How to Start an AliExpress Dropshipping Business

More and more people are searching for new business methods in the twenty-first century. Many eyes are focused on dropshipping businesses that have significant advances for newcomers. This retail business method does not require dropshipper storage spaces and production activities; the primary working tool is a computer.

A dropshipper maintains a marketing platform to advertise the goods found from Manufacturers ready to work per this retail method. The Manufacturer, meanwhile, is responsible for production and delivery to the Customer. 

One of the best sources of Manufacturers to start this business is, of course, in China. In the top list of China Dropshipping suppliers are AliExpress, Banggood, CJDropshipping, and Chinabrands. We will discuss how to start a dropshipping business with the most familiar platform – AliExpress. 

Why AliExpress is good for dropshipping

This platform is perfect for new dropshippers as millions of goods can be found at a low cost, from electronics to toys. The platform has friendly navigation with multi-language support. The additional advantage is the location of

Manufacturer’s stores worldwide – the essential factor in e-commerce, where the short delivery time gives you more popularity among Customers. Furthermore, AliExpress has special VIP packages, ranking suppliers to find easier the best one, compare products.

To tell more about this platform, there is an Aliexpress dropshipping business automation tool. This tool will automatically find the best products, create cards in your online shop with required repricing and take orders from Customers; as you can see further, not so much will be left.

Such automation tools are available for a free trial period where you can test all required possibilities. For sure, you can do all these steps manually, but why should you spend so much time if you can do something more pleasant?

Also read, 6 Steps To Building A Successful Online Drop Shipping Business

How to step by step start dropshipping with AliExpress

• Find a product for dropshipping business

Dropshipping niche is a crucial factor of success in this business. It is essential to start from bestsellers to understand the dropshipping retail model. Further, you can search for unique goods and add them to the cart of your online store. You can use marketplaces analytics to find bestsellers or use automatic tools.

• Search on AliExpress for the best Manufacturers

Not all manufacturers are willing to work with dropshippers as they wait for retailers buying with containers. But still, on AliExpress, there are a lot of manufacturers of each type of goods that do not want to take care of sales.

So, it would help if you found the most trustable with many positive reviews and able to talk with you in one language. A Manufacturer is the essence of this model, as he maintains the quality of goods and sends them to Customers. The better price you negotiate with the Manufacturer, the more significant margin (the difference between the price in an online shop and the Manufacturer’s price) you will have and more profit at the end.

• Start a contract relationship with a Manufacturer

Do not rely on the nice words of Manufacturers; to have long-term relationships, you need to agree on some contract terms defining the production time, delivery costs, and who will be responsible for returns. It will be great if some discount is foreseen reaching a specific number of successful purchases.

The dropshipper also should have access to the storage to understand the leftovers of the required goods to avoid sales of air. In the best case, you can find several Manufacturers for the same goods and distribute orders among them, creating additional competition and advising them to work better.

• Create or find an online store to place the goods from AliExpress.

There are several options for creating an online shop: many available marketplaces, own online shops, or social networks. It may happen that a dropshipper already has its online shop or social networks with the constant traffic of customers, so it is much easier to start a dropshipping business.

However, creating something always requires a lot of effort and additional money, so good solution to start with the available marketplace. There are about 220 Internet available platforms, not only eBay and Amazon. In Europe, the most famous are Asos, La Redoute, Groupon, and Wish. Most marketplaces have monthly commissions to place goods or charge some fee after selling each type of goods. The marketplace should be chosen based on your niche, as each marketplace has specific Customers.

Also, read Dropshipping At Its Finest: Know It All From Christian Green

• Start a promotion campaign.

As the competition in online business is very high, you need to be on top of search engines. Before you receive a lot of positive reviews, you need to make your product visible to potential customers so that any promotion campaigns will be good. Try all free and paid methods to be on the top. For sure, on marketplaces, you need to make catching cards and set low prices initially, then reviews will do the rest. But you depend on the marketplace traffic and cannot increase it.

• Start taking orders and sending them to Manufacturers.

This is the most important part after you set everything above. It would be best if you were precise in sending all orders and delivery details to the Manufacturer. As the Manufacturer does not have direct contact with the Customer, a communication channel is going only through a dropshipper. You can use, as said earlier, automation methods for taking orders; this will speed up your work and make it easier. 

• Follow-up the order if it is produced and delivered on time.

To receive a positive review and return Customers, all your promises about products’ quality, availability, delivery terms, and packing instructions should be fulfilled in whole or even better. So, do not leave the Manufacturer unattended and check the status of all production and delivery stages. In the worst cases, you can inform Customers about some delays and potential bonuses because of that.

• Response Customers’ reviews.

In all search engines on all websites, only goods with many positive reviews rated better. So, a dropshipper should fight for them. If you receive the negative one, you should propose some resolution for the problem and a bonus or coupon for future deliveries. Unfortunately, most customers read reviews and start with negative ones.

Conclusion

I hope such a detailed description of each step of dropshipping business shows that this retailer method is not so complicated and worth trying. You can start from a small number, and after you receive a positive experience, you can repeat from the beginning with other goods and other Manufacturers. Then, all is in your hands to be successful.