AliExpress Making It Harder to Get Single Item Free Shipping

watwatwat on 11/04/2024 - 23:41

So.. search for many things and almost everything is "Choice", meaning shipping is $1.99 unless you pick 3 items to get free shipping/order over $10 usd or whatever.

This must be their attempt to try and compete with temu?

It's annoying because the site doesn't even allow you to search for non-Choice items. You can either search for free shipping, Choice or do not select either. And all 3 options pretty much show the same search results.

Unrelated but I've noticed aliexpress website being glitchy with search over the last 2 years. And now that temu postage is really fast compared to aliexpress…. maybe aliexpress is starting to lose competitive edge compared to temu…..

Electrical & Electronics

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Comments

  • Clear on 11/04/2024 - 23:59

    Choice existed long before Temu became popular in Australia. I find that the Temu shipping is slower by 1-3 weeks than AliExpress, however with $5 compensation for every late order from Temu I don't mind. Too bad they just don't stock the brands like AliExpress do.

    • watwatwat on 12/04/2024 - 00:04
      +2

      Choice existed but only now am I noticing that you pretty much are forced to use Choice for some product categories.

      Temu shipping is slower by 1-3 weeks than AliExpress

      Eh. Most of my aliexpress orders take a month. Most temu comes in a week.

      • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 00:07

        If your Choice orders were taking a month you can claim compensation as they have delivery guarantees. They're being fulfilled by AliExpress in their distribution warehouses much like how Amazon does. Unlike non Choice that ship directly from the seller.

        Temu gets a plus for no minimum spend on orders (assuming you turn the min spend off).

        • watwatwat on 12/04/2024 - 00:34

          I'm saying that my non-Choice orders are a month. I don't use Choice much.

          But if aliexpress seem to be forcing more Choice now than ever before.

          • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 08:28

            @watwatwat: So everything is normal then? If you're choosing products with standard shipping you're going to get standard shipping.

            • watwatwat on 12/04/2024 - 10:37

              @Clear: You don't seem to understand the point of this thread, which is "AliExpress Making It Harder to Get Single Item Free Shipping", via forcing Choice options.

              • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 11:07

                @watwatwat: I use the app and see a mix of Choice and non-Choice products. You are right that you can't filter out Choice items. I guess we use AliExpress differently as I always order a few things above US$10 instead of random individual orders.

  • DASHCAM NOW DUDE on 12/04/2024 - 00:09
    +3

    You just need to spend at least $15 on "Choice" items for free shipping. Not 3 items.

    For the stuff I buy, electronics, Temu doesn't even come close.

    • CodeXD on 12/04/2024 - 11:54
      +1

      Aliexpress has buy 3 items from US $2.99 where you can pick 3 items from the list and you get free shipping. However, you cannot combine this with normal choice items to get overall free shipping as it is a separate cart to your aliexpress cart.

    • ankti231 on 12/04/2024 - 14:35
      +2

      When you use Aliexpress for things that cost $1.50 being forced to spend $15 is quite annoying

      • CodeXD on 12/04/2024 - 15:21
        +1

        I agree.

        The worst part is aliexpress has choice items, but also have choice "buy now" items, and choice "buy 3 items" items.

        You can only have 1 set of choice items per order.

        The buy now items are the super deals where there is only 'buy now', you cannot add it to cart which means if item doesn't reach free shipping threshold, you will need to pay for shipping, even if your cart is $10 USD+ of choice items.

        • altomic on 12/04/2024 - 15:47
          +1

          Some choice items allow multiples of the same item (a recent change)

          • CodeXD on 12/04/2024 - 16:42

            @altomic: I see you are referring to the choice "buy 3 items" items, which I admit is a nice change but ultimately, I wish the choice items can be grouped together.

            If I am buying choice super deal item that already comes with free delivery due to the cost and I want to add $2 of choice item just by browsing aliexpress, the two choice items I have selected should stack and get free shipping when I check out with both. Or even just multiple choice super deal items that, there is also no option for that.

  • Lemond1977 on 12/04/2024 - 06:46
    +1

    Aliexpress hss a greater selection of product to choose from, however takes a few days longer than Temu delivery wise. Also need to be caseful you get what you ordered from Aliexpress lots of dodgy sellers selling fakes or product not matching decription

  • tanksinatra on 12/04/2024 - 09:36
    +1

    search for many things and almost everything is "Choice", meaning shipping is $1.99 unless you pick 3 items to get free shipping/order over $10 usd or whatever.
    It's annoying because the site doesn't even allow you to search for non-Choice items. You can either search for free shipping, Choice or do not select either. And all 3 options pretty much show the same search results.

    I've noticed this change too. Now when you select 'free shipping' you only seem to get "Choice" results which are $2.99 shipping. That is NOT free shipping (unless your order exceeds $15).
    It feels like aliexpress are taking the piss at this point. Their search results are misleading or at worst fradulent.

    • watwatwat on 12/04/2024 - 10:39
      +3

      That is NOT free shipping (unless your order exceeds $15).
      It feels like aliexpress are taking the piss at this point.

      Yeah, my thoughts, too.

      And the inability to rank search results is annoying. They have some architectural/website problem where search a phrase and then try to rank by Sales, it can return limited results or no results at all.

      And then the lesser annoying thing (common amongst many of these types of sites) where they advertise fake prices on the search results page. ie. if I am selling a camera for $1000, then also sell a "lens cleaning cloth" for $0.05. And then on the search results page it shows a camera photo, camera description, with price of $0.05.

    • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 11:12

      It feels like aliexpress are taking the piss at this point.

      If they made the shipping "free" and put the shipping price into the product price people would be buying in an instant, like a lot of other stores. Choice was introduced in response to COVID where everything sent through China and Singapore Post without tracking was getting stuck for months.

      With Choice you have a 14 day delivery guarantee. Meet the US$10 minimum spend or pay US$1.99 for the faster shipping with tracking - it's not unreasonable. The exception to this is some "Super Deals" where the shipping is waived, i.e. this deal where I ordered on the 3rd and received it today. Since I don't live somewhere considered to be "metro", 8 business days from China is pretty damn impressive.

      Auspost can't match that with their standard delivery.

      • watwatwat on 12/04/2024 - 11:17

        "it's not unreasonable" - ok…. if I want to buy one USB cable, now I need to make a bigger order of other random junk or pay $2 shipping on top.

        And then there is the problem that aliexpress adds on GST at checkout, whereas temu includes it in the listing prices.

        • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 11:21
          -1

          Yes that's my point, pay US$1.99 for faster shipping or find one that's not Choice and wait a month or 2 for shipping. An easier way of finding non-Choice for you is to go an actual store page for a brand, i.e. Baseus and browse from there.

          • watwatwat on 12/04/2024 - 11:42
            -1

            @Clear: I have now gone in to ozbargain settings and blocked comments from you because you struggle too much to understand this thread. Goodnight, sweet prince.

            • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 11:50

              @watwatwat: I gave you the answer on how to find non-Choice items. If you don't like the answer there's no need to sook about it.

        • altomic on 12/04/2024 - 11:51
          +1

          Aliexpress - " here are the conditions for buying stuff from us"
          Watwatwat - "that doesnt allign with my heightened expectations!! Why arent they making it the way i want?!?!?! This is crap".

      • tanksinatra on 12/04/2024 - 11:44
        -1

        I don't want 'Choice'. I don't want a '14 day delivery guarantee'. I just want free shipping. I don't care how long it takes.

        • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 11:55

          Then don't buy from Choice. One method I suggested that caused watwatwat to have a big sook is that you can go onto individual store pages and search there. Like Baseus, Toocki, Orico, Cabletime and other established brands. Infact you'll often find store coupon codes on their homepage that you can use.

          • tanksinatra on 12/04/2024 - 12:44
            -1

            @Clear: But that's the problem. When you search for 'free shipping' most/all of your results are not free shipping.
            Don't you think it's a bit unethical?

            • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 12:52

              @tanksinatra: Unfortunately that's how it is with them wanting everyone to go Choice. There's no real way around it.

              • tanksinatra on 12/04/2024 - 13:14
                +1

                @Clear: Regardless of what they want, they shouldn't be listing paid shipping items when the user selects free shipping. That is dishonest.

                • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 13:57

                  @tanksinatra: How would we resolve this?

                  • tanksinatra on 13/04/2024 - 10:11

                    @Clear: All I can do is call out AliExpress's bad behaviour. Otherwise I just don't know.

  • Youfah Mizzum on 12/04/2024 - 09:55
    +2

    I've noticed aliexpress website being glitchy with search

    Yep, same and many others report similar also.
    I was searching for something yesterday and although a few matching items were scattered in the first page, there was plenty of utterly unrelated items. Finally found what I was after about 9 or 10 pages in. Frustrating.
    I don't understand the logic…by frustrating your customers you're just pushing them away.

    • kmwa on 12/04/2024 - 15:05
      +1

      Agree, I find that the first page of results match the search term, but often, subsequent pages are filled with items that I've previously bought or searched for.
      I can sometimes get a better set of results by pasting the search URL into a Private Window, where the results are not contaminated with my cookies or my previous order history.

  • altomic on 12/04/2024 - 09:58
    +5

    As a long term aliexpress buyer (1500 orders over 12 years) im frustrated with aliexpress's increasingly crap search function.

    Not only have they visibly removed many advanved search options (they are still there but you have to enter them by the URL) , but the search resulta are crap e.g. if you enter a part number then it throws up copious amounts of random unrelated crap. It's frustrating.

    Nowadays I enter a similar general item name , and then trawl through buckets of shit to find a roughly similar item, then click on that and open the product page, and then scroll down to "more like this item".

    Delivery - for certain items e.g. choice, it has improved dramatically. I used to wait 4 - 6 weeks (if not longer) for virtually all orders. I recently had a pair of headphones artive within 72 hours. You just have to pay attention to what the item description says for delivery time.

  • CodeXD on 12/04/2024 - 11:52

    This must be their attempt to try and compete with temu?

    Temu is $35 AUD before you can checkout lol

    • Clear on 12/04/2024 - 12:22
      +2

      Go to live chat, type remove shipping limit and then you'll be able to order with no minimum spend.

      Too bad OP won't be able to see this hack for cheap phone cables with free shipping :(

      • MeesusEff on 12/04/2024 - 20:42

        It wouldn't give me the coupon when I had about $28-30 in the cart. But it did when I had $5. I don't know if it's permanent but I've done a few orders since then under $9 and they all had free shipping without me asking

    • kmwa on 12/04/2024 - 15:08
      +4

      I leave my Temu orders sitting in the checkout overnight, and come back to it, and often find that the free shipping has kicked in at a lower level.

  • MeesusEff on 12/04/2024 - 20:43
    +1

    I used to prefer AE over Temu as I found it cheaper but it's hard to find free shipping on AE now. And I did order some free shipping stuff that never got delivered, so just went to Temu for the convenience

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