There is no doubt: you need to find the best products to dropship in 2021 from AliExpress if you want to succeed with your online store. Simply follow these instructions, and you will learn how to evaluate the items correctly and how to pick the most promising ones.
You are what you sell.
No, seriously. Correctly chosen products define about 50% of your dropshipping success.
AliExpress currently offers much more than 100 million various items, and even though you can use advanced technical solutions to easily import any of them to your own store, you can anyway get confused – what exactly should you import to dropship for profit?
So, let’s figure that out!
Choosing the best products to dropship in 2021: web analysis
It is super important to start thinking about the products you’re going to sell as soon as possible.
We typically use Google Trends to learn if people are getting more interested in this particular product over time. But this service gives us some additional information as well: look at the screenshot below.
Here, we’ve tried a ‘cat hoodie’ query. The ‘related queries’ category gives us additional product ideas: from this field, we see that people are also looking for specific types of cat hoodies (hoodies with kangaroo pouches) and specific prints (‘never bring a bat to a cat fight’, ‘I am a cat’, etc.). This data will surely be useful at the stage of picking items!
Research Keyword Planner
As you know, we use Keyword Planner to find out the most promising keywords to use when running a dropshipping store. At the same time, these keywords can also give you an idea of the most demanded products. Here is an example:
Here, we try the same ‘cat hoodie’ keyword, and the ‘keyword ideas’ tab shows us a great selection of related keywords. This is what people search on Google, so obviously, products that match these descriptions will be a great choice.
Use Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz Keyword Explorer provides data about the intensity of competition in a particular niche. But again, as it shows a range of related keywords, it is a wonderful tool for picking demanded products. Take a look at the screenshot below.
We took the same ‘cat hoodie’ keyword again and got a number of keyword suggestions. If you click the ‘see all suggestions’ link, you’ll view the full list of related queries that can potentially give you a couple of ideas on the products’ choice.
Analyze bestsellers
To find out the most demanded products, you can either look at competitors (huge platforms like Amazon and eBay) or check out social networks. Check all the life-hacks on how to find niche products easily.
Choosing the best products to dropship in 2021: social media search
Social networks are great both to look for products to sell and to evaluate the potential niches. Creating insightful content is one of the main tasks of such social networks as Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube. So, surfing social media can give you a wide range of valuable ideas.
Besides, you can find many examples of content marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Snapchat and other social media. And some of them are worth taking note of. Let’s take a look at some social media in detail.
Facebook
It’s logical to start from the most popular social media platform. Look for product ideas in various thematic groups. Study the communities of your potential competitors. The analysis of their content can bring a lot of valuable ideas for your niche research.
Try to search and count groups with 30K+ members devoted to your dropshipping niche. How many groups have you found? If there are more than 10 groups, it is a good sign, and your niche is popular enough.
Instagram
This social media is the home for influencers, trendsetters, and hottest tendencies. Whatever niche you decided to try, you will find here a plethora of thematic pictures.
The rule for niche rating is the same as for Facebook: if the search volume shows that there are at least 10 groups with 30K+ followers devoted to the chosen niche, it really looks promising and is worth trying.
Pinterest
Many companies and ecommerce entrepreneurs use Pinterest for promoting their products. Thematic boards and accounts of influencing bloggers contain numerous inspiring pictures.
Buyable pins are another great source of valuable content. It narrows your search – you’ll see only things that people can buy, so they are potential products for an online store.
YouTube
YouTube is not only our favorite time killer – it can be a plentiful source of inspiration as well if you use it as a search engine. Here you can catch ideas of products and trends that are popular right now. Besides, you can go further and investigate the trends in some definite promising niches.
After you’ve completed all these steps, you can take all the suggestions you got from the research, and create a whole super long list of potentially good products. What to do next?
How to find the best products to dropship in 2021: sorting out
So, you have a list of products related to the chosen niche that are demanded by Internet users. Now, it’s time to cross out the suggestions that are not appropriate for a dropshipping store – you don’t want to waste your time searching for useless items, right?
Check if the products in your list have these features:
Unique
When people make purchases from you, they have to wait for some time till the package arrives. This wait makes no sense at all if they purchase some generic products. Why would they do that, really, if they could find an identical item in a nearby offline store and start using it on the spot? Surely, the wait should be worth it.
Impressive
Dropshipping stores show the best results when they generate impulse purchases. Generally speaking, that’s the effect you should try to achieve: if your store visitors get excited with the offers, they are likely to place an order immediately. Obviously, you can fuel their interest even more if you use a solution for buying motivation, for example, Countdown Timer or Recent Sales Pop-Ups, but the products also matter. Look for something with a wow-factor!
Simple
Your store needs impressive yet simple products. People never see your items before the purchase, so, for example, they don’t have the chance to try on clothes, shoes or fashion accessories, or to check the performance of technically complex items. This factor might stop them from making a purchase, and can later lead to returns and refunds. Plus, highly sophisticated items typically cost quite a lot, so think carefully if you want to deal with high ticket dropshipping.
Perfect for delivery
These items will be bought by people across the world and shipped all over the globe, so they should be A) lightweight (no one likes extra shipping costs) and B) damage-proof (imagine a buyer’s disappointment after receiving a broken, scratched, or crushed item).
Able to grow
Yes, you are just a beginner now. But smart entrepreneurs selling products online do not live for the moment only – they plan to grow their businesses in the future. Besides, the dropshipping business model allows you to expand your niche and add new product categories easily. So, the products chosen should have the potential for growth.
Legal
Do you think that shipping, for example, knives or electronic cigarettes is a good idea? Consider the country or region you’re targeting, and try to find out local laws. If some particular products are banned from use or selling or importing within this area, it is better to take them out of your list. Plus, make sure you are not selling copyrighted items that are a subject of intellectual property law.
Okay, now you have a much clearer idea about the products you’re going to offer in your store. Now it comes to the most interesting part!
Choosing the best AliExpress products for dropshipping: scanning the platform
At this stage, you already know what exactly to search for. Let’s figure out how to do it correctly!
First, go on the AliExpress homepage and type the first query from your list. You will see a list of related queries as well:
Write them down and don’t forget to check them later, and as for now, start with the query you have already typed.
Select the regional settings: in the ‘Ship to’ field, choose the target region where you will mostly send your products. If your store already had some orders, look at the buyers’ geography to understand where do your customers commonly live.
Why is it important? Because the next step is to put a tick in the ‘Free Shipping’ field. The system will automatically leave out the products that can only be shipped to this destination for an additional fee.
Don’t forget to also put a tick in the ‘4* and up’ field – this way, you will only see the items that are approved by the previous buyers.
Finally, in the ‘Sort by’ field choose the ‘Orders’ option to view the most frequently purchased items. The more orders an item has, the better; at least 100 is recommended.
This is how the correct settings should look like:
Great! Now it’s time to evaluate each product separately.
How to find best products to dropship in 2021: final evaluation
Click on every product you like and take a look at the details provided.
More specifically, you should carefully evaluate:
Product pictures
Your store needs items with trust-inspiring pictures that show the product clearly. Images basically are the only source of information for online shoppers, so they matter incredibly.
Don’t forget to look at the item description: sometimes, sellers place additional product photos there, so the picture gallery might be not the only source of images for your store.
Customer reviews
The reviews from actual AliExpress buyers are a great source of information about the product quality and the seller’s behavior. AliDropship solutions let you import the product reviews along with the item because the number and the content of the ‘Feedback’ tab is super important.
It’s no secret that everyone wants to live in a safe and secure home environment. In the past, however, not everyone could afford various home security items to create comfortable circumstances in their home. Although, now, home security products are accessible and affordable to practically anyone.
Nowadays it is incredibly easy to buy and install all the needed home security items. Every year, new trends pop up, the technology improves and as a result, home security products become more effective.
