AliExpress is one of the largest global e-commerce websites. The site has literally every product you can imagine. It is also one of the few sites that offer cheap ways to ship products from China to Kenya.
First things first, why should you shop on AliExpress.com?
AliExpress is a brand of Alibaba.com. Whereas Alibaba is for large quantity purchases (mostly for resell), AliExpress operates like a normal e-commerce website and you can therefore, buy single items at super competitive prices and have them shipped to Kenya.
Shopping
You can choose to shop on AliExpress through the site or the Android/iOS App. The App experience is way better than shopping on the website.
When shopping on AliExpress, it’s important to pay attention to the reviews left by other customer as often this is an accurate representation of the quality of the product and the reputation of the supplier.
Also, spend some extra time comparing prices from different AliExpress vendors as some items might have very wide price ranges.
When shopping for clothing pay some extra attention to the size as it is very common to order a shirt or a dress that won’t fit. Take measurements of the clothing that fits, compare that to the size guide to get the accurate size to order.
When shopping for accessories, pay attention to compatibility. Is the fast charger you bought compatible with your iPhone?
In most instances, you will get what you pay for. When the deal is too good, you are probably going to have quality issues.
Shipping
Alibaba offers two main ways of shipping.
There is the snail mail shipping option where they will deliver to a P.O. Box address. This option is super cheap, but very slow as it might take up to 60 working days for a product to arrive in Kenya. The option works well if you are in no hurry to get the product.
The other option is Express shipping. This option used global logistics providers such as DHL to ship the product to Kenya. It’s normally very fast (less than a week) but can be super expensive and may not make much sense to ship a cheap item using express shipping.
Payment
AliExpress recently started to accept M-Pesa payments for orders. This is probably the best way to pay for your order. Apart from the convenience, the M-Pesa payment option allows you to convert the order value from USD to Ksh and thus you will be able to know exactly how much you need to pay.
The other option is Card payments, card payments work fine, but there are some instances where they might an issue as the price will be quoted in USD and you can’t be sure of the exchange rate that your bank will charge the transaction.
Delivery
AliExpress will notify you when the order is shipped and you will wait for a text message from the postal service to inform you once the order arrives in Kenya.
Some shipping methods offer step by step tracking and thus you will receive an alert once the order is available for pick-up. Shipping methods that offer tracking will often cost a little bit more.
Pick Up
Posta will normally require some form of ID to prove that you are the addressee of the order. The same applies to Express shipping. So, remember to carry your ID/Passport when you go to pick up the order.
Taxation
You might be required to pay a custom fee for certain depending on the value. Customs costs are on average 25% the value of the order.
Therefore, carry some money in order to clear the custom fee at the post office.
Kevin is a tech enthusiast and the lead writer at MobiTrends.co.ke. He has been writing about smartphones and tech related topics since October 2012. About Us | Contact Us
