Your Ultimate Guide to Sell on AliExpress
Is business expansion your motive? Facts reveal selling on AliExpress is the perfect solution. AliExpress (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group) is a massive marketplace. A leading global marketplace with visitors from 200 plus countries.
It earned $30.8 billion in sales during Singles’ Day 2019 alone, this figure is more than Amazon’s entire year (2019) sales in the UK ($ 22 bn), Japan ($ 17 bn), and Germany ($ 16 bn). Now, this figure is too alluring to overlook.
AliExpress did record sales worth $74 billion (50% hike compared to last year) on Single’s Day 2020. The 5-day long Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day in 2019 could not match the benchmark set by AliExpress in terms of sale. Yes, AliExpress top sellers earned beyond expectations.
60 million active customers on AliExpress is your greatest asset to push your sales from zero to zenith in no time. Take the next step and learn how to become an AliExpress seller and how to open the AliExpress seller account? After this, you can officially sell on AliExpress.
To open a business account, be ready with documents to prove yourself as the owner of a legally established enterprise. You must own a business in mainland China.
If you want to launch your brand or be an agent of the brand, then you need to show your qualifications and documentation from the brand.
You must agree to pay an annual technical service fee and choose a plan to among different technical payment plans.
Aliexpress don’t accept sellers who sell products without registering as a business enterprise.
Selling on AliExpress means increasing your business in front of 200 million more monthly visitors if you are from Mainland China, Russia, Spain, Italy, Turkey, and France. Hence, you can expand the business to the next level on AliExpress. One more benefit of selling on AliExpress is healthy competition. AliExpress never sells its own products directly to customers
Stats reveal that opportunities multiply on AliExpress. AliExpress sellers are lucky enough to sell to 60 million active buyers.
Most important of all, you have the opportunity to ease selling process with AliExpress Dropshipping solution. The solution is fully compatible with AliExpress Official APIs. This means order processing is automated using the APIs and empower seller with the below
Automatic order syncing between your store and AliExpress,
Auto-fetch order from store and creation on AliExpress buyer panel.
Order tracking updates from AliExpress to your store.
Auto order creation upon sipping provider is assigned.
AliExpress crossed the benchmark of 150 million overseas buyers within 2.5 years.
AliExpress allows individual merchants as well as companies. Therefore, you can register as AliExpress seller provided you have a VAT number, company operating license, the ID number of the company’s legal representative, and contact information (email and telephone number – updated one).
How much do I need to pay to sell on AliExpress?
You have to pay the Annual AliExpress seller fee. The AliExpress seller fee is decided based on the product category. It is generally between 5% – 8%. On the bright side, if you reach a specific quantity of sales, then annual payment is slashed by 50% or even more.
In which countries can I sell products through AliExpress?
It includes Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Malta, and Portugal. Hence, you have the opportunity to sell to the global audience.
Which products am I prohibited from selling on AliExpress?
Prohibited products include food and beverages, illegal traded products, and more product prohibited under the AliExpress product listing policy
Another advantage of AliExpress is the opportunity to earn an 8.5% commission for every sale done with AliExpress affiliate program. Above all, the chances of earning with an Affiliate program are high because cookies last upto 30 days.
Join the league of 10,000 happy sellers on AliExpress. Therefore, you can sell on AliExpress and reach 60 million active buyers worldwide.
AliExpress is one of the biggest online marketplaces that exist today.
Not only do they sell to end consumers, but they also serve as a dropshipping supplier to thousands of dropshippers.
With relatively low prices and millions of products on a user-friendly platform, they turned themselves into one of the most successful dropshipping suppliers available on the market.
Since AliExpress is full of thousands of Chinese agents and sellers who create and run their stores on their platform, it’s easy to run into sellers that aren’t service-oriented. There are no physical warehouses, as the sellers themselves source their products from other Chinese suppliers. Therefore, it’s crucial to know how to locate, communicate, and create mutual-relationships with your suppliers for your store’s long-term survivability.
