Alibaba's (BABA) AliExpress is reportedly testing a new VIP membership program in some markets, in a challenge to Amazon (AMZN), The Information reports

Loyalty and membership schemes in cross-border e-commerce have historically functioned as a retention and order-frequency tool rather than a direct revenue line, and the pattern in past rollouts of this kind is that economics hinge on take-up rates and logistics subsidy costs rather than headline subscriber counts. AliExpress has form in copying and localising formats proven elsewhere, and its prior competitive pushes into Western markets have tended to run through price and delivery-speed investment funded at the group level, with margins at the international commerce unit absorbing the cost. The immediate unknowns are which markets are in the test, the fee structure, and whether fulfillment perks are bundled, since it is the shipping subsidy that determines whether such a program is accretive or dilutive. For Amazon, precedent suggests limited sensitivity to single competitor initiatives; its membership flywheel has historically proven sticky, and competitive challenges have tended to show up in category-level pricing and advertising spend rather than in subscriber defections. The attribution to a single media report without company confirmation leaves this in trial-balloon territory. The follow-ons worth noting are confirmation from either company, geographic scope, and any disclosure in Alibaba's international segment commentary on subsidy intensity.