Dropshipping with AliExpress is an accessible way to start an ecommerce business. With no inventory or shipping to manage, dropshippers can focus on building an online store and selecting popular products to sell.
While starting a dropshipping business is a great way to enter the world of ecommerce, finding reliable suppliers can be tough. That’s why so many entrepreneurs choose to dropship with AliExpress, using automation tools like DSers to simplify order processing.
What is AliExpress?
AliExpress is an enormous marketplace with millions of products available for sale. It was founded in 2010 and is owned by China-based Alibaba, one of the world’s largest ecommerce companies.
Most AliExpress sellers are overseas manufacturers, which is why you can often find trending products at a lower price. AliExpress products range from clothing and jewelry to electronics and home décor.
Unlike Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces, AliExpress’s infrastructure is designed to connect sellers with dropshipping suppliers.
Does AliExpress allow dropshipping?
AliExpress allows dropshipping and includes features to help dropshippers find products to sell. You can start dropshipping for free on Aliexpress with the help of a dropshipping app, such as DSers, which imports products from the marketplace to your Shopify store in a few clicks.
Here’s how Aliexpress dropshipping apps work:
- Browse Aliexpress for items you’d like to sell.
- Select a product using your dropshipping app.
- Set your sale price.
- Import the product to your Shopify store and edit the product listing.
- When you receive an order, your dropshipping app notifies the AliExpress seller.
- The AliExpress seller ships the product to the customer.
How much does it cost to dropship on AliExpress?
It’s free to dropship through AliExpress. Competitor marketplaces like Doba and Worldwide Brands charge monthly fees to access their suppliers. If you’re starting a dropshipping business with no money, it’s easy to find products to sell on AliExpress with zero startup costs.
What are the benefits of dropshipping on AliExpress?
While AliExpress may position itself as an online retailer, most AliExpress sellers understand that a large number of their customers are interested in dropshipping.
Many sellers on AliExpress have existing product photos you can use in your store, as well as basic product information. However, it’s usually worth your time to invest in better photos and product descriptions.
Essentially, dropshipping through AliExpress is as simple as buying a product from the site on behalf of your customer, inputting their name and address when you make the order.
Why would someone buy from your store if they can buy the same products on AliExpress?
With an AliExpress dropshipping business, your competitive advantage won’t be your price or unique products.
Instead, your business will succeed by reaching and serving customers faster than your competition. In other words, successful dropshipping is all about marketing, operations, and customer support.
Good marketing alone is a competitive advantage. Marketing is how you help customers find, evaluate, and buy your products. It’s also the umbrella of activities you complete to build your brand, such as creating content that’s helpful and entertaining.
Customer support is another key dropshipping differentiator, especially if your competition provides lackluster service or a frustrating shopping experience. You can maintain a high level of service by answering customer questions promptly and making it a priority to help them solve any issues they run into when buying from your store.
Can you dropship products from AliExpress to Amazon?
You can dropship on Amazon using AliExpress by connecting both marketplaces to a Shopify store. Here’s how:
- Use Shopify to create an online store.
- Add a dropshipping app to your store that sources inventory from AliExpress.
- Import AliExpress products to your Shopify store.
- Add an Amazon integration to your Shopify store.
- Use the integration to create and manage Amazon listings from your Shopify admin.
Once you set up your store, you can also create Amazon listings out of existing products in your catalog, or create offers for existing Amazon products if you’re already selling on the platform. Shopify will automatically update your Amazon listings to match your inventory.
Setting up your AliExpress dropshipping store with Shopify: step-by-step
Take these steps to get your AliExpress dropshipping store set up:
- Choose the right AliExpress dropshipping products to sell
- Select a reliable supplier
- Build your Shopify dropshipping store
- Add AliExpress products to your Shopify store
1. Choose the right AliExpress dropshipping products to sell
The first part of setting up your store is selecting a niche, or the selection of dropshipping products you’re going to sell.
If you don’t know where to start, take a look at AliExpress’s product categories and think about what interests you the most or what you’d feel the most confident selling.
Once you have a niche in mind, it’s time to start choosing products to resell in your store. With such a large range of products and suppliers to pick from, making selections can be overwhelming.
To help, here are five criteria to consider when choosing a product from AliExpress to dropship:
No brands, fakes, or knockoffs
Skip products with existing branding to avoid accidentally reselling fakes and knockoffs. Since you won’t be a licensed reseller (unless you specifically partner with brands), the risk of selling a branded product is not worth it, even if it’s legitimate.
