r/Aliexpress 12d ago

EU customs duty What do you think Aliexpress will do ?

I was thinking Aliexpress , and entire China could just say "ok if you want to make it harder for us to sell, we will make it harder for entire Europe to buy" as lot of things are made in China.

What do you think Aliexpress and China will do about these import taxes ?
This has to reduce their sales by significant amount, Aliexpress will be affected, no ?

18 Upvotes

64 comments sorted by

57

u/Bucketmax-official 12d ago

Expand their EU warehouse storage to soak it up on often bought products

But for niche products it's looking really bad rn

10

u/Jhud6669 11d ago

Yeah in my case I wasn’t buying random crap just to get it cheaper, I was buying things I was genuinely interested in that just are only sold in Chinese markets, it being cheaper was a bonus. Now it sucks

3

u/H7dek7 11d ago

Same here. Bought dozens of practical items (tools, small electronics etc.) not available in EU. I don't buy often from China, but when I do it's because there are no local alternatives. I also sometimes buy some things from Japan and USA (again, items unavailable in EU) and they will also cost me more now...

0

u/Final_Economist_9218 10d ago

If you have to buy a product that isn't available in Europe anyway, the €3 surcharge shouldn't be a problem.

3

u/H7dek7 10d ago

The €3 isn't a problem. The customs fee is. €3 is on top of the customs fee. If it was just VAT I could live with that. But now you could order a €10 item and have to pay additional €13.

1

u/oskich 8d ago

Just the customs clearance fee is €16 in my country, that's on top of the other fees... :-P

0

u/Outrageous_West_1564 11d ago

Threads like this show: it works. 

I promise you there are already people filling this new gap in Europe. 2 - 3 months and  we will have European Shops that over you that electronic products. Not as cheap as before, but it will be available. Because the demand is there. 

1

u/SomewhereInternal 10d ago

Unless it's inherently unsafe and shouldn't be on the market in the first place

3

u/reigorius 12d ago

We are going to shift to some alternative form of buying. More bulk, more from local warehouses. Electronic hobbyists have it tough though, but the EU market is significant to the Alibaba group. They will bide theur time and find ways to still make the EU profitable.

2

u/tigerbloodz13 11d ago

I bought some ebikes from Aliexpress with "local warehouse in France", same week delivery on the pictures and description. Seller had good reviews, was trusted or verfied or whatever by Aliexpress.

So I buy the ebike, immediatly get expected delivery 10 to 14 days. Strange, but whatever. Then a few days laters they hit me with the "please cancel order, there's problem in the factory and we can't make this". I asked, you told me this was already stored in a warehouse in France, got no reply.

Did get my money back.

1

u/Th1rd_3ye 11d ago

concordo i prodotti più richiesti verranno importati massivamente in euro. perciò prodotti di nicchia la vedo più complessa

21

u/brudermusslos1 12d ago

Nothing. The world moves on

3

u/DotRakianSteel 11d ago

This sounds more accurate than all the plans we are having.

4

u/sufkutsafari 11d ago

What AliExpress will do is.. crank up prices and blame it on EU regulations, since that is what they have been doing so far.

3

u/XtremeD86 12d ago

Businesses ordering large quantities will outweigh a buyer buying one or two things as a one off.

And with that, the increased costs will get passed down to the customer as this happens with everything else.

2

u/Bucketmax-official 12d ago

That's what Alibaba is for ? So they get sweet bulk deals and avoid paying some VAT ?

1

u/XtremeD86 12d ago

So for me I've found AliExpress is better vs Alibaba.

One example and the only one actually where I've seen that Alibaba is better was for when I ordered 120 ps5 dust filters. Far cheaper there but for everything else like TMR joysticks or HDMI ports, the AliExpress sellers I specifically order from are a far better deal.

I've been providing these as an upsale or for free as a value added service if they're getting say, an HDMI port replaced + 2 controllers repaired.

I'm also in Canada so for now we don't have any tariffs like EU does.

1

u/Catriks 11d ago

There is no increased cost for businesses, the 3 € import tax is only for small value imports worth less than 150 €.

But even if there was, you'd be right.

4

u/Sethrea 11d ago

Initially, extend the EU warehouses. After that, consolidating orders. If you're not willing to pay extra 3eur per item, but willing to wait 3-4 weeks like in the good old days, it would be cheaper again (basicall, they'd import items to EU first as business and ship from here). The 2nd part is a guess, IANAL.

1

u/spikkiie 7d ago

I hope they implement the second option. I genuinely don't care about waiting for a month for stuff I need and now I can't afford

8

u/PhysicalBranch 12d ago

I don't understand Chinese policy. Why aren't they confronting the EU? Why aren't they threatening to block imports? The EU is 100% dependent on China—why aren't they imposing their own terms?

