To get started on selling your products on the AliExpress Marketplace, you will need to have a AliExpress seller account. If you don't have a AliExpress seller account yet, we advise you to reach out to AliExpress to obtain this. Once you have a AliExpress seller account, you can connect with Channable.
Table of contents
- Preparation
- Create a new connection
- Create the API
- Create your product listings
- Send your product listings to AliExpress
- Check your product listings for errors
Preparation
Before you begin integrating your products from Channable into AliExpress, it's important to understand the process and requirements:
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Existing listings and API management
- No need to erase existing listings: You do not need to delete your existing listings on AliExpress before pushing products from Channable for the first time.
- Clearing the API: Be cautious when clearing the API as it will remove all listings and related data (such as reviews, history, and ratings) for products pushed through the API.
- API token expiry: The API token for AliExpress is valid for one month. You must refresh the token monthly by clicking on 'refresh token' in the connection settings. For more details on how to refresh your API connection, click here.
- Seller eligibility: Currently, only sellers from Spain, France, Italy, China, Turkey, and Russia are eligible to sign up as AliExpress sellers.
- Cost model: AliExpress operates on a cost per sale model, where the commission rate varies between 5% and 8% depending on the product category.
Handling different scenarios
- Existing listing in both AliExpress and Channable: Listings already present on AliExpress and registered in Channable will be synchronized. This allows for the updating of existing listings directly from Channable.
- Existing listing on AliExpress only: Listings that exist on AliExpress but not in Channable will be ignored. These listings cannot be updated through Channable.
- New products in Channable: Products listed in Channable that do not have existing listings on AliExpress will have new listings created. These listings can be regularly updated from Channable.
Step 1: Create a new connection
To create a new AliExpress connection, follow the steps below:
- Begin by navigating to the API page within your project and click on the "+Add new API" button. This action will redirect you to your company's connections page.
- On the connections page, select "+Add a new connection".
- Search for the 'AliExpress' connection by clicking through the pages, after finding the 'AliExpress' connection, provide a label for this new connection.
- Click on "Connect with AliExpress" You will be redirected to AliExpress for the next step. Once redirected, log in using AliExpress credentials.
After successfully logging in, the connection with AliExpress is established and available for use! You will be brought back to the API setup.
Step 2: Create the API
Once back, you have to select your new connection with AliExpress and continue setting up your API.
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Configure API settings:
- Name your API
- Select the language of your API
Note: The language setting is used to pull the business policies (i.e., shipping profile) from your AliExpress account for that specific language/country. - Choose the unique ID per item. (we recommend the 'id' field)
- Create API: Click on "Continue" to create the new AliExpress API.
Step 3: Create your product listings
Follow these steps to set up your channel:
1. Categorize your products
To set up your product data, assign categories to your products.
- AI product categorization: Automatically assigns product categories through our algorithm.
- Manual Categorization: Manually assign product categories with custom rules. You can create detailed filters to map each product to the correct category.
- Uncategorized Items: Products that still need to be reviewed and categorized
2. Set up rules
Rules help you quickly optimize your product data for the marketplace you want to sell on.
- Rule templates: Commonly used rules you can adjust for your use case.
- Rules setup: Set up rules to refine your product data. This can include filtering, modifying, or enhancing data fields to meet marketplace requirements.
3. Build your listings
The Build step is where you configure your product listings to match marketplace requirements. It’s an essential step for getting your products live and avoiding errors.
Mandatory and optional fields:
- Mandatory fields : Required to list your products on this marketplace
- Recommended : Recommended to avoid errors
- Optional : Not required to list
Shared attributes
Shared attributes are the common fields that apply across your products, such as EAN, prices, and titles. This step ensures uniformity in basic product information across your listings.
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Use static or dynamic Values:
- Static values: Fixed values that don’t change (e.g. brand name, manufacturer)
- Dynamic values: Fields that automatically change based on the linked data (e.g. stock, prices)
Category-specific attributes
Category-specific attributes fields that specifically apply to the category for your products .This step helps in fine-tune your listings to meet category requirements for your marketplace.
Fill in attributes that are specific to the selected category (e.g. such size for clothing or dimensions for furniture.)
Learn more about the Build step for marketplaces
4. Check the quality of your set up
The Quality step provides feedback on your channel before you activate it. It highlights mandatory and optional errors to ensure your product data meets requirements to list on the marketplace.
- Solve errors, prioritizing mandatory errors first.
Actions
- View items: See products with specific issues.
- View in build: Redirects to the Build step to map missing information.
- Set categories: Directs to the Categories step to categorize items.
- Show source: Available for ID fields. Directs to the Settings step.
5. Preview before activating
The Preview step displays the attributes you mapped in the Build step, helping you check if everything is configured correctly by providing an overview of your products and potential errors.
Filtering:
- Filter by error: Click the All dropdown and select if you would like to filter to display only products with errors, or products with a specific error.
- Filter by category: Click the All categories dropdown and select the category you want to filter by.
Before you continue:
- Review Shared attributes: Ensure all mandatory shared attributes are filled.
- Review Category-specific attributes: Ensure all mandatory category-specific attributes are filled.
- Check for errors: Correct any red-marked fields.
Additional requirements for AliExpress
The following information is specific to AliExpress, we discuss per tab what you should look out for.
Localized prices:
- Optional step: If no localized prices are set, the existing price fields in the "item" tab will be used by default.
- Configuring localized prices: Allows setting different prices for products based on the country of purchase.
Title & description:
- Language options: Choose the language for the product title and description.
- Field connection: Connect the fields from channable that contain your title and description. This setup ensures that your product information is accurate and tailored to each language market.
Shipping tab
- General shipping information: Include necessary details such as weight, dimensions (length, height, width), and dispatch times.
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Service policy profile:
- Selecting a profile: In Channable, you can automatically select the shipping profile you have configured in AliExpress.
- Enabling profiles: If profiles are not appearing, you may need to activate them within AliExpress.
- Freight template ID: Necessary for defining shipping costs and methods. For more guidance setting up a freight template ID reach out to AliExpress.
Images tab
- Image linking: Link the field(s) in channable that contain your product images. This ensures that the correct images are displayed for each product variant and listing.
Notes on grouped variants
- Item group ID field: This field is used to group multiple variant items under a single listing. For a detailed guide on setting up a grouped variant structure for AliExpress, refer to this article.
- Variant attributes: If configuring grouped variants, set the variant attribute in this tab to ensure variants are correctly grouped and displayed on AliExpress.
Additional information
- Static values and profiles: AliExpress profiles are retrieved as static values. If unable to find them in project fields, navigate back to the static values section to select the appropriate profiles from AliExpress.
Following these guidelines will help you make sure your AliExpress listings are set up correctly and in line with their requirements.
Step 4: Send your product listings to AliExpress
Almost there, your product listings are ready to be sent. If you have not activated your project, go to your project settings on the left-hand side of the screen and click "Activate project".
After, go back to the APIs overview and go to [Your AliExpress API] > Settings, where you activate the API by clicking "Activate API".
Once you have activated the API, navigate back to the API overview and click on the blue "Run now" button to send your product listings to AliExpress.
Step 5: Check your product listings for errors
To check for errors, navigate to the Result page of the API > Errors tab, where you see which product listings have errors. By clicking on the specific error, it will display more information on what is causing the error.