While this may limit your product choices, it also keeps your store legal. You may decide to stick with product categories where a recognizable logo isn’t so important, such as electronic accessories.
ePacket delivery with free shipping
Wherever possible, focus on dropshipping products that offer free ePacket shipping. A majority of product listings on AliExpress come from China or Hong Kong, therefore ePacket delivery is not only the most economical but also one of the quickest options to ship small goods to the United States.
Even if a seller doesn’t offer free ePacket shipping, it’s still likely to be the most cost-effective and reliable shipping option for delivering AliExpress products from China to the Americas and Europe.
Over 300 orders
Products with lots of previous orders suggest a consistent demand, and show that a supplier is reliable (a high volume of orders means it’s likely at least a few are repeat purchases). You can use the filter options to sort products by the highest number of orders.
More than a 4.5-star rating
A high product rating (over 4.5 stars) confirms that the AliExpress seller has mostly positive feedback. For a second opinion on product sellers, you can use third-party tools such as AliExpress Seller Check, which may be more objective than AliExpress’ rating system.
Low price with a high margin potential
Many dropshippers look for products with a wholesale price of $1 to $20. These can then be sold for $20 to $50, which provides room for marketing spending to acquire customers, as well as a profit margin.
2. Select a reliable supplier
As a dropshipper, you’ll connect customers with suppliers through your website and marketing. To ensure a good customer experience, those suppliers must have accurate product listings, dispatch products quickly, and maintain high quality-assurance standards.
That means you’ll need a plan for selecting reputable suppliers that goes beyond simply picking the wholesaler with the cheapest prices.
Here are some signals that suggest a more reliable AliExpress supplier.
Check the supplier’s stats
Next to a seller’s name, AliExpress shows a percentage representing their feedback rating. Try to work with suppliers who achieve at least a 95% satisfaction level.
Click the seller’s name to get a detailed breakdown of feedback. You’ll also see how long a supplier has been active on AliExpress. Look for established suppliers with years of experience and good shipping reputations.
Lots of great product photos
Do your due diligence to ensure product photos are from the manufacturer and not from another retailer. A Google image search will help you see if the product photos are original.
Communicative and helpful
Don’t be afraid to ask a supplier questions before placing an order. A reliable seller will answer all of your questions quickly. If a supplier doesn’t respond to messages, that’s a big red flag.
Make a test order
Do a test order before committing to a supplier. This will help you assess the customer experience, including shipping times and product quality.
3. Build your Shopify dropshipping store
Set up your store using Shopify's intuitive store builder. If you don’t have a Shopify account, you can sign up for a free trial.
Don’t worry too much about branding and design at this stage. You can customize your store and add more complex features later on.
4. Add AliExpress products to your Shopify store
Once you’ve set up your Shopify store and have a product category and supplier in mind, it’s time to start adding products.
Write your own product descriptions
The product descriptions for many of the products on AliExpress were not written by copywriters—or with the intention of explaining a product's benefits to customers. Creating unique product content for your store will help you convert customers and avoid duplicate content risks.
To make the process easier, use Shopify's built-in AI to generate product descriptions that speak to your target audience.
Let customers know about delivery times
It’s a good idea to include delivery estimates on product pages (or elsewhere in your store). Since most suppliers on AliExpress are located in China, shipping times can be longer than average—customers may need to wait up to 20 days, depending on the supplier, for their order to arrive.
Use an order tracking app
With longer shipping times, you may receive emails from customers asking where their purchase is. Use an order tracking app to keep your customers up to date on the status of their purchase.
Offer free shipping
Low shipping prices can become one of your competitive advantages. If you’re able to find AliExpress sellers who offer free or low-cost shipping, you can advertise free shipping to your customers.
Price products appropriately
Consider pricing your products at approximately twice their wholesale cost. A 50% margin will make running the business worthwhile, as well as cover necessary expenses like marketing and support.
How to dropship with AliExpress
Once your store is filled with products ready to dropship, what do you do when you get your first order?
Dropshipping with AliExpress works similarly to any regular dropshipping process. When you receive an order, purchase the item on AliExpress and provide the supplier with your customer’s name and shipping address. The seller handles the rest.
You can order items manually, or automate the process with a tool.
Manual ordering
If you want to purchase items manually, it might be a good idea to keep a spreadsheet with a list of products on your site, the amount you’re selling them for, the amount they cost on AliExpress, and a link to the AliExpress listing.
That way, whenever you get an order, it will be easier for you to find the supplier on AliExpress, as well as keep track of price changes.
Automated ordering
Alternatively, you can use a dropshipping app to purchase orders on AliExpress. An automated approach sets you up for growth, as you don’t need to worry about manually ordering large numbers of products.
