The popularity of AliExpress and other Chinese trading platforms is growing by leaps and bounds – Russians like a huge range of goods and the opportunity to purchase them cheaper than in their city or in the country as a whole. And this is without taking into account any additional discounts. But shopping can be much more enjoyable if you know how to get the most out of the price. Using all the features of the service, you can really save up to 50% of the initial cost. You just need to know how.
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Discount options on AliExpress
The Chinese online store offers all new and regular customers several public ways to purchase discounted goods. True, it is not difficult to get confused in this variety, and many offers tempting from sellers, upon closer examination, turn out to be not so profitable. So you need to distinguish between those bonuses that the service itself offers and discounts from sellers. The former always work 100%, with the latter, everything is not so simple, and in order not to get into a mess, you need to use the opportunity to monitor prices, which will be discussed below. It will show how honest the salesperson is with you.
Using coupons
This is perhaps the most well-known and proven way to buy cheaper on AliExpress. The marketplace offers several types of discount coupons:
- coupons from the service itself, offered to regular customers. The higher your rating, the greater the discount;
- coupons from sellers. Not everything is so simple here, but large online stores also try to keep customers with discount coupons, however, the conditions for their provision can vary greatly;
- special coupons. A kind of discounts provided not for a specific product, but for the entire order, provided that its total cost exceeds a certain threshold.
Using promo codes
Another common type of discounts that allows you to buy a product on AliExpress for less than the stated price. Promotional codes can be provided by both the service and the sellers. Most often, promotional codes are distributed in connection with some important event – a holiday, a sale.
Both promotional codes and coupons have a specific expiration date and are provided under certain conditions.
Cashback services
The term “cashback” means a refund of part of the money for a purchase, usually for this you need to register on the website of a service that provides a similar service, and then install a browser plug-in. To get the maximum discount using cashback on AliExpress, you need to use the link provided by the cashback service before placing an order, or simply activate the plugin during shopping, pay for the product and receive part of the funds (usually up to 5% of the cost) after a while, from 3 days up to one and a half months.
Simply put, this is a discount that you can use after receiving the goods.
There are many cashback services that differ in the conditions for providing discounts, among which there are proven and reliable ones that have been on the market for a long time (LetyShops, Backit, the cashback size is on average 5-6%), and there are also young services that also strive to become successful ( Cash4Brands, Smarty.Sale, “Promo Codes. No”).
It is rather difficult to unequivocally assert which of them is better, but no one forbids you to install several browser extensions at once in order to compare cashback conditions and choose the best offer for a particular product.
AliExpress sales and promotions
It is certainly nice to get a discount on AliExpress from a seller in the form of promotions or sales, and the AliExpress administration really does a lot in this direction. But now we are not talking about global offers like “Cyber Monday”, but about smaller ones, which you will not learn about from the main page of the service. Yes, the policy of the trading platform is such that in all possible ways it pushes sellers to conduct their own sales, activating the turnover and attracting new customers.
The most common types of sales are:
- seasonal, starting with the onset of the next season (winter-spring-summer-autumn);
- thematic, tied to any important event.
Bonuses provided in the mobile application
In the last decade, there has been a steady trend of migration of users of online stores and online services from stationary PCs and laptops to mobile devices. AliExpress cannot ignore such processes, therefore, smartphone users often receive personal discounts / bonuses available only in the mobile application – they will not be available on the site.
Burning goods
This is another great opportunity to order cheap products on AliExpress.
There is a special section on the website and in the application for such products, which is updated three times a week. You can track new items after 10:00 Moscow time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Last minute offers always have a limited expiration date, so it is important to check this section regularly if you are looking for a specific product.
Personal discount from the seller
Not everyone knows, but you can get a personal discount on a product or even an entire order just by talking to the seller. How to ask for such a discount on AliExpress? Add the product to the cart, but do not place an order, but write to the seller in private messages with a request to provide a discount, and in return promise that you will bring new customers or leave a lengthy laudatory review. The specific decision will be made depending on how convincing you are. Much also depends on the previous history of cooperation with this online store.
