How to Start Dropshipping on AliExpress: Ultimate Guide

Dropshipping on Aliexpress is a great method to get your ecommerce business off the ground without having to worry about inventory or shipping. It's as easy as putting a product on your website for sale and instructing your supplier to ship the item on your behalf whenever you receive an order.

While beginning a dropshipping business is a terrific method to start an ecommerce business from the ground up, finding a dependable supplier can be difficult. With a dropshipping service like DSers, however, you may find millions of products to dropship, including AliExpress products.

What is AliExpress?

AliExpress is a massive online marketplace with over 100 million products for sale. Alibaba, one of the world's largest ecommerce corporations, owns the company, which was launched in 2010.

You can get trending products at a lesser price on AliExpress because most of the merchants are overseas manufacturers. Women's apparel and jewelry, as well as gadgets and home décor, are all available. If you want to sell things online, it's a terrific site to look for products. AliExpress, unlike other marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, offers a unique infrastructure that is suited for dropshipping order fulfillment.

Does AliExpress allow dropshipping?

Yes! Without having to worry about inventory or shipping, AliExpress makes it simple to select things to sell in your ecommerce business. You may start dropshipping for free right now by utilizing DSers or other dropshipping tools to quickly search and add AliExpress products to your store.

The following is how it works:

• add the AliExpress products you want to sell to your store.
• You decide on pricing that includes a markup.
• When you receive an order, you pay wholesale prices for the product.
• Your consumer receives the order directly from the AliExpress merchant.

How much does it cost to dropship on AliExpress?

Dropshipping on AliExpress is completely free. Doba and Worldwide Brands, for example, charge monthly fees to access their suppliers. It's simple to find things to sell on AliExpress with no startup fees if you're establishing a dropshipping business with no money.

What are the benefits of dropshipping on AliExpress?

While AliExpress bills itself as an online retailer, most AliExpress sellers are well aware that the majority of their buyers are resellers who are more interested in dropshipping.

AliExpress also makes dropshipping a breeze. There is no cost or fee upfront, so you can try out things without making a large financial commitment.

Many AliExpress sellers have current product photographs that you can utilize in your store, as well as basic product descriptions. When selling a commodity product, though, don't overlook the value of distinctiveness through positioning and how you polish the minor details—better images and product descriptions are usually worth your time.

Finally, dropshipping is as easy as purchasing a product from the website and entering your customer's address after they have received their order.

We'll go over what to look for in a product and a seller in greater detail below, as well as how to position yourself for success. But, to be honest, it's not any more complicated than what I've already described. Once you've got everything set up, dropshipping through AliExpress is a terrific method to get started selling online.

Why would someone shop at your site when they can get identical products for less on AliExpress?

Your competitive edge with an AliExpress dropshipping business will not be your low prices or unique original products. Your competitive edge will come from being able to reach and serve your customers faster and better than your competitors—in other words, marketing, operations, and support will be key to your success.

Good marketing is a competitive advantage in and of itself. Marketing is the process of assisting customers in finding, evaluating, and purchasing your goods; it is intended to enhance a customer's experience with your store while also driving income. Marketing also covers a wide range of activities aimed at establishing a brand, such as generating useful and entertaining content.

Last but not least, your customer service is a critical distinction, especially if your present competitors provide poor service or make buying a difficult process. You may dramatically increase your level of service by promptly responding to customer questions and making it a priority to assist them in thoroughly resolving any problems they have while shopping at your store.

Can you dropship products from AliExpress to Amazon?

Yes, in a word. Selling AliExpress dropshipping products on Amazon is one strategy we recommend:

• Create an online store using an ecommerce platform like Shopify and connect it to DSers (which sources inventory from AliExpress).
• Import DSers products into your Shopify store.
• Toggle on the Amazon Sales Channel in your store's settings.
• From your Shopify admin, you can create and manage Amazon listings.

If you already sell on Amazon, you can build Amazon listings from existing products in your store or create offers for existing Amazon products once you've set up DSers. Shopify will update your Amazon listings automatically to match your store's inventory.

Setting up your AliExpress dropshipping store step by step

Let's move on to getting your store set up now that we know how AliExpress may help you source products as a dropshipper and why it's crucial to position your store effectively.

How to choose which AliExpress dropshipping products to sell

The first step in creating your store is deciding on a niche or the type of dropshipping products you'll sell. If you're unsure where to begin, start with AliExpress's product categories and list possibilities depending on what interests you the most or what you'd feel most comfortable selling.

It's time to start selecting a few things to resale in your store once you've decided on a niche. In this case, I chose running shoes as the focus of my store.

There is a large selection of products to pick from, as with many categories on AliExpress. If you don't choose a high-quality product from a reputable seller, this might be overwhelming and cause issues.

