Why is AliExpress so cheap?

There are a few reasons:

• Amazon is pricey to begin with. For instance here you can get products for as low as $0.10, including shipping!

• Shipping out of China is very, very cheap for a few reasons: volume discounts and government subsidies.

• Most AliExpress sellers are middlemen, getting their items from a large manufacturer, and the things are produced geographically closer to them than they are to you. And these are often the exact same things that you will buy on Amazon – but because there is less people involved = less overhead.

• Sometimes you get quality stuff that is simply overstock. Other times it'll be stuff that didn't pass retailer quality control due to minor issues or products from ‘night runs' made with super cheap materials during factory down time.

BEST DEAL!

New user? Use the code PJQBZTN6 at the checkout (click the purple button below to copy it).

It will give you $4 off a $5+ order!

>> Redeem this offer

New User Offer

New user offers are provided when you create a new account. Typically, it is $2 off a $3+ purchase. If you're just trying out AliExpress for the first time, it's not a bad deal – given the generally low price nature of the website.

We track new user purchases in our affiliate portal as well, and we collected the most common items that people get as a part of their first order. You should see them in this post.

>> Claim this offer

AliExpress Sales (11.11, Black Friday, Anniversary sale)

AliExpress sales are by far the best way to save money. Every year we go through the list of discounts, pick the best ones, post them here and send them to our audience via newsletters (so be sure to subscribe – the form is below).

There is also an odd one here and there, which varies every year, so it's best to subscribe to our newsletter and get notified about them as they happen.

AliExpress Coupons

Another option to save good money on AliExpress during or outside of sales is with using coupons.

There are three types of coupons: Select coupons, Store coupons and AliExpress coupons. The difference between them is described in this post.

AliExpress coupons are the best coupon type out of the three. These ones are provided by AliExpress, and come out of their marketing budget. These coupons are provided from playing games, or by visiting the coupon center. Certain accounts (Platinum and Diamond – depending on how much money you spend annually on AliExpress) have them preloaded to the accounts.

Select coupons are generally a waste of time – the payout is small, and they are not accepted by most sellers.

Store coupons are a loyalty offer from individual stores. Usually, they are available year-round, and “big brand” stores offer special ones for 11.11 and other sales.

‘Value' Deals

Super Value (or Flash) deals are daily offers. This was how I got my first product on AliExpress. They are always different, and you can find them on the main page of the website.

The deals will get better the more interesting the more you browse and buy (your shopping behavior affects them).

>> See today's daily deals

Best AliExpress Finds by Aliholic

We have been around since 2014, and we have posted TONS of great deals from AliExpress. The products are listed in two formats:

Collections are lists of products with a certain common theme. The most popular ones are best-selling lists, under $1 (cheapest items), under $10 (more ‘useful' and gift-worthy products) and geeky items.

Shop Section is a seemingly endless list of great AliExpress finds. You can sort them by categories as well, but I think they are best viewed as a general list – you never know what you will find! We add new products almost every day, so it's definitely worth bookmarking that page.

I also recommend subscribing to the Newsletter – this way you won't miss out on any deals.

We also have a Facebook group with daily deals – many of these products are exclusive to the group and won't be shown on our website.

Best AliExpress price tracker

It's not a secret that prices fluctuate, and sometimes sellers try to inflate them to make a higher profit – but they also need to stay competitive, hence the prices often go up and down.

Price tracker plugins cache the historical prices of items, so that you see how to price trends over time. This will help you buy the products at the best possible price.

AliPrice is the best AliExpress price tracker. It's an extension that will help you save a lot of money, if used correctly.

>> Sign up for AliPrice

Best AliExpress cashback

Cashback offers are extremely simple: you buy using a special link and get a certain % of your money back. It's that simple. People who are not using cashback offers are seriously missing out.

There are many cashback offer sites, and by far the best one is EPN by BackIt. It has 1,000,000+ installs on Android, and many more on iOS and web.

Usually, you will get 5.5 – 12% from each product (and sometimes up to 90%, if you are lucky enough to come across a generous seller).

