When entering dropshipping business you probably get the idea of doing dropshipping via AliExpress. We’ve talked to good amount of dropshippers who had or are having issues with AliExpress dropshipping, and what they have to say may help you avoid unnecessary roadblocks.
Who stopped dropshipping from AliExpress
1. New sellers who just started and value every customer
What they say about AliExpress dropshipping
- Shipping: Shipping takes at least 2 weeks, even more than one month
- Product + shipping cost: Find the lowest cost combination possible
2. Established sellers who need to streamline every process
What they say about AliExpress dropshipping
- Order Fulfillment: dealing with tens to hundreds of orders per day manually, which is inefficient and cost manpower
- Inventory: product gets out of stock
- Customization: no personal branding on packaging
Let’s review them one by one.
The disadvantage of AliExpress dropshipping
AliExpress ePacket Shipping:
We all know that ePacket is incredibly cheap (for light product such as clothes or accessories it’s just 1-2 bucks).
But actually, the ePacket on AliExpress doesn’t provide 100% tracking, it only provides ‘milestone’ tracking – meaning the tracking only records when it’s shipped, cleared by custom. The average delivery time of ePacket is 2-4 weeks, and it doesn’t provide signature service hence the final delivery can’t be tracked.
This is definitely frustrating for customers, and for you too if you want to build trust with them. Slow shipping potentially sabotages your ratings with Facebook advertisement too.
With uncertainty of the US-sino trading war, whether ePacket could keep its low price remains a problem.
cost of sourcing from AliExpress
While there is no MOQ(minimum order quantity), you don’t get wholesale price for bulk orders. Also don’t forget the AliExpress sellers are to make profits too.
Just compare the cost of AliExpress and HyperSKU and you’ll find how much you can save!
Order fulfillment
Two steps to fulfill orders:
- Place orders: pass the shipping information to supplier and pay for the products and shipping
- Fulfill orders: let your customer know the order has been processed and give them the tracking numbers
With AliExpress it’s intuitive – you just submit your customer’s shipping address instead of yours, and pay for it yourself. Once the seller updates the tracking number (usually 3-5 days after), you copy that tracking information and give it to your customer.
That sounds totally easy, until you realize that you have to order dozens of products for different customers, and from different sellers. You will face with possible manual mistakes, credit card transaction limits and lots of back-and-forth communications.
Inventory Controls
You are happy with orders growing, until the AliExpress seller you dropship from runs out of stock. With AliExpress you remain as buyer and it’s hard to build serious business relationship. It’s not great for any kind of holiday-related sales.
Customization
When you see sales growing and start to gain followers and returning, it’s time to consider enhancing brand awareness. By simply placing a sticker of your logo or a discount flyer, it makes big difference.
With AliExpress it’s 100% white label. While with HyperSKU, you may choose to customize from packaging to insert materials, offering you the simplest way to enhance brand awareness with customers.
Conclusion
We figure the key pain point with AliExpress is that – it’s not scalable. the disadvantages of AliExpress dropshipping cost dropshippers potential customers, extra employee, extra time and efforts. To make a long-term and successful business (and stills remain relaxed), work with dropshipping solution such as HyperSKU will save cost, improve shipping, and improve overall efficiency and customer experience.
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