I ordered some small parts both from AliExpress(AE) and Amazon.ca. The AE parcel just arrived and it was ordered Apr 14. The Amazon parcel was ordered Apr 20 and is not scheduled to be delivered until Apr 30 - May 7 for one, and May 12 - Jun 2.
These are tiny USB drives, I ordered two from AE and ordered 1 two times on the same day 4/20.
So AE 10 days, Amazon longer.
Yes, the AE shipping was free on an order of $29.36 CAD plus NO taxes, tariffs, import fees, etc. FREE Trade!!!
That could be the case for many Amazon orders that are not listed as "Ships from Amazon." In the US, Amazon Prime orders that come from an Amazon warehouse arrive next day or in the case of popular products stocked in a local warehouse, the same day.
A lot of the small electronics stuff on Amazon actually is shipped from China but I was amused that AliExpress who said they were going to reduce shipping times have actually beat Amazon.
I live in a small city (10,000) so best is maybe 1 day but most is 2 days and longer. I don't know for sure where the nearest Amazon warehouse is but it is probably 6 or 7 hours drive away near Toronto.
Canadian geography fact of the day
The province of Ontario is 1.5 times bigger than Texas with a total population of 16.7 million which is 36% of the total of Canada.The southern most part is about the same latitude as the California Oregon border (Crescent City CA). Of that 16.7 million, 14.7 million are in what is called Southern Ontario which runs along the US border from Montreal to Windsor with the majority living within about 100 miles of the border. Of that 14.7 million 7 million are in the greater Toronto area (GTA) which is under a 1 hr drive to the USA.
Bottom line is there are multiple Amazon warehouses in the GTA but that is a 6.5 hr drive by car.
Wow, a very big difference. The nearest Amazon warehouse to me is 6 miles away and there are 3 more within 12 miles.
I bet there are other differences like clean air, seeing deer, bears, coyotes, turkeys, bald eagles. Also going to one of the several dozen drive to lakes and hundreds of fly in lakes. Riding my ATV for hours and days sometimes not seeing another person for many hours. Lot's of other outdoor stuff. I think one day slower delivery is well worth it.
Canada is beautiful. It certainly benefits from having only 1/8 the population of the US. Slower Amazon shipments wouldn't bother me either.
We don't have bears in my area but the others are prevalent. I saw a bald eagle on a bike ride just yesterday. Texas has over 7000 lakes as well and plenty of wide open spaces. The air quality in the cities definitely suffers from all the automobile traffic.
+1 to
I've only been to Ottawa though.
Never been to Texas, but my guess is that it looks like Colorado. Can we say that?
On the shipping topic, both Amazon and Ali can deliver items here in 1 or 2 days. Warehouses are ~18 miles away. But that depends a lot on what you're asking for.
Some days ago I tried to get a UPDI programmer from Adafruit, buying it from Digikey, along with some Attinys of the newer generations. I gave up after seein the delivery time and price. I can buy 7 ESPs C3 supermini from a local dealer for the same price. 
Parts of it are like Colorado but Texas doesn't have mountains that are even close to those in Colorado and neither are the forests as plentiful.
When the salmon run we get lot's of bald eagles.
FYI, Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. My little town is surrounded by 4,000 lakes.
This will give some perspective. There are NO through roads other then the one I marked in blue. All other roads are either logging or mining and only poke in a few kms or so.
50k is 30mi.
That Provincial Park in the middle is only accessible by canoe, NO roads.
Way different, Colorado has the Rocky Mountains running across it, Texas is mostly flat. I have been to both several times.
Hmmm! There is a lot of water nearby!
The number of lakes in Michigan depends on the minimum size definition used: We have borderon 4 of the 5 great lakes as does Canada.
- 62,798 inland lakes are defined as having a surface area of at least 0.1 acres .
- 26,266 lakes are 1.0 acre or larger.
- 11,037 lakes are 5.0 acres or larger.
- 6,537 lakes are 10.0 acres or larger.
- 1,148 lakes are 100 acres or larger.
Official state sources often cite more than 11,000 inland lakes (typically those over five acres) as the standard figure for general reference.
The United States has approximately 3.2 million lakes in total, with the vast majority located in Alaska.
- Alaska leads significantly with over 3 million lakes , most of which are unnamed.
- Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" and holds the distinction for the most named lakes in the contiguous U.S., with roughly 14,380 recorded.
- Other states with high lake counts include Wisconsin (15,000), Michigan (11,000), and Washington (8,000).
- There are about 250 freshwater lakes in the U.S. with surface areas of 10 square miles or more.
Canada is home to approximately 2 million lakes , which accounts for about 14% of the world's total lakes. The exact count varies based on the minimum size definition used:
- Scientific Estimate : There are roughly 879,800 lakes larger than 0.1 km² (0.03 mi²).
