps more accurately I don’t understand what it offers to customers. I get that there’s a market for cheaper but worse if that’s all someone can afford, I even...
I don’t understand Wish, or perhaps more accurately I don’t understand what it offers to customers. I get that there’s a market for cheaper but worse if that’s all someone can afford, I even understand that there must be some worthwhile products hiding on there, but the chance of getting something totally unfit for purpose seems high enough that you’re rolling the dice on your money just being gone - and surely if Wish pricing was all you could afford in the first place, you’re least well placed to take that hit?
Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems like all of the downsides of AliExpress with none of the benefits.
To me, it's like a "more user-friendly aliexpress" where the products are a subset of what's available from factories / direct on aliexpress but presented in an extremely simple UI to pull FB...
To me, it's like a "more user-friendly aliexpress" where the products are a subset of what's available from factories / direct on aliexpress but presented in an extremely simple UI to pull FB users and others into buying things because of low prices. Just a window dressing that hides what probably seems overwhelming about aliexpress to some.
And just like aliexpress, some of the factories and sources of the products are not high quality and are not subjected to the same QC, regulations, and vendor requirements one may be used to- these differ in various countries. That doesn't mean there aren't high quality products, but that it's a bit of a minefield trying to find the good ones on sites like these.
To be fair, things I have purchased on Wish that are simple (dice, coin cases, stickers, tire valve caps) have all been great. But, because of lack of UL, unregulated advertising/lies/etc, fake certifications, and so forth, I refrain from buying anything electrical, tech, etc. Some might be fine, but I'm not taking on a fire risk or buying a flashlight that claims to have 100x more lumens than it really does.
I will refrain from saying cheap <nationality> products and so forth because I don't want to needlessly associate low quality with a particular nationality in a xenophobic/racist way, even if unintentionally (language that is very common in America)- and honestly it's just not true- that language is an exaggeration.
This is a good point actually, the few occasions that I've used AliExpress it's been for niche and fairly technical items that would have been either absurdly marked up or not available at all...
This is a good point actually, the few occasions that I've used AliExpress it's been for niche and fairly technical items that would have been either absurdly marked up or not available at all without going direct to the manufacturer. That's probably colouring my perception a bit even though AliExpress itself is much broader than that, and then Wish isn't necessarily targeting the exact same demographic either.
I'd still be a bit wary of safety even with simpler items - I shuddered a little at the thought of what residues might be on that kazoo when he put it in his mouth and immediately said "smells bad, tastes bad" - but I know that bulk imported items through a local retailer aren't necessarily immune to those risks either. I imagine it's probably easier to win a refund claim on Wish if, say, a sticker clearly isn't the one in the photo compared to a keyboard sounding terrible, as well; there's less risk because there's less grey area in terms of what "fit for purpose" means. I'm still not sure who's buying instruments or electronics on there, but yeah, I can at least conceptually see the draw for some of the other product categories now.
Wish seems to mostly be warehouses offloading boxes of old junk not fit for normal retail. Products from 2009, things not in their original boxes, slightly damaged/QC rejects. I've never actually...
Wish seems to mostly be warehouses offloading boxes of old junk not fit for normal retail. Products from 2009, things not in their original boxes, slightly damaged/QC rejects.
I've never actually heard of someone using Wish while I can list many people using ebay/aliexpress/amazon so I'm not sure it even is that popular of a platform.
Wish.com/ContextLogic Inc is a public company, so you can easily look up its quarterly financials. It hasn't been doing very well the last few years as compared to previous years, but its...
Wish.com/ContextLogic Inc is a public company, so you can easily look up its quarterly financials. It hasn't been doing very well the last few years as compared to previous years, but its popularity and current revenue will probably still surprise you.
Wish generated $2 billion revenue in 2021, a 20.7% decrease year-on-year
In 2020, Wish saw its net loss increase from $129 million to $745 million
Wish has 26 million monthly active users and approximately 600 million registered users
Can I ask an unrelated question? Where do you usually go for used, high quality gear? Selfishly, I'm trying to sell some of my old kit from around 2010 and haven't really been active in the music...
Can I ask an unrelated question? Where do you usually go for used, high quality gear? Selfishly, I'm trying to sell some of my old kit from around 2010 and haven't really been active in the music scene since then and am a slight loss for where to post it. Are Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace the go tos?
I don’t understand Wish, or perhaps more accurately I don’t understand what it offers to customers. I get that there’s a market for cheaper but worse if that’s all someone can afford, I even understand that there must be some worthwhile products hiding on there, but the chance of getting something totally unfit for purpose seems high enough that you’re rolling the dice on your money just being gone - and surely if Wish pricing was all you could afford in the first place, you’re least well placed to take that hit?
Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems like all of the downsides of AliExpress with none of the benefits.
To me, it's like a "more user-friendly aliexpress" where the products are a subset of what's available from factories / direct on aliexpress but presented in an extremely simple UI to pull FB users and others into buying things because of low prices. Just a window dressing that hides what probably seems overwhelming about aliexpress to some.
And just like aliexpress, some of the factories and sources of the products are not high quality and are not subjected to the same QC, regulations, and vendor requirements one may be used to- these differ in various countries. That doesn't mean there aren't high quality products, but that it's a bit of a minefield trying to find the good ones on sites like these.
To be fair, things I have purchased on Wish that are simple (dice, coin cases, stickers, tire valve caps) have all been great. But, because of lack of UL, unregulated advertising/lies/etc, fake certifications, and so forth, I refrain from buying anything electrical, tech, etc. Some might be fine, but I'm not taking on a fire risk or buying a flashlight that claims to have 100x more lumens than it really does.
I will refrain from saying cheap <nationality> products and so forth because I don't want to needlessly associate low quality with a particular nationality in a xenophobic/racist way, even if unintentionally (language that is very common in America)- and honestly it's just not true- that language is an exaggeration.
This is a good point actually, the few occasions that I've used AliExpress it's been for niche and fairly technical items that would have been either absurdly marked up or not available at all without going direct to the manufacturer. That's probably colouring my perception a bit even though AliExpress itself is much broader than that, and then Wish isn't necessarily targeting the exact same demographic either.
I'd still be a bit wary of safety even with simpler items - I shuddered a little at the thought of what residues might be on that kazoo when he put it in his mouth and immediately said "smells bad, tastes bad" - but I know that bulk imported items through a local retailer aren't necessarily immune to those risks either. I imagine it's probably easier to win a refund claim on Wish if, say, a sticker clearly isn't the one in the photo compared to a keyboard sounding terrible, as well; there's less risk because there's less grey area in terms of what "fit for purpose" means. I'm still not sure who's buying instruments or electronics on there, but yeah, I can at least conceptually see the draw for some of the other product categories now.
Wish seems to mostly be warehouses offloading boxes of old junk not fit for normal retail. Products from 2009, things not in their original boxes, slightly damaged/QC rejects.
I've never actually heard of someone using Wish while I can list many people using ebay/aliexpress/amazon so I'm not sure it even is that popular of a platform.
Wish.com/ContextLogic Inc is a public company, so you can easily look up its quarterly financials. It hasn't been doing very well the last few years as compared to previous years, but its popularity and current revenue will probably still surprise you.
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/wish-statistics/
Can I ask an unrelated question? Where do you usually go for used, high quality gear? Selfishly, I'm trying to sell some of my old kit from around 2010 and haven't really been active in the music scene since then and am a slight loss for where to post it. Are Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace the go tos?
I cannot vouch for the quality but I've heard Reverb is a good place