September 22, 2023
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AliExpress is a global e-commerce marketplace comprising small retailers, wholesalers, and suppliers. It offers an extensive product selection and enables consumers to buy directly from businesses and manufacturers in China. Its main product categories include fashion and accessories, mobile, consumer electronics, jewelry and watches, home and garden, appliances, toys, outdoor, beauty and health, automobiles and motorcycles, home improvement, and tools. AliExpress is based in China and owned by Alibaba, a global e-commerce company.
Although AliExpress positions itself as an online retailer, most sellers understand that most customers are resellers and drop shippers. For instance, thousands of online retailers combine Shopify, a top-rated e-commerce app, with AliExpress to run dropshipping businesses. AliExpress competes with Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and other high-volume e-commerce companies.
Company Profile
- Founded by the Alibaba Group in 2010
- Headquarters: Hangzhou, China
- Stock ticker: BABA (Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – ADR)
- Over 200,000 sellers, suppliers, and manufactures
- Over 100 million product listings
- Customers from 200+ countries and regions
- The site supports multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, and German
AliExpress Affiliate Program
AliExpress has an affiliate program. Its in-house program is called AliExpress Portals. It also has offers on affiliate networks, including FlexOffers, Commission Factory, Awin, and VigLink Sovrn. Here’s a snapshot of the in-house program.
- Cost per action (CPA): Cost per sale
- Commission rate: Up to 9%
- Commission type: Single payment, nonrecurring
- Cookie duration: Up to 3 days
- Payout threshold: $16
- Payment options: PayPal and bank account (get free bank account details for USD, EUR, GBP, and other currencies)
- Affiliate software/network: In-house and multiple affiliate networks
Program Elibighly
AliExpress doesn’t have eligibility requirements. Instead, its program is open to bloggers, YouTubers, social media marketers, content creators, influencers, networks, agencies, and deal/coupon sites.
How to Sign Up or Apply
Follow these steps to sign up for the AliExpress affiliate program:
- Visit the AliExpress affiliate program page.
- Check the FAQs to ensure eligibility.
- Click on the apply button.
- Complete the application.
- Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
- Submit your application.
Alternatively, join the program on FlexOffers or another network.
AliExpress Portals Menu and Tools
Ad Center
Review the Ad Center for the most up-to-date and competitive deals on AliExpress, including hot deals, featured products, and banners.
Code Center
Retrieve and promote codes and discounts to your audience.
Incentive Campaign
Get incentives to promote specific products. Earn up to 4% extra for surpassing targets.
Reports
Review traffic, income, live orders, and transactional reports by platform, tracking ID, country, clicks, page views, and unique visitors.
Tools
Link Generator: Link to the promotions that will give you the best payouts. Use the URL of the page of your choice to create a tracking link you can use to optimize conversions. Deeplink can be generated for affiliate products and store URLs only.
API: Web admins can use the API to obtain, filter, and display product information quickly. Developer can use the API and Aliexpress server network to directly access Portals Affiliate data and better manage their publishing account.
Site Stripe: AliExpress Site Stripe allows you to create links from any AliExpress page. Site Stripe will appear at the top of every AliExpress product detail page (you must be logged in). It provides efficient access for building and sharing links on social media. Publishers get basic product info from Site Stripe, including estimated commission rates, promo codes, and product sales for the past 30 days.
Payment
Review withdrawal, balance, payment info, commission rules, and penalties.
Account
Manage your websites, sub-affiliates, and tracking IDs.
How to Promote AliExpress
Here are some ways to promote AliExpress as an affiliate marketer:
- Create a blog or website about products you love from AliExpress. This is a great way to build a following of people who are interested in the products you promote. You can write reviews, compare products, or share exciting finds.
- Start a YouTube channel or podcast about AliExpress products. This is another excellent way to reach a wider audience. You can create videos or audio recordings of yourself talking about the products you like or doing product reviews.
- Become active on social media. Share AliExpress products on social media channels like Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram. You can also join relevant groups and forums to connect with potential customers.
- Run paid advertising campaigns. This can be a great way to reach a targeted audience with your AliExpress promotions. You can use platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads to create ads that will be seen by people likely to be interested in the products you promote.
