Over 300 orders
: A product with a lot of orders tells me a few things. First, it tells me
there’s demand for the product. Second, it tells me the supplier must be reliable as
my guess is that a few of those orders are repeats. Someti
mes when looking for a new
product, I’ll sort products by the most orders.
Over 4.5 stars rating
: I also
like to ensure the products I plan to resell have a high
product rating (over 4.5 stars) and the seller has high positive feedback as well. Just to
get a second opinion on sellers on products, I use a Chrome extension called
AliExpress Seller Check
.
This provides me with a detailed overview rating left with a third
-
party app. I’ve
found this to be much more reliable than simply using AliExpress
’ rating system.
Low price with a high margin potential
: Depending on the product I want to resell, I
like to stick with purchasing products within a $1
-
$20 price range. This makes it less
risky when I lose money on a sale, and these products generally can
be priced at $20
-
$50 or more. For example, I can find running shoes on AliExpress for around $20 and
sell them for $50. This provides me with a 60% profit margin.
Lots of great, unbranded, product photos
: Do your due diligence to ensure the
photos are act
ually from your manufacturer and not stolen from another retailer
online. Doing a quick
Google image search
will help you see if the product photos are
of a real brand and retailer or from the manufact
urer themselves.
Communicative, helpful seller
: Don’t be afraid to ask a seller questions before
placing an order with them.
A good reliable seller will answer all of your questions
quickly. If a seller doesn’t respond to messages, that’s a big red flag.
Adding Products to Your Store
Once you
setup your Shopify stor
e
, it’s time to add a product. This step is important
to cover in detail because it’s not as simple as copying the images and description
of the AliExpress listing and placing that on your website.
Instead, if you want to position your store for success, t
here are a few things you
should consider.
Write your own product descriptions
. The product descriptions for many of the
products on AliExpress were not written by copywriters or with the intention of fully
explaining the benefits of the products. Having y
our own unique content will serve
your business better in the long run (Google ignores duplicate content) and will help
you convert better on product pages.
Let customers know about delivery times
.
It’s a good idea to include on the product
page (or elsewhere on your store) that your customers may need to wait at least 20
days (depending on the supplier) for their order to arrive. Since most suppliers on
AliExpress are located in China, shipping time
s can be longer than average.
Use an order tracking app
. With longer shipping times than most people are used to,
you’ll often receive emails from customers asking where their purchase is. Use an
order tracking app from the Shopify App store
to keep your customers up
-
to
-
date
with the status of their purchase.
Image:
Tracktor
Offer free shipping
. This can become one of your competitive advantages so I highly
recommend offering
free shipping to your customers by taking advantage of the
free/low cost shipping offered by many AliExpress sellers.
Price products appropriately
. Consider pricing your products at about twice the cost.
Shooting for a 50% margin will make running the busi
ness worthwhile, as well as
cover for marketing expenses.
Add products to your store with apps
. There are a few apps you can use to make
importing products from AliExpress to your store a lot easier.
Oberlo
Expressfy
Instead of manually adding products from AliExpress to your website, you can use
one of th
e above apps to quickly add products to your store.
How to Use AliExpress to Dropship
Now that you have your store filled with products ready to sell and dropship, what do
you do once you get your first order?
Dropshipping with AliExpress works similarly t
o any regular dropshipper. When you
receive an order, purchase the item on AliExpress and enter your customer’s name
and shipping address. The AliExpress seller handles the rest.
It might be a good idea to have a spreadsheet handy with a list of all the pr
oducts on
your site, the amount you’re selling them for, the amount they cost on AliExpress
and a link to the AliExpress listing. This way, whenever you get an order, it will be
easier for you to find the supplier on AliExpress as well as keep track of pri
ce changes.
Alternatively, you can use
Oberlo
whic
h can handle all this for you, including making it
easier for you to purchase orders on AliExpress and watch for price changes.
When ordering on AliExpress, it’s a good idea to let the seller know you’re
dropshipping. This way, the supplier won’t include a
ny invoices or promotions in the
package being sent to your customer.
On checkout, you can leave a message for the seller. I recommend leaving a message
such as: “We’re dropshipping. No promotions & invoices, please!”
As I mentioned earlier, try and select ePacket shipping if the supplier is in China and if
it’s available as a shipping option. Many suppliers
will offer this shipping option for
free.
Depending on your seller’s processing time, you’ll receive an email shortly letting
you know that your order has been shipped.
Click the link in the email to view the order, which will allow you to see the tracking number
for the order.
Head over to your Shopify admin and fulfill that order. Be sure to enter the tracking number,
too.
That’s it! Now it’s just a matter of waiting for your customers to receive their order.
When the order arrives, AliExpress will send you an email asking for confirmation that
the order was received. Give some
time for the customer to get back to you in case
there are any problems with their order. This way, you can bring up the issue with the
supplier through AliExpress for them to correct it.
What About Refunds and Returns?
Many AliExpress suppliers don’t offe
r returns. This means you’ll have to handle
returns and refunds in one of a few ways. When there’s an issue with an order a
customer placed on your store, it’s usually because the order never arrives or your
customer is not happy with their purchase.
For t
he first case, an order never arriving should be brought up with the AliExpress
supplier. In this situation, contact the supplier to resolve the issue or use AliExpress’
Buyer Protection.
If your customer is simply not happy with the product, I suggest pro
viding a refund. If
the product is damaged, ask your customer to take photos and send those photos to
the AliExpress seller and go from there.
Growing Your Dropshipping Business
Once you’ve made your first few sales, it’s time to start looking at how you c
an
grow your dropshipping business and make more money.
Eventually you’ll begin to figure out who the reliable and quality suppliers are, and
who are not. You should consider building relationships with the reliable ones. This
will allow you to get better
prices and priority order processing.
I’ve found most of the suppliers on AliExpress use Skype. If you see yourself
frequently ordering from the same seller, it’s a good idea to ask them for their Skype
username to develop a business relationship. Once you
’ve demonstrated you can
bring in recurring sales, some sellers will allow you to place your logo on products,
include custom invoices or branded inserts into shipping packages.
Start Dropshipping
The best part about AliExpress dropshipping is that it allo
ws you to quickly test and
validate store ideas and products. Unsure if you’re capable of selling a certain
product? Add it to your store and test it! Doesn’t work out? It’s as simple as
removing the item from your store and testing something else.
Because
you’re not carrying or managing any inventory, and there’s no upfront
cost, there’s little risk to setting this all up.
Comments
Post a Comment