In recent years, the demand for home safety products has increased and it’s no coincidence. It is a result of a growing trend of implementing smart homes where the security systems are an integral part. At the same time, with how easy it is to control and manage home security products nowadays (you can do it even from a regular smartphone device), it makes it a very unique product offer that many consumers can easily afford.
How is it so affordable? By sourcing products from AliExpress, you can find great items at beneficial prices.
Furthermore, not all consumers implement expensive security systems in their households, some consider installing certain individual pieces such as alarms, cameras, or simple lockers to ensure their protection and security of their possessions. And you can create a dropshipping store offering these products!
So, let’s jump straight into it and find out why you should start a dropshipping business selling home safety products!
A general overview of the home security market
Smart home security is not something new: security and control systems have been among the most popular smart home devices over the last several years. And from what’s being projected, it is only going to continue to grow.
Analyzing Google Trends, home security is a rather popular search query and the demand has been steady over the last several years.
Where do most of the search queries come from? What market is the most prosperous?
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The most amount of search requests comes from the United States. Moreover, according to data analysts, 38% of US households own a security system.
Evidently, many people are considering the purchase of a home security system. Most of them don’t even require professional installation. And you can hit the jackpot by convincing these people to buy these products on your online store!
Moreover, almost all of the mentioned above products can be ordered from AliExpress!
However, you must keep in mind that home security products are a pretty technically complex category of products. That means, this niche category will be great for those who understand and can clearly explain the various characteristics of certain products. And of course, as the owner of the store, you must be willing to learn the basics of installing and managing these items if your customers come asking for your help. Being an expert in your field of work can only bring you benefits and what’s most important – happy customers.
So, what kind of products can you include in your online dropshipping store?
What home security products can you dropship?
Surveillance cameras
You don’t have to focus strictly on whole systems, you can also offer cameras by piece.
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Surveillance systems
On AliExpress, you can find all kinds of security systems in different price ranges.
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Surveillance accessories
You can broaden your product range by offering different accessories for surveillance products, such as holders, adaptors, and even separate cameras.
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Baby monitors
Watching over the little ones is especially convenient with baby monitors that can be placed anywhere. With the help of baby monitors, it is possible to watch over the babies even from a separate room!
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Security alarms and sensors
AliExpress also has different types of alarms and sensors that are supported by various smart home devices. All you have to do is connect via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
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Smart doorbells
Your customers can forget all about those old peepholes and seamlessly install wireless doorbells for more comfort.
Audio doorbell
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Video doorbell
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Useful home safety products
Some of the items can be used for personal protection and keeping your personal belongings safe as well.
Smart padlocks
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Smart trackers and alarm sensors
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Self-defense alarm
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Safes and lockboxes
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Should you dropship home security products: Final takeaways
Home security products are getting more and more popular in the households of ordinary people. And with the market growing annually, you have a chance to establish a profitable dropshipping business selling these products. Although we tend to suggest staying away from technically complex niches, here you don’t need to make things too complicated. You can offer a broad range of products that don’t require, you or your potential customers to be technical experts.
With that said, we hope that with the insightful information provided in this article, this niche will help you create a beneficial dropshipping business and make you an impressive amount of profit. If you want to learn more about what niches and products can bring you a hefty income, check out our blog!
If you want to start your dropshipping business, AliDropship provides you with an opportunity to do so. All you have to do is order your store, and our specialists will make one catering to your specific preferences and needs. And why wouldn’t you want to launch a dropshipping business? It’s the most risk-free and cost-effective way to start your own ecommerce venture!
Do you want to start an ecommerce business without spending weeks on preparations? Need one of those ready stores that can be launched right away? Then check out AliDropship’s new offer – Premium Stores!
We’re beyond grateful for the industry recognition our dropshipping stores gain. In April 2020, buyitcarl.com – one of the Premium Stores on offer – won a prestigious accolade of Hermes Creative Awards. It was entitled the Gold Winner in the Ecommerce Site Design category which is highly encouraging, inspiring, and humbling for our whole team.
You feel ready to start a dropshipping business? But how do you begin? What niche should you choose? What products are the best? What’s the most efficient promotion strategy?
If you feel uncertainty because of all these issues, then we’ve got a solution!
AliDropship’s Premium Stores allow you to start your own online shop right away. But that’s not all! You’re not simply getting a dropshipping site that can be launched with just a few clicks. You’re buying a precise copy of one of our own successful stores that are bringing us considerable profits.
In other words, these ready stores are the solution for those who want to get quick results based on proven ideas.
What are Premium Stores?
Many entrepreneurs have to spend months and thousands of dollars to figure out the best business strategy. But with Premium Stores, you can ‘borrow’ this experience from our Ecommerce Department that develops and runs our own dropshipping businesses.
Our team experiments with different niches, products, and marketing strategies. Some of the stores we own become very profitable. When one of them achieves a stable flow of traffic together with a steady volume of sales, and when we identify its most efficient marketing mix, it becomes a Premium Store. We make this website’s copy available to customers who would like to get their own ready stores instantly.
When you purchase it, you get a copy of the original website including the store’s theme, structure, imported products and product data, design elements, etc. As a result, you get your own dropshipping store duplicated from a highly successful business along with all its materials.
Copying someone else’s brilliant ideas is quite common in business. Many entrepreneurs keep an eye on competitors and try out their strategies and solutions. Same goes for dropshipping. A lot of store owners copy ads and products from their competitors, so why not borrow the whole website from a team of professionals absolutely legally?
Furthermore, from a variety of ready stores, you can purchase one that makes more than six figures right now! That’s right, you read that correctly. We are offering a premium store that makes more than $500,000 yearly! And you can get an exact copy of that store and start making profit right off the bat. What are you waiting for? While you’re hesitating, others are reaping the benefits!
No need to test different niches! No need to try out different products or look for reliable sellers! You get all this along with your new business!
What you get as an owner
Precise copy of a flourishing dropshipping business
With ready stores of this kind, you get a copy of a dropshipping website that is already making money with all its materials. Thus, there’s no need to experiment trying to figure out the best options on your own.
Full ownership
After the purchase, you become a full owner of your dropshipping business. Any profit you make belongs only to you. Since the moment you get your copy, it’s up to you to decide how to develop the shop. You can leave everything as it is or change the site however you wish. From now on, this AliDropship store is yours!
One-time payment
You only pay once! No additional charges, no hidden fees or subscriptions. After paying, you get full access to the store and all the resources.
Best products from reliable sellers
By getting a copy of one of our shops, you also receive the full list of the products imported to the original store. AliDropship’s managers selected these goods from hundreds of alternatives and dozens of sellers. Thus, you can be absolutely sure you’re dealing with the most profitable items and the most reliable suppliers.
Ready to be launched right away
You don’t have to start from scratch. Choosing a niche, finding great products, creating a design – all of this has already been done by our managers. As a result, you can start promoting your Premium Dropshipping Store right after the purchase.
Choice of stores
You can choose from a list of different shops, each devoted to a certain niche, to find something that suits you best.
How to buy a Premium Store?
Visit the Premium Stores page where you will find the list of all available websites and choose the one you like. Press ‘Learn More’ to visit the given store’s page.
After that, select the package you prefer. Here, you’ve got three options.
Buying a pure copy
First of all, you can buy a pure copy of the original website with no extra packages. To do that, simply leave the package offers unchecked and press the BUY NOW button. In this case, you will have to install the files by yourself and use your own domain name and hosting.
However, if you have zero IT experience, you can add the installation package to your order.
Copy + Installation package
Adding the Installation package to your order allows you to avoid all the manual work as AliDropship’s team will do it for you.
If you don’t have a domain name, the team will offer three options to choose from. This domain name is prepaid for one year and will cost no more than $12 per year. We will also set up prepaid hosting optimized for a dropshipping website. The package also includes the store’s logo editing.
After that, the team will install your copy of the store onto this hosting and set up a payment gateway.
With this package, you’ll be ready to launch the site immediately.
Copy + Marketing package
With this package, you get copies of the marketing materials AliDropship team uses to promote the original websites.
