| Discount | Offer description | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome deal | New User Welcome Deals on Your First Order | Dec 19, 2026 |
| Free Shipping | Free Shipping on Choice Orders | Dec 19, 2026 |
Based on our publishing history, the months with the most AliExpress offers have been December, January, August. In October activity is low.
This chart counts the AliExpress coupons we have published each month, not the store's total discounts. The busiest months tend to be December, January, August.
The United States removed duty-free treatment for low-value parcels — first for goods originating in China and Hong Kong, then for every country of origin — and the $800 allowance that made cross-border marketplaces cheap no longer exists. Every parcel now clears a formal or informal customs entry and is assessed duties, taxes and processing fees regardless of what it cost, and the carrier will not release it until they are paid. That single change reordered the arithmetic on this site: the amount taken off the item is often smaller than the charge added after it, and if the charge is not shown at checkout it lands at the door instead. The number to compare against a US seller is the total on the payment screen, not the crossed-out price on the listing.
This platform runs several discount mechanisms at once, issued by different parties, and they do not live in the same place. Knowing which is which is the difference between one discount and three.
| Layer | Who issues it | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
| Platform promo code | AliExpress itself | The code box in the order summary, before payment |
| Store coupon | The individual seller | The seller's storefront page, not the product page |
| Coins and app rewards | The AliExpress app balance | App only; applied as a credit against the total, never typed as a code |
| Choice programme | AliExpress logistics | The Choice badge; it buys shipping terms and consolidated dispatch, not a lower item price |
| Welcome offer | AliExpress, first order only | Bound to a genuinely new account, and it replaces the platform code rather than adding to it |
The Free Return service is the most valuable and least understood thing on this platform, and unlike most of it the terms are published in full. A participating product can go back within 15 calendar days counted from the moment receipt is confirmed — by you, or automatically by the system if you never confirm it. Return shipping under that service is borne by the participating seller through a prepaid label. If you are sending several things back from one order you can be issued up to three prepaid labels for it, and the service is capped at three occasions per month per buyer, which is the limit that quietly ends a run of returns.
The condition bar is real and it is written down. The item must keep its original quality and function, arrive unused and undamaged with the accessories complete, and still carry its original packaging, its safety seals and its anti-counterfeiting marks unscraped. Reasonable inspection is allowed; anything that has lost significant value through use falls out of the service. Everything the Free Return service does not cover runs on Buyer Protection instead — the dispute you open from the order when a parcel never lands or does not match its description — and there the outcome is a refund rather than a paid-for return.
Four causes cover almost every failure here. First, scope: a great many codes are select-item codes tied to one seller or one product set, so they are alive but not for your cart. Second, base: a code discounts the item subtotal only, so shipping, tax and the import charge sit outside it, and any minimum spend is measured on that subtotal too — a cart that looks like it clears the threshold with shipping counted does not. Third, account: welcome offers are bound to a first order on a new account and will never appear on an established one. Fourth, storefront: country-specific promotions are normal here, and a code written for another market simply is not recognised on the US storefront. If all four check out and the total still will not move, the last thing to look at is order of operations, because nothing can be applied after payment and there is no retroactive path back.
This platform ignores the American retail calendar and keeps its own. The two genuine peaks are Singles' Day on 11.11 in November — the platform's own Black Friday, which happens to land inside the American one — and the Anniversary Sale in late March. Everything between them is seller-level noise: the same listing changes price because a seller decided to change it, not because a season turned. That makes a different tactic rational here than at a US retailer. Saving a listing and watching it for a fortnight beats waiting for a campaign, because there is no coordinated markdown to wait for.
One seasonal caution is new. Now that every parcel clears customs, November transit runs longer than the listing estimates suggest. If a Singles' Day order has to arrive by a date, order into the front of the window rather than the back of it.
| AliExpress | Temu | eBay | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Window to send something back | 15 calendar days from confirmed receipt, on Free Return listings | 90 days from the date of purchase, shorter on some electronics depending on the seller | 30 calendar days after actual or latest estimated delivery to report the problem |
| Who pays the return | The participating seller, by prepaid label, up to three per order | First return per order free; a shipping fee is deducted from the refund for further returns from that same order | Depends on the seller's stated policy; the guarantee still covers not-as-described |
| What the protection is | Free Return plus Buyer Protection disputes | Platform return policy | Money Back Guarantee, excluding services, digital goods and travel |
| Who you are actually buying from | Independent sellers, largely cross-border | Increasingly consolidated stock | Independent sellers, new and used |
| Where it wins | Components, spare parts, tools and niche hobby stock | Household basics bought in volume | Used, discontinued and collectible items |
When not to buy here: branded electronics at a high ticket. Warranty service at a distance is slow, duty is now assessed on a large declared value, and the two together usually eat whatever the gap was. Cross-check Temu for the same household lines, eBay when the item is used or out of production, and SHEIN if the basket is mostly apparel.
Add everything to the cart, then open the order summary that appears before payment. Paste the string into the promo field there, apply it, and check the figure has dropped before confirming. Once payment is taken the field is gone for that order.
Each one is tested in a live cart before it is published and re-tested in the daily review. Codes that stop working are labelled expired instead of being removed, so you can still see what has recently run on this store.
Move to the next one and, before you pay, open the storefront page of the seller you are buying from. Seller-issued coupons are published there rather than on the product page, and they are the most commonly missed reduction on the platform.
Major credit and debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, all charged in US dollars, plus pay-later options on eligible baskets. The instalment providers set their own minimum order value, which is shown at the payment step rather than in the cart.