The Ultimate Guide to AliExpress Dropshipping

The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

If you’re looking to become an ecommerce entrepreneur, dropshipping is one of the easiest methods you can use to start your online business. But, why?
It doesn’t require much capital to get started. In fact, we wrote a guide detailing how you can start an ecommerce business with $0.00.
You don’t need a physical store. Since we’re talking about ecommerce here, you can run a successful dropshipping business from anywhere in the world. As a digital nomad, you’ll be able to travel the world, while making sure you have no regrets. You also don’t even have to stock any of the inventory yourself.
Everything you might need to learn is available for free online. You can use the vast number of articles, videos, and other educational material to learn on the go and achieve eCommerce success.

In this post, we’ll make sure to cover all major aspects of dropshipping.

Guide to Dropshipping Why You Should Try Dropshipping

Let’s say you’ve decided you want to start an ecommerce store. What are your next steps? Most entrepreneurs try to come up with a product idea, look for suppliers, pay for the products and get them into your real-world store. Then, once you receive your merchandise, you’ll try hard to make sales.

The problem is you don’t really know what will sell well, or if you will be able to sell the product at all. There’s a lot of risks involved in the traditional business model.
Here’s an example:
Elena buys 100 units of a particular product line, paying $1,000 in total.
She only sells 10 products and brings in $200 in sales.
Elena quickly realizes that nobody likes her products and decides to close her store.
She experiences a loss of over $800.

Alternatively, if she had tried dropshipping, she would have made $100 in profit in spite of failing to pick the right products at first. Here’s an illustration of this scenario:
Elena uses dropshipping, so she doesn’t buy products in advance;
She only manages to sell 10 products and brings in $200 in sales;
Elena orders the products from her suppliers and has them shipped directly to her customers;
She quickly realizes that nobody likes these products and decides to try a different niche or product instead;
Elena is still happy because she just made $100 in profit.

That’s how two very similar situations can bring very different results, with the key difference being dropshipping. Of course, if everything went well, she would have made $1,000 in profit in the first scenario. But don’t forget that people often overestimate their ability to create a successful ecommerce business, especially if it’s their first time. If you believe in numbers, more than 50% of Shopify store-owners never receive a single order at all.

So here’s the beauty of dropshipping. You don’t have to buy a product before selling it, so you don’t spend your precious budget on stock inventory.

You don’t even have to take our word for it that this system really works at little risk to you. You can read more about ecommerce entrepreneurs who use AliExpress dropshipping successfully here: The Huffington Post, The Next Web, Forbes.

What is AliExpress?

AliExpress dropshipping is one of the most popular marketplaces for ecommerce entrepreneurs using the dropshipping business model. You can import the product content and images from AliExpress.com directly to your store, choosing from millions of different items right at your fingertips. You’ll also have the freedom to set your prices and markups. The best part is that after you sell a product, you purchase it from a supplier on AliExpress and then have it shipped directly from their warehouse to your customer. AliExpress dropshipping is simple, easy, and low risk for new ecommerce entrepreneurs.

How to Dropship With AliExpress

While we’ve already covered many of the benefits of dropshipping with AliExpress, this process can still be a bit difficult to grasp. So, before we go on, let’s explore how it works step by step.

How to utilize AliExpress dropshipping,

Firstly you’ll set up your online store using a platform such a Shopify.
Next, using an app like Oberlo, you’re ready to start importing products from the AliExpress Marketplace. Oberlo helps you to streamline and sync your imports from AliExpress with your Shopify storefront by notifying you of any inventory or price changes from your supplier, and it can aid you in sending tracking codes to your customers once their orders have been dispatched.
Finally, when a customer places an order with your store, you’ll then go to your supplier and order that exact same item to be shipped directly to them.

The infographic below offers a good visual representation of how AliExpress dropshipping works.

Why AliExpress Dropshipping?

Although AliExpress suppliers are retailers themselves, the vast majority of users on the AliExpress platform are resellers and this is a well-known fact. Because of this AliExpress dropshipping is super simple as suppliers have already worked with dropshippers before and are willing to work to your needs.

To dropship from AliExpress there’s no upfront cost or fee so you can test out products without any financial commitment. Using the Oberlo app with Shopify you can find, import, and sell AliExpress products on your store with only a couple clicks.

Alternatives to AliExpress

If you’re looking to source US or European products as a dropshipping alternative to AliExpress, Spocket is leading the charge. It’s a easy-to-use marketplace available on WooCommerce or Shopify that you can install with a few clicks. Advantages include: branded invoicing, fast shipping, vetted suppliers and 24/7 support.