Do you want to start dropshipping Aliexpress products during this pandemic situation? Well, read on.
Dropshipping is one of the most popular business models, and it’s effortless to start.
The good thing that makes this business model easy is that you won’t have to hold any inventory or even ship products to your customers. All that work is done by the suppliers that you are working with.
Another advantage of dropshipping is that you only need a small amount of capital to start.
Since you don’t have to hold any inventory or ship products yourself, you can select your niche, find suppliers, and launch your website with all the products you want to sell.
Table of Contents
What Is AliExpress?
AliExpress is one of the best places to source products from suppliers who have their products listed on the site in different niches.
With AliExpress, you can easily find products to sell at a very affordable price on your online store.
Products are listed on AliExpress for less than one dollar, going upward.
That kind of price setting allows you to source products from reliable suppliers and start selling in your store at a higher price to profit from every sale.
AliExpress offers a wide range of products in every niche, and you can easily upload products to your site through a third-party channel like Dsers or the Alidropship plugin.
In addition to the two mentioned above, many other ways exist to upload products from AliExpress to your site.
Benefits of AliExpress
Here are some of the benefits of dropshipping AliExpress products.
- There are no upfront fees—You don’t need any upfront fees to start dropshipping with AliExpress. All you need to do is find your niche, launch your site, and start sourcing products from AliExpress.
- Easier upload of products—With AliExpress, you can quickly source and upload products in minutes. You will also receive beautiful pictures of the products and detailed product descriptions.
- Easily test products—AliExpress also provides you with an opportunity to test products fast and find out which ones are selling well and which are not. When you select your niche and start sourcing products from the platform, you can easily begin to test them and have stats on the best-performing products.
How To Start Dropshipping Aliexpress Products Amid Corona Virus?
When it comes to dropshipping AliExpress products, there are several things you need to do to get started properly. Here are some tips.
1. Select Your Niche
The first thing you need to do before you consider dropshipping AliExpress products is select your niche. A niche is very crucial when starting an online store.
You must decide on a niche to help you choose the products you want to sell in your store.
AliExpress has millions of products to choose from, and picking your niche will help you avoid any confusion about what kind of products you want to start dropshipping.
To help you get the right inspiration, you can check the internet for other online stores, product listings, and bestsellers.
Conducting this kind of search will give you many ideas that you can use as inspiration when building your online store.
You can also check on social sites like Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram how other stores are running their pages on these sites. That will also help you get ideas that will come in handy when setting up social pages for your business.
Once you decide on the niche you want to enter and have identified the products you want to sell in your store, the next step is to begin the search on AliExpress.
You have to keep in mind that you should highly avoid branded products, knockoff items, and fake products. To help you have a legitimate business, you must stay away from products that don’t seem to have any potential.
2. Find a Reliable Supplier
Once you find your niche and decide on the products you want to sell on your site, the next step is finding a reliable supplier. Finding a reliable supplier can be daunting, but it is worth it in the long run. Here are the steps you need to take to find a reliable supplier from AliExpress.
- Check the price of the product—You first need to check how much the product costs on AliExpress. You may find many suppliers selling the same product, but it’s not always about the price. Therefore, you need to conduct thorough research and compare suppliers to find the most reliable one.
- View the ratings and feedback of the supplier—A supplier’s rating and feedback tell you a lot about them. Consider choosing a supplier with high ratings and a lot of positive feedback. Checking the ratings and feedback of different suppliers will help you narrow down the options and choose the right one.
- Consider ePacket delivery – Product shipping time is also one of the most crucial factors you need to consider. Customers want products that will get to them fast. Therefore, ePacket is an option to check when selecting a supplier. We highly recommend selecting suppliers that offer ePacket shipping options to your customers.
- How responsive is the supplier? You have to ask yourself this question, and the only way to find out is to contact them and find out how long they take to respond. It would help to choose a supplier that responds faster and on time. Avoid suppliers who respond with generic and meaningless messages because they will never help you.
- Other things you need to consider when choosing suppliers are the final price they offer, their minimum order quantity if they offer samples, shipping cost, and references.
3. Setup Your Store
The third step in starting a dropshipping business is setting up your store. You need a website where customers can visit and purchase your listed products.
Therefore, you must set up an attractive website that effectively showcases your brand.
Choosing your niche and finding a supplier are the two most important steps. Setting up your site is the third and most crucial step you must take seriously.