You get the banners and videos created by our team and the ad texts we use in our own campaigns. We will also send you a detailed description of the target audience that suits the niche you have chosen.
Lastly, we will provide you with instructions on how to set up and run marketing campaigns using these materials. This way, you can start promoting your business as soon as possible and use tested and proven materials.
And of course, you can purchase both the Installation and Marketing packages for the most seamless experience. Shortly after the purchase, one of AliDropship’s managers will contact you to discuss all the details.
By purchasing a Premium Store, you start your own business with a fully developed website, a selection of the best products within the chosen niche, and even promotional materials. And you get all this for a one-time payment! Get yourself a Premium Store and start making money right away.
What makes a product totally unsuitable for your dropshipping store?
And what, in turn, makes an item an absolutely great find for your business?
How to dropship products that will definitely bring you sufficient profits?
Here, we will show you how to find the best products to dropship and evaluate AliExpress products to check if they are worthy of your time and attention.
Let the fun begin!
Best products to dropship are something you’d buy yourself
So what are the best product to dropship? Obviously, the main idea of your ecommerce store is to sell items that people always buy. This means that the best dropshipping items are the ones that are desired and requested by your target audience.
This is certainly the most important parameter for any dropshipper. Obviously, there’s no reason to fill your eCommerce store with the items that no one needs.
Ideally, when starting a business, you should go on Google Trends. There, you will check if people are commonly interested in this particular product.
Let’s compare the following 3 graphs:
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Here, we were analyzing the demand for 3 product types: sweaters, sweatshirts, and hoodies. All of these are warm clothes protecting the wearer from cold weather and providing additional comfort. It means that they solve the same issue for a potential buyer. But, as you can see, the demand levels are totally different.
Still, there is a similarity. For these graphs, we took the period of 5 calendar years. Do you see that all the 3 graphs have the same pattern of peaks and falls?
These fluctuations happen during a specific time of year. Every year, there are the same periods of time when the demand goes super high, and there are periods when the demand is close to zero. It means that these products have a seasonal nature.
It is not a bad thing itself for product sourcing. Nevertheless, you should always remember that if your dropshipping store contains seasonal products only, the volume of your sales and profits will be unstable during the year.
And if you compare these 3 graphs again, you’ll notice that the peaks and falls of the hoodie graph aren’t as sharp as the ones on the sweater graph. It gives you a reason to assume that in this example, hoodies are a more reliable product type. Still, ideally, you should mix them with non-seasonal items in a store offer.
– Unique
Choosing generic, plain, boring items for selling online is a serious dropshipping mistake that has a huge negative influence on sales.
Let’s continue talking about hoodies and consider the next example. Take a look at the pictures below:
This is an AliExpress hoodie that costs $11.99 and has a rating of 5.0*, 141 reviews and 282 orders.
As you can see, the item has a moderate price, a large clear high-quality picture, and a good description with the relevant size chart and lots of illustrative pictures. Plus, both the store rating and the item rating are quite fine. Still, judging by the low number of reviews and orders, none of these can be convincing for potential buyers.
And here is another example:
This is an AliExpress hoodie that costs $10.10 and has a rating of 4,7*, 3568 reviews and 1348 orders.
This is an impressive difference, right?
This hoodie is 12 times more popular! Meanwhile, it’s even cheaper than the one behind. BTW, you have a huge selection of prints, for all tastes! So it’s obvious that the reason for such a huge demand is the unusual hoodie design: an interesting print heavily attracts buyers.
Indeed, it’s easy to find a basic monochrome hoodie with an ordinary cut nearly in any offline store – you can buy it on the spot and waste no time waiting for its delivery. The printed hoodie, in turn, is quite a rare find for the majority of other stores, and it certainly attracts more interest from store visitors.
And this is how we go over to the next product feature that is an absolute must-have for each and every of your dropshipping items.
– Triggering impulse purchases
Basically, impulse purchases are a major driver of growth for any dropshipping store.
For such stores, neither fast shipping nor low price is a competitive advantage.
But please note that if your products are not appealing enough, none of these tools will help you. So do your best to create all the necessary conditions for your website visitors to induce them to make impulse purchases.
Let’s look at other examples of hoodies. To make a more fair comparison, we will take 2 different product offers from the same seller.
The first item is a regular fleece hoodie that costs $16.63 and has 2 orders, 4.5* rating and 2 reviews.
The second item is a rabbit-ears hoodie that costs $13.84 and has 5385 orders, 4.9* rating and 3247 reviews.
The numbers speak for themselves: people are more likely to buy emotionally charged products.
This is the reason why cute, adorable, kawaii products are quite often chosen by dropshipping store owners. But, you don’t have to limit yourself with ‘sweet’ stuff! Anything that immediately creates a strong emotional response is a good choice. Try to find products that manage to do this.
Take a look at an example below:
This sad patch is not exactly cute, but, thanks to its semi-sarcastic emotional drive, it got 1594 orders, 1103 reviews, and an impressive 4,9* rating. Not bad, right?
Or, let’s look at this indecent enamel pin:
It can cause various feelings, of course, but you can benefit from these emotions anyway. Judging by the 1512 orders, 462 reviews, and 4.8* rating, the pin is really popular. Emotions matter, as you can see!
– Affordable
There is a simple rule: the lower the original seller’s price is, the higher your potential profit will be.
It’s quite obvious, indeed: a low initial price gives you the opportunity to set up a considerable markup without disappointing your customers. Ideally, both you and your buyer should be happy with the item price 🙂
For example, you decided to import this jacket from AliExpress and add it to your dropshipping store:
The item itself is good: it comes from a reputable seller and has a 4,8* rating, 50 reviews, 81 orders, and free shipping. The only downside is the price: if the seller asks $39.25 for this jacket, imagine how much this item will cost after you apply the markup formula!
This is why it’s so important to click the ‘Check if this is cheaper on other sellers’ button (it’s an exclusive feature of AliDropship Google Chrome Extension, by the way). The system will offer you several matching options, and you will be able to choose a more suitable alternative – for example, this one:
This jacket is also a great find: it has a 4.4* rating, 862 orders, 470 reviews, and free shipping. The difference between these two products is not big, but why not save $5?
So, it’s not that hard to guess which of the two items is more beneficial for your store, right?
– Quick and cheap to deliver
If you want to lure your store visitors into making an impulse purchase, don’t charge any extra fees for shipping.
Quite often, people leave online stores without completing their orders simply because they get unhappy with the total order cost. Surely, a high shipping fee is a common reason for it.
So, while selecting items on AliExpress, you can only pick and import products that are shipped for free. To do this, you simply need to put a tick in the ‘Free Shipping’ field. Don’t forget to specify the country where you want this product to be shipped! The results’ page will look the following way:
Alternatively, you can only select the items that have the ePacket shipping option. AliDropship Google Chrome Extension easily shows you which products have this feature and which ones don’t.
We traditionally recommend to stick to the items with ePacket delivery option for a very simple reason. This shipping method allows your buyers to receive their packages really quickly. With ePacket, the long period of AliExpress shipping is not a problem anymore. In this case, the seller will promptly deliver the products directly to your customers just in a couple of weeks.
What’s also great, the shipping fee in this case is usually quite low, so you can simply include it in the item’s final price. The product will still remain affordable, and your customer will be happy to see the ‘Free Shipping’ phrase.
A good dropshipping product is an item that helps you differentiate. We have already discussed this subject above when we were talking about the benefits of unique products.
It is really important for you to build a memorable store identity: a specific pleasant atmosphere in your online store makes it more appealing for buyers and helps you compete with AliExpress and other online selling platforms.
This is why the best products to dropship from your store should have the same mood and sentiment. Consistency and integrity of the product offer are the key to creating a wholesome store image that attracts buyers. Look at the picture below:
At the first glance, it might seem that these two items can be easily included in the same store offer. Both of them are unisex sweatshirts with soldier-related prints, so they seem to be suitable for a store dedicated to military stuff.