- Collaborate with other influencers. You can collaborate with other influencers to promote AliExpress products if you have a large following. This can be an excellent way to reach a new audience.
- Promote it as a drop shipper. Many aspiring drop-shippers want to source products from reputable platforms and companies. So, AliExpress users can recommend the company with their affiliate links.
Program Benefits
The payout threshold is low. When you accumulate a minimum of $16, you can withdraw your commissions on or before the 20th of each month. However, there is a $15 processing fee per withdrawal.
Affiliates can create tracking IDs to monitor performance for different marketing campaigns. For example, you could create a link with an ID for your website and one for your promotional activities on Facebook to compare results.
Deep linking is available, and it’s how an affiliate creates a link to a specific page on the merchant’s site. Instead of using a standard homepage affiliate link, you can link to a product, page, or article related to your content to increase relevance and conversion rates. Many e-commerce merchants allow deep linking due to the number of products and sellers available. AliExpress affiliates can also link to search results, hot-selling products, events, daily deals, and more. Web admins can use its API to obtain, filter, and display product information.
Publishers can choose from many promotional materials, including text links, banners, data feeds, themed promotions, APIs, and custom ads upon request.
Alibaba and Alibaba Cloud also offer affiliate programs. Alibaba is a leading wholesale marketplace for purchasing goods in significant volumes. Alibaba Cloud provides cloud computing services to online businesses and Alibaba’s e-commerce ecosystem. Their offers are available on FlexOffers and Rakuten Advertising.
AliExpress is a trustworthy and highly visited website. It offers excellent value, worldwide delivery, payment options, buyer protection, and a 24/7 help center. Customers can browse through thousands of sellers and millions of products. Seller profiles feature how long they’ve been on the site, customer feedback, and ratings.
Program Drawbacks
An affiliate signup page outlines the program and how it works, but AliExpress misses the mark. It provides a few standard details, such as the commission rate. However, its help center is only available inside the portal. It would be beneficial if it were easily accessible from the landing page. The program page is poorly designed, with multiple fonts, font sizes, bugs, and grammatical errors.
The affiliate portal is buggy. Each time I tried to log out, I was logged back in. I had to visit the main website to log out. Also, I was occasionally and automatically logged out after trying to return to the homepage. Lastly, pages keep opening in new windows, producing an unsatisfactory user experience.
Standard commission rates are low and range from zero to 9%.
AliExpress has a short cookie duration of a few days, while the industry standard is 30 days. Therefore, affiliates will miss out on commissions for their hard work.
Reporting is underwhelming. AliExpress offers three types of reports, i.e., traffic, income, and live order tracking. The reports dashboard is oversimplified, and some category/data headings are confusing.
One of the worst things about AliExpress Portals is that the help center isn’t as helpful as expected. Also, Help Center pages have multiple effective dates, fonts, font sizes, and grammatical errors.
The program details are scattered and disorganized. Moreover, AliExpress affiliate managers don’t take a holistic approach to updates. Instead, they update pages, terms, and guidelines in isolation.
There isn’t a dedicated affiliate manager. Instead, random customer service representatives are responsible for addressing publisher inquiries. Conversely, when a merchant has the staff to support publishers, it quickens processes and shows commitment.
Start Earning
Can you make four figures a month as an AliExpress affiliate? While AliExpress is a top e-commerce company, it’s unlikely that you will make that amount or a significant income. Low commission rates and a short cookie duration will constrain your earnings and conversions. Although the payout threshold is fair, the $15 processing fee per withdrawal is another drawback.
A bigger problem surrounds the management of the program. It’s scattered and disorganized, leading me to question its efficiency. Additionally, the Portals affiliate marketing software is buggy, confusing, dated, and subpar compared to other affiliate marketing apps.
Where should AliExpress rank in your marketing activities? It should be a low priority. I don’t recommend joining the AliExpress affiliate program because much better e-commerce and retail programs are available. However, if you want to promote AliExpress, skip the in-house program and participate through FlexOffers, Commission Factory, or Awin. You’ll earn slightly lower commission rates but gain in program administration, tracking software, reporting, and more.
You might consider promoting AliExpress competitors, including Amazon, Walmart, DHGate, Bangood, and eBay.
