AliExpress is ramping up its outreach and offerings for US sellers

AliExpress launched in 2010 as a way for small businesses, predominantly in China, to sell goods to international consumers. (It does not sell to addresses in China.) The marketplace offers everything from clothing to homewares to electronics, and it operates in some 200 countries, including France, the U.S., Spain and Brazil. AliExpress is part of Alibaba’s international commerce retail division, which reported some 49 billion yuan ($6.75 billion) in revenue for the six months ending Sept. 30, 2024. That reflected growth of 37% year over year.

Over the last two years, AliExpress has tried to court more U.S. shoppers as the marketplace sector becomes more crowded. AliExpress created its first dedicated local marketing and PR team for the U.S. in 2023, and in May 2024, it brought on soccer star David Beckham as a brand ambassador to boost global sales. But it wasn’t until October 2024 that AliExpress onboarded U.S. sellers under AliExpressLocal Direct — its first big play to American merchants. Now, AliExpress is continuing to woo U.S. sellers, many of whom are active on other marketplaces, from Amazon to eBay to Temu.

AliExpress’s larger concentration on the U.S. market also comes as China grapples with tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump. Chinese e-commerce players have long benefitted from a rule known as “de minimis,” which allows packages worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. Trump, however, has vowed to eventually close that loophole, a decision that could hurt merchants in China who are shipping goods into the United States. U.S.-based AliExpress sellers could thus be in a better spot to weather the storm — with the exception of retaliatory tariffs or similar policies from other countries.

Jackie Lee, head of seller acquisition and partnership development at AliExpress U.S., told Modern Retail that AliExpress is appealing to U.S. sellers through a combination of “our business development team’s professional networks, industry trade shows, seminars and targeted direct outreach.” She added that “interest continues to grow steadily” as more merchants become aware of AliExpressLocal Direct and AliExpressLocal Marketplace. AliExpress’s U.S. merchant participation jumped 358% from the end of Q4 2024 to the end of Q1 2025, the company told Modern Retail.

AliExpress has two different onboarding options for U.S. sellers. Its original model, Direct, is more hands-on and gives sellers merchandising and marketing assistance. Marketplace, which launched in March, is geared toward sellers who may not need as much guidance from AliExpress but still want access to internal tools like sales and traffic data. The Marketplace model, while only a couple weeks old, has experienced “a relatively quicker adoption rate” than the Direct model, Lee said. Merchants can transition from one model to the other “at any point,” she explained.

As it grows in the U.S., AliExpress is noticing similar trends among U.S. sellers and buyers, Chris Carl, U.S. head of marketing at AliExpress, told Modern Retail. For both groups, electronics, beauty and refurbished goods are “experiencing really strong growth,” Carl said. Lee added that AliExpress is also targeting U.S. merchants in the consumer packaged goods space, as well as the automotive and motor parts sector.

Lucky Tech LLC, a Florida-based merchant that sells video game consoles, joined AliExpressLocal Direct in October. CEO Jiawei Wu told Modern Retail that the company is pleased with sales performance so far and expects to “accelerate growth” on AliExpress in 2025.

Since November, Lucky Tech has received “approximately 600 orders with a GMV of $250,000 and an average order value of $416,” Wu said. While Lucky Tech’s order volume on AliExpress lags behind that of other sales channels, Wu added, “We are particularly encouraged by the higher AOV on AliExpress compared to some other channels we have explored and the high conversion rates we see from organic traffic.”

Meanwhile, 99 Ranch, an Asian supermarket in the U.S., is not yet on AliExpress but is interested in joining the platform as it expands its e-commerce presence. James Ho, the brand’s senior director of e-commerce, plans to attend the AliExpress seller conference in Los Angeles. “I’m excited to join the seller summit to explore how our offline infrastructure and supply chain advantages can align with AliExpress’s strength in marketplace, cloud and AI,” he told Modern Retail via email.

Alibaba, the parent of AliExpress, is also trying to grow its overall performance in the U.S. The road has been rocky at times. In 2014, Alibaba opened a U.S.-based web store called 11 Main, but that failed to gain traction and shut down a year later. In 2019, Alibaba officially opened its doors to U.S. vendors via a business-to-business marketplace. But by 2022, Alibaba had “struggled to meet its targets” for its U.S. website, with the majority of U.S. sellers canceling their subscriptions after a year, per the Financial Times.

However, Alibaba remains optimistic about its performance in 2025. Its most recent quarterly revenue beat analysts’ expectations, and the company has benefitted from a greater interest in AI. What’s more, “Alibaba expects most of its loss-making businesses to be profitable in the next one to two years,” Chelsey Tam, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in a recent note. Alibaba’s workplace collaboration tool DingTalk, for instance, aims to break even in 2025. Tam added that Alibaba is her firm’s top pick in the Chinese e-commerce sector, followed by JD.com and Temu owner PDD Holdings.