AliExpress: the €3.63 fee that turns €10 into €20

AliExpress is no longer worth it: a €3.63 fee on every cheap item

Is it still worth shopping on AliExpress? Since 1 July, you have to do the math before hitting the pay button. Every parcel under €150 from third countries carries a €3 fee that, in practice, the platform applies item by item: €3.63 in the most common case. The effect is that orders that used to come to €10 hit €20 at the final cart step, and that three different trinkets worth €12 rack up €10.9 in tax. The de minimis exemption that made direct trade with China cheap is over, and the individual buyer is the one paying the difference.

Why you pay a €3.63 fee on every item

The fee is designed per shipment, but splitting the cost doesn't come free. Two items shipped from different warehouses add up to a double tariff; a pack of three different deals can end up charged the tariff for two. In the cheap bracket, the tax weighs more than the product, and some calculations put the total burden —21% VAT plus the new surcharge— at around half the final price. At the higher end, the move has been different: items over €20 have risen in price across the board, according to purchase histories used by the platform's most long-time shoppers. Several suggest that on some products the tax was already included in the price and can only be detected by comparing with the previous amount.

Is AliExpress still worth it compared with Amazon?

It depends on the item, and that's the new part. A somewhat unusual SSD drive adapter costs €8 with the fee included on AliExpress and €14 on Amazon, according to comparisons circulating. The gap exists, but it's no longer what it was: you have to compare supplier by supplier, check whether the local corner shop has the same product, and factor in that Amazon also applies the €3 surcharge when the seller ships from outside the EU. What doesn't change is the small print. A three-year warranty that actually works has a cost that is passed on in the price; Chinese sellers save on much of that service, and below €5 returns usually work out fine, but from €100 up things get complicated.

Who wins from the fee: Shein has already warned

The official narrative says the new levy protects small local businesses. The facts point to a different winner. Shein, which already has revenue of €4,557 million in Spain, has been the first to admit it will raise prices to offset the fee, just as it did in the United States when the de minimis exemption ended there. The recurring analysis is that the one strengthened is the large distributor with its own logistics network and a warehouse in Europe, not the neighbourhood shop. The underlying argument: more than 50% of what AliExpress or Temu sell is not made, and can no longer be made, in Europe, because that kind of industry was dismantled years ago.

The impossible spare part: the niche the corner shop doesn't cover

There is spending the fee doesn't discourage because it has no alternative. In rural areas, much of what is bought is machinery spare parts and components that no local shop has or ever will have, and where paying €3 more still works out cheaper than a €30 round alucinación in petrol to come back empty-handed. Those who buy this way say it without nostalgia: if the measure has curbed compulsive buying of junk, every cloud has a silver lining. Another niche holds out: orders over €50 with coupons, which are still quite a bit cheaper than at any European retailer.

A reasonable doubt remains in the air. The same fee that was supposed to save local businesses is not paid by the Chinese shop on the corner, which keeps selling the same things without going through the cart. Maybe small businesses do come out ahead with the measure: the ones that were already here.