The Pros and Cons of Aliexpress Dropshipping in 2023

What are the pros and cons of Aliexpress dropshipping? Should you use it, or is there another alternative out there that might be better suited for you? Read this blog post to find out!
Doing business online is a wonderful concept. However, with the popularity of online shopping growing, more and more people seek ways to make money from dropshipping businesses. One way that seems to have been gaining traction is by using Aliexpress as a dropshipping supplier.
Many articles and videos have popped up in recent years claiming this method is simple and profitable, but before you jump on board with them, there are a few things you should know about it. This blog post will cover what Aliexpress dropshipping is all about, how it works, who can use it, how to start dropshipping, pros vs. cons, and finally, whether or not we think you should try out this type of business venture.
Whether you’re just getting into dropshipping or already using it, read through the article below so that you can decide whether Aliexpress dropshipping in 2022 is right for your eCommerce business or not!

Dropshipping Business: How it works?

In a nutshell, dropshipping works by allowing you to sell items without actually holding any inventory. This is done by purchasing the items from a wholesaler and having them shipped directly to your customers. When an order takes place through your online Shopify store, you purchase the item from the supplier and directly shipped to the customer from the supplier for a profit.
Suppliers create and maintain their online storefront through Aliexpress, and it is on these pages, they list the items for sale. This means that you can also browse and look at different products before deciding what you want to sell. In addition, since there are no minimum orders required from suppliers, you can pick and choose what products you want to sell without pre-purchase them. You also don’t need to worry about keeping inventory onsite with this sort of dropship model.
Upon receiving an order in your dropshipping eCommerce store, your job as a dropshipper is to purchase the items from reliable suppliers and have them shipped directly to your customer. You are then entitled to keep the difference between what you sold it for and how much you paid the supplier.

AliExpress dropshipping: What is it?

Aliexpress is an online supplier website that allows eCommerce stores to purchase products directly from them. This means you don’t need to hold any inventory but simply stock up on items whenever you receive an order and have it sent out directly to your customer.
Dropshipping with AliExpress is very simple. As a dropshipper, you find a product on Aliexpress.com and then advertise the product to your Shopify store so that customers can order through you instead of through AliExpress. When an order comes in, you purchase the product from the supplier and then ship it to your customer. The process is repeated until you decide to stop running your eCommerce store or until you run out of products.
Dropshipping doesn’t need any overhead costs associated with a brick-and-mortar store like a retail store, which means that you’re free from those pesky costs! So, you can increase your marketing costs to increase sales for your eCommerce business.

Who can use Aliexpress dropshipping?

To answer this question simply, any eCommerce seller who wishes to run their dropshipping store can use Aliexpress. Furthermore, there are no limitations as to who is allowed to dropship with them.
This includes both beginners and experienced eCommerce sellers alike. Those who wish to earn an extra income from drop shipping will find this option very appealing because there are no financial investments or upfront costs required to set up your dropshipping store.
Many people use it because it creates a more direct customer-to-supplier relationship, saves money by not going to middlemen suppliers or wholesalers, and allows for a smaller place to be an online retailer.

Is Aliexpress Dropshipping legit?

The answer is yes. You can use AliExpress suppliers for your dropshipping business; however, you will need to do some digging and make sure you are using the right one.
As mentioned before, there are many suppliers out there that go by the name Aliexpress. Numerous options make it challenging to determine which one is right for your business.
When you’re looking at finding a supplier that will drop ship your items, it’s essential to do some research on them. All the suppliers have specific policies and procedures for their customers, so make sure you live up to those standards before signing with any one of them!

Pros of Dropshipping with AliExpress

Several factors influence people’s decision to start dropshipping through Aliexpress. Here are some benefits of starting your own dropshipping profitable business!

A low-cost entry point into the business

Since there isn’t any need to hold any inventory, you can start your own business with very little money. There are several benefits to dropshipping products from AliExpress. Many of these products come directly from China, and suppliers on this website ship their goods worldwide. This gives your business considerable potential to grow, and you can easily create your online store. This means it’s easy to get started because there isn’t any significant investment needed to begin.

No Minimum Orders

Unlike wholesalers, where you have to purchase a certain number of items at once, Aliexpress suppliers don’t require that you make any minimum order. This saves you money on charges that you don’t need and means that there’s no time wasted waiting around for items to be shipped or taking up storage space just in case an order comes through.

No need to keep inventory

Also, AliExpress is a platform where suppliers list their products at an affordable price, and you can start selling them at a total retail price right away, so storing inventory is not a concern.