I've created a list of criteria for selecting a product, which isn't flawless. There's no science behind it, but it's helped me find trustworthy dealers in the past. When I'm looking for a product to dropship on AliExpress, I check for a few things:

No brands, fakes, or knockoffs:

To avoid mistakenly reselling fakes and knockoffs, I avoid products with any current branding. Even if the product is authentic, the danger of selling a product with someone else's logo on it isn't worth it because you won't be a licensed reseller unless you work out a formal arrangement with the company in question. Yes, this will limit your options in the end, but it will save you a lot of time, so stick to product categories where a recognizable trademark isn't as important, such as electronic equipment or apparel.

ePacket delivery with free shipping:

Focus on reselling products that have free ePacket shipping wherever available. Because the bulk of AliExpress product listings is from China or Hong Kong, ePacket shipping is not only the most cost-effective but also one of the fastest ways to ship small items to the US. It's worth noting that, even if ePacket shipping isn't free, I'd prefer to choose a vendor who does than one who doesn't. It's simply the most cost-effective and dependable way to deliver things from China to the Americas and Europe right now.

Over 300 orders:

A product with a large number of orders reveals a few things to me. For starters, there is a market for the goods. Second, the supplier is more dependable than average, because, given the volume of transactions, at least a few are likely to be repeat purchases. I'll sometimes start looking for a new item to sell by sorting things by the number of orders they have received.

More than a 4.5-star rating:

I also make sure that the things I wish to resell have a high product rating (at least 4.5 stars) and that the vendor has largely favorable feedback. I use a Chrome plugin called AliExpress Seller Check to gain a second view of product vendors. Using a third-party platform, I can get a more candid and unbiased evaluation of a seller at a look. This has shown to be far more dependable than relying solely on AliExpress' rating system.

Low price with a high margin potential:

I prefer to purchase things in the $1 to $20 price range, depending on the product I want to resale. Because these products might range in price from $20 to $50 or more, this provides me greater leeway when it comes to spending marketing expenditures to gain a consumer. For example, I can buy running shoes for roughly $20 on AliExpress and sell them for $50, giving me a 60% profit margin before marketing charges.

Lots of great product photos:

Do your homework to make sure the photographs are from your manufacturer and not from another online merchant. A fast Google image search will reveal whether the product photographs belong to a legitimate brand and merchant or the manufacturer.

Communicative, helpful seller:

Before placing an order with a merchant, don't be scared to ask them questions. A trustworthy seller will promptly respond to all of your inquiries. It's a significant red flag if a seller doesn't react to your messages.

Adding products to your store

It's time to start adding products to your Shopify store once you've set up your account and decided on a product category and supplier. It's crucial to go over this step in depth because it's not as simple as copying and pasting the images and information from an AliExpress listing onto your website.

Instead, there are a few things to consider if you want to position your store for success:

Write your product descriptions

Many of the product descriptions on AliExpress were not created by copywriters or adequately explain the products' merits. Having your original content will benefit your business in the long term and will aid in the conversion of visitors to consumers on your product pages. Finally, if you write unique copy for all of your store's pages, you'll eliminate the chance of duplicate content.

Let customers know about delivery times

It's a good idea to mention on the product page (or elsewhere on your site) that depending on the supplier, your consumers may have to wait up to 20 days for their order to arrive. Because the majority of AliExpress's suppliers are based in China, shipping delays may be longer than usual.

Use an order tracking app

You may receive emails from clients questioning where their order is due to the longer shipping times than most people are used to. Keep your clients informed about the status of their orders by using an order tracking tool from the Shopify App Store.

Use an app like Tracktor from the Shopify App Store to track and look up order statuses in real time for your online store.

Offer free shipping

Low shipping charges can become a competitive advantage for you, thus I strongly advise you to offer free shipping to your customers via the free/low-cost shipping options provided by many AliExpress vendors.

Price products appropriately

Consider charging nearly twice as much for your goods. A 50 percent profit margin will make it worthwhile to run the firm, as well as cover critical expenses like marketing and support.

Add products to your store with Dsers

You may utilize DSers to swiftly add products from AliExpress to your website instead of manually doing so.

You can also use the Dsers Chrome plug-in to import products from AliExpress into your store. This assists you in automating the import of new products as you search for stuff that your clients will enjoy. The DSers app takes care of everything; all you have to do is browse and click.

How to use AliExpress to dropship

What do you do now that you've got your store ready to sell and dropship, and you've received your first order?

AliExpress dropshipping works in the same way as any other dropshipper. Purchase the item on AliExpress and input your customer's name and shipping address when you receive an order. The remainder is taken care of by the seller.

If you wish to do this manually, a spreadsheet with a list of all the products on your site, the price you're selling them for, the price they cost on AliExpress, and a link to the AliExpress listing might be useful. This way, every time you receive an order, you'll have a simpler time finding the supplier on AliExpress and keeping track of price fluctuations.

You may also utilize DSers to manage all of this for you, making it easier for you to place orders on AliExpress and keep track of product price fluctuations. This method is not only simpler, but it also saves you a significant amount of time, which is your most precious resource. It allows you to expand without having to manually order dozens (or even hundreds) of products on AliExpress.