The signup process for PC/Mac users (non-mobile):

1. Create an account in EPN
2. Install the plugin
3. Open the plugin and click “AliExpress” (or any other store where you plan to shop on)

You need to activate cashback before each time you buy anything on AliExpress!

The process for mobile users is similar:

1. Install the cashback app
2. Create an account
3. Activate the cashback through the app (click on the store icon) each time before you buy anything.

The amount of your cashback is going to be shown in your account. It can be redeemed once it reaches a certain point. Thresholds are listed on the website and depend on the payment method (some are as low as $0.01!)

>> Sign up for EPN by BackIt cashback (Browser extension for PC/Mac users)

>> Sign up for EPN by BackIt cashback (for mobile devices)

This 2020's AliExpress 11:11 sale is expected to be the biggest one yet. The clock is ticking, and the Single's Day shopping festival is getting closer day by day.

If you're new to AliExpress, or haven't heard about the 11.11 sale deals yet, here is an “ELI5” explanation:

• Singles' Day (Chinese: 光棍节) sale is an unofficial holiday event, where the single life is being celebrated for what it is – plenty of disposable income
• Daniel Zhang (CEO of Alibaba group) has declared it November 11 (or 11.11 on the calendar) the day, where the platforms they operate will provide the biggest discounts of the year, and other similar platforms shortly followed the example
• 11.11 Sale has overtaken the dollar amount of goods sold in 2019 has broken $38 Billion USD in 24 hours

In this ULTIMATE ALIEXPRESS 2020 11:11 SHOPPING GUIDE we will cover: how to get the best sale deals, how to save additional money by using coupons, we will show the biggest discount deals, best AliExpress cashback service, and as a bonus: how to save even more money with our special secret weapon 😉

11.11 SALE COUPONS

The easiest way to save money during the 11.11 sale (apart from the existing discounts) are coupons. There are 3 types of coupons on AliExpress:

1. AliExpress coupon
2. Select coupon
3. Store coupon

AliExpress coupons

AliExpress coupons are the best coupon type out of the three.

They are colored in red and have jagged edges. These coupons are provided by AliExpress, and come out of their marketing budget. They apply to the whole order, depending on the total amount. These coupons are provided from playing games, or by visiting the coupon center. Certain accounts (Platinum and Diamond – depending on how much money you spend annually on AliExpress) have them preloaded to the accounts.

You can check if you have any AliExpress coupons here.

Select coupons

Select coupons are half red/half white.

Select coupons are provided by AliExpress, but they are not accepted by all stores. They are mostly useless, as they are only accepted by a small number of stores. These are the type of coupons that can be exchanged for coins from playing games in the coupon center. From my experience, unless you are a hardcore enthusiast, there is really no point wasting time on these. The payout is very small.

You can check your select coupons balance here.

Store coupons

Store coupons are a loyalty / intro offer from individual stores.

These are a hit or miss. If you are buying a lot of things from a single store, definitely check the store page first before paying. Often times they offer 5-10% off the entire order, if the amount reached the threshold (usually $50+). It's definitely better than nothing. Usually, the store coupons are available year-round, however the bigger brand stores offer special ones for 11.11 and other sales.

You can check your store coupon balance here.

CASHBACK APPS

If you are not using cashback apps, you're just leaving the money on the table for the other person to grab. Seriously.

I highly recommend using BackIt by EPN. I've stayed away from using cashback for so long because I didn't trust them, but I've looked more into EPN, and it was surprisingly good.

Cahsback services make money with the affiliate program from AliExpress. It doesn't make the product price more for the buyer, but the more purchases go through the EPN's affiliate account, the more % AliExpress pays them. They keep 1-2% for themselves, and give the rest to the buyer. It's a win-win.

Usually, you will get 5.5 – 12% from each product (and sometimes up to 90%, if you are lucky enough to come across a generous seller).

Cashback offers are activated by either installing the browser extension (for desktop users), or installing the app (for mobile users). Before you buy something you need to activate cashback by clicking the link in the extension or the app. That's it – super simple. One click will give you 3 days of cashback. After 3 days, just click it again.

