Light in the Box is an online store that sells cheap goods within a wide variety of product categories.
From clothing to home to toys to electronics, this website seems to be a one-stop-shop with super affordable prices.
With such great prices, it’s natural to wonder if this website is legit or worth shopping from. Keep reading our Light in the Box review for everything you need to know before buying from this online retailer!
About Light in the Box
According to their about page, Light in the Box was founded in 2007 and offers their customers a convenient and affordable way to shop for a wide selection of lifestyle products.
Light in the Box is very similar to Aliexpress, Made in China, or DHGate. All of their items are made in China and shipped from China, so shipping can take a while.
They offer a huge variety of products, including (but not limited to) clothing for the entire family, electronics, lighting, wigs, toys, pet supplies, and even furniture.
Shipping & Returns
When shopping from this website, shipping typically takes 1–2 months.
However, they do offer expedited shipping as well, which they claim takes 2–5 business days for processing and another 3–6 business days to arrive.
According to their return policy, they only offer 7-day returns or 14-day returns on women’s swimwear and cases. Returns must be in brand new condition with tags (unworn, unwashed, unused, and unaltered).
There are also quite a few product categories that are final sale, we’ve shared a few of these below. However, we recommend viewing their full list before you decide to buy.
- made-to-order and made-to-measure items
- wedding & party jewelry
- customized items
- swimwear for men, kids, and babies
- lighting products
- faucets (except faucet accessories)
- bodysuits
- lingerie, underwear & socks
- ice skating dresses, pants, and jackets
- all clearance items
They do also have a warranty for items that are damaged or incorrect upon arrival. They offer a 1-year warranty for faucets and most lighting or a 30-day warranty for other products.
It’s also important to note that if you decide to make a return, you have to pay for return shipping to their warehouse in China, which can get expensive.
Light in the Box Reviews
What do real customers think about shopping from this website?
People say it’s not a complete scam, but it is a hit or miss as far as quality goes. Similar to other extremely cheap overseas stores, the quality can be worse than it looks in the photos and sometimes you don’t even receive the same product that you see in the pictures.
Customers also complain about long shipping times. It typically takes at least a month for customers to receive their orders with standard shipping, but some waited 2+ months until they received their items.
That said, it’s a fun place for affordable items that you don’t want to spend a lot of money on. Plus, there are some types of products that are less likely to be of bad quality.
Based on reviews, these seem to be some of the best categories to shop at Light in the Box:
We would avoid buying items where quality is more important like shoes, wedding wear, important electronics (like ceiling light fixtures or phones), garments that you would wear often, and so on.
Overall Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Affordable prices
- Huge selection of items
- 30-day warranty for items that are damaged or incorrect
Cons:
- Quality is a hit or miss
- Everything is super cheap, which can be a sign that items may be made unethically
- Many customers received items that didn’t look like the photos
- Buyer must pay for return shipping to China
- Poor customer service
The Bottomline
Although there are clearly a lot more cons to shopping at this store, you may be enticed by the excellent prices.
As long as you’re aware of the downsides like the hit-or-miss quality and long shipping times, this can be a fun store to shop for certain types of products.
Light in the Box Alternatives
If you don’t think this retailer is a good fit for you, there are other similar options that offer affordable products from overseas.
SheIn
Although most popular for clothing, SheIn also has a wide selection of fun home decor finds and other lifestyle products. Best of all, they offer free returns, which can be relieving since they tend to have a hit-or-miss quality similar to Light in the Box.
Aliexpress
With a very similar website design and a huge variety of products, Aliexpress is another excellent alternative to Light in the Box.
Even better, Aliexpress has the ability for sellers to offer free returns, so you can find a wide variety of products that offer free returns in case you don’t like them.
Wish
Finally, Wish is another online shopping platform with plenty of amazing deals on products that ship from overseas.
They have over 250,000 merchants listed on their platform, so you will have an endless supply of products to shop within nearly any category.
One unique thing about Wish is that their technology learns your shopping preferences. As time goes on, Wish will start to recommend products on your homepage that are the perfect fit.