What is the mechanism behind it? It's as easy as installing the DSers app and adding products to your Shopify store. The rest is handled by DSers. It will purchase the item from AliExpress on your behalf and enter your customer's information.

DSers will even notify you when an AliExpress seller changes their price or runs out of stock, as well as propose alternative dropshipping suppliers.

DSers may also serve as a dashboard for your AliExpress dropshipping business, allowing you to track all of your orders and track delivery progress.

It's a good idea to let the seller know you're dropshipping when ordering on AliExpress. The supplier will not include any invoices or promotions in the bundle sent to your customer in this manner. You can leave a message for the seller during the checkout process. “We're dropshipping“, for example, is a good message to leave. Please, no advertisements or bills!” When you shop on AliExpress, DSers can help you with this.

If the provider is in China and offers it as an option, try to use ePacket shipping. Many vendors will provide it for free. For all AliExpress orders, DSers allows you to choose ePacket shipping immediately at checkout.

If you use DSers, the order will be fulfilled automatically for you, complete with a tracking number, and your customer will receive a notification that their order has been dispatched. If you're using DSers, you can skip the step above.

That concludes our discussion. It's now only a matter of waiting for your clients' orders to arrive. AliExpress will send you an email after your order arrives, asking for confirmation that it was received. Allow time for the consumer to notify you if there are any problems with the product or delivery. In this manner, you may raise the issue with the supplier via AliExpress, pushing them to remedy the problem and hopefully resolve it for future orders.

What about refunds and returns?

Many AliExpress vendors do not accept returns. As a result, you'll have to deal with returns and refunds in one of several ways. It's usually because the order never arrived or the consumer is unhappy with their purchase when there's a problem with an order a customer placed in your store.

You'll need to raise the issue with your supplier in the first case—an order that never arrives. In this case, contact the supplier or use AliExpress' Buyer Protection to resolve the issue.

If a customer is dissatisfied with a product, it's frequently due to a mismatch of expectations—what they got wasn't what they expected. I recommend issuing a refund and determining whether any adjustments to your marketing strategy are necessary to satisfy their concerns (in many cases, the customer simply may not have fully understood what they were ordering). If the goods are broken, have your customer take photos of them and email them to the AliExpress seller. From there, you can proceed.

What are the best AliExpress dropshipping products?

We've compiled a list of the greatest dropshipping product listings:

1. Kids’ face masks
2. Electric toothbrushes
3. Bamboo toothbrushes
4. Interdental toothbrushes
5. Sleep eye masks
6. Sleep gummies
7. Yoga mats
8. Massage gun
9. Jade rollers
10. Vitamin C serum
11. Acne patches
12. Squat-proof leggings
13. Mom jeans
14. Tracksuit
15. Overshirts
16. Balaclava
17. Silk pajamas
18. Slides
19. Silicone rings
20. Backpacks
21. Air fryers
22. Portable blenders
23. Electric kettle
24. Oat milk
25. Fasting tea
26. Wine fridges
27. Doormats
28. Air-purifying plants
29. Ceiling fans
30. Dog bed
31. Soap dish
32. Air purifiers
33. Blackout curtains
34. Blankets
35. Orthopedic pillows
36. Duvet covers
37. Boho pillows
38. Bedside lamps
39. Pencil cases
40. Mechanical pencils
41. Blue-light glasses
42. Podcast microphones
43. Mechanical keycaps
44. Smart lights
45. Automatic soap dispensers
46. Smart plugs
47. Smart locks
48. Ring lights
49. Portable green screens
50. iPhone tripods
51. Mobile skins
52. Gaming monitors
53. Gaming mouse pads
54. Gaming headsets
55. Ergonomic chairs
56. Ceramic coating
57. Socket wrenches
58. Digital tire-pressure gauge
59. Portable power stations

Growing your AliExpress dropshipping business

It's time to start thinking about how you may expand your internet business and make more money once you've made your first few sales.

Build supplier relationships

You'll eventually figure out which are the trustworthy and high-quality vendors and which aren't. Build relationships with dependable suppliers, which is one of the greatest dropshipping recommendations I know. You'll be able to get cheaper prices and faster order processing as a result of this.

I've discovered that the majority of AliExpress vendors use WeChat or WhatsApp. If you find yourself shopping from the same vendor regularly, it's a good idea to ask for their Skype username so you can build a business relationship. Some merchants will let you put your branding on products or include personalized invoices and branded inserts in shipping packages once you've proven you can bring in recurring transactions.

Market your business

It might be difficult to market an online business. Fortunately, you can test and implement a variety of marketing strategies for your company.

The following are some of the most effective strategies:

• SEO
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Affiliate Programs
• Google Ads
• Influencer marketing

Start your dropshipping business with DSers

The nicest thing about dropshipping on AliExpress is that it allows store owners to swiftly test and confirm product concepts. Are you unsure if you can sell a certain product? Add it to your shop and give it a try! If it doesn't work out, you can just discard the item and try something different.

There's little risk in setting this up because you're not carrying or managing any goods, and there's no upfront expense. And, as I already stated, you may begin with DSers for free.