Still, they are not exactly similar: they certainly generate differing emotional responses, and each sweatshirt has its own ‘tone’. While both of them are a good find in terms of popularity and feedback, your final choice should depend on the desired atmosphere you’re trying to create in your store.
– No logo or brand name
According to AliExpress official policy, it is not legal to sell branded products through the platform.
Still, this restriction only applies to globally known brands because it’s aimed on fraud prevention. At the same time, lots of items on AliExpress are in some way ‘marked’ by local manufacturers. Many products have some kind of a logo or brand name on them.
Here’s an example of a branded wallet below:
As we see in this example, an Asian-based manufacturer put its name on the item in a very distinctive and obvious way. So can we consider them as the best product to dropship?
Normally, they are not. When you’re trying to build your own store identity, the best strategy is to avoid items that show the manufacturer’s name (especially if it’s done in such an eye-catching manner).
Obviously, it is not always possible. Some types of products, for example clothes and gadgets, are not even manufactured without the producer’s mark. If you are working with such product categories, examine the pictures in the item description carefully. This way, you will be able to only select the items that don’t have their brand names shown openly:
This example shows a hoodie label with the product size (M) and the manufacturer’s name (Rumeiai). The brand name is rather discreet and you don’t see it on any other part of the hoodie. So, it is perfectly acceptable to add this item to your store.
How to find the best items to dropship?
There are several methods to find product ideas and estimate their potential. You can search for the best products to dropship and analyze them with various web tools, by looking through social media content and, of course, by browsing AliExpress.
– Web analysis
First of all, you can find the best products to dropship in Google Trends. This free service shows how people’s interest in a given search query changes over time. Besides, Google Trends also shows you related queries, which can be helpful when you look for new ideas.
The second tool for you to use is Keyword Planner. Although its primary function is to tell which keywords you should use for optimizing your website, it finds related keywords as well. The keywords with high search volume can definitely indicate the best products to dropship.
Alternatively, one can use Moz Keyword Explorer, a tool for checking the competition level in particular niches. But since it shows also related keywords, the same trick will work here as well. As you can see, we used the same keyword and got a number of suggestions.
Today social media serves as advertising platforms, which is why one can find lots of ideas there as well.
Since Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, we suggest that you start with this platform. Try looking for thematic groups related to your niche with 30K+ members. If you can find more than 10 such groups, it’s a good sign. Also, analyze the communities of your potential competitors and study their content.
The same approach works with Instagram. If you find at least 10 groups with more than 10 thousand followers, browse their content for ideas.
Just like Instagram, Pinterest is a platform where lots of influencers, trendsetters and bloggers operate. Visit thematic boards and popular accounts to find what to dropship.
YouTube can also be a valuable source of ideas if you use it as a search engine. Besides, you can go further and investigate the trends in some promising niches.
– Searching on AliExpress
First of all, one can use AliExpress search bar and its autosuggestion function to find related queries. But you will need to check them by other means as well to make sure there’s high enough demand.
But if you do have some ideas you have already checked, here’s how you can find out if such products are sold on AliExpress.
In the “Ship to” section, choose your target region, then tick the “Free shipping” box. The system will only show offers from sellers that can ship these products to your desired destination for free.
And make sure you also put a tick in the “4* and up” field to narrow down the search to items approved by previous buyers. Then sort the results by the number of orders to see the most popular goods first. We recommend paying attention to items that have at least 100 orders.
This is what the settings should look like:
Whenever you find an interesting product, open it in a new tab to evaluate its potential. When doing it, pay attention to the following aspects.
Best products to dropship have informative pages on AliExpress
Let’s assume you’ve noticed a super cool item on AliExpress. Imagine that this product immediately got your attention because of its unique nature, affordable price, and strong competitiveness.
Does it mean you should immediately import it into your dropshipping store?
If the original AliExpress product page doesn’t include some of the following details, it might be challenging for you to create a good-looking item profile in your own store. So, before pressing the ‘Import’ button, make sure that this particular product has:
– High quality pictures
Well, if this item has already caught your attention, most likely, its main image is good (otherwise, you’d never had noticed it). But a single photo is not enough!
For example, take a look at this product:
The price is great, the shipping cost is tiny, the feedback is positive, the preview image looks fine – it’s a perfect product, right? But, once you open the product page, you notice that the picture quality is not that high. Plus, it is the only image in the gallery, and the description only provides 2 additional product-related pictures that don’t give much information as well. This is not the type of item you should be looking for.
For your store visitor, product images are basically the only source of knowledge about this or that unknown item. Check both the product gallery and the item description to find out if there are enough informative pictures. Ideally, the pictures should demonstrate an item in actual use. Plus, there should be close-up photos showing the product details.
Here is an example of a product that is more suitable for dropshipping:
The product has multiple variations, and each of them is clearly visible. The seller provides a large high-quality picture to prevent confusion and misunderstandings. The photos are professional and appealing, and you can view the product from various angles. You can even see the back side of the earrings and the fastenings type! If you scroll down to the description box, you will also see the pictures that give indications of the earrings’ size. There is a measurement picture, and there are photos of the earrings placed on a mannequin for scale. Even though the measurement picture contains some unnecessary info like the company name, you can easily fix it with the help of Image Editor.
– Informative description
An online store visitor can’t physically see or feel the item, which is why many questions may arise considering the item’s features. You need to be able to answer any of them correctly and professionally in order to provide a high-quality customer service. Also, you will need to fill in the item’s description to make your store look credible and trustworthy.
This is why items with descriptions that contain no information on the pendant size and the chain length don’t suit you. It can be even different to guess what is the actual product’s material:
For a necklace or any other simple type of product, such lack of information might be just disappointing, and not really disastrous. But what if something similar happens to an item of a more complex nature? How can your customers make sure that it’s a quality product satisfying their needs? Having no data to rely on, a potential customer will simply leave the store without making a purchase.
– Relevant reviews
AliExpress reviews serve two really important purposes.
First, they prove that another person has successfully purchased this exact item from this particular seller. Thanks to AliDropship plugin’s feature of reviews import, you can make import AliExpress product reviews.
Such reviews get even more helpful after you install Customer Gallery add-on: this way, you let your store visitors view the real-life product pictures made by previous buyers and provide the direct links to the items featured on these photos.
But the quality and content of reviews matter: please look at this example.
The reviews are positive and seem to be authentic, but, due to the automatic translation to English, the first one looks really messy. You can vaguely understand that the buyer is happy with the purchase, but this review doesn’t add much to your store credibility. You should either leave such reviews untranslated if they are written in your target audience’s language, or simply delete them.
The second important purpose of product reviews is to help you decide whether you’d like to import this product directly to your store. For example, you found an affordable item with high quality pictures and a detailed description in “New Arrivals”. It seems like a good find, but it doesn’t have many orders yet. Should you add it to your store?
To answer this question, go straight to the ‘Feedback’ tab. Here’s what you see:
One default review simply proves the fact of completing the purchase, while two others give a bit more details. There, you can see real-life photos and some clarification on the pendant design. So, the buyers actually received their orders, and they seem to be quite satisfied with the quality. The item is worth trying, most likely!
– Good seller reputation
Most dropshippers pay attention only to wholesale prices, but the seller’s reputation is also a crucial factor to consider. It is especially relevant if you’re importing items with minimum orders and zero feedback. This strategy is quite common: business owners focus on new market arrivals with a strong potential.
In this case, you can’t rely on previous buyers’ experience because there simply is none. Instead, it’s wise to consider the seller’s rating and performance. AliDropship plugin has an integrated feature that evaluates the seller based on many criteria (time in operation, customers’ feedback, etc.). Take a look at this example:
The t-shirt looks awesome, has an affordable price, which is great. But, it’s new on the market: there is only 1 order in its history, and there are no reviews yet. Still, the seller is reputable: it has a good store rating. So, we can assume this supplier works professionally and doesn’t sell items of poor quality.
