ALIEXPRESS, the global e-commerce platform of Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba, warned customers that there may be some delivery delays due to the coronavirus outbreak.

AliExpress is one of the most downloaded shopping apps globally, part of a growing e-commerce trend in which consumers worldwide buy goods such as mobile phones, vacuum cleaners and dresses directly from manufacturers, mostly based in China.

“Some shipping and logistics are experiencing longer waiting times for processing orders,” it said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

Unlike Alibaba’s Tmall or Taobao, which target the domestic market, AliExpress primarily caters to international buyers.

Alibaba is pushing outside of China through divisions such as AliExpress to compensate for slowing economic growth at home and rising competition from the likes of JD.com.

Launched in 2010, AliExpress is particularly popular in Russia, the United States, Brazil, Spain and France, selling items such as jeans for US$12.41 and wireless headphones for US $6.64. It had more than 79 million annual active consumers in the year ending Aug. 31, 2019, according to Alibaba’s website.

Customers complained Tuesday that orders were not only taking a long time to arrive but were being automatically renewed, instead of being cancelled and refunded.

“It doesn’t inspire confidence that they renew your order forever and you can’t stop it,” said Monika Hendry, originally from Poland, who spent about US$10 on a mobile phone holder Jan. 17 on the site.

AliExpress said Tuesday it was constantly monitoring the situation.

“Some deliveries may be affected but we are working hard to support our sellers in this difficult time while minimizing any inconvenience to our customers,” the company said.

Alibaba Group warned in February of a drop in revenue at its key e-commerce businesses as the coronavirus sweeping China hit supply chains and deliveries.(SD-Agencies)