When you want to start dropshipping AliExpress products, you can set up your online store on a platform like Shopify. The good thing about Shopify is that managing your store is more comfortable.
The platform also offers various tools, templates, and plugins to use when setting up a store.
Moreover, they offer a 90-day free trial, which works very well with Dsers. You use it together with Shopify to help you source products from reliable suppliers on AliExpress.
When setting up your store, you must ensure that all product descriptions are well-written and use high-quality images. You must also provide transparent information about your shipping options and time and the product price.
4. Payment Methods
After setting up your site, you must pay your suppliers once customers order products.
Luckily, AliExpress offers several ways to pay suppliers since it is a comprehensive service. The most common and highly recommended payment method is a credit card.
You can use MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Maestro. The credit card payment method offers protection in case of refunds, returns, or poor-quality products.
You can file a dispute with the credit card company. AliExpress also offers other payment methods, such as Western Union, Cash Payment, Sofort Banking, SMA payment in Russia, DOKI, Boleto, AliExpress Pocket, and QIWI.
Usually, it takes AliExpress between 2 to 5 days to verify the card details once you sign up, which means you are hindered from placing any orders during that period.
5. Shipping Method
The other important thing to consider is the shipping method that you will use to send products to customers.
You need to consider selecting faster shipping methods to win plenty of customers. There are two options for dropshipping AliExpress products.
- AliExpress Standard shipping—The time required for the AliExpress standard shipping option tends to differ depending on where the item needs to go. This option offers shipping periods of between 12 days and 2 months.
- AliExpress premium shipping—This is the ePacket delivery option and is the fastest option to consider. It’s not only cost-effective but also quicker than the standard shipping option.
6. AliExpress Returns and Refunds
When dropshipping AliExpress products, you should note that a buyer protection policy is designed to ensure your legal rights and orders are followed.
Unfortunately, many AliExpress suppliers don’t offer any refunds or returns. Therefore, the best way to tackle this issue is by creating a plan to help you deal with the problem in the right direction.
Most customers are likely to request a return or refund if they don’t get what they want. Therefore, you can contact the supplier to try to resolve that issue, give them a refund, or offer the customer a replacement.
These are the three best ways to consider when dealing with returns or refund issues.
If the product is damaged during transportation, you can ask the customer to take photos of the damaged products, talk to the supplier about this, and try to resolve the issue correctly. You will be required to compensate the customer or negotiate a considerable solution for the customer.
Remember, this is where you will make or break your brand. That means you must handle disputes correctly for your brand to be considered trustworthy by customers.
If you handle disputes well, deliver quality products, and care for your customers, your brand will become popular, and your business will eventually grow.
7. Market Your Business
Marketing your business is also a crucial factor to consider. You can’t reach customers globally without marketing your store. Once you set everything up and start selling products in your store, the final step is to begin aggressively marketing your business so that your brand can become famous and more sales can start rolling in.
You can create a marketing plan to promote your business. Consider social media marketing on social sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Make sure your social footprint is substantial to help you reach millions of customers worldwide and gradually increase your sales with time.
Advertising has always been one of the most valuable ways to gain customers and popularize brands. Nowadays, there are many places where you can advertise your business, which makes things even better and way more effective.
You can also advertise on Google, which is a great place to win more customers and increase sales.
Pros and Cons of Dropshipping AliExpress Products
Here are some of the pros and cons of dropshipping AliExpress products
Pros
- AliExpress offers millions of products to choose from, which gives you an unlimited opportunity to select your niche and start an online store.
- AliExpress does not have any upfront fees. You can start sourcing products from reliable suppliers for free.
- You can control profit margins. Suppliers list products on AliExpress at a meager price. Therefore, you can set up high profit margins to make a good profit.
- You can find trending products on AliExpress very easily. Trending products tend to appear overnight on AliExpress, and this can be a good thing to help you cash in on these products.
Cons
- Shipping can take longer
- It is not possible to bundle up items
- You have to wait 2 to 5 days for your credit card details to be verified
- Some suppliers don’t speak the best English, which can be pretty tricky when communicating with them
Dropshipping Aliexpress Products: The Bottom Line
Dropshipping AliExpress products is one of the most lucrative ways to make money online. If you are considering starting an online store, you are on the right track.
If you want a thriving business, you just have to follow our guide, conduct more research, and make sure you do the right thing.
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