How to start a Alibaba Dropshipping instead of Aliexpress?
How can you find a great Alibaba dropshipping supplier?
In this Alibaba dropshipping guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know to get started, including:
- The difference between Alibaba and AliExpress
- How to verify Alibaba dropshipping suppliers
- How to find trustworthy Alibaba dropshipping suppliers
- How to start dropship from Alibaba
Table of Contents
Is Alibaba Good for Dropshipping?
You can start dropshipping from Alibaba! However, finding and cooperating with Alibaba dropshipping suppliers is more difficult than on AliExpress. This is because most suppliers on Alibaba are set up to sell large quantities of goods to wholesalers or retailers, and many suppliers have no ability or interest to sell or ship individual goods to consumers abroad.
In other words, you can find unique products and suppliers on Alibaba that are not listed on AliExpress. Therefore, Alibaba is good for dropshipping to make you stand out from the competition.
The Benefits of Alibaba Dropshipping
With the Alibaba dropshipping service on the website, your business development has never been easier. Their free dropshipping tool allows you to:
- Large selection of best-selling products from quality suppliers, manufacturers, and factories
- Enjoy no minimum purchase requirements
- Ensure fast and reliable delivery service.
- They have worked with most major dropshipping platforms to make it easy to find products on Alibaba.com and automatically add them to your online store.
How to Approach for Alibaba Dropshipping Suppliers
Although it is super simple to buy products wholesale, asking the Alibaba supplier to do drop shipping for you is another matter.
Why?
This is because when you buy wholesale, the transaction is simple. You pay the seller, and the seller will send the goods to you.
But when it comes to Alibaba dropshipping, you are essentially seeking partners, not buying products in bulk. Your supplier will fulfill each of your orders.
In addition, you must work closely with them to ensure that the packaging and inserts show your brand and not theirs.
In short, the commitment that an Alibaba dropshipping supplier must make is far greater than a simple wholesale arrangement.
Dropshipping Alibaba suppliers requirements
Therefore, before contacting the Alibaba dropshipping suppliers, you must be fully prepared because you must make people feel that you are a legitimate business owner.
Not only do you have to get your seller’s license, but you also need to prepare a professional website in advance.
And many more? How can I build a website before I have nothing to sell?
Just because you have a website does not mean it has to accept transactions. Just because you have a website does not mean it needs to be fully functional.
If I look for a dropship supplier, I will use Shopify or Open Cart to build a fast and simple website, using stock product images to make it look like a real store.
Remember: You are asking your Alibaba dropshipping supplier to become a partner. Unless you can prove that you have a plan to promote sales, they will not be willing to work with you.
Is a professional website necessary now?
Do not!
But having a good-looking website can convince suppliers that you are worth their time. The choice is yours.
Evaluate Your Alibaba Dropshipper Suppliers
You also need to conduct your own due diligence once you show your dropship supplier that you are a serious buyer.
Here are some questions to ask the Alibaba dropshipping suppliers:
Do you have to pay a delivery fee?-Usually, the dropship supplier will charge a fee for each order to be completed.
Once an order is placed, how long does it take to ship the product?-Customer service is the main focus of dropshipping
Can you write my company name and logo on the packaging?-It is important to apply your brand name to the package.
Product infringement issues-is the product infringing? Do you own a patent for this product?
Product Certificate-Does this product have a certificate?
Out of stock-How do you guarantee the inventory of this product? How long can you tell us in advance if it is out of stock?
Note: If you are looking for a good place to find dropship suppliers, worldwide brands can save you time by classifying and categorizing suppliers in a large database for you.
What are the Disadvantages of Dropshipping from Alibaba?
There are also some cons find Alibaba Dropshipping suppliers.
• Intense competition
Your Chinese supplier may sell the same product to many dropshippers. As a result, your competition is fierce.
• Infringement issues
Suppliers may be less affected by manufacturing infringing products or may not even know the theory of product infringement. However, these products will undoubtedly significantly impact your business and even make it bankrupt. So when choosing products, pay special attention.
• Long shipping time
The distance from China to the United States or Europe is very long, so that shipping time may be a problem for many transport ships. In addition, some uncontrollable factors may also appear; for example, natural disasters and customs inspections are possible. These factors may cause delays in delivery.
• Communication problems
Although Chinese products usually have some price advantages, there is also a potential cost: communication costs.
• Alibaba dropshipping shipping cost
What about the shipping costs with Alibaba dropshipping? Are you paying one flat-rate fee on all orders or is it still per order? Alibaba shipping is definitely higher than Aliexpress so you may be curious to see how that works.
Don’t go buy the price you see listed on the product page description. Always contact the supplier’s and you’ll get better prices than Aliexpress as long as you are doing some decent volume (20+ orders daily).
If you are doing under 20 orders a day then the shipping maybe a little bit higher so you may want to try a fulfillment company like supplyia sourcing.
The image below illustrates some of the key differences between Alibaba vs AliExpress:
How to Dropship With Alibaba – (Step by Step)
If you want to start dropshipping on Alibaba, you may want to know how to start. To help you, here is a simple step-by-step guide for buying products safely on Alibaba.
step 1. Start looking for Alibaba dropshipping suppliers
To start, log in to