PRICE TRACKER

AliPrice (or any other price tracker of your choice) saves prices of items before the sale, and you can see the historical graph to verify if the discounted price is real, or if it is artificially inflated to drop on the sale date.

There are a lot of items with fake sale prices. There also are a lot of them with real sale prices.

Be smart. Use caution. Use coupons. Also, use price trackers and cashback apps.

BONUS BUDDIES

Bonus buddies is a program to invite new users to AliExpress. But it works if you just share the link with others, and click other peoples' links. Both parties get a small increase from the link being clicked.

I'm not 100% sure how that makes sense, but I've made $130 from sharing my link. I'm yet to claim the bonus, as the threshold I've selected is $160.

Here is my link, click it and get yours to share with others. 

*Works in the AliExpress app only

BONUS TIP: “SECRET” DEALS LIST 🔥

As an AliExpress affiliate, I got access to the 11.11 biggest discounts product list. 

The list has over a 1000 products, and it is split in 27 categories. The list can be accessed by clicking the link below.

AliExpress sales are a good way to buy products at a discount, but you need to be smart about it – otherwise, it's easy to get caught in a landslide of the seemingly good deals, and be left with 120 orders instead of 12 that you originally wanted. A common question is “how to find coupons to save money on AliExpress?”.

And we will try to answer it in full.

There are a few ways to get additional coupons for the AliExpress 2020 March Anniversary / 11.11 sale.

What is important to know, and what I see people getting confused with is: there are 3 different types of coupons: provided by AliExpress, select coupons and store coupons (I will explain what the difference is below). The best savings are with AliExpress-provided coupons, select ones are okay, and store coupons are the ones you can find everyday.

Types of coupons

I will explain the difference between the coupons. There are three that usually are available during all of AliExpress sales. I've been monitoring them for the last 5 years, and I will tell you what the best ones are.

AliExpress coupons

These are the best types of coupons you can get.

AlIExpress coupons are red with jagged edges. They are provided by AliExpress – the money comes from their promotional budget, and they can be used on any products and in any stores. You can only use one coupon per order. Typically, you get something like $2 off $15, $3 off $30, $5 off $35. Savings are typically around 10-15% off of the order.

You get these coupons before the sale. Below I will explain 3 ways how you can get them.

Select coupons

Select coupons are half-red and half-white. You can find them on top of the coupon center. They can be used only in certain stores that accept them, and in my opinion are mostly useless. Their main goal is to get you to buy more stuff, because the amounts are set according to the item prices.

For example, a store that typically carries $8 merchandise, will offer you a $1 off $10 coupon, which you can only use if you buy 2+ things. Although, if you decided to buy something, it's better to use them than not to 🙂

Store coupons

They are orange with jagged edges. These are regular coupons that you can find on any day, but bigger stores/brands (QCY, KZ, UGREEN – more of them on the bottom of our homepage) sometimes add additional ones for the sale.

Normally they give you an additional ~3-5% off, which again is better than nothing, but are nothing outstanding.

Now let's talk about how you can get coupons.

Coupon center

Coupon center is another way to get coupons for the sale.

There are individual store coupons that are provided based on your shopping and browsing history in Picked For You, and other products that are picked according to the shopping history of users similar to you.

PRO TIP: Add items from the stores that you got coupons from to the cart. This way you won't lose track of the stores that offer coupons.

Exchange coins for coupons

You can exchange coins for select and AliExpress coupons (difference explained here). If you have collected coins in the previous years, they will still be available. Any coupons that you exchanged for coins in the past are available as well.

Sometimes, this page gives you an error. To fix that, you can disable AdBlock, and if that does not help – disable your VPN if you use it.

Click the button below to check your coin and coupon balance.

How to get coins?

You can get coins by adding items to the cart before the sale begins, or by playing games and completing tasks in the app.

Adding items to the cart is the easiest way, but playing games is more fun. This is what the Coins & Coupons looks like inside the app.