Ability to start small or build up gradually

One of the great benefits is that you don’t need many items to start selling. The minimum order quantity for suppliers on Aliexpress is often 1 or 2 units; so, you don’t need to buy much at once. Instead, you can do small orders often while adding more products over time while your business builds up.

Find popular items and get an instant return.

Find thousands of trending items to sell in your store and scale your eCommerce business accordingly. Aliexpress is the ideal place to find trending products that will be in demand on your eCommerce store, so keep an eye out for what’s hot and begin purchasing low quantities of these items directly from suppliers. Investing this way will give you an instant return.

Access to international markets

One of the best things about dropshipping with AliExpress is that you can sell your items to people from any country and eliminate borders for selling your products. You can even negotiate prices with suppliers to remain competitive as they ship their goods internationally, which means that you can boost your profits by performing price negotiations.

Cons of Dropshipping with AliExpress

There are some disadvantages to consider when it comes to running a business through Aliexpress as well. Here are some things you’ll need to take into consideration before deciding whether or not starting a dropshipping eCommerce business is suitable for you:

Low-Profit Margin

You’ll only be earning a small percentage for each sale you make, which means it may take several orders to begin earning enough money to pay yourself. This is because the price of each product is already heavily discounted on Aliexpress, and by selling them at a lower price, you can’t make a significant profit. However, this also means that the more comprehensive your profit margin is, the more you’ll make per sale. The best way to do this is to find suppliers who offer bulk discount pricing on their products, allowing you to sell them for even higher prices than before.

Long shipping times

Unfortunately, at the moment, there’s no way to get around slow shipping times when it comes to dropshipping with AliExpress. You’ll need to wait around 1-3 weeks for your items to be delivered, making it challenging to remain competitive, especially with drop shipping from China which can often have even longer shipping times.

Lack of control over inventory

Dropshipping with Aliexpress means that you’ll never actually have any control over the items that you are selling at your dropshipping eCommerce store. This means that when something goes out of stock, you won’t be able to restock it without ordering more from the supplier, which could take weeks depending on how many units they sold.
This is true for many other dropshipping companies. Still, you have to be particularly careful about this when doing business on AliExpress. If the seller cannot ship the order on time, the order will automatically be canceled, which means you will lose money.

Minimal Customer Support

Customer support may be lacking from some suppliers, which means you’ll need to rely on your customer support, which can be difficult if you’re a small business. Some suppliers may not offer any kind of email or phone number and will instead communicate through product reviews.

Low Supplier Reputation

Many AliExpress suppliers sell counterfeit items, so you must research using anyone. Additionally, you should be cautious when ordering fulfillment because many suppliers are unreliable and will leave customers hanging after receiving payment.

Higher risk due to increased competition

There’s a lot of sellers on Aliexpress, which means your business will have hefty competition even if you find products with low or medium prices like $5-$20. Due to the large number of online sellers available through Aliexpress, you’ll need a strategy for differentiating yourself from the competition.

Dropshipping business model in 2022: worth your time and effort?

Dropshipping with AliExpress is an excellent way to find unique and affordable products that people want. Due to the small profit margins, you’ll need to take your time finding suppliers and finding more ways to remain competitive. But, as long as you’re willing to put in the work, you can sell items through Aliexpress and make a living from it.
With the eCommerce industry continuing to grow, the opportunity for online sellers who want to start a dropshipping business or give it another shot is also growing. As a result, in 2022, we will see more entrepreneurs joining the drop-shipping bandwagon.
You can, however, succeed with drop shipping if you work hard and find a good supplier. Then, it is the perfect place to start an online business. With a low-cost entry point, no need for inventory or storage space, easy-to-find trending products that are in high demand, and the ability to scale up your business, it’s the best way to begin your eCommerce journey.

Tips to be Successful in Dropshipping on AliExpress in 2022

AliExpress Dropshipping is a great way to get your products in front of those who need them without the hassle of waiting for them to arrive. The best part about it? You can do this with absolutely no experience required! That’s why we will give you some tips on how you should run your AliExpress store so that when orders come through, they’ll be filled within minutes–just like magic (ha!).

Setting up a niche store-

Before you enter the online business, it is essential to select a profitable niche and target market. This will ensure that your products can be sold at an attractive price point for buyers in this specific segment of society.
Researching keywords is necessary for this. Several tools can be used to facilitate this process, but the best tools so far are Google’s Keyword Planner and Google Trends. It should give you accurate results within minutes. Once you’ve found your niche, it should be reasonably easy to develop product titles and descriptions based on your customers’ tend.

