
Ask HN: Does anyone know how AliExpress free shipping works? - anilshanbhag
They seem to have free international shipping on items less than $1. I don&#x27;t know of any shipping method, even in bulk that can deliver item to my door from China for sub $1.<p>I found this article: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;romain.goyet.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;free_shipping_from_china&#x2F; that raises the same concerns. Wondering if anyone can paint some light on this ?
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celticninja
There is an international agreement to deliver postage paid parcels from
another country if the postage was paid in the starting nation. Some countries
benefit more if they send more packages than if they receive. China govt
subsidies the post in China and allows cheap or free shipping to manufacturers
as it encourages manufacturing. So in part your domestic mail carrier absorbs
some of the cost and the Chinese government gets the rest.

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anilshanbhag
Found a HN thread related to this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10930072](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10930072)
for anyone interested.

Main reading: [http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-
chinese...](http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-chinese-
shipping/)

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viraptor
Can't find a good explanation on a single page, but there's a few things that
come together here:

\- government run postal service in China which doesn't chase profit as much

\- international agreements: when using standard post, only the sending
country pays the costs - the receiving country is expected to finish the
delivery essentially at their cost that they can reclaim on their own
international mail cost

So: send from Hong Kong directly, use bulk sea freight at minimal cost, let
the receiving end worry about the last-mile delivery at their cost.

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baybal2
>\- international agreements: when using standard post, only the sending
country pays the costs - the receiving country is expected to finish the
delivery essentially at their cost that they can reclaim on their own
international mail cost

Yes, most of costs lie on the receiving country, which means USA.

Moreover, US post do add a subsidy on top of that for "lesser developed
countries," which means China

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alltakendamned
There's other countries than USA mate ;)

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schappim
From my understanding the local postal service allows the merchants to buy
postage by weight. Eg. 100 pounds at a time for ~$20USD. A merchant can then
split the purchased weight over as many shipments as they want. The ultimate
result is the cost of shipping per light-ish item is in the cents.

The shipment is slow, and little or no tracking.

