eCom Dropshipping from AliExpress with Shopify

Hey, Derek here,

There is an awful lot of chatter about eCom Dropshipping using AliExpress for product sourcing. This is something I have done, and it is something I have rejected! I’ve made a video about it which tells you exactly the reason why. I hope you find it useful. I’ve also put a written summing up of the video below.

So exactly why did I stop using this dropshipping model?

Well first up, what was the model? I was using Shopify to build the store, using the Oberlo plugin to bring products through from AliExpress. Leads were captured and sent into an Autoresponder with a follow up sequence. There was an initial money off coupon to entice buyers in.

Shopify

I liked Shopify. It was easy to use looked good and there were plenty of very professional themes available and plenty of added functionality from plugins available. A lot of the good stuff was chargeable, but there was also a lot of free plugins to offer essentials like related products listings (which are key in maximising profits when using the eCommerce business model).

Oberlo

Oberlo was pretty good. There were some issues with the functionality, but the ability to bring products straight in from AliExpress outweigh the downsides in my opinion. I guess it’s just a little bit quirky in how it works, but support and training is good.

AliExpress

AliExpress – great range of products (although a lot of it is cheap “tat”), great prices, but a major issue with delivery times. I’ll come back to this a little later.

The Dropshipping Market

The market I was in was French Bulldogs, aren’t they cute?

Frenchie owners and lovers are totally and absolutely committed to “the brand”. They are avid fans and as such will do anything for their Frenchie! They won’t buy information products about them though. I tried this. I wrote a full eBook that covered everything about the little beauties. How to make sure they were pure bred, how to look after them, train them etc etc. But, it didn’t sell. I then did a video series based on the book – nada.

They want information, absolutely, but…they are NOT prepared to pay for it!

In the end I used the info products as ethical bribes to build the list. Having this in place allowed me to quickly and cheaply built a list of nearly 4,000 subscribers.

Frenchy Stuff

However, give Frenchie owners “stuff” for their “family member” and they will buy anything. They’ll also buy leads, collars, Frenchie clothes, hats, you name it, no expense spared to pamper their mutt! They’ll even buy hats, t-shirts, hoodies, earrings, rings for themselves. Anything to show off that they’re a French Bulldog lover! Give them stuff with pictures of their own dog and I reckon you’d have a home run. However, that’s not possible (yet) with dropshipping (as far as I am aware).

The Initial Dropship Model

Anyway, back to the model. Our initial dropship launch model was as follows:-

1. The store went live with 40 products (and variations of them) all pulled into Shopify from AliExpree via the Oberlo plugin – some pretty heavy configuration of the products was necessary, but Oberlo does save a lot of time. It is a bit quirky, but once you get used to how it imports and what you have to do to ensure the correct variations of the listings propagate, it is good.

2. The website had pretty good rankings. It was a four/five year aged domain and, being an SEO, I had worked my magic on it and the site acquired a fair amount of organic traffic (2,500 visits per month).

3. Facebook ads were employed as well.

4. An opening discount voucher was available by pop up.

5. eMail marketing was to existing list and by sign up from either the pop up or a squeeze page that the FB ads directed to.

6. The launch offer was made again in the welcome email.

7. A chaser email was sent after three days if the offer had not been redeemed or the link in the squeeze page not clicked. (You do need an autoresponder that can follow link clicks to do this, I recommend Market Hero from Alex Becker if you are building an eCom / Dropshipping business it is the best). aWeber can alos do this, but it is seriously “clunky” in how it does this.

Results Week One

18 Orders
Wide range of products ordered
40% were multiple orders
50% were with the discount voucher

Results Month One

48 Orders
Not ONE order delivered by the end of the month
78% complaint rate due to slow delivery – ouch!
47% refund rate – double ouch!

And, herein lies the problem with this model.

Dropshipping – Not Good For The Instant Gratification Society

It’s true we live in an “instant gratification” society. We have all become conditioned to expect “it” now. Amazon Prime can deliver next day so why wait 40 days? And, I guess for the consumer it’s a very valid point.

eCom AliExpress Model Conclusion

Shopify is a great platform fror your eCom store. It’s relatively easy to use. The model for Shopify is very similar to WordPress and it all works in a very similar fashion. If you’re good with WP, Shopify will not be a problem for you.

If you are going to employ the AliExpress dropshipping model, I would get some proper high end training. Here’s a good course that I recommend. But, you still have to overcome this delivery lead time issue or charge high delivery prices for quicker deliver. This either rips your profits to shreds or makes the price to the customer quite high.

AliEXpress – Sorry It’s A “No” For Dropshipping

However, I am convinced that this model of dropshgipping using AliExpress on standard delivery is difficult to make work and profit from. I have mentioned people want their stuff now. I guess you can try and manage expectations at the point of sale. However, I think you’ll still have a huge admin burden in placating people who want their products. It’s very high maintenance. And, everyone I know who has tried this model has reported this same issue.

Some have made profits. I heard of a site selling cheap watches via the AliExpress Dropshipping model. The site earned very well, but had to hire a full time Admin person to field all the “support” calls. So, it’s not impossible, but it is very tough to make this eCom model work.

You will need to spend a little bit of money on plugins and a decent theme to look good if you’re serious about employing this dropship model.

Finding Faster Delivery

If you really want it to work well, I believe you would need to find products at a similar price to those on AliExpress but that offer a 2-3 day time limit on the dropship. That I belioeve would work as it’s at least competitive on delivery times with Amazon.

Either that, or buy your products in. Of course the downside of that is firstly that you still have to wait 20-40 days for delivery of the job lot if you order from AliExpress. Secondly, you have the exposure up front. If the product doesn’t then sell you are left holding the stock. I guess it’s then the car boot or garage sale 🙂

So, there you have my take on the eCom dropship model using Shopfy and AliExpress. I hope you found it useful.