The Importance Of Choosing A Reliable Dropshipping Supplier
Your job is to create a working connection between your suppliers and your customers. The products need to dispatch and arrive quickly. Their item description needs to be precise. And, if there are any problems with the product (arrived damaged, not as described, missing parts, etc.), your supplier should back you up during the return and refund/replacement process.
Analyze Each Sellers’ Performance
The first parameter is that the seller must have at least a 95% overall rating and above. Anything below 95% can pose a risk to your overall customer satisfaction.
Next, hover your mouse over the feedback percentage. Now you’ll see how long the seller has been selling on AliExpress. You’ll also see a detailed description of the seller rating – Item as described, communication, and shipping speed rating.
Once there, make sure that your seller has been active for at least one year on AliExpress. That’s because many new sellers on AliExpress do not have enough experience providing high-quality products and delivering them quickly. That’s why at least one year of experience minimizes the risk of working with new suppliers who are likely to make mistakes.
The minimum rating for each parameter should be 4.6 and above. Seller ratings with 4.7 and above are shown in green. 4.6 and below are shown in orange/red. While it is better to go with green seller ratings, this shouldn’t hold you back from going with an orange 4.6 rating. Many sellers with that rating still perform well.
Check The Shipping And Delivery Time
Reading the customer reviews will give you a better picture of how this seller performs when it comes to delivery times, item descriptions, and overall product quality. If you raised any questions while reading the product description, you would likely find your answer in the customer reviews.
Communicate With Your Supplier
Below the seller history information, there is a ‘Contact Now’ link
Click on it to open a message box between you and the seller. Use this opportunity to ask them a question about the product quality, shipping speed, or anything else that concerns you. The point of opening this communication protocol is simply to check if the supplier answers quickly and efficiently.
If it takes the supplier longer than 24 hours to respond, you might want to consider moving to the next supplier. And that’s because you don’t want your buyers waiting 2-3 days or more to get replies from you.
Furthermore, if you found high potential in a product that the supplier is selling, you can ask them to order a sample product to take better photos/videos and try the product out for yourself. Either way, as long as your supplier answers fast and their English is good enough to have a conversation with, you won’t have to worry about non-responsive suppliers that can damage your sales and reputation.
:::::::::::::::
Launched back in 2010, AliExpress is one of the biggest and oldest e-commerce marketplaces for dropshipping
You can find all kinds of dropshipping suppliers in this marketplace, both manufacturers and resellers, for just about any kind of product you are looking to sell on your Shopify store.
Its more famous parent company Alibaba is more suited for businesses looking to place huge quantity orders directly with manufacturers to secure the cheapest price per unit possible.
AliExpress on the other hand caters mostly to retail buyers looking to buy goods in lower quantities at factory prices.
Why AliExpress Is So Great For Dropshipping
This is why you will mostly find manufacturers and wholesalers on Alibaba and on AliExpress you will mostly find trading companies and smaller distributors.
There is no shopping cart on Alibaba; you have to negotiate directly with manufacturers for a price and minimum order quantity. Meanwhile, AliExpress has a shopping cart just like any other retail e-store and you don’t have to negotiate with suppliers.
if a supplier is charging some kind of recurring fee for you to do business with them (such as a monthly membership or service fee), they are most likely a scam.
Write to the supplier with any questions you have about the product’s specific details, shipping, minimum order requirements, and bulk prices.
Keep your message friendly, short, and to the point. Remember to be honest about your purchasing capacity, no need to try sounding “bigger” than you are. After you send the message, pay attention to quickly the supplier responds to your query.
A seller who can’t respond both quickly AND clearly to your requests is unreliable as a business partner.
Manufacturers, Distributors, and Drop Shippers: Understanding the Differences
Manufacturers make products. They operate factories that have materials, machines, and staff to make the product from scratch. Most established manufacturers also have designers who’ll work with you to develop product ideas.