- Atlas of Canada : Counts 31,752 lakes larger than 3 km² (1.16 mi²).
- Large Lakes : There are 563 lakes larger than 100 km² (38.6 mi²).
These freshwater bodies cover nearly 9% of Canada's land area, with the Great Lakes containing 18% of the world's fresh lake water.
Ah yes, you are American aren't you.
The United States has over 100,000 significant lakes, though estimates vary widely based on size definitions, ranging up to 3 million if including small, unnamed ponds in Alaska.
If we include unnamed ponds I live between two lakes! I guess I should give it a name, maybe Coy Pond!
Where I live there are a lot of small lakes with the same names. Locals name them first lake etc. Our fishing regs often have exemptions for certain bodies of water and they use GPS co-ords so everyone knows exactly what body of water is meant.
It is important to be aware that Amazon is a marketplace. Just like eBay and Aliexpress, anyone can sign up for an Amazon seller account and list products.
Amazon offers sellers a "Fulfillment by Amazon" (FBA) service. Sellers who use this service ship their products in bulk to an Amazon warehouse, and then Amazon takes care of shipping the product to the customer. However, FBA is optional. Sellers are also free to handle fulfillment themself, shipping directly to the customer. If you order from one of these listings, the fulfillment is at the whims of the random seller you purchased from.
The only involvement Amazon has in the seller fulfilled scenario case is encouraging fulfillment by the seller within the timeline specified by the seller (the seller can set a maximum delay between order receipt and when they promise to send it out). If the seller doesn't ship within the timeline they promised, Amazon punishes them by reducing the ranking of their listings in the search results. It is in the best interest of the seller to set a short ship out delay in their listings, since customers who are anxious to receive their order quickly will be considering the delivery date, and Amazon adds that duration to the expected time for the shipping service in the delivery date estimate it displays on the listing:
However, sellers may chose a longer delay if that makes sense for their business. Likewise, they may fail to meet the promised ship out deadline.
So it only makes sense to say "faster than Amazon" if you order a product that was fulfilled by Amazon. For example, here we can see a listing is using FBA:
And here we can see a listing that is seller-fulfilled:
Likewise, AliExpress is a marketplace. Except in this case no fulfillment service is available, so every listing is seller fulfilled. So it also doesn't make sense to say "AliExpress is faster". You can only say that the specific AliExpress seller you purchased from is faster.
My post was a little bit tongue in cheek. Usually I only order Prime Amazon stuff especially when I need it quick which is almost always.
One thing about AliExpress though, there is at least one 'group' called Choice which means free shipping as far as I can tell. The particular thing I am looking at now arrives in 1 to two weeks with Free shipping.
I don’t want to derail the thread (any further 
) but many designs for UPDI programmers have appeared in this forum and can be simple to make.
I don't know what logistic gurus and deal-makers AE has, but they are amazing. Average shipping has recently been around one week (to europe).
My last order was "bundle deal" (pick 3 items and shipping is free). I ordered ads1115 module, esp32c3 board and 10-pack of piezo-disks for total of 6 eur shipping included.
Packet arrived to europe two days after, passed customs on third day and took 3 more days to arrive by local postal service.
The most interesting thing is that the packet was labeled by local postal company and if I send the same packet to my neighbor next door by the same local post service, it will cost me more than 6 eur...
Australia is the place to be....
Fast Aliexpress, Fast JLPCB until your parcel lands in Australia, then it slows down as it goes up and down the east coast, or from one sorting centre to another for the next week of more.
Although recently AustPost has got their s&#t together.
ANZAC DAY-- Lest We Forget.
Tom.... 
Again, the only influence AliExpress has on this aspect is configuring the algorithm and policies of their platform in a manner that incentivizes sellers to maintain high quality standards in their fulfillment. That is important, but in the end your experience with a specific order is down to the actions of the seller of that listing.
This brings up the good point that there are factors in the buyer experience largely outside the control of the seller.
The duration of the delivery delay caused by customs processing will be mostly influenced by the import policies of the buyer's government, resources allocated to the customs service, and efficiency of service. The seller's only influence is ensuring they do the necessary paperwork correctly.
It is possible for the platform to influence this by providing resources and tools to facilitate completion of the paperwork by the seller.
The shipping cost is also significantly influenced by governmental policy. For example:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/shipping-canada-china-1.6950967
The seller's influence on shipping cost is:
- Do they add a premium, charge at cost, or below cost (in which case they cover it via the item price)?
- Which shipping services the seller supports.
- Cost efficiency of shipping supplies: Do they utilize supplies optimally, or do they use them in excess of requirements? Do they purchase supplies at a low price in bulk, or at a premium price in small quantities?
It is possible for the platform to influence this by providing resources and tools to facilitate efficient shipping. For example, the platform can provide a system that allows the seller to efficiently purchase shipping and print a label directly via the platform.