Worst things to dropship through your dropshipping store
So now you know how to find the best products to dropship. Finally, it’s time to talk about serious things: what are the worst AliExpress dropshipping products?
The possible issues connected to a wrong product choice might be:
A super angry customer who wants to return the product, make a refund, and ruin your reputation on social media
Legal consequences
Commonly, these 2 issues are connected to each other; they arise because of the same reasons, and it’s wise to never let any of them happen.
In order not to get into trouble, please avoid the products that are:
– Copyrighted
Take a look at this item.
Do you remember that we’ve mentioned something about the AliExpress own ban on branded items…? Technically, the platform forbids selling such items, but here it is, shining bright.
We don’t recommend adding something of this kind to your store. If it’s a replica of unsatisfactory quality, the buyers will highly likely get disappointed because of unmet expectations, and their negative feedback won’t do you any good.
Plus, most likely, you will have difficulties while promoting these items on social media (Facebook ads, Instagram shoutouts, etc.). If they get wide coverage, they will certainly get the attention of original brand owners, authorities, or just concerned individuals. Your social media account might get blocked, and your whole business will get compromised. That’s not what you want, right? And you cannot avoid using this kind of promotion, as other sources – email marketing or something else – cannot provide such great coverage of your target audience.
– Potentially dangerous
The item below is a good illustration of a product with a provocative nature. A customs officer would be likely to ban it from entering the country.
Every country has its own understanding of the legal items for import. These regulations even apply to online orders of private individuals. There might be some restrictions on importing defense articles, hunting tools, military-related items, smoking devices, etc. If you are not sure that it is safe and legal to ship this or that product to your buyers’ country of residence, please check it twice, and if you’re still doubting, just leave it out.
– Fragile
The item on the picture below is super cute, but somewhat tricky.
Product delivery takes a lot of time. During the shipment process, the package will certainly see some external impact.
No one likes receiving deformed or broken items! This is why the products of glass, ceramics, or other similar materials are sometimes a questionable choice.
If you still want to have them in your store, talk to the relevant AliExpress seller first. Ask about the used type of the packaging materials, and read the previous buyers’ reviews. This is how you will find out whether the seller can actually provide the items with a secure and damage-proof package.
– Heavy
According to the seller’s description, the weight of the package containing this animal-head piece of home decor is 4 kg.
Even for domestic shipping, such items could be considered as the best products to dropship if they were not a bit tricky.
International delivery, most likely, will demand some extra shipping fees, which is not good news for your buyers. Plus, the heavier items are inconvenient to manage. Any unpleasant incident that happens during the loading activities may result in the product damage.
– Technically complex
The picture below shows an example of a drone offered on AliExpress.
Even though dropshipping drones can really let you make a fortune nowadays, and the gadget industry shows a rapid favorable growth, it might be a better strategy to focus on the relevant accessories and spare parts instead.
The reason for this precaution is simple: neither you nor your buyer can physically examine this complicated piece of technology. So, none of you can be 100% sure in its perfect working order.
If something goes wrong, you will have to deal with the standard return and refund routine. Generally, it is a simple and quick procedure, but if you’re dealing with costly items (and gadgets are quite expensive, as you can guess), the whole process might get a bit longer and trickier.
– Tight-fitting clothes and shoes
Typically, we don’t even recommend you deal with dropshipping shoes (except for home slippers) and ‘demanding’ clothes. Here’s what we’re talking about:
This dress is exquisite and looks fancy, but, as you guess, it requires a specific body type, plus it needs to be tried on before purchase.
You have certainly seen some funny ‘AliExpress: Expectations vs Reality’ posts on social media. And this is exactly what might happen to your buyer. When a store visitor has no way to try on a piece of clothing before purchase, there are two possible scenarios for this customer. The client will either leave the store without completing the order, or buy an unsuitable and disappointing piece of clothing, and return it later. None of the options is really great, right?
The same is true for shoes; here’s an illustrative picture from a seller’s page.
Even the modelling person clearly has some inconveniences with wearing these high heels; can you expect that a random customer’s feet will definitely fit into this pair of shoes?
This is why we recommend picking oversize clothes and items with a loose cut. Since they don’t have to fit you tightly, buyers with any body type can pick and wear them with no stress and discomfort.
That’s all we would like to recommend you pay attention to when searching for the best products to dropship.
But wait…
We have collected over 50,000 best products to dropship in a single database!
That’s right!
Our new, extraordinary product database contains a list of more than 50,000 best products to dropship from AliExpress (their number is growing daily).
The best part here is that we didn’t simply conduct a research, perform a market analysis, and pick the best product to dropship from AliExpress. That would be too easy. 🙂
Apart from this, we have also pre-edited these items! We’ve improved everything: product titles, informational descriptions, gallery images,…
It means that from now on, you can pick any of these best products to dropship, and import them directly to your store. In seconds, you will get popular, money-making items with catchy and appealing single product pages. Imagine how many long hours it will save you!
And oh, do you know the best part?
A free package is available! You can import up to 50 best products to dropship at zero cost!
Want to start a dropshipping business in the UK? Interested in selling goods to this country? In this article, we’re going to give you the answers to the most burning questions about UK dropshipping!
The UK is the home of progress. It is the country that once turned the tide and changed the world once and for all.
Indeed, the industrial revolution began exactly in Great Britain and spread around the globe at breakneck speed.
Today, the digital revolution is taking over the world at an even greater pace. And obviously, the UK can’t stand aside while it’s happening.
There are close to 70 million people living in this country, all the necessary civil liberties, and a stable and fast Internet connection. In other words, Great Britain is a great market for ecommerce entrepreneurs.
The only thing that can keep you from starting your UK dropshipping business is a lack of information.
To fill that gap, we’ve decided to answer the most commonly asked questions about UK dropshipping.
So, let’s start!
Disclaimer: This article reflects the political situation in the UK and the post-Brexit business environment as per February 2021. We strongly recommend that you consult your local lawyer and get expert legal advice if you’re looking for more relevant data.
#1 Do I need to register my dropshipping business in the UK?
Is dropshipping legal in the UK?
Yes, dropshipping is just a business model, so it’s totally legal. Does it mean that, if you want to start a dropshipping business in the UK, you have to register it?
This question bothers most UK-based dropshipping newcomers.
And the short answer is yes. You do need to register your online venture in the UK if you want to get around any legal consequences. The good news is, it’s not a big problem.
There are three basic business structures in Great Britain:
Sole Trader
Partnership
Limited Company
If you want to figure out what each of them implies, you can easily find the necessary info online. Yet, I’ll take the liberty of saying that the most suitable option for dropshipping store owners is to become a sole trader.
#2 How can I find the best suppliers for UK dropshipping?
It’s hard to downplay the importance of reliable dropshipping suppliers for your business success.
The quality of the products you sell, your customers’ satisfaction, and many other things depend on the suppliers you cooperate with. So, looking for a credible business partner could be a real pain in the neck for online entrepreneurs.
Usually, they have a list of requirements you need to live up to. Aside from that, there could be some legal procedures you have to undergo that are too burdening for newcomers.
That’s why AliExpress is a perfect solution for dropshipping entrepreneurs. This way, you don’t need to comply with any requirements to start selling the goods. All you need to do is install special software, choose trustworthy AliExpress suppliers and add their products to your online store.
Another common issue related to UK dropshipping is delivery time. As of now, shipping from China to the United Kingdom with free delivery options and even a number of paid options takes 20-50 days. A number of AliExpress suppliers offer faster shipping options, but in these cases, delivery can cost up to $50. Considering that dropshipping expensive goods is much more difficult than selling affordable ones, these options can hardly be viable.
Many AliExpress sellers have warehouses in Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, and France. All these countries are close at hand to the UK. Such options are often free and take about two weeks, which is much faster than other alternatives. So, you can easily find these suppliers and speed up the delivery.