You’ll go to manufacturers when you have a product idea and want help turning it into reality. Most manufacturers will ask for a minimum order quantity (MOQ) before starting the manufacturing process.
Wholesalers/Distributors
A distributor is a company that buys goods in large batches and sells those goods in smaller batches to retailers or traders.
You’ll go to distributors when you want to source large quantities of an existing product and resell it in your home country. For instance, if you want to sell LED lamps in the US, you’ll go to a LED lamp distributor.
Dropshippers
Drop shipping is a retail fulfillment method where the store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. The products are stored by the drop shipper who takes care of fulfilling individual orders on behalf of the reseller.
As soon as the reseller receives an order, it is forwarded to the drop shipper for fulfillment. The store never sees the product that is shipped to the customer.
You’ll go to drop shippers when you want to run a store but don’t want to keep an inventory or deal with shipping.
Traders
Trading companies buy multiple kinds of product from different factories and sell to other businesses.
The difference between traders and distributors is that the former usually stocks small to medium quantities of a lot of products, while the latter keeps large quantities of a limited range of products.
For instance, an electronics trading company might sell everything from mobile phones to LED lamps. A phone distributor, on the other hand, will usually only stock phones of a particular brand or type.
Difference Between Alibaba and Aliexpress
Alibaba is ideal for businesses that want to place large quantity orders to get the cheapest price per unit. You will mostly find manufacturers and wholesalers on Alibaba
Business owners can also have a custom product made by the manufacturers or buy certain types of products they specialize in and private label them under their own brand.
There is no shopping cart on Alibaba; you’ll have to work with manufacturers to negotiate a price and minimum order quantity.
Use Alibaba if you want to directly work with manufacturers, develop a private label of your product or to place bulk orders at the cheapest price.
Aliexpress operates at the consumer level — a retail version of Alibaba. It enables buyers to purchase goods in lower quantities at factory prices. You get a shopping cart — just like any retail store — and don’t have to negotiate with suppliers
Because it caters largely to retail buyers, AliExpress doesn’t have as many manufacturers on it. Instead, you’ll find a lot of trading companies and smaller distributors.
While you won’t get as cheap rates as on Alibaba, you won’t have to order large MOQs either. This makes it perfect for small and new businesses who want to get started with e-commerce.
Understand that Custom/Import duty may be charged
Expensive products usually get under the scanner of the custom department. If it happens to you, there is a good chance you will need to pay import duty for the products.
Different countries have different rates at which import duties are charged. Keep in check the duty you might have to pay before purchasing the product.
Check out Duty Calculator to get an estimate.
How to Contact AliExpress Suppliers
Email is the preferred mode of communication for most of suppliers. They will likely use Google Translate to translate your emails so make sure you keep the text concise, well formatted and to the point.
How to Start Your Drop Shipping Online Store
Basically, the process of drop shipping looks like this:
You find a wholesaler who sells mountain bikes for $300.
You list the bikes for $400 on your website.
A customer sees the bike, decides it’s a great deal and buys it.
You buy the bike from the wholesaler for $300 and email them the customer’s shipping information.
The wholesaler sends the bike to the customer.
You just made $100
Many drop shippers can do branded packaging for your orders, so no customer will ever guess you’re using drop shipping services. Reputable drop shippers are invisible for the customer.
The majority of drop ship suppliers receive orders via email. After the order is placed, they send the invoice and the tracking number to the store.
Some of them charge a drop-ship fee per order.
This happens because they normally send products in bulk quantities, and sending a single product takes extra effort. They charge the fee to cover additional expenses and inconveniences, caused by packaging and storage.
The key to a successful drop shipping store is finding reputable and trustworthy suppliers.
For a start, try looking for suppliers on these trusted directories:
WorldWide Brands
Doba
WholeSale Central
Alibaba.com
Starting Sales
As mentioned above, you can sell either on your website or on your supplier’s website, for example, eBay.
Selling on your own website won’t give you as much free traffic as the marketplace, but you also won’t have to pay extra money to the supplier. If you choose to sell on a marketplace, most suppliers will ask you to authorize and create an account, and probably charge an initial setup fee.
