How to check if an alias ran successfully in shell scripting?

I have a bash script where I'd like to check if an alias to activate conda runs successfully and if not raise an error. Although script runs without raising an error, none of the echo's get printed. How could I fix it?

My ~/.bashrc file contains

### shortcut to activate installed miniconda2
activate_conda() {
export PATH=$HOME/miniconda2/bin:/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games;
   }
alias activate_conda="activate_conda"

And when I run the following bash script

#!/bin/bash
#Check if activate_conda command runs successfully  

activate_conda
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
   echo "activate_conda was successful"         
   exit 0
else
   echo "activate_conda was not successful. 
         Please check your .bashrc file"                  
   exit 1
fi

#another function to check the same alias  
if activate_conda ; then
  echo "Command succeeded"
else
  echo "Command failed"
fi

script runs but no echo commands get printed. I think above functions are valid for actual build in terminal commands. But I am trying to run an alias as a command.

How to check if a command succeeded?