How we score marketplaces

The five dimensions

Shipping Speed

Typical door-to-door time for a standard order in a major market, not the best-case estimate.

Trust & Reputation

How predictable the buying experience is across sellers, and how consistent published policies are.

Return / Refund Policy

How easy it is to send an item back, who pays return shipping, and how long refunds take.

Product Authenticity

How confident a buyer can be that a branded item is the genuine article.

Buyer Protection

What happens when an order arrives broken, wrong, or never arrives at all.

How a score is set

Each dimension is scored out of ten. We start from the marketplace's published policy, then adjust for what actually happens: typical delivered timings in several major markets rather than best-case estimates, who pays return postage in practice, and how a dispute resolves when the seller stops replying.

The overall stamp is a weighted average of the five, with shipping speed, returns and buyer protection carrying slightly more weight than authenticity and reputation, because those are the three things a buyer feels directly when an order goes wrong.

We score for a global audience. Where a feature only exists in some countries, it cannot lift a score as if it were universal — that is why a fast domestic service in one market does not carry a platform's shipping score on its own.

Current overall scores

• 8.9

  Amazon

  Best for: fast, trusted, everyday shopping

• 8.1

  Alibaba

  Best for: bulk orders and wholesale sourcing

• 7.2

  Temu

  Best for: low-cost everyday goods with no deadline

• 7.9

  eBay

  Best for: used, vintage and collectible items

• 7.4

  AliExpress

  Best for: niche parts and rock-bottom prices

Last reviewed: August 2026

Where Amazon sits, and why

Amazon scores highest overall on our five dimensions, and it is the platform we most often recommend for everyday orders. We say that plainly rather than hiding it behind a scoring model.

It is not the right answer everywhere, and our results reflect that: Alibaba wins bulk and wholesale sourcing, eBay wins used and collectible goods and leads on authenticity for high-value categories, and Temu and AliExpress win on price when you are not working to a deadline. A comparison that always produced the same winner would not be worth reading.

Who runs this site

checkingwithyou is an independent comparison publication. We are not owned by, operated by or editorially directed by any of the marketplaces we cover. Scores and verdicts are set by the editorial team and reviewed on a rolling basis as policies and delivery performance change.

Spotted something out of date, or scored in a way you think is wrong? That is useful to us. Corrections are made on the page and reflected in the review date.

Affiliate disclosure

We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this site. We take part in the Amazon Associates programme, the eBay Partner Network and the AliExpress affiliate programme, and we may add other marketplaces later.

Commission does not change a score, a verdict or a quiz result. Nothing on this site is paid placement, and no marketplace reviews our content before it is published. Where a competitor is the better choice, we say so and link to it.