Even if you can’t find faster shipping for products you want to dropship and have to use standard options, make sure you notify customers of the delivery time. Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with a lot of complaints from clients who didn’t expect to wait for so long.
#3 What taxes do I need to pay when dropshipping in the UK?
Another common question is do you have to pay taxes on dropshipping to the UK. And the answer is of course you do!
The United Kingdom, like many other developed countries, has a complex tax system. And it’s hard to cover the whole issue in one article.
Yet, there are four main types of obligatory payments every UK ecommerce entrepreneur has to deal with while dropshipping in the UK.
Income tax
Sales tax
VAT on products
Customs Duty
Income tax
Income tax is a tax that the UK government imposes on your earnings. In other words, it’s the share of your income you must pass to HM Revenue & Custom.
Great Britain has a progressive tax system. That means that your income can be divided into four parts called bands. And each band has its own name and tax rate. Here they are, according to the UK government’s official website:
Personal allowance: 0% for your income up to £12,500
Basic rate: 20% – £12,501 to £50,000
Higher rate: 40% – £50,001 to £150,000
Additional rate: 45% for the income over £150,000
So, you pay different percentages from different parts of your income. For example, if you earn £65,000, you pay nothing for the first £12,500, 20% (£7,500) for the next £37,500 you’ve made, and 40% (£6,000) for the rest £15,000 of your income. The total sum you need to give for your £65,000 is £13,500.
Besides, if you live in Scotland, you must pay your taxes to the Scottish government, which sets slightly different bands to tax your income. You can see them below:
Personal allowance: 0% for your income up to £12,500
Starter rate: 19% – £12,501 to £14,549
Basic rate: 20% – £14,500 to £24,944
Intermediate rate: 21% – £24,945 to £43,430
Higher rate: 41% – £43,431 to £150,000
Top rate: 46% for the income over £150,000
Customs duty and VAT on dropshipping in the UK
VAT, or value-added tax, is a consumption tax assessed on the value added to goods and services. It’s used in many countries including the United Kingdom.
Now that the kingdom has left the EU, customs and tax regulations have changed. So if you want to start or continue dropshipping after Brexit, here’s what you should know.
Do you need to register a dropshipping business for VAT?
Yes, any business that sells goods sent from overseas directly to UK customers without using online marketplaces must register for the VAT to HMRC.
So, businesses dropshipping from China to the UK definitely must register. The same goes for dropshippers that sell goods from EU countries.
Previously, businesses were exempt from VAT and didn’t have to register unless their yearly revenue is below £85,000. But you must register for VAT no matter what revenue your business makes.
Changes to UK VAT tax
Previously, if the cost of a consignment of goods did not exceed £15, you didn’t have to pay customs or import VAT. Now Low Value Consignment Relief has been abolished. In other words, you still have to charge VAT for such consignments.
If the value of a consignment of goods does not exceed £135, you have to pay VAT, but no customs duty is charged. However, while previously, the government collected VAT at the point of importation, now the tax is collected at the point of sale.
For an ecommerce store, the point of sale is its payment gates (Stripe, PayPal, etc.). It means that the value of the goods is based on the price at which you sell them to customers rather than the value calculated at the point where the products cross the border.
It’s also important to note that the £135 threshold is applied to a consignment of goods, i.e. the whole package, and not to individual items. It, however, excludes transportation and insurance costs or any other taxes and charges.
It means that if you’re going to sell two items at a price lower than £135 each, you’d better send them in two separate packages to benefit from customs duty relief.
If the cost of a consignment of goods exceeds £135, instead of supply VAT, you will have to pay import VAT at the border, as well as customs duty.
Follow this link to learn more about the changes to the UK VAT system.
VAT and customs duty rates
The standard VAT rate is 20%, while the reduced rate equals 5% (for some categories of goods). Some products are exempt from VAT. You can see VAT rates for different goods here.
As for customs duty, it’s zero for consignments under £135 in value. For consignments that cost £135-£630, you will have to pay 2.5% in most cases. For consignments above the £630 threshold, the rate can be different. You’ll have to consult the UK government’s helpline to learn more.
Please note: the information we give you on tax requirements and regulations cannot be considered as legal advice. To handle your taxes properly in full accordance with the country’s law, we recommend you consult your local lawyer.
#4 Is there anything tricky about UK dropshipping?
As you can see, the consequences of Brexit for overseas sellers aren’t exactly positive. By leaving the European Union, Great Britain made it harder for foreign companies to sell goods in the kingdom.
Previously, one could dropship products from warehouses located in Europe, but now this maneuver won’t change anything.
Nevertheless, UK dropshipping remains a popular business idea. And despite the new rules, one can still make money by selling goods to locals. But you’ll have to adapt.
First of all, despite Brexit, you should still dropship goods from European warehouses whenever possible. You will still have to pay taxes, but it’ll considerably shorten your shipping time.
I also recommend being honest with your clients. To keep your customers’ anger at bay and avoid a misunderstanding, you should let your UK clients know about the possible fees they could encounter.
#5 What about dropshipping to other countries?
Unlike many other business models, dropshipping is easier to start and run. But there are other features that make it so great.
One of them is the ability to sell products to any country you want or to several countries at once. Your dropshipping store doesn’t have to be confined to UK customers. With AliExpress sending goods to almost any destination on the planet, you can sell internationally.
You can easily find an AliExpress supplier that has warehouses in Europe and sell your products to any EU country. Your customers won’t face any unexpected payments.
You can also successfully target such countries as the USA and Australia. AliExpress sellers store their goods there as well.
If you choose a country like Canada, which has a low limit on online purchases ($20), you should warn your clients in advance about the extra fees they may face. However, there is some loophole in the case of Canada.
In 2018, the USA and Canada made a new trade deal. And now, Canadian customers can buy online up to $150 from the United States and pay no customs duty (although taxes are still applied if the cost is above $40).
So, if you choose an AliExpress seller with a warehouse in the USA, you can make good use of that.
We hope this article will help you get your head around UK dropshipping and start your online business. If you have more questions, please leave them in the comment section below. We’re always happy to lend you a hand.
Find out 5 dropshipping UK questions you wanted us to answer
Do you want to benefit from the sleepwear business? You will be excited to learn there are lots of related product categories that can contribute to a wonderful store offer!
Is it promising to start a sleepwear business?
Do you have any idea why sleepwear, sleep devices, and so on are rapidly becoming a trendy type of products? See for yourself!
Actually, the reason is simple: scientists and researchers worldwide provide more and more evidence of the importance of maintaining proper sleep hygiene.
Each and every one of us knows how crucial it is to have a good night’s sleep. However, due to various reasons, it can sometimes be challenging to fall asleep quickly and have a proper overnight rest. We are now speaking about the impact of poor ecology, rising levels of stress, overwhelming daily routines, increasing information consumption, and so on, and so forth.
This is why so many of us are eagerly following the medical recommendations related to maintaining healthy sleep.
So, if want to make a special store for sleepyheads, don’t limit yourself with sleepwear business only! Research the medical advice on having a good sleep, and think about what you can offer people looking for full relaxation and high-quality rest.
Starting a sleepwear business: trending products to sell
Every day there are new trends introduced in the sleepwear business. If you want to make the most of your sleepwear online store, you should always know what sleepwear suppliers offer today.
Women’s pyjamas
It is commonly recommended to sleep in well-conditioned and even chilly bedrooms. Even though it’s totally healthy, it might seem slightly unusual and even unpleasant to temperature-sensitive people. There’s no doubt they will duly appreciate PJs!
Nightgowns
It’s crucial to look great not only outside, but even while asleep. That’s exactly why nightgowns are in strong demand on the market as well as pyjamas!
Women’s tops
Women’s tops are also extremely popular on the sleepwear market. This can be related to a number of reasons. Some people are not glad to put on a whole PJ set, others prefer to create a unique one, etc. Meantime, the fact is women’s tops are a lucrative ecommerce product for your sleepwear business!