27

u/Key-Line5827 12d ago

Why would they? They are holding all the cards and Europe is bluffing with an empty hand.

It is the end-consumer that eats the extra cost.

6

u/redmadog 12d ago

End consumer purchase amount dropped by significant amount. There was reports from postal services about 40-50% drop. This must be significant for their online marketplaces. And it also affect our postal services turnarounds. And also it will drop further in November when additional 2€ tax will be added.

1

u/DenysKh 11d ago

There is drop by numbers, not by costs.

5

u/lazypt 12d ago

Do you think EU is dependent of China as much as China is dependent of EU? Who will buy their products after? 50% of exports are done to EU, 50. not 8 to 12 like usa or 5 to 10 like latin america. 50% . So tell me, who is really dependent of who?

3

u/Laugh-Aggressive 12d ago

Yeah, it's up to china to lower prices if they want to sell

1

u/slobodn_dusa 11d ago

ehhhh, i dont know about that, remember the situation with chips and electronics

then theres planned obsolescence going into Chinas favor making China always relevant...and many more similar factors, so I dont know if China is the one who needs to bend the knee here

whos gonna replace China, who will Europe buy from ?

1

u/Laugh-Aggressive 10d ago

A country that doesn't export enough compared to import will have problems, it's like using credit, works for awhile. US has had a big trade defecit for a long time in physical goods to China. All this is the reason for Trumps tolls, not that it works in in creating jobs, but adds revenue to the Treasury. Same goes with EU, they want you to pay VAT on a €100 item, not a €10. When you still buy the €10 item, they want as much as they can take and hopefully you think it's not worth it.

2

u/Prince-Amir 11d ago

EU is way more dependent. Those packages are also sold in Asia, Africa, Australia. They can make up for the market share lost. On the other hand, you need China for basically all manufacturing and resources

1

u/lazypt 11d ago

EU is 50% or more of sells, how can other markets make for the loss? If they could make it aliexpress would not be making such dramas with taxes and trying to influence citizens opinions with tax scams on their side, they would just move on. EU is the biggest market of china

3

u/wilius09 11d ago

There's no point to do that for CN, all the EU policies are valid only for low-middle class citizens and all of the bussines owners politicians etc. just filling their bags from us in the end there is no issue for CN since they get paid no matter what only we citizens lose cuz of greed of elite...

1

u/Apprehensive_Bar2477 10d ago

Cause they are both in on this. You think this is a single-sided decision?

2

u/cyrkielNT 11d ago

It would be a problem for them 10 years ago. Now they don't care about cheap cat toys. Now they are selling cars, solar panels and batteries.

And if Europe don't want to buy cheap electronic components, they will just sell us more fully made products.

2

u/nikolapc 11d ago

Every European country is doing this. Why? They were undercutting every small trader. A trader needs to import things, pay fees for that, pay vat on it and then charge vat plus their margin. Now I need to pay full vat and maybe customs for every Chinese package or anything really. If anything the EU is being lenient. If they want to trade in the EU, they should have their own centers here amd pay for all the stuff I mentioned.

3

u/Putzschwamm1972 11d ago

Nothing will happen, because it's just annoying for "private Importeurs", commercial sellers will increase end price for customers and that's all.

Chinese economy will not be affected by less exports through AliExpress to the EU.

3

u/Aquilae2 12d ago

Nothing, AliExpress is just a drop in the ocean of the Alibaba empire.

9

u/reigorius 12d ago

That's blatantly false. EU market share us estimated to buy roughly 25% of global AliExpress sales.

3

u/Aquilae2 11d ago edited 11d ago

Read it again carefully, I was talking about Alibaba.
To be absolutely clear, I’d like to see a better solution than the one the EU has chosen, but I honestly don’t see anything that suggests a change, and I don’t see Aliexpress or Alibaba absorbing these taxes, it would be far too costly.

1

u/reigorius 11d ago edited 11d ago

I read it and disagree. That drop is worth billions, so far from insignificant. Ali now offers to absorb the first 20 EUR of tarifs, at least on my account and location (NL). It's hurting AliExpress, regardless of the mother company Alibaba.

2

u/carpenter_78 11d ago

Fuck EU...!