Additional ways to save money

I -HIGHLY RECOMMEND- TO use a cashback service like BackIt by EPN (follow the link to register your account). When you make a purchase they promise to return up to 90% of the purchase price, but realistically it's about 5-7% on average, which is still pretty good.

For PC users, you can use cashback through a browser extension.

For mobile users, you can install the app.

This cashback service works with most Chinese E-Commerce marketplaces like AliExpress, GearBest, DHGate, and also with Booking.com and Rentalcars.com.

AliExpress is a relatively well-known global marketplace based in China that offers products to international buyers. Just like almost any other big online retail business, AliExpress has an affiliate program to attract buyers to boost sales on the platform.

This review will cover everything you need to know about the AliExpress affiliate program. You will also learn how this affiliate program stands in comparison to Amazon Associates.

AliExpress Affiliate Program: Is it worth it?

An affiliate program from AliExpress has been around for almost a decade. Just as any other affiliate program, it has its pro's and con's.

Some quick stats:

• Average 3.5% site-wide conversion rate and $140 USD median order
• 600 Million average monthly visitors
• Monthly performance incentives and rewards for attracting new buyers

The main benefit of shopping on AliExpress vs. Amazon for example, is low prices and free (or cheap) shipping to most countries. Since you are buying directly from the suppliers, you can find real bargains on AliExpress. Most products are resold with low profit margins, and sellers make money with the low overheads and high volume of sales. Most things worldwide are already made in China, so the buyers can get them without going through a local – or a more local- importer.

Even though that is what most people buy, AliExpress is not just for cheap products. You can also find higher-end merchandise like electronics, furniture, clothing and household items, and sporting equipment. The key difference is that comparable quality alternatives will often still cost 2-3 times in retail stores.

Biggest roadblock though for many people is the shipping time, with standard freight times between 4 to 6, and in some cases 8 weeks. However, whenever E-Packet shipping is available, it can reduce transit time to about 3 weeks. Some higher-end products come with free DHL/FedEx shipping – this is rare. Most of the time shipping with a courier is available for an extra fee, but usually it is too expensive.

AliExpress Affiliate Program: Commission

There are three main ways to work with AliExpress: their native program, and a third party company, of which there are several options: EPN, Admitad and CJ Affiliates.

I have been using AliExpress official program for several years before switching to Admitad (despite the lower commission rate) and here is why:

Native Affiliate Program Con's:

• No dedicated support. I've had issues with late payouts and issues with the commission structure, and emailed AliExpress Affiliate support team multiple times, but received no reply.
• No payout on Hot Products – these are the best-selling items. People buy a lot of them so they add up, but the official rate on them is 0%. Admitad offers up to 69% on them, and EPN offers up to 70%.
• Commission cap of $50 per product. If someone places a large order for an expensive item (rarely happens, but it does), you can miss out on big payouts. Admitad and EPN pay the full amount.
• Sales records are only kept for 6 months. If you don't download them, they are lost forever.
• Limited payment options. Native program can only pay via bank transfers (they take $15 to complete the transfer, in addition to the fee that your bank may collect). Admitad also has options for PayPal, Payoneer, ePayments, WebMoney and bank card deposits.

The reason I chose Admitad over EPN: their Chrome extension. It lets me build links almost instantly, and they have a ton of other affiliate programs in Admitad Lite: Canva, LinkedIn, Amazon, eBay, etc. Super easy to use, and you can add individual trackers to the links as you create them, so that you can see which link the buyer clicked and what product they bought. This helps a lot with optimizing articles, and with understanding your audience. You can also build links through a Telegram bot.

I have a EPN account as well, that I use whenever Admitad extension is not working (1% of cases) and for their cashback service.

How much money can you make with AliExpress Affiliate Program?

When I started, AliExpress cookie lifetime was 30 days – so as long as someone clicked your affiliate link and made a purchase within 30 days after that on AliExpress, you would get paid. Then they reduced that to 1 day, and then to session-based, which means if the buyer clicked the link, closed the browser, and then opened the website again, you would not get any commission. That created outrage in the affiliate community, and they decided to increase it to 3 days.

