From now on you can order selected products from a logistics center in Israel, and receive them with extremely fast delivery – but there is a but
If there is something that the Israeli consumer likes, it is to buy cheap. And if there is something that the Israeli consumer likes less, it is waiting a long time for his cheap purchases. In an interesting move, Ali Express has started operating a local warehouse in Israel, which will shorten delivery times even more. But just before you go shopping and leave the local stock and appliance store – there are a few important things to remember.
Instead of weeks of waiting, a few days and the product is with you
Ali Express’s local warehouse, which is located as expected in Airport City, offers products delivered in 3-6 business days, and is carried out with the delivery companies we have learned to live with in recent years such as Bar and Cheetah. Ali Express follows the ordering patterns of the Israelis, and offers sellers to send the most popular and most loved products in advance to the warehouse in Israel – thus allowing you to actually offer faster shipping to buyers.
Currently there seems to be quite a bit of disorder in the various stores. You can sort search results according to the location of the shipment from Israel, but the Ali Express system still offers delivery from China first by default – an option quite preferable to the fact that when we transferred the shipment to “From Israel To Israel” we received a shipping fee of 125 shekels for a simple cat toy that goes up NIS 3.63 It might be worth waiting a few more days before going shopping.
What do the young people say on Tiktok? “Whoaaaattttt????”
Until a few years ago, when you would order Ali Express, you would take into account a month or two from the moment of ordering until the product is in the grocery store or the post office closest to your place of residence (and sometimes not even), but a few years ago the Israel Post went out with Ali Express and offered them a system for managing shipments to Israel , which became a very lucrative market for the Chinese giant, which led, among other things, to the consolidation of packages and much shorter delivery times. I was also surprised when a few weeks ago I ordered several items, and I received them in a little less than two weeks.
The move to open the Israeli warehouse of Ali Express was preceded by another move that started several years ago, in which the company opened a warehouse in Cyprus with a similar goal: to shorten the shipping times from China to Israel by keeping an inventory of products that the Israelis order. However, that warehouse held a rather limited stock of products, and the previous moves with the Israel Post had already led to the shortening of delivery times anyway – so it was somewhat unnecessary.
Have your purchases remained the same?
The currently limited stock in the Israeli warehouse is not really the big problem with the new concept of Ali Express in Israel. From a conversation we had with Benny Bohnik, the director of the “That’s what I want” group on Facebook, several interesting issues arise, most of them regulatory: First, if Ali Express is now selling products in Israel, will the Israeli customer be required to pay VAT on the purchase as well? If so, would it still be worthwhile for him to order from the Israeli warehouse, or would it be better for him to wait a few more days or weeks to receive the product from the warehouses in China, or simply order from an Israeli chain?
In addition, Bohnik explains that if Ali Express sells products in Israel, it may be obligated to meet the standards of Israeli importers, which means that it will have to provide you with gadgets with an Israeli plug, Israeli approval documents, support in Hebrew, instruction booklets in Hebrew and other surprises that make it difficult Very much about the importers on a daily basis. From now on, will a purchase from Ali Express still be considered a personal import? Bohnik defines the coming weeks and months as a foot dip for Ali Express, and according to him, it is trying to see how the Israeli customers will react, but also the Israeli regulator, who may wake up following the announcements about the opening of the warehouse, and start forcing it to act according to Israeli law. According to those responses, Ali Express will expand the activity in the warehouse and the product inventory, or it will reduce the activity. In other words, wait before you open the champagne and fantasize about another drop in the cost of living in Israel.
Idan Ben Tovim
Born with a joystick in his hand. He has far too many gadgets and far too little free time to play with them all. Has an unexplained hammer for performing instrument battery calibrations. When he’s not busy writing about technology, he likes to talk about it, and a lot
2 comments
Cheetha and Bar drops your package far away from your home and expect you to go and get it!
It is all a big scam!!! They do not deliver!
Let me choose my delivery method please!
i stopped shopping with Ali Express because they ship with the Israeli company Cheetah, which frequently fails to deliver and has no customer support, and Ali Express takes no responsibility when items don’t arrive. Complained a lot, but Ali Express don’t care.