Alibaba Group launched Aliexpress in 2010 as a B2C platform for Chinese companies to sell to international consumers. Aliexpress is a business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce platform that enables Chinese individuals and businesses to sell their products directly to foreign consumers.
Similar to eBay, AliExpress allows both businesses and individuals to sell. Aliexpress is unlike Amazon in that it is merely an ecommerce platform and does not sell products directly to consumers.
The vast majority of AliExpress sellers are situated in China and obtain all of their merchandise from Chinese manufacturers. This keeps costs low and allows them to offer free or very inexpensive shipping.
AliExpress is a vast marketplace that offers more than 100 million products for sale. AliExpress offers trending products at significantly lower prices than other marketplaces. This year, the most popular products have been smartphones, accessories, USB adapters, smartwatches, and headphones.
Sourcing From AliExpress
AliExpress is an excellent location to source products for dropshipping. AliExpress products are inexpensive because all of its sellers obtain their merchandise from Chinese manufacturers. This reduces costs and enables them to offer free or inexpensive shipping.
Here is how it operates:
You upload the AliExpress products you wish to sell to your store and provide a link that is exclusive to you.
You establish a price and decide your markup.
When you receive an order, you pay the wholesale price for the product to the supplier.
The AliExpress seller dispatches your customer's order directly.
While AliExpress positions itself as an online retailer, the vast majority of its sellers recognize that the vast majority of their consumers are resellers and are significantly more interested in dropshipping.
Dropshipping on AliExpress is quite simple. There are no upfront costs or fees, so there is no financial obligation to promote the products.
With an AliExpress dropshipping business, your competitive advantage will be your ability to reach and serve customers with a wide variety of products swiftly and easily, backed by the niche products and content you already provide.
As with any other aspect of your business, you must have a strategy, which will center on the following:
No fakes. You must be one hundred percent certain that any branded products you promote are authentic. This may restrict your options, but it will save you a great deal of time and effort, so it may be best to adhere to product categories where a recognizable logo is not as important.
Avoid delivery problems. Wherever feasible, prioritize the promotion of products from companies with at least one year of experience in global product distribution; let your competitors experiment with new suppliers!
Over 100 orders. Sell products where demand exists. This also demonstrates that this supplier is trustworthy! It is best practice to begin the search for new products by categorizing by the number of orders received.
At least 4.2 stars out of 5. Ensure that the products you intend to resell have a high product rating and that the seller has a majority of positive feedback – do not disregard those with a small percentage of negative reviews; this is unavoidable in the modern era, as some businesses intentionally harm their competitors.
Low cost with high profit potential. The finest products to sell are those that cost less than $40; anything more causes the customer to conduct additional research. Therefore, you are searching for items with a price of $20 or less. Four out of five dropshippers specialize in high-priced items, and as a result, four out of five dropshippers fail within a year.
Numerous quality product photographs. Perform a fast Google image search to determine if the product images are authentic and not stolen from another website.
A communicative helpful vendor. Before placing an order with a vendor, you should inquire about their business practices. A trustworthy seller will respond promptly to all of your questions. The absence of a seller's response to communications is a major red flag.
Sourcing From AliExpress
Keep in mind that your dropshipping position is based on your expertise, experience, and niche products; therefore, you must write your own product descriptions. Long-term, having your own unique, consistent content will benefit your business and help you convert more visitors into customers on your product pages.
Once you've made your first few dropshipping transactions, it's time to consider how you can expand your business and earn more money.
You will quickly determine which suppliers are dependable and of high quality and which are not. Establishing relationships with dependable suppliers will enable you to obtain better prices and expedited order processing.
If you frequently order from the same vendor, it is a good idea to request their Skype username in order to establish a business relationship. Some sellers will enable you to place your logo on products or include custom invoices and branded inserts once you have proven your ability to generate recurring sales.