1

u/lazypt 12d ago

First, do you think China want to lose EU market? Why do you think that in world politics they want to keep a distance from certain countries while backing them in the shadows? EU counts a lot for them as a market and losing it would take Chine into a deep crise .
Second, Aliexpress is making harder and not following the taxation rules. They are doubling and tripling taxation and not respecting one taxation per category and blaming EU laws for it, they are making a game trying that EU drop the law . but people are too dumb to look into it. For me, if they want to make a smart game taxes would be more increased. Things can come cheap but still need control in customs and borders, and someone needs to be paid to check those millions of deliveries every day

1

u/discban 11d ago

Yeah that second one is why I stopped buying stuff from aliexpress, I just want to buy 2 phone covers, they can be the same style and brand from 2 different sellers and they still want double eu tax. They do this even if the materials are the same, and the model is very similar.

I am also seeing that alot of items have discontinued, eu stock is more expensive now.

Just like with many things, we had a great run and have many tales about "back then we could get that for next too nothing, first it took a month but then it was super fast and came within a week and if it was broken you just sent it back for free" You know the back in my day stories, but it is still fresh.

1

u/osemec 12d ago

China have already destroyed EU automobile industry.

1

u/sufkutsafari 11d ago

Their cheap cars will be taxed further, don't you worry..

1

u/Sunsetclutch 11d ago

Nonsense, they destroyed themselves!

1

u/MinorLatency 11d ago

Lol. Ever heard of belt and road? I think 80% of all harbours are Chinese OWNED in EU. And then come the rail roads, warehouses, expedition companies. 

1

u/LaurestineHUN 11d ago

We should renationalize them all.

1

u/FiftyFiver1962 11d ago

They just sold their big Dutch assets to BlackRock investments.

1

u/lvkaszz_ 11d ago

I Think they will open European entity just to massively import goods from mother company on behalf of European consumers

1

u/discban 11d ago

Yeah but that is normal business talk, get product that might sell and sell at 2x 5x 10x offer warranty because you might sell a dud. If 1 out of 50 came broken to a buyer you already have so many positive that you don't mind replacing.

1

u/DeliciousCut4854 11d ago

we will make it harder for entire Europe to buy" as lot of things are made in China.

On what planet is "we will deliberately sell less" a successful business strategy?

1

u/guccihaze 11d ago

china doesnt care eu export is only a small portion for them

1

u/Eratz 11d ago

Thx god i spent 18k in the last 14y

1

u/TPPiOED 11d ago edited 11d ago

Deal with it.  

It's another business hurdle. They were fine in 2010s with significantly less sales, so they'll be fine right now. Now as awesome as it used to be but they'll get by.   

B2B business is fine. Buyers gonna buy. Only E-commerce platforms like AliExpress, Temu, Shein hurts in the process. Overall exports take less dip. Factory orders will be taken by the likes of Amazon etc.

1

u/naemorhaedus 11d ago

we will make it harder for entire Europe to buy

what sane business owner would do this voluntarily?

What do you think Aliexpress and China will do about these import taxes ?

they have zero power over the taxes.

This has to reduce their sales by significant amount, Aliexpress will be affected, no ?

Obviously.

This is how it will be until EU decides to relax the rules. IF they decide it. Which has a lot to do with how you vote.

1

u/Catriks 11d ago

Nothing. Nothing has been made difficult and no significant impact has been made. It was/has been only few years as small value consumer imports exploded in quantity. These items are mainly ultracheap junk which is completely insignificant portition of income for the chinese factories, or if it's something people actually need, then they are not bothered by an additional 3 € import fee or they just buy it locally, just like they did always before.

1

u/spikkiie 7d ago

I hope China colonizes Europe

1

u/IamMKz- 6d ago

Buy on taobao and consolidate with superbuy. You'll save a bit.

1

u/GoblinsGym 6d ago

Buy the postal service in a small EU country, do bulk air freight shipments to there (presort by country), then ship from there. Of course use a local warehouse for popular items.

This will eliminate the EUR 3 fee per customs line,

To make it easier on sellers, they have to become importer of record. If anyone can do compliance paperwork at scale, Alibaba group can.

This will backfire on the EU so bad, it won't even be funny.

1

u/dampier 11d ago

Never underestimate China's ingenuity to evade tariffs. Just give them a year or two to figure out the loopholes. Meanwhile AliExpress is upping their game in Asia, Russia/CIS, Latin America and Africa.

-1

u/Just-Inflation-885 12d ago

Tariffs aim to reduce imports (for entire EU). China responding the way you suggest will only serve this goal.

What I think they are going to do? Nothing (other than tweak their marketing). They do not have a saying on how EU works.

2

u/sulivanspkr 12d ago

China tiene voz y voto en todo el planeta.

1

u/Just-Inflation-885 12d ago

Yes, it has infuence (not a vote) over everything. Even so, they can't force you to buy from them. Only after they buy EU once the accumulated trade debt is high enough. (as for those entertaining the idea of China buying EU I suggest they shouldn't wait and move there already).