Alimaniac is here to help you shop in China. There is a lot of rules and advices for shopping on Aliexpress.com, which we summarized into clear articles, videos and tutorials.
What is Aliexpress?
We are big Aliexpress fans, that already made more than 10 000 orders. We have lot of experience with how Aliexpress works, what is good to buy there and what to be careful about. There are 100 million products on Aliexpress! To help you orientate in it, we show you on our website a selection of the best products and sellers divided into clear categories . You can even search here. To make shopping as easy as possible, we prepared for you guides for registration, product search, merchandising and payment, claiming, product information orientation and more. Frequently we also add articles about shopping in China, Christmas or Easter shopping tips, electronics reviews, fashion, accessories or brand clothes. Our website is suitable for beginners as well as experienced shoppers.
Shopping in China
There is nothing difficult about shopping on Aliexpress. Have you ever bought something in an e-shop? If the answer is yes, this is very similar.
Aliexpress Superstar – extension to browser
We recommend that every buyer starts using the browser helper called Ali Superstar. It’s already used by more than 10 000 users. Installing and using is, of course, FREE. And what can the extension to browser do? Be sure to read the detailed information in Aliexpress History and Price Comparison article.
★ Compares product prices
★ Shows product pricing history
★ Verifies the seller’s credibility
★ Searchs by pictures
★ References to branded goods
★ Watching a delivery time for you
Look at the video, showing how AliSuperstar works.
What is Aliexpress and why to buy goods there?
Imagine the largest department store that offers clothing, jewelery, accessories for house, kitchen, bathroom, electronics and much more in one place. Aliexpress offers a lot of goods in one place. Often you do not need to buy anything, but when you come to Aliexpress and see the great offer – you need everything! Now you can imagine how Aliexpress department store looks like, and now imagine the individual stores in that house are Aliexpress sellers. Aliexpress is just an intermediary between you and the seller. That is why there are so many products at very low prices.
Shipping costs from China
Many of you may think that China will certainly have expensive shipping costs. The opposite is true. Thanks to subsidies to support Chinese exports, most products have the shipping costs for free or totally minimal. A lot of local sellers realized it already and they sell the overpriced goods from China. See, for example, an article about Wish.com and why not definitely buy goods there. This article shows the true light of these shops and sellers.
First order and payment on Aliexpress
And there you go! You decided to make the first purchase on Aliexpress and you still can not believe how the goods could be so cheap. Do not be afraid, it really is! In a while you’ll find out that a lot of your friends or colleagues are shopping there too. You already have the goods in the shopping cart and all you need is to pay for it. You will need a credit card that has payments over the internet enabled. If the payment cannot be proceeded, check your credit card settings in online banking or contact your bank directly. Paying with the card on Aliexpress is really safe. After payment, you will receive a confirming email. The email will contain information about the order you made and about the payment. At the same time, you will see this information on your account in the order section. It usually takes several hours to confirm your payment. Once the payment is confirmed, the seller’s time to ship the order will start. If you reconsider your order at this time, you can cancel it.
Choice of seller and safe shopping
Aliexpress checks all sellers and terminates cooperation in case of repeated complaints of the customers. If you are unsatisfied with the goods or the delivery time, you can complain about that to Aliexpress. But as the famous proverb says, fortune favors the prepared , we always recommend checking the following:
- Seller rating
- Product rating
- Read reviews of other shoppers
Beware of fraudulent emails that try to look like emails from Aliexpress or PayPal. We have already pointed this out to you in the article Spam emails Aliexpress and PayPal – credit card abuse
Free shipping and delivery time
You have paid for the goods and now you are waiting for the delivery of the package. The most of the sellers have a delivery time of approximately 30 days. But waiting is mostly worth it for the price of the goods. However, most of the goods often arrive much earlier. Sometimes even in 7-14 days. It all depends on the particular Aliexpress seller. Once the seller accepts the payment, they immediately handle the order and send it. Sometimes the order can be delayed by your local post. However, you can track the package.
Disputes on Aliexpress
From our own experience, we feel that reclamations on Aliexpress are faster than in our country. Even the best seller can send you for example a bad size clothing. All you have to do is take a picture of the goods and send a claim to the seller. The money for the goods will be returned to you within a few days, and you can also keep the product you are claiming. We encourage you to read How to open dispute on Aliexpress. However, check the protection time until when it is possible to open a dispute / claim goods.
Assistance with shopping on Aliexpress
Even though our tutorials and articles really include the most important things about shopping on Aliexpress, you can sometimes have a very specific problem. And that’s why a discussion forum is here for you, where your question will be answered. By reading the discussion, you can also learn more useful information. If you like to help others, join the discussion as an assistant. Other buyers will definitely appreciate it.
GearBest
You already know what Aliexpress is and how to shop on it. Now we will introduce you to another great Chinese e-shop that focuses mainly on electronics. It has its own warehouses and is a direct seller of the given goods. So it’s not an intermediary like Aliexpress, and it’s definitely an advantage when you buy electronics. For the most of the products, you automatically receive a 1-2 year warranty. So if you are going to order electronics from China, definitely compare prices with your local stores. You can save lot of money for the same product. We encourage you to read the How to shop at GearBest and see more tutorials and reviews.
We will be happy, if you write your experiences and opinions down to the comments directly under this article.