Printful is a drop shipping service of custom printed products
Unlike other marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Etsy), AliExpress has a very unique infrastructure that is most conducive to dropshipping. I’ve talked with dozens of suppliers using AliExpress. They all dropship, so you’ll find many suppliers who are reliable and familiar with this business model and their role in it
AliExpress Premium Shipping is the best balance between cheapness and speediness. ePacket, also known as AliExpress Premium Shipping, is ideal. With ePacket, delivery takes around 14 business days door-to-door and includes a tracking code, which your customers can use to check for the location of their order.
How to Dropship With Aliexpress: Order Samples
only order samples of products that you’re going to use in your advertising campaigns. Let’s say you have two or three items on which you are currently offering the best deals. You know they’re great, so you plan to use them in your Facebook or Instagram Ads to attract many visitors to your store. Order samples of these ones for sure. Savvy ecommerce entrepreneurs would order samples of these products to ensure that they are of the highest quality. If your top selling products are of great quality it will speak volumes about your store, and you’ll be more likely to gain some valuable social proof.
Alibaba, the original site, is built for wholesale purchases. Sellers usually have minimum bulk order requirements. You can directly connect with Chinese manufacturers to place orders, and payment is usually via bank transfer.
Aliexpress is its sister site. It’s made for smaller retailers who don't stock the products they're selling, and it accepts credit card payments. Think of it as Amazon, but cheaper and with a two-week delivery time
Instead of buying directly from the manufacturer, the sellers are actually third-party individuals or companies who are reselling to you. You won’t get the best price, but the buyer protection and ability to make single orders makes it perfect for dropshippers.
Dropshipping simply means when your customer makes a purchase from your site, you order the item from your Chinese supplier and they ship the item to your customer. You don’t need to hold any inventory or worry about packaging and shipping
Dropshipping from AliExpress requires you to first set up a store or have a place to sell your goods, like Amazon or eBay
When a customer makes a purchase, you place the order with the seller on AliExpress. The seller ships the items and you keep the difference in prices as profit
3 Tips to Help You Succeed in AliExpress Dropshipping
Tip #1: Ask the supplier to NOT include a packing slip, invoice, pricing or samples
Tip #2: Avoid selling items that infringe on copyrights
Tip #3: Use the AliExpress affiliate program.
Still not sure whether you want to take the plunge into the world of dropshipping?
If you’re still hesitating, here’s an easier option which you might be interested in:
The AliExpress affiliate program!
You set up a website and promote various AliExpress products on this website.
When your readers are interested in buying the product, they click on the links on your website, and they’re redirected to AliExpress.
When they make their purchase, the AliExpress merchant pays you an affiliate fee.
Your job is simply to get customers intrigued about the product…
you don’t need to place orders, deal with inquiries, or handle returns
you’ll get a minimum of 8.5% commission
In comparison, Amazon affiliates get 4% commission on average - so AliExpress certainly isn’t scrimping when it comes to rewarding their affiliates
Tip #3: Check if you’re working with a manufacturer, trade company or wholesaler
When working with suppliers online, these are three main types of suppliers you’ll run into.
Do you know what each of them are?
Manufacturers: These are people who originally create the item from scratch. Working with them can get you the lowest price, since there’s no middle man involved.
Trade Company: This is the middle man who works as an agent between you and the manufacturer. As a result, they have higher prices than the supplier since they need to make profit too.
Wholesaler: This is another form of middleman. The difference between them and trade companies is that they buy the items in bulk from the manufacturer, and then sell it at a mark-up price to yield a nice profit for themselves too.
On Alibaba, you’re usually going to be running into manufacturers or trade companies. To find out, go to their company’s profile, then under business type, it’ll tell you what type of supplier they are.
Another really cool and easy way to distinguish a wholesaler from a manufacturer is seeing if they sell more than one type of brand.
No comments:
Post a Comment