Aliexpress Tracking Updates Checker

Effortlessly track your AliExpress and Cainiao packages. Get real-time status updates, detailed event history, and shipping information with this powerful web scraping tool. Ideal for monitoring all your orders in one place.

Overview

This Apify Actor allows you to automatically track package statuses from Cainiao (the logistics network for AliExpress) using tracking numbers. It scrapes the official tracking pages to provide the most up-to-date information about your shipments.

Simply provide a list of tracking numbers, and the Actor will return a structured dataset containing the current status, a complete event history, origin/destination countries, and more for each package.

Features

• Track by Tracking Number: Input one or more Cainiao/AliExpress tracking numbers.
• Detailed Event History: Extracts the full list of tracking events, including date, time, and description.
• Key Information: Scrapes the current package status, origin country, and destination country.
• Handles Not Found: Gracefully handles tracking numbers that are not found or invalid.
• Error Handling: Captures a screenshot on error for easy debugging, saving it to the Key-Value Store.
• Proxy Support: Uses Apify's proxy infrastructure for reliable and anonymous scraping.

Input

The Actor requires a JSON input with the following fields:

Field	Type	Description	Required	Default
trackingNumbers	Array<String>	A list of package tracking numbers. Full tracking URLs can also be provided, and the Actor will attempt to extract the number.	Yes (or orderIds)	[]
orderIds	Array<String>	A list of AliExpress order IDs. Note: This feature is not functional, as it requires an active login session which the Actor does not handle. Please use trackingNumbers instead.	No	[]
proxyConfiguration	Object	Standard Apify proxy configuration. Using Residential proxies is highly recommended for best results.	Yes	{ "useApifyProxy": true }
maxConcurrency	Number	The maximum number of pages to process in parallel.	No	2
checkForUpdates	Boolean	Placeholder for a future feature. Not currently used.	No	false
previousDatasetId	String	Placeholder for a future feature. Not currently used.	No	null

Example Input JSON

{
  "trackingNumbers": [
    "LP00123456789012",
    "CN00987654321098"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  },
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}

Output

The results are stored in the Actor's default dataset. Each item represents a single tracking number.

Example Successful Output

{
  "trackingNumber": "LP00123456789012",
  "orderId": null,
  "status": "In transit",
  "events": [
    {
      "date": "2023-10-27 15:30:00",
      "description": "Departed from customs",
      "location": null
    },
    {
      "date": "2023-10-26 11:00:00",
      "description": "Arrived at customs",
      "location": null
    },
    {
      "date": "2023-10-25 08:45:00",
      "description": "Package accepted by carrier",
      "location": null
    }
  ],
  "currentLocation": "Departed from customs",
  "originCountry": "China",
  "destinationCountry": "United States",
  "estimatedDelivery": null,
  "carrier": "Cainiao/AliExpress",
  "scrapedAt": "2023-10-27T18:00:00.000Z"
}

Example Error / Not Found Output

If a tracking number is not found or an error occurs during scraping, the output will look like this:

{
  "trackingNumber": "INVALID12345",
  "orderId": null,
  "status": "Sorry, we can't find any orders with this tracking number.",
  "events": [
    {
      "date": "2023-10-27",
      "description": "Sorry, we can't find any orders with this tracking number.",
      "location": null
    }
  ],
  "currentLocation": "Sorry, we can't find any orders with this tracking number.",
  "originCountry": null,
  "destinationCountry": null,
  "estimatedDelivery": null,
  "carrier": "Cainiao/AliExpress",
  "scrapedAt": "2023-10-27T18:01:00.000Z"
}

Or, in case of a critical failure:

{
  "trackingNumber": "LP00123456789012",
  "orderId": null,
  "error": "Scraping failed: Timeout waiting for selector [class*=\"detail--contentWrapper\"]",
  "scrapedAt": "2023-10-27T18:02:00.000Z"
}

In this case, a screenshot of the page will be saved to the Key-Value Store for debugging.

How to Use

1. Go to the Actor's page in the Apify Console.
2. Click the "Try for free" button (or "Start" if you have already added it).
3. In the Input tab, provide your list of tracking numbers in the JSON editor.
4. Configure your proxy settings. It is strongly recommended to use Residential proxies for the best chance of success.
5. Click Start and wait for the run to finish.
6. Once finished, you can view and download your results from the Dataset tab.

Known Limitations

• Order ID Tracking: Tracking via orderId is not supported. This functionality requires logging into an AliExpress account, which this Actor does not do. Please use trackingNumbers only.
• Estimated Delivery: The estimatedDelivery field is not currently scraped and will always be null.
• Site Changes: The scraper relies on the page structure of the target tracking website. If the website's layout changes, the Actor may need to be updated.