Men’s pyjamas
Despite the fact that men’s pyjamas can’t boast as many orders as women’s ones do, they are still popular on the market and have all chances to become your perfect ecommerce product.
Men’s robes
In fact, men’s robes are not designed as sleepwear. However, it’s perfect clothing to wear at home. Probably this is the reason why men’s robes are still a promising ecommerce product for your store.
Socks
Cold feet don’t simply make you feel uncomfortable – they also heavily extend the time of falling asleep. To keep your buyers’ feet warm, offer them a range of fancy socks for every mood and season.
Slippers
If some time ago home slippers were ordinary black slippers, nowadays there is plenty of them! So you can choose soft or tough, warm or sun shoes, fluffy, etc., for all tastes and budget. By the way, speaking about budget, slippers don’t primarily cost a lot. That’s why people buy them not only for themselves, but as a gift as well.
Sleeping mask
It is claimed that sleep masks can help a person achieve a longer deeper sleep and even lead to oversleeping. Since they block out the undesired light, they make it easier for the wearer to get into the state of full relaxation, and get a high-quality sleep that brings the feeling of complete renewal.
Blackout curtains
If a single sleeping mask is not enough to cope with the excessive amount of light, a set of blackout curtains can help your customer create a more favorable sleep atmosphere in their room.
Night light
Night lamps are known to be a good calming solution for people who tend to wake up in the middle of the night. Such moderate light helps tricking your body and mind into falling asleep again.
Humidifiers
Humidifiers solve multiple problems related to a low quality of sleep, so, if you’d love to dropship gadgets, this product type is a perfect choice for you.
As you can see, even tiny things of daily use can make a huge difference. If you can positively change a person’s life with the power of your sleepwear business, why not start your own profitable dropshipping venture?
New Year holidays’ time can be really tricky for dropshipping store owners. Still, you can manage it easily if you start preparing in advance. This article tells you more about getting ready for AliExpress Chinese New Year!
It’s time to start your preparations TODAY! There are only 5 weeks left until the CNY holiday.
AliExpress Chinese New Year is an interesting challenge for dropshippers. It is the time when you use all your creativity and energy to keep your customers interested in your offers even though it takes much longer to process them 🙂
Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is a wonderful and colorful holiday that has curious historic roots. It is famous for its impressive cultural and traditional background and has a huge impact on the life of modern China.
During this time of the year, home and family become the center of everyone’s attention. People reunite with their dearest and nearest and aim to spend as much time with their loved ones as possible.
No wonder there is an official holiday: a 7-day vacation during the Chinese New Year. The celebration takes a lot of time, indeed!
Obviously, this is great for the country’s population: everyone takes their time to rest, relax, and enjoy several lazy days. But what does it mean for business and economy?
What is AliExpress Chinese New Year’s impact on business?
What happens to a country’s business activity during a national holiday?
During Chinese New Year, all the stores, government facilities, postal offices, factories, and other official establishments in China aren’t operational.
Please mind that Chinese New Year’s Eve in 2021 is on February 11th, and the holiday itself, Chinese New Year’s Day in 2021, starts on February 12th.
The dates for the next years are:
2022 Chinese New Year – February 1st
2023 Chinese New Year – January 22nd
2024 Chinese New Year – February 10th
As a dropshipping business owner, you need to keep these dates in mind because:
Manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and offices in China are closed: everybody is partying and having a good time, so there’s no one available to work on production lines, or to stock items, or even to handle customers’ queries
The banks are also temporarily inactive, so it will take more time than usual to process the payments and any financial transactions
Post offices, transportation hubs, and shipment services are also out of operation, so orders processing will take much more time than usual
But is it a problem?
In fact, absolutely not!
None of these factors will hurt your dropshipping business if you take some necessary steps in advance.
Look at this story of a dropshipping newcomer: he totally forgot about the AliExpress Chinese New Year and launched his AliExpress dropshipping business exactly at this point of time! Still, he managed to sort out all the related issues and minimize the number of refund requests. As a result, he received his first order on the next day after the store launch. What’s more, he made $3,500 within 45 days of the store operation.
How to run your dropshipping business during AliExpress Chinese New Year?
Don’t worry about this upcoming holiday; simply follow these basic instructions.
Contact your sellers to learn about their working schedule and see if it can affect the supply chains
Ideally, you need to write to EACH of your AliExpress suppliers.
This will take some time, of course – but the result will be totally worth the efforts!
Ask the sellers to tell you their exact vacation dates and the time they expect to get back to work. This way, you will get some general understanding of your own working schedule in the next several weeks.
Notify your store visitors about the changes in delivery times
The most important thing is to make sure your customers see the new delivery and processing times BEFORE they place their orders.
You don’t need to go into details and tell a whole story about the AliExpress Chinese New Year and its impact on your store operation. To your buyers, this is just an annoying piece of unnecessary information. All they really need to know is when to expect the package, so focus on this.
Edit the contents of your informational pages
There should be a separate page on your website that explains delivery terms and shipping times. If your store is built with the help of AliDropship plugin, it’s the Shipping page. Here, you have the general shipping information explained, and a list of delivery times valid for different regions.
Simply edit the ‘Estimated Shipping Time’ column according to the info you got from your AliExpress suppliers.
Work on your product descriptions
If possible, write the expected delivery period in the beginning of every product description. Something like this (with the relevant amount of days!) should work:
Please note: you will receive the item in 21-28 days after placing your order. Kindly go to our Shipping page to read about the delivery times for your region!
Yes, while AliExpress Chinese New Year festivities keep going, you can even put the Shipping page link into the items’ descriptions. This way, your potential buyers will know where they can learn more about the shipping time. And when the holiday period is over, you can safely remove this line from your products’ descriptions, and rewrite the estimated shipping time info.
Repeat this on your social media and elsewhere
It is a good idea to create a banner that says something like:
Right now, we have a bit more orders than usual 🙂 To keep everyone happy with their purchases, we are extending the orders processing time. Please note that it is now taking us up to 3 business days to arrange the delivery of your package. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding!
You can put this banner on your website and post it on your Instagram and Facebook feed. You can even pin this post to the top of your Facebook page’s timeline to make sure everyone sees it and doesn’t get wrong expectations. Again, link the banner to your Shipping page – after clicking on the banner, your customers will be redirected to the page with the detailed info.
As soon as your suppliers come back to work in their normal operational mode, remove the banner from your online store and undo the post pinning on Facebook.
Plan your communication with customers carefully
A common recommendation is to stop all your promotional efforts and cut down spending on your ads during this period of time. However, when talking about how to make a fortune with a dropshipping business, we don’t consider this necessary.
It would be a mistake to stop answering your clients’ calls, emails, messages and comments on social networks. Keep talking to your customers with the same intensity you normally have, and check if every new client understands your notification. To make this task easier, create a template email and send it to every person who placed an order on your website during this period of time. If you have an AliDropship-based store, go to the Notifications tab in your Settings section:
Write something like this:
Hi, we’re excited to receive your order! It’s being processed right now, and the package will arrive to you in 21-28 days. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at any time!
It is important to edit your Shipping page info and products’ descriptions BEFORE you start sending these emails! This way, you’ll be able to include a link to the Shipping page into these emails, and ask the readers to pay attention to these details.
Basically, that’s it!
As you can see, the AliExpress Chinese New Year impact on business is not a problem at all. A slight change to your day-to-day operations will help you keep your buyers happy and satisfied with products from China. Keep your dropshipping business running, follow these simple steps and enjoy a great performance of your dropshipping store even in the trickiest times!
Any business idea requires time to pick up steam. That’s why buying a business is a good way to start. If you’re looking for an ecommerce store for sale, pay attention to AliDropship’s most successful Established stores – The Auto Merch and Cheery Kid.
Starting an ecommerce business is in many ways similar to launching a traditional business. One needs to choose a niche, manufacture products or buy them from a wholesaler, hire specialists, etc. All of it requires work and investments. But the trickiest part is that there’s no guarantee your efforts will pay dividends.
