Light in the box reviews: Is Lightinthebox legit or not?

Today, we would like our readers to find out more about an online store – Lightinthebox. We want to discuss what kind of store it exactly is, how it works and what the Light in the box reviews are. Most people who are interested in buying things directly from China certainly know portals such as AliExpress, Alibaba or DHgate. They have been already described on our blog many times, and they have become very popular among customers all over the world. But last time, Lightinthebox has been also famous so read this article to find out more about this online shop.

Lightinthebox is an online store that sells Chinese products. It was created in 2007, and ever since it has been selling products to customers from all over the world. The offer of Lightinthebox includes three main groups of products, i.e.:

1. Clothes.
2. Small accessories and gadgets.
3. Products for house and garden.

The website itself has a very customer-friendly design because it is available in many languages. While entering the site, the system automatically recognizes the language of the user’s search engine and displays the site in their native language.

The main page is similar to websites of other stores or portals, i.e. the offered products are divided into different categories, it has its own searcher, etc. Moreover, some special offers available on a particular day or a particular period are highlighted. There are also some icons that let users display a particular group of products.

When we select the particular product and display its subpage, it is possible to read a detailed specification, including its price, a detailed description of the product, photos, opinions about the product written by other customers, etc.

If we decide to buy a particular product, it is possible to choose its parameters, e.g. if they are clothes, one has to choose their color and size, as well as provide the number of products they want to buy and the address to deliver the package.

Then, we fill the order form with data such as the payment method, delivery address, delivery method (it is connected with the time the package will be delivered, sometimes it may be faster or slower), etc. It is necessary to define if one wants Lightinthebox to calculate custom taxes and the insurance fee.

There are a few payment methods available to be chosen:

• the international ones – credit/debit cards, PayPal, Western Union, Wire transfer,
• the local ones (also available for customers from particular countries) – Boleto (Brazil), Yandexmoney/Qiwi (Russia), iDeal (the Netherlands), Sofort (Germany).

If the delivered product:

• is lost or damaged while shipping, the Lightinthebox store will send a new one,
• is not the one we ordered, the store will exchange the product or return the money,
• does not satisfy one, it can be returned within 14 days for any reason,
• turns out to be flawed, it is possible to return it within 30 days. In such a situation, Lightinthebox will exchange, repair or send materials needed to repair the product.

The biggest business competition of the store is connected with portals such as AliExpress or DHgate, which have been carefully described on our blog. However, Lightinthebox is significantly different than the aforementioned stores, because it represents another business model. AliExpress and DHgate make thousands of sellers from all over the world able to create their own online store within the website. It means that none of these portals does not sell goods in a direct way. A customer makes a transaction with a particular seller, not buying goods directly on the website. In contrast, Lightinthebox sells products directly and sends them to customers on its own.

In order to answer this question, we have looked through the most popular websites that include reviews of different online stores. We have found a few portals where reviews about Lightinthebox may be found. The results of our analysis are presented below:

On Trustpilot, we have found 18098 notes. The store has achieved an average score of 3 out of 5 stars. The best note (5 stars) was given to Lightinthebox by 58% of users, a 4-star note was given by 12% of users. Only a few users (5%) gave a 2-star or 3-star note to the store. The lowest Lightinthebox review (1 star) was provided by 25% users.

According to data collected by Sitejabber, Lightinthebox has achieved an average score of 4,1 out of 5 stars. The score is based on 4153 opinions. As much as 62% of users gave the highest note (5 stars). The lowest Light in the box review (1 star) was provided by 24% of users.

On Resellerratings, the Lightinthebox store has achieved an average score of 9,68/10, based on 12220 Lightinthebox reviews. This is a good note.

On Consumeraffairs, the store has received an average score of 3,9 out of 5 possible stars. 271 out of 433 notes were the highest ones (5 stars). It means that about 63% of users gave the highest Lightinthebox review.

On Pissedconsumer, we have found 2207 reviews of the store in total. Based on 1077 opinions, it has received an average score of 1,9 out of 5 stars.

* All the above data was last updated on February 22, 2019.

Analyzing the reviews about Lightinthebox found on the above websites, some crucial differences may be noticed. On the first 4 pages, the store has achieved a very good score. The majority of its users were satisfied with the purchases made by this website. The last portal makes the Lightinthebox store look bad. However, considering the results from the first 4 portals that included the most options about this store, the Lightinthebox reviews may be considered as good.

Although the general score achieved by Lightinthebox is good, some people were not satisfied with their purchases in this online store. We decided to check the reasons for dissatisfaction. In order to do that, we have read negative opinions. We have drawn the conclusion that the main causes of dissatisfaction were:

1. Too long delivery time. The most common negative Lightinthebox review concerns delivery time. Users usually write the expected delivery time was longer. Such a situation may have been caused by a courier company, as well as by people working in the Lightinthebox store, who hadn’t prepared the package on time. When the delivery time is slightly longer than the expected, one should be patient, because it needs to be remembered that some delays may happen. That is why, it is good to order the product in advance, not at short notice. If the delivery time is very long, we advise to contact the Lightinthebox store and ask for an explanation.
2. Not receiving the package. Some people also complain that they did not get the package they had ordered at all. The cause of such a situation may be similar to above – impatient users gave a negative opinion to the store. It may have also happened that the ordering system failed and the order was lost, or a certain employee made a mistake and forgot about the order. In such a case, when delivery time is really very long, one should ask the Lightinthebox store for the explanation.
3. Receiving the wrong package. Some people gave the lowest Lightinthebox reviews because they claim that the product they received was different than the one they had ordered. The most probable reason for that was a mistake made by a person who works in customer service. In such a case, the complaint should be made in order to exchange the product into the proper one or get the money back.
4. Poor quality of products. Some customers complain that the ordered goods were characterized by poor quality. It may have happened due to the fact that the store’s offer includes thousands of products from different manufacturers, and it is hard to keep an eye on the quality of all of them. In order to avoid a similar situation, we advise choosing products with positive comments written by some previous buyers. Then, the probability of getting a poor-quality product is lower.
5. Poor customer service. Some customers complain about waiting too long for the response from the customer service of the Lightinthebox store. As a consequence, they issued a negative Lightinthebox review. Unfortunately, it is a common problem, especially among big portals and online stores. There are some periods, especially before Christmas, when such stores need to deal with a big number of orders and e-mail requests. Because of that, they are not able to respond to them in a quick way. One needs to take this fact into account and be patient while waiting for a response.
6. Calculating additional custom taxes for the package. Some customers, especially the ones from the EU, complain about calculating additional fees, i.e. custom tax and VAT. The part of the bad Lightinthebox reviews was associated with it. Unfortunately, it may sometimes happen. It depends on the situation if the customs officer opens and thoroughly controls the package. The Lightinthebox store does not have any influence on the fact if we are charged additional taxes or not. One has to be prepared that they will have to pay some additional costs while ordering products from China.

The problems described and explained above happen in almost every online store. Buyers have to take it into consideration. It is sometimes needed to be patient, however, when one encounters a serious problem, it needs to be solved. Lightinthebox is a reliable store that has many satisfied customers. Therefore, the situation when someone wants to cheat us seems to be rather improbable.

The Lightinthebox store seems to be an interesting alternative for other big stores such as AliExpress and DHgate, especially for customers looking for products such as wedding dresses, clothes, costumes, different accessories, and home/garden products. Although the store’s offer is targeted at retail customers, the entrepreneurs can also sometimes find some interesting products at a low price.

We encourage readers who have ever bought something from the described store to leave Light in the box reviews in the ‘comments’ section.