alt Hacker NewsNot sure if they still do, but a couple years ago prices in the app were lower than on the website. And they promoted installing it to save money.
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That's how you know you absolutely should not do that.
Like a white van with FREE CANDY written on it...
Now we know why...
And someone would install random apps to save $5 on $100 purchases?
They also don't give you a proper tracking number. The only way to track your shipment is in the app.
It's still the case that you pay less in the app. You get 'coins' for a daily check-in, which are automatically(?) applied as a discount. Most items either don't actually use them or only give you a pointless 1% off or something, but I've gotten a $12 microcontroller for $5, for example. I think some coupons are app-only, too (though most aliexpress sales are fake and are better thought of as the normal price).
> Not sure if they still do, but a couple years ago prices in app were lower than on the website. And they promoted installing it to save money.
Translation: They are able to mine your personal data more completely with an app installed vs the website which they can sell for pure profit. They promoted installing it to extract more value from you.
I believe the prices are the same. But the app has a number of "games" to collect tokens that get credited as discounts. Seems to be mostly stuff designed to get you to open the app daily and browse their offers. Which might be "innocent" if it's just to get you to buy more stuff, or maybe they have more reasons they want you to have the app open. Who knows
At least Aliexpress doesn't have all the fake slot machine type games that temu has that always end in variations of "get $200 of discounts for your next order if you order x items from this list"