Building up your follower base-

Leverage social media to get more followers for your store. You can either use services like Facebook or Instagram Ads or even start a blog on the topic you’ve chosen to focus on. Of course, getting people’s attention is never cheap, but it should be relatively easy to find relevant groups online.
Moreover, you will have to find ways to advertise your products which means that you’ll need to use social media. For example, utilize hashtags and posts to increase awareness and bring attention to your brand.

Purchase from reputable and reliable suppliers-

Oftentimes, it can be tempting to choose the cheapest supplier–after all, who wants to pay more when you don’t have to? But we recommend that you avoid this temptation altogether.
Remember that AliExpress dropshipping suppliers are not vetted in any way. As a result, you may find dropshipping suppliers with products listed at meager prices but beware of sellers who seem too good to be true.
What you should be looking for is a seller with a long track record and positive reviews. This way, you can rest assured that they will fulfill orders correctly and quickly, as well as provide you with quality customer service.

Keep your store up to date-

Keep the design up to date to attract more customers. You can have a new look at your eCommerce store every so often to stay relevant and in tune with changing tastes.

Make full use of the AliExpress app –

Join the Aliexpress app, which is used by millions of people worldwide. It’s an excellent place to find and analysis suppliers your business, promote your products, and get in touch with customers.

Customer service is key –

Good customer service will keep the customers happy, which will keep them coming back for more. Therefore, it’s important to provide quality customer service in 2022 since it keeps online businesses running.

Get in touch with your AliExpress suppliers-

Through their AliExpress store is the best way to get in touch with them. They should offer contact information there, so make sure you use it! A good relationship with your suppliers is also vital. You can often solve problems in the early stages if you act quickly.
Make sure you ask your supplier about warranty information, product return policy, and the time needed for shipping. If you have a supplier that takes too long to ship your products, simply find another one!

Do not be afraid to ask for samples-

Suppose you want to be sure of the product quality of what you’re selling, request samples from the suppliers. The investment may be a bit steep, but your customers will be happy with your products.

Don’t be afraid to negotiate-

If your supplier is charging too much shipping costs, don’t hesitate to haggle! Unfortunately, the margin for dropship business in 2022 is pretty low, so you must maximize this as much as possible by cutting down on costs where you can.

Don’t target the best sellers-

Being the best seller on AliExpress doesn’t guarantee that it will be popular. It’s good to target products that are just below the best-seller rank to take advantage of their rankings without having tens of thousands of competitors.

Do not always choose the lowest price-

AliExpress is very competitive, and finding cheap products to sell in your store can be easy. However, these affordable products must be good quality since low-quality cheap products will damage your brand image.

Be cautious when purchasing branded products-

It can take a lot of time and effort to sell branded products due to their high prices. Therefore, it’s best to avoid selling too expensive items since they might discourage customers from purchasing.

Returns on AliExpress: What do you need to know?

It is important to note that, because of the high risk of shipping packages worldwide and back again, most AliExpress suppliers do not offer returns for orders. This means you will have to establish your return policy before buying from them, even though it can be risky by itself! The two most common causes are

Your customer order never arrived.

If your customer’s order never arrived, you should make a refund to them first. Then discuss with the supplier why this happened and find a solution. So, it doesn’t happen again in the future – for both of you!

There was a problem with the product.

The product can be damaged during shipping. There’s nothing extremely uncommon about this, and it’s somewhat understandable, so this case is less severe than the previous one. If your customer complains about a damaged product. You should ask them for pictures of the damage and then issue a refund. Afterward, you should contact your AliExpress supplier again to let them know that their packaging is inadequate and ask them to improve it for future purchases.

Conclusion

Online shopping has been a trend for generations. People have always loved to buy their items from home comfort; buying items from AliExpress and reselling them allows business owners to build a competitive business on a very low budget. It is one of the best choices to start your business for its competitively priced goods, the world’s largest and cheapest source of inventory, and global shipping all contribute to lower start-up capital requirements.
We all know that there are pros and cons to everything. Aliexpress Dropshipping is no exception. After all, it all depends on what your business needs to succeed. So, if you’re looking for an easy way to get started with eCommerce or need some extra cash flow without too much effort – we think Dropshipping with AliExpress might be perfect!

>> Start your dropshipping business with Shopify here!