Online shopping has steadily risen in popularity over the years, giving shoppers everywhere the chance to find better deals for better prices. There are countless websites advertising their low prices and shipping costs, but none of them compare to the deals offered by Aliexpress, a wholesale products website similar to Ebay or Amazon with many different sellers offering their products – only a lot of them are based in China. It’s a diamond in the rough —almost all the products offer little to free shipping. The website offers a variety of clothes, accessories, and make-up but is still relatively unknown. There is a catch, though—you need to know your way around the site to avoid scams or low quality products to find awesome stuff.
1. Make an account
This is pretty basic, but surprisingly overlooked by many users. Signing-in gives you access to your purchase history, a live chat with the vendors whose products you’re interested in, and recommended items or notifications of huge site sales where often all the products on the site are 10-30 percent off. You can either sign in with an email address or connect it to Facebook. It seems simple, but don’t skip it!
2. Know What You’re Looking For, Then Dig in
A lot of cute things are available on Aliexpress, but sometimes they’re hard to find among the huge amounts of products offered. The search system makes this simpler when you click “highest rated” or “cheapest to priciest”, but if you make a search entry too wordy, you might not get what you’re looking for. For example, when looking for a prom dress, don’t write the designer, cut, design number and other details you might have all in one go. Just look up something like “red dress” or even just “prom dress”. Anything—watches, necklaces, phone cases, headphones, stickers, the Naked palette—can be found on here, but look up the simplest terms possible before getting to specifics. Most vendors tag their items with long descriptions that try to touch on lots of basic search entries people make, not specific brands unless they’re super popular. So if you don’t find something on your first try, keep going and find ways to pinpoint what you want without overcomplicating things.
3. Be Wary
Not all items on Aliexpress are equal. Some vendors, like ones on any online site, might take advantage of the website’s reputation for a variety of items at incredibly low prices and send you junk or just not send you anything at all. Although the website has measures to protect you in the case of this happening, it’s better to avoid it altogether. Stick to vendors with a 90-100% satisfaction rate and tons of good reviews, like this great example above (those diamonds mean the vendor has 2,000 to 5,000 reviews on their site!) You can read the comments people leave on the products a vendor offers and also check to see how long the person has been on the site. Watch out for those who have only had their store for weeks or a few months—some like to scam users and then delete their accounts quickly to avoid being reported and restart their feedback rating. All in all, be careful and you’ll be fine!
4. Be Patient
As mentioned before, a lot of vendors on Aliexpress are situated in China. Some items, like prom dresses or jewelry, might even be homemade. Expect to wait more than a couple of weeks for products to arrive. It varies—once I got something I ordered in only two weeks, another took close to a month and a half. Just make sure you plan accordingly if anything should take too long and check out estimated times vendors give on their products for an idea of how long it might take.
5. Happy Shopping!
If you can think of it, Aliexpress probably has it! Follow all of these steps, look thoroughly for the best and highest rated product, and order away. Prices are generally much lower than prices on other websites, and there are multitudes of great deals to be found. If you’re dedicated and mindful, you’ll have a great experience. Have fun!