Once you add products, the app does the rest. It will buy the product from AliExpress for you and insert your customer’s details. Here's how it looks on the DSers app:
DSers will even let you know when a supplier on AliExpress has changed their price or run out of stock, and suggest other dropshipping suppliers.
Ordering tips
Let the seller know that you’re dropshipping
When ordering on AliExpress, it’s a good idea to let the seller know you’re dropshipping. This way, the supplier won’t include invoices or promotions in the package being sent to your customer.
On checkout, you can leave a message for the seller. Write something simple, like, “This item is for dropshipping. No promotions or invoices.”
Monitor delivery progress
After customers receive their orders, give them time to contact you in case of any issues with the product or delivery. This way, you can bring up the issue with the supplier through AliExpress, encouraging them to correct it and hopefully solve the problem for future orders.
Refunds and returns
Many AliExpress suppliers don’t offer returns, so you may need to develop your own returns and refunds policy.
When there’s an issue with an order a customer placed in your store, it’s often because the order never arrived. In these cases, you’ll need to bring up the issue with your supplier. Contact the supplier, and if a resolution isn’t possible, use AliExpress Buyer Protection.
If your customer is simply not happy with the product, it’s usually a matter of expectations—what they received wasn’t what they expected. Most dropshippers will accept refunds in cases of dissatisfaction, as a way of building trust with customers.
If a product is damaged, ask your customer to take photos and send them to the AliExpress seller.
What are some of the best AliExpress dropshipping products?
Here are the best dropshipping products to sell for profit:
- T-shirts
- Yoga socks
- Sweatsuits
- Sandals
- Water shoes
- Quick-dry running shorts
- LED face masks
- Face rollers
- Makeup remover facial wipes
- Cruelty-free mascara
- Pimple patches
- Sunscreen
- Insulated mugs
- Air fryers
- Electric kettles
- Portable blenders
- Coffee pods
- Latte mixers
- Organic baby clothing
- Teething toys
- Hypoallergenic baby diaper wipes
- Water-based wipes
- Diapers
- Stroller fans
- Linen bed sheets
- Microfiber bedsheets
- Pillows
- Blackout curtains
- Non-slip hangers
- Printer paper
- Note pads
- Heavy-duty packaging tape
- Ink cartridges
- File folders
- Ring lights
- USB-C power adapters
- Screen protectors
- Outdoor smart plugs
- Video doorbells
- Motion sensors
Growing your AliExpress dropshipping business
Once you’ve made your first few sales, it’s time to think about growing your online business.
Build supplier relationships
Eventually, you’ll begin to identify the quality suppliers in your niche. Among the most repeated dropshipping tips is to build relationships with these reliable suppliers. This will help you get better prices and priority order processing.
Most of the suppliers on AliExpress use WeChat or WhatsApp to communicate. If you see yourself frequently ordering from the same seller, it’s a good idea to set up a meeting to establish a business relationship. Once you’ve demonstrated you can bring in recurring sales, some sellers will allow you to place your logo on products or include custom invoices and branded inserts into shipping packages.
Market your business
Marketing any online business is challenging. Fortunately, there are many different marketing strategies to test and apply to your dropshipping store.
Top tactics include:
- SEO
- Email marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Social media marketing
- Referral programs
- Google Ads
Start your AliExpress dropshipping business
The best part about AliExpress dropshipping is that it allows store owners to quickly test and validate product ideas. Unsure if you’re capable of selling a certain product? Add it to your store and test it! And if it doesn’t work out, you can simply remove the item and start testing something else.
Because you’re not carrying or managing inventory and there’s no upfront cost, there’s little risk to setting up an AliExpress dropshipping business. Use a Shopify free trial to build your dropshipping store today.
Read more
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- The 9 Best Dropshipping Websites for Your Online Store
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- How to Create Your Shipping Policy (With a Template and Examples)
- What is Shopify and How Does it Work?
- What Is Affiliate Marketing and How to Get Started
- The 19 Best Dropshipping Clothing Suppliers To Grow Your Business
- Product Line Extensions- What They Are, Examples, and Tips for Forming Your Strategy
AliExpress dropshipping FAQ
Is AliExpress dropshipping still worth it?
Dropshipping through AliExpress remains one of the most popular business models for entrepreneurs who want to make money online.
How do I start a dropshipping business on AliExpress?
- Choose a dropshipping niche for your business
- Select a range of AliExpress products within your niche
- Find reliable dropshipping suppliers
- Create your online store and import your products
- Promote your dropshipping business
- Get your first purchase and order the product from your supplier
- Follow up with customers to confirm delivery
Why is AliExpress so cheap?
Items are cheap on AliExpress because merchants selling on AliExpress source merchandise from Chinese manufacturers. This drives costs down and helps them offer low shipping costs.
