search-aliexpress

name

search-aliexpress

description

Use when the user wants to search AliExpress for a product from an Israel-based buyer's perspective — returning results priced in ILS, with the AliExpress site set to the Israel channel and Hebrew locale, and with optional filters for Choice, free shipping, 4★+ ratings, and ship-from country (IL / CN / TR). Drives the AliExpress search results page (`https://he.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-<query>.html`) via a visible Playwright browser, applies filters via the validated stable selectors (`aria-label="filterCode:*"` and `aria-label="<ISO-2>"`), and extracts the visible product cards. Trigger phrases — "search aliexpress for X", "find X on aliexpress in ILS", "aliexpress IL search", "aliexpress with ship from israel", "aliexpress choice only".

Search AliExpress (Israel)

Search AliExpress with the site already pinned to the Israel channel, Hebrew locale, and ILS pricing, then optionally apply listing-page filters before returning the visible product cards.

When to use

User wants to find a product on AliExpress and cares about:

• ILS prices (not USD)
• Shipping availability to Israel
• Filtering on Choice / free shipping / 4★+ / ship-from country
• A first-pass shortlist they can hand off to evaluate-listing (downstream skill, not yet built)

Inputs

• query (required) — free-text product query. Hebrew or English both fine.
• filters (optional, any combo):
  • choice: true — Choice/Brand+ products only
  • freeshipping: true — free shipping only
  • rating4plus: true — 4★ & up only
  • premium: true — Premium Quality badge only
  • ship_from: "IL" | "CN" | "TR" | "all" — ship-from country (default: leave alone, i.e. "all")
• max_results (optional, default 20) — how many product cards to return.

Locale & currency setup

The site must render in ILS + Hebrew before scraping. Two cookies on .aliexpress.com control this (validated — see research/cookies/language-and-currency.md):

• aep_usuc_f — set subkeys c_tp=ILS and b_locale=iw_IL
• xman_us_f — set subkeys x_locale=iw_IL and intl_locale=iw_IL

Both are Secure, SameSite=None, not HttpOnly, writable from JS. region=IL and site=isr are already set on Daniel's account and should not be touched.

If the cookies are not present (fresh browser context), navigate to https://he.aliexpress.com/ once and let the site write them, then verify c_tp=ILS before continuing. If currency still shows US $ on the results page, fall back to the on-page currency picker.

Entry point

Search results URL pattern:

https://he.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-<url-encoded-query>.html

Use the he. subdomain (Hebrew). The site honours the cookies regardless, but the he. host is the canonical Israel-Hebrew entry.

Filter application

All selectors below are validated against live DOM (research/ui-selectors/listing-page-filters.md). Class names like il_v, ip_iq, ie_a6 rotate per build — never anchor on those. Always use aria-label.

Filter-row checkboxes

Click the wrapper <span>, not the inner <input>. State is reflected on the wrapper via aria-checked.

Filter	Selector
Free shipping	[aria-label="filterCode:freeshipping"]
Choice	[aria-label="filterCode:choice_atm"]
4★ & up	[aria-label="filterCode:4StarRating"]
Premium Quality	[aria-label="filterCode:PremiumQuality"]

To toggle on:

const el = document.querySelector('[aria-label="filterCode:freeshipping"]');
if (el.getAttribute('aria-checked') !== 'true') el.click();

Ship-from country (radio group)

Single-select. Options on Daniel's IL account: -1 (All) / IL / TR / CN.

document.querySelector('[aria-label="IL"]').click();   // ship from Israel

Read current selection:

document.querySelector('.il_v [aria-checked="true"]').getAttribute('aria-label');

(.il_v is hashed-prefix-stable enough to scope the read; if it rotates, fall back to scoping under the "Shipping from" header by text.)

After toggling any filter, wait for results to re-render (network idle or a short fixed delay) before reading product cards.

Reading product cards

Product cards on the results page do not have a single un-hashed anchor — class names rotate. Use a defensive query:

[...document.querySelectorAll('a[href*="/item/"]')]
  .map(a => ({
    url: a.href,
    title: a.querySelector('[class*="title"], h3, [title]')?.getAttribute('title')
        || a.querySelector('[class*="title"], h3')?.textContent?.trim(),
    priceText: a.querySelector('[class*="price"]')?.textContent?.trim(),
  }))
  .filter(c => c.url && c.title);

Extract:

• url — absolute product URL (de-dup by item id; the same item can appear via multiple ad slots)
• title — product title in Hebrew (since locale is iw_IL)
• priceText — raw price string, expected to start with ₪ since currency is ILS
• badges — read Max Combo / Choice badges from the card if present (Max Combo is a per-card badge, not a server-side filter — see research/ui-selectors/listing-page-filters.md §3)

Parse the price separately; do not assume a fixed format. Common patterns: ₪12.34, ₪1,234.56, range ₪10.00 - ₪25.00.

Output format

Return a structured block:

Query: <query>
Filters: choice=… freeshipping=… rating4plus=… premium=… ship_from=…
Locale verified: c_tp=ILS, b_locale=iw_IL
Results URL: <full URL>
Result count: <N>

1. <title>
   ₪<price>   ship from: <country if visible on card>   badges: [Choice, Max Combo, …]
   <url>

2. …

If currency verification fails (cookies didn't take), report that explicitly and stop — don't return USD prices silently.

Playwright notes

• Use a visible browser. AliExpress is aggressive about anti-bot heuristics and headless contexts get challenged more often.
• Reuse a persistent browser profile if available — the cookies above stick to that profile and you avoid the locale handshake on every run.
• Do not trigger any alert / confirm / prompt dialogs. If a cookie / consent / region modal appears on first visit, dismiss it via its own close button.
• Wait for network idle after each filter toggle; AliExpress re-fetches the result set.
• Hebrew RTL: prefer role/name and aria-label-anchored selectors over positional ones.

Out of scope (for this skill)

• Does not evaluate landed cost (item + shipping + VAT/customs) — that's evaluate-listing.
• Does not compare against local Israeli retailers — that's compare-to-local (deferred until plugin integration).
• Does not track orders.
• Does not log in — assumes the persistent profile is already authenticated if needed; public search works without login.

Validation checklist (before declaring success)

1. Results URL contains he.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-.
2. aep_usuc_f cookie has c_tp=ILS and b_locale=iw_IL.
3. At least one product price string starts with ₪ (or contains ILS).
4. Each requested filter's wrapper has aria-checked="true".
5. Ship-from selection (if requested) matches the requested ISO-2 code.