Even experienced entrepreneurs may face challenges when starting a new project. If you’re new to ecommerce, there are lots of things you should learn to create an easy to run business that can beat competitors and make enough money to grow.
From this viewpoint, dropshipping suits newcomers better than other business models. Still, it doesn’t mean dropshipping doesn’t require skills and experience.
That’s why AliDropship offers Established dropshipping stores, launched and developed by our team of skilled experts. Unlike newly made websites, these are online stores with a proven track record that have already achieved an impressive performance.
These online businesses are built around moneymaking niches and products that are highly popular among buyers. They are targeted at the most fitting audiences with the proper ad campaigns. And they bring profit! By purchasing one of AliDropship’s established stores, you can become a full owner of a profitable dropshipping business in a moment.
In this article, I’m going to tell you about two of our most successful Established stores – The Auto Merch and Cheery Kid.
The Auto Merch
Monthly revenue: $453,000
Niche and products
This ecommerce store for sale sells useful products for car owners such as car organizers, accessories, repair supplies and cleaning tools.
As you can see, this list doesn’t include technically sophisticated parts or devices. Few people would agree to buy such stuff online. Instead, the store focuses on useful tools and simple accessories. Such goods are easy to ship and hard to break during transportation.
At the same time, the usefulness of these products is what makes The Auto Merch successful.
Most sales come from advertising. When you advertise a product, your goal is to convince people that they actually need the product. But when you sell something useful, there’s no need to do it! Simply show how easily your product cleans snow from windows in a short video ad, and car owners will gladly follow the link to your site.
If you purchase The Auto Merch, you will get all the product data on the site, product pages, descriptions and wholesalers’ contacts.
Target audience
Often it takes at least several weeks and a lot of investments to define the target audience of a new ecommerce store. Even when you think the image of your ideal customer is clear, there are many nuances you might not be aware of. That’s why one has to spend considerable sums to test audiences.
AliDropship’s team has been actively promoting The Auto Merch for more than a year. They’ve done dozens of tests, tried various strategies, and now the store is targeted at the best-converting audience which draws more than 102,000 unique visitors each month.
When you buy this online business, you won’t have to repeat all these tests. Instead, you’ll have pre-tested audiences to target.
Advertising materials
The success of The Auto Merch wouldn’t be possible without creating and using efficient ads. But ads also require testing.
The team has been experimenting with different ad designs, just like with target audiences – mostly on Facebook and Instagram. By now they have selected the best-converting materials, and they’ll be yours when you purchase this Established Store.
Moreover, by using these ads as examples, you’ll be able to create new ads to promote new products. Here you can learn more about The Auto Merch.
Cheery Kid
Monthly revenue: $49,000
Niche and products
Although this ecommerce store for sale was launched in September 2020, it quickly became AliDropship’s second most successful dropshipping store. It sells products for babies, little children and their parents. Some of these goods are useful, but the most popular products are able to evoke strong emotions. And this is one of the secrets behind its success.
For example, you can’t always sell a toy by simply saying it’s useful. Instead, you appeal to emotions. When potential buyers see an ad demonstrating a super cute toy, they just want it. As long as there’s nothing serious that makes them change their minds (like high price or shipping cost), such products trigger impulse purchases.
Target audience
The team of Cheery Kid has put a lot of efforts into analyzing the store’s target audience. Not only parents buy stuff in this dropshipping store. Grandparents, uncles and aunts as well as family friends – they all want to purchase presents for kids or something useful for mom and dad.
Advertising materials
By purchasing Cheery Kid, you also get the full list of the marketing materials the team uses for promotion. They use mostly two ad types. The first one is ads appealing to emotions. The second one is ads appealing to how useful a product is.
The choice is defined by what product you want to promote in your current campaign.
As you can see, an Established store isn’t just a regular ecommerce store for sale. Its benefits aren’t just high quality design, pictures, banners, pre-made product descriptions and pre-installed dropshipping solutions. All components of these businesses were thoroughly tested beforehand:
Best-selling products (tested on different audiences)
Best-converting product pages and descriptions (selected after split testing)
Best-converting ad materials (selected after split testing)
High-converting target audiences (found with dozens of tests)
Moreover, if you purchase The Auto Merch or Cheery Kid, you will become a sole owner of these dropshipping stores. After that, you can change the stores in any way you like, add and remove products, create new ads – in other words, develop the businesses according to your own vision.
A pre-tested ecommerce store for sale gives you a competitive advantage over other dropshipping websites. You will start your journey with a ready-made website, a list of top-selling goods, efficient marketing materials, clear target audiences and the profit your store yields.
Do you want a profitable niche for your online store? Are you excited and curious about automobiles? How about turning your passion into a stable source of high income? Launching a store to dropship auto parts & accessories can be a winning idea for you!
Frankly speaking, automotive vehicles have taken a steady position in our daily life. Some of us have our own automobiles, others take taxis or public transport. Anyway, most of us use automobiles to move through our cities or towns every day. What’s more, we often spend several hours straight and more in a car, don’t we?
Day by day, lots of new technologies are implemented in automobiles. Consequently, they become more and more convenient for end users. In a nutshell, this is exactly what can bring you a fortune!
In fact, selling auto parts and accessories is one of the most thriving industries in the world. Billions of dollars are spent on repair and different enhancements annually.
So is it a great idea to dropship auto parts and accessories? And how to dropship car items in order to get the maximum benefit? Read on!
Why is it a profitable idea to dropship auto parts and accessories?
What do we need to consider a niche as profitable? First of all, it’s a demand. Let’s look at how popular the ‘car parts’ search request is on the Internet.
According to Google Trends, there is not only a stable interest in car parts over the past few years, but also a sharp increase in 2020. Looks impressive, doesn’t it?
What’s more, pay attention to the motorization level in the majority of countries. For instance, the motorization level in some EU countries is off the scale – there are more than 600 cars per 1,000 people.
Let’s move on. Also note that the number of cars per household is about 1,9 in the US now. Meantime, the most remarkable fact about this is that it has remained virtually unchanged since 2001.
So can you now believe what a potential target audience are we talking about?
Beyond this, according to IBIS World, total revenue in 2019 amounts to more than $3 billion. Meanwhile, annual growth in this sector is 5.8% that also sounds quite impressive.
So what does this mean for a person who is going to start dropshipping? Right, this means that dropshipping car parts and accessories is extremely promising!
By the way, please also note that we know firsthand that it’s really profitable to dropship auto parts. Have you heard about The Auto Merch? This dropshipping store makes $3,000,000+/year, and the MOST impressive part is, you can easily get its exact copy and repeat its success — or even surpass it!
What should you know if you want to dropship auto parts and accessories?
Like any other business, dropshipping car parts and accessories requires you to think deeply.
1. Basic
First, you need to be well versed in cars. Actually, the point is that if you are going to start selling auto parts, both small and large, some of them will be technically complex a priori.
Moreover, there are dozens of different car models that are popular worldwide. Beyond this, there are a lot more car parts producers. So you need to be ready to sort this. Fortunately, to date, you can find all the necessary information on the Internet.
2. Types of products to dropship
Then, you need to define what you’re going to dropship, since there are lots of products to choose from.
So what can we recommend that you consider in terms of dropshipping?
In fact, we would like to highlight that it’s a great idea to dropship small products which don’t cost much. In that case, you can bet on impulse purchases, so people will be highly likely to make a purchase in your online store. Meanwhile you are not going to have any problems with shipping.
What’s more, nowadays most automobiles are extremely expensive. That’s why people often have to purchase entry-level cars.
However, over time, people realize that they want more. They need cruise control, LED headlight, and so on. So they start to modify their vehicles.
And here is the question: where can they buy high-quality car parts and accessories at low prices? Right, in an online store!
In fact, there are lots of categories for you to choose which products to sell online. It means that you can go info selling electrical equipment, diagnostics appliances, spare parts, accessories, and so on. Just think of what is more promising in your opinion.