I have stepped over $100/month mark approximately 3-4 months in, then it slowed down due to commission structure changes. I kept on creating content, and pages started ranking in Google.

Then as I created more videos and blog posts it slowly went to $1,000 – 2,000 per month, and in peak months (November, March) it sometimes reaches $4,000 – 5,000/month.

After the user makes a purchase, it can take up to 60 days for the commission to process. If the user starts a dispute and AliExpress returns them the money, you do not get paid (that's why there is a Declined commission tab). On average, I'd say I get my payments 45 days later.

How to join AliExpress Affiliate Program?

If you want to join through Admitad (recommended), you can do it here.

If you want to join the native (official) program, visit portals.aliexpress.com. We explained the con's of that program further up. You can login using your buyer AliExpress account, and the application takes a couple minutes to complete.

NOTE: if you use VPN, you might need to turn it off. The affiliate browser extension will still work with it.

How to start making money by promoting your AliExpress Affiliate links?

You can promote your links in a variety of ways – through your own blog, YouTube channel and other forms of social media.

Spamming them is never a good option. It might get you money at first, but it is not sustainable, and your account might get banned. Good things take time, and white-hat SEO is the right way to do it.

You can start an AliExpress shopping group in your language, a YouTube channel is a good way to start as it does not require any upfront costs, but the disadvantage of those is that they can at any time get shut down. When you don't own the platform, you have limited control. I have the YouTube channel, and Facebook/Instagram accounts. They are great for keeping in touch with the audience, for showcasing the brand and for giving additional SEO power to the website, I have very little control over how the content is being distributed. The views on the channel vary from 20,000 to 200,000 views per month, and some videos that I spent 8-10 hours on per video are not getting any views a month later. I still do it because it is fun, and because I love the community I created.

The best way (in my opinion) is to start a website/blog. It makes you a business owner, once the business starts generating revenue it can be sold at through platforms like Flippa or EmpireFlippers, or you can keep it as a source of passive revenue.

To start a blog, you need a domain name and hosting. For domain names, there are too many options to choose from. I have used GoDaddy in the past, but switched to Ionos (previously 1and1) as their promo and regular rates are cheaper.

For hosting, I recommend BlueHost. They have competitive rates on hosting packages, and as you are starting out and not expecting a lot of traffic, a simple cheapest shared package would do. Unless you get 10,000+ visitors monthly, there is no point to pay more.

When you hit 10,000+ visitors monthly, which realistically won't happen in the first year, I would recommend moving to a cloud-based VPS from either Bluehost, or anyone else. I have used Dreamhost (Dreampress), A2 and now I am with KnownHost. It is more expensive than Bluehost (~$40 per month instead of $4), but it is worth it with respect to pagespeed. Most providers offer free migration services, so you don't need to worry about making the move from one provider to another on your own.

The most popular way of starting a blog is WordPress – roughly 62% of all CMS (more than the closest 3 competitors combined). It has a ton of plugins and is easy to setup and use. There are tutorials that have an answer to any question imaginable.

What other ways to make money online are there?

If affiliate marketing seems too complicated or time-consuming, there are other ways to make money online.

One of the simpler ones are taking online surveys. You register in a portal depending on your country, set up your profile (age, gender, education), and start taking surveys. They typically pay between a few cents to a few dollars, depending on what type of information is needed from the group that a part of which you are classified as.

Don't expect to make hundreds per day, but it could be a good way to earn extra spending cash. Survey payouts depend a lot on the country you are in, and on the surveys available on the platform. It's best to register on as many as they are available in your country to maximize the potential pool.

Some of survey websites:

TimeBucks Rewards (most countries worldwide) – $1 signup bonus, ID verification required

Hintsters (USA) – once you register, make sure to click the link in the confirmation email

eSurveyBox (USA, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, UK) 

YourSurveys (Netherlands)

Toluna (Netherlands)

Pinecone (France) – once you register, make sure to click the link in the confirmation email

LifePoints (France) – 10 points signup bonus