Guide to buying on AliExpress: how it works, what you should know and how to find the best deals

Buying on AliExpress is something more and more common, and this Asian store is very strong in the online commerce sector in Spain, one of the markets where it feels strongest in recent years.

That is why many new users are encouraged to explore your store, either in the web version or from the mobile application, and that is where some unavoidable doubts arise.

In this AliExpress buying guide we solve them all, such as how long a shipment takes, if it has any cost or if it is safe to buy in this store, which in many cases may not convey the same image of trust as other options, something that is not always justified.

What is clear is that depending on what you want to buy, you can save quite a bit, particularly if you don’t mind waiting too long for a shipment to arrive from China.

AliExpress or AliExpress Squares: differences and similarities

AliExpress has had its own version with a warehouse in Spain for several years, called Plaza.

What are the differences? First of all there is one and it is the shipping speed, since deliveries of your purchases in Plaza are much faster, usually within 2-3 days through national delivery deliveries such as DHL or Glovo.

In addition, as they are products that are sold in Spain and from Spain, AliExpress Plaza does cover a three-year guarantee for its sales, as established by law in our country, and that is very important in large purchases.

On the contrary, in the end it is still a purchase in the same store, only with different conditions. Everything is done through the same website or application, with the same procedures when claiming returns and refunds.

That also has its advantages, and that is that the coupons (so ubiquitous in this store) can be applied in Plaza, although they are usually different and specific discount codes for the Spanish edition.

In Plaza you also have 15 days for any change or return, something that undoubtedly provides peace of mind when buying.

It is one of the ways that the store has to catch up with what is usual in electronic commerce in Spain.

Are the shipments free? How much they cost?

Usually the shipments are free, although not always, beware. There are some sellers who use a very annoying trick that you should watch out for: sell a product at a rock-bottom cost and charge the difference in shipping costs.

That’s why you should always look at the shipping field, which tells you how much delivery is going to cost (and whether it’s free or not) as well as roughly how long you can expect to receive your package.

In Plaza, delivery is always shown in 3-5 days, the terms that are handled in direct sales from the Spanish warehouse.

You can also filter when searching for a product on your app or website to see only those that have free shipping.

The guarantee of purchases on AliExpress and customs taxes, two of the great fears

When you buy products from China, the only real guarantee you have is that the seller wants to return your money so as not to have a negative review on their page. It is the harsh reality, something that is not the case when you choose to buy at Plaza.

In the Spanish edition you do have, as we mentioned above, the three-year guarantee that marks the law in Spain, the same as if you bought in any other physical store.

In addition, there is another key issue when buying on AliExpress: customs surcharges, which are gradually becoming more common in shipments from China and that can represent a significant amount in products of several hundred euros.

The best thing is that if you are going to buy a mobile phone, a computer or a scooter, do it in AliExpress Plaza to avoid scares, since you never know what purchases are going to be checked upon arrival in Spain.

What is a dispute and how to get a refund

What to do if you are not satisfied with your order? Whether it is because it has not arrived, it has arrived in poor condition or it is not what you had ordered, the solution is always to open a dispute.

As its name suggests, you have to dispute with the seller to get your money back. Sometimes you have to repackage and return the product and sometimes you don’t.

The operation is as follows:

• You open a dispute, present evidence to support your claim, and request a refund
• The seller makes you a proposal for a full or partial refund
• You can accept it or request mediation from the store
• AliExpress resolves in your favor or in favor of the seller
• you get the refund

Normally these disputes do not take too many days to resolve and usually do so in favor of the user at least partially.

Is it safe to buy on AliExpress? How do I know if I can trust the seller?

As in any other marketplace-type store (with sellers who upload their catalogues), there are distributors on AliExpress that are trustworthy and others that are not.

It has to be said that most are totally legitimate and comply with what was promised, and that is that when they receive several negative reviews or complaints, the store proceeds to close the store immediately.

It is something similar to what happens in Amazon, which also has thousands of external sellers in its marketplace.

The best way to tell if an AliExpress seller is trustworthy is to see how many reviews and ratings they have.. If they are many and positive, you can buy without problems or fear.

To do this you just have to go to a product in your store and scroll down the screen until you reach an area like the one seen in the image above this paragraph. There you can see what percentage of user reviews are positive.

Another way is, when doing a search on the app or web, sort the results by the number of sales. Normally, the ones with the most sales are at the top, which come from sellers with many years behind them in AliExpress.

How to know how much a product really costs

There is something that is usually quite annoying for some users, and that is that several prices are displayed at the same time on the same product page.

Why is this happening? There are several reasons why the final cost may vary, and that is why there are several different ones:

• You must choose the color or version of the product you want to buy
• Then select where you want it to be sent from
• Now the final price will be shown
• It is possible that the price that will be on offer in a few days will be shown in the upper area

In this way you will be able to know exactly how much your purchase is going to cost, although you also have the option of reducing the price a little more with the famous AliExpress discount coupons, which are neither more nor less codes that reduce the amount in the cart.

How to find the best deals on AliExpress

In many cases, the number of products and prices that this online store has can be overwhelming. As soon as you open its application, you are struck by dozens of devices, prices and bargains of all kinds.

To find the best bargains on AliExpress, there are several tricks. The first thing we would recommend is that you join our offers channels on Telegram, in which we share all kinds of discounts from online stores in real time:

In them you can passively receive offers on products that interest you without having to dive into the huge AliExpress catalog.

Another way to get to the best discounts is to go directly to that section on the main page. It changes its name and form, but it is always there, whether as mega-bargains, super discounts or any other variant of the same name.

Discount coupons: where to find them

We now turn to the key to getting the best prices on AliExpress, such as its discount coupons.

There are several types: the codes that you apply in the cart and the discounts that sellers and stores offer directly.

Seconds can be found very easily. You just have to go to the product you want to buy and click on the coupon section. There you will see all the ones offered by the seller and by clicking on them you will automatically add them to your account.

Then you only have to process the purchase, since the discount that the seller offers will automatically be applied.

In the image that we inserted above you can see an example, a device and where exactly to find the section of seller coupons, which are usually conditional on spending at least an amount before they can be applied.

AliExpress coupons: how to apply them

Once a discount code has fallen into your hands, the way to apply it is quite simple. You just have to add a product to your cart and then go to the section Promotional code.

There you must copy and paste or enter the coupon by hand and then click To use. The discount will be automatically applied and the final price will be reflected.

Of course, you should make sure that the code has been applied correctly, although many of them have a limited number of uses or it may simply have already expired.