AliExpress is adapting its low-cost cross-border shopping model to the EU’s new €3 customs duty. Rather than relying on a conventional promotion alone, the marketplace has changed how orders are structured within Bundle Deals, is offsetting part of the customs cost through discounts, and is increasingly promoting products already stocked in EU warehouses.
AliExpress officially outlined its approach on September 9 in a roundup covering its July and August updates. The company pointed to its Duty Savings Sale, which had previously been launched in Spain following the introduction of the new customs rules. Further details on the campaign, along with comments from an AliExpress representative, were also published by Marketing4eCommerce.
The change follows the removal of the EU’s duty-free threshold for low-value goods. Since July 1, 2026, online purchases worth up to €150 and imported from outside the European Union have been subject to a temporary €3 customs duty. The measure is due to remain in place until July 1, 2028, when the EU plans to move to a new customs framework for e-commerce.
Crucially, the €3 charge does not necessarily apply just once per parcel. According to guidance from the European Commission, the duty is calculated according to the tariff classification of the goods in a shipment. Five identical T-shirts, for example, would result in a single €3 charge, while a T-shirt and a watch would fall under two different tariff classifications and generate a total charge of €6.
That distinction matters for marketplaces such as AliExpress, where shoppers often combine several inexpensive products from different categories in a single purchase. When low prices are a major part of the appeal, several additional €3 charges can make a noticeable difference to the final cost of an order.
AliExpress has responded by restructuring how Bundle Deals work. The company says products in the section are organised in advance by categories including electronics, textiles, essentials, toys and jewellery. When shoppers select products from different categories, those items are added and paid for separately.
As a result, AliExpress says each Bundle Deals order contains products from a single category and incurs only one €3 customs charge. During the Duty Savings Sale, the marketplace applied an automatic €3 discount to eligible orders to fully offset that amount. Free shipping was also offered on qualifying purchases of three or more items.
In other words, AliExpress is not eliminating the new duty or receiving a special exemption for Bundle Deals. Instead, it is changing the way products are grouped into orders and then covering one €3 charge through its own discount. From the shopper’s perspective, the aim is straightforward: the new duty should not increase the price of an eligible order during the promotion.
There is also an important legal distinction. The European Commission describes the new €3 measure as a customs duty borne by businesses rather than a separate consumer tax automatically charged to shoppers. Liability generally falls on the declarant — typically the seller, importer or their representative. For marketplaces, however, the commercial question remains the same: absorb the additional cost or pass some of it on through higher prices.
That is why the second part of AliExpress’s response may prove more significant over the longer term. The company is promoting its Fast & Free range, which consists of products already stored in warehouses within the EU. Because those orders are fulfilled locally, they are not subject to the new €3 duty that applies to low-value goods being imported from outside the bloc.
In those cases, AliExpress does not need to offset the customs cost with a coupon or separate discount. Local inventory can both remove the new import charge from qualifying orders and shorten delivery times compared with shipping products directly from China.
This model is becoming increasingly important beyond AliExpress. In Spain, Shein separately promotes products through its “EU Warehouse” section, while Temu highlights “Local Warehouse” inventory. For Chinese platforms whose competitive advantage has long been built around very low prices and direct shipping from China, keeping more stock inside the EU now offers an additional financial benefit.
AliExpress paired this logistics response with more traditional sales incentives. The Duty Savings Sale in Spain ran until August 26 and offered discounts of up to 80%, while the marketplace used Brand+ to promote special offers from verified brands across electronics, home, fashion and other categories.
Participating brands included Baseus, Oukitel, Netac, 70mai, 361°, iLife, Seauto, Sofirn and Wurkkos. Selected products from Xiaomi, POCO, Huawei and Insta360 were also discounted. Some Brand+ products are available through Fast & Free, allowing AliExpress to combine branded goods with faster local fulfilment.
Another part of the campaign was cashback of up to 16%, built around influencer-led content. Participants were organised into teams that accumulated points through purchases and traffic generated via dedicated links or codes. The more points a team earned, the higher the cashback rate its members could unlock.
The rewards were issued as Shopping Credits rather than cash and added directly to users’ AliExpress accounts. They could be used on future purchases and combined with coupons, with cashback capped at €10 per user per day.
Taken together, these measures show why the new duty presents AliExpress with a broader challenge than simply absorbing an extra €3. The platform is trying to preserve low final prices, keep small-value orders attractive and gradually reduce its reliance on a model in which individual purchases are shipped directly to European consumers from outside the EU.
Offsetting the €3 charge through Bundle Deals can work as a promotional tool, but it comes at a cost to the marketplace itself. Local warehouses address the issue differently: goods enter the EU in advance, while the subsequent consumer order is fulfilled within the European market. As customs rules change, competition between AliExpress, Temu and Shein is therefore likely to depend not only on coupons and promo codes or sales and discounts, but increasingly on the strength of their local logistics networks.
