It is not anymore a secret for the few ones, buying items from China has become easier. Prices are usually cheaper than European retail price, with the only catch to wait around 30 days before receiving our good. One very famous website where I usually purchase online is Aliexpress.com, a child of Alibaba.
In this post, I want to share with you some tips I learned on how to shop cheaper on AliExpress, saving more money and much more
1. Shop on AliExpress using your mobile phone
When you make an order on Aliexpress from their app (either Android or iPhone) you get further discount, usually around 5-10% less than their price for the same item in the desktop version of the website. They do this in order to push their users to become more dependent on the app, so they will check in every day, playing with the Lucky forest to get coins. What is this? I tell you now.
2.Check-in online every day using their App to get coins
AliExpress Mobile App has a reward system based on coins and coupons. When you check-in every 24 hours and go to the Coins & Coupons section you can earn coins based on this activity: Daily Tasks, Lucky Forest, Coins Park. The first days you check-in you start earning few coins till getting up to 16 coins. If you keep checking in you will get 16 coins on each day, but if you forget one day you will start with 1 coin again. So be smart and remember to check-in consistently. You have also to give water to your tree (Lucky forest section). Giving water your coupon tree will grow till you can get a coupon (usually 2 Euro) to use against the purchase of an item.
So, what do you do with the coins? Every day, in the Coupon and Coins section they list products at a discounted price that can be redeemed using the coins. For example, one t-shirt which is priced 10 Euro, can be purchased at 8 Euro + 300 coins. So you can exchange your coins for discounts. This is buying cheaper on AliExpress.
3.Limited free items can be redeemed using only the coins
Every morning at 8:00 AM, AliExpress sells stuff in limited quantity at 0.01 Euro + coins. This means that you could get a chance to get something almost free. I tried several times but it seems the items go out of stock on the zap of flash.
4.Free stuff with no coins, just free in a change of a review
AliExpress has one another section in their App called Freebies & Reviews. There, you can select up to 2 items per day and wait. When the application for free stuff is ended, the seller will usually draw users to send the item free of charge. In change, the lucky winner/s has/have to write an article on AliExpress explaining the product and putting very good images. As you can maybe guess, how does a seller know prior sending the free item that a user will be able to provide a nice article and nice pictures? Exactly.
So here is my tip: Buy few cheap items (3 to 5 Euro) on AliExpress. Take very good pictures and upload in the seller’s feedback section (of your orders). Write something very good. Seller will see that and you might have better chance to get the item free. If you are not lucky with the draw, but you have your own website with good traffic, you can try contact the seller directly (message system) introducing yourself and telling the story. If the item is not too expensive, you might get lucky. In the end, they will get free advertisement.
5.Buy only items with Free Shipping
Not all products come with free shipping. Some of them have expensive shipping cost while other still you have to pay for shipping. Why buy only with free shipping? I tell you why. If the item gets lost in the post, if the item is received broken, you can open a dispute with the seller. Similar to eBay. If you win the dispute, the seller will refund you only the price for the item, not the shipping cost.
Let’s say for example that you buy a ceramic statue at 50 Euro + 10 Euro shipping cost and the item arrives broken. You open a dispute and seller refunds you 50 Euro. Nobody is refunding you the 10 Euro postage cost. So my advice is to choose only free shipping.
6.Buyer protection: 60 days or money back (excluding the shipping)
One reason explained in point 5 is to shop only a free shipping item. This is another reason why you have to do this. AliExpress guarantee you that if you haven’t received your purchase within 60 days (from the date of shipping) you can get your money back. This is not automatic and you have to apply using the Dispute centre.
I hope you enjoyed my post and you could get some new tips you didn’t know about AliExpress. If you have some questions or you want to share a genuine experience (not spam) you are welcome to share using the comment section below.
Donald Piccione is a professional marketeer with over 10 years experience in SEO, PPC and Digital Automation.
Since 2008 he is also the founder and editor of an Irish News website for Italians called Tuttoirlanda.
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