Aliexpress "Special Offers" are stupid

AliExpress is becoming really annoying with "Special Offer" items.

Many of the items on Aliexpress, particularly those you get recommended, are listed at very low prices now and prices show in red with the title "Special Offer".

Although the prices are great, there are several problems with these.

Some only allow you to buy immediately, rather than being able to add to your cart and purchase together with other items.

Many of these offers also have a limit of one per person.

It also seems that for the items that you can add to cart, you only get one special offer item at the advertised price. Once you add more than one, all but one of the items mysteriously change to a higher price instead of what is advertised.

This is actually different depending on whether you are on the website or the app. On the app you always seem to see the special price, but on the website you might continue to see the special price on some pages but when you view the item you see the not-so-special price.

I'm really not sure why AliExpress want to push these. If you want something like a USB cable that is advertised for 50 cents (plus $3 shipping) do they really only want you to buy that on it's own, and only want you to buy one? That does not seem like it is good for business.

Another thing I am amused by is their discount system.

I recently wanted to buy a digital watch that was A$13.69. Shipping is $3 or I can spend $15 to get free shipping.

So I add a couple of cheap items -- less than $2 worth -- and I qualify for free shipping as my total is now just over $15.

Now it says if I buy four items I can save an extra $3. So I add another $1 item and my total comes down to $13.18 with free shipping.

Now I am encouraged to buy another two items to save $5 instead of $3. So I add another two of the $1 item and I'm still at $13.18.

I guess this isn't typical buyer behavior but it's kind of weird how they allow and encourage this. I end up buying my $13.69 item for $13.18 and get free shipping and five extra items I didn't want.

However, despite the price being $13.18 for both extra three and five items, because of the mysterious way that Aliexpress calculate tax (Australian GST in my case), the tax is about 20 cents more for the extra five items than for the three.