Product price monitoring
The market is a dynamics, price changes are absolutely natural here. The balance of supply and demand strongly influences the pricing policy, and it is also unstable. Therefore, it is so important to know the trends in the category of products that are of interest to you at the moment.
But how can you find the cheapest product on AliExpress using knowledge of price fluctuations? Using specialized browser extensions. Take, for example, the already mentioned LetyShops. In addition to the actual provision of cashback, the plugin allows you to track the dynamics of the cost of a particular product over the past 30 days and draw appropriate conclusions about the advisability of making a purchase at a given time.
Approximately the same opportunities to search for cheap goods are provided by the Backit plugin, with which you can easily study the schedule of changes in prices for goods from a particular seller. This means that you will be able to navigate the true cost of the goods and even predict possible price drops.
Wholesale price
Discounts based on the amount of purchased goods is a very common practice for sellers from AliExpress. Many products here have a special label with the designation of the wholesale price, by hovering over which you can find out more details about the wholesale discounts. True, in this case, you can only purchase the same type of product (color, size, specifications, equipment), and this is an obvious disadvantage for buyers.
However, it is not forbidden to contact the seller and discuss the details of ordering – perhaps you will be able to agree on a complete set of several small wholesale lots with different characteristics.
Note that each category of goods is characterized by its own set of filters, but if there is a quantitative indicator in it, indicate the minimum quantity that you are ready to purchase, and you will receive a list with wholesale price tags, which is very convenient.
Another point to consider is customs regulations. For small orders, as a rule, restrictions do not apply, but medium and large wholesale can cost you a lot precisely because of the customs fees. The party may also be banned, so it is worth studying the list of goods, the import of which into our country is prohibited.
And finally, learn the most important rule – whatever the discounts from the seller, you should pay for wholesale goods only through AliExpress – your transaction in this case will be protected, and the chances of becoming a victim of an unscrupulous seller will be minimized.
Other ways to save
AliExpress offers many great shopping opportunities, and some of them are not documented anywhere. This is done in order to reward only the most active buyers. Let’s consider how to search for cheaper products on AliExpress:
- Experienced buyers claim that if you actively promote sellers or specific products on social networks, then there is a high chance of getting a reward in the form of a discount coupon;
- you will also earn points for helping with the translation, which can be converted into coupons. So if you speak good English, do not hesitate to offer your translation services;
- for registered newbie users there is an opportunity to get a coupon for $ 50. To do this, you need to participate in the Fan AliExpress contest. It’s not difficult – you need to praise AliExpress on a wishlist, preferably in an original way, and then take a selfie with this sheet. The top 10 commendations weekly are rewarded with the mentioned coupon;
- everyone who installs a mobile application on their smartphone is automatically entitled to a coupon for $ 4. Do not forget that the price tags here are not much, but still lower. And the number of shares in the application is noticeably greater than on the website;
- few people know that you can get a coupon just by having a good time. Indeed, there are games where points are awarded as a reward, which can be exchanged for a coupon;
- most Russians pay for purchases with a bank card, which must be linked to their account. In the meantime, AliExpress has acquired its own payment system, AliPay, after registering with which you will receive a $ 8 coupon. And only here you can, if necessary, untie the card from your account;
- holders of the “Kukuruza” card get an additional opportunity to save 5% of the cost on each item, plus use cashback from ePN;
- the card from the Tinkoff bank also allows you to get a discount of 50% of the cost of the goods when making the first purchase. This is a great opportunity to purchase fairly expensive goods at half price.
Of course, we have not listed all the ways to buy on AliExpress at a discount – after all, the number of various promotions, bonuses, contests is also not constant. We hope that now it will be easier for you to navigate this service, and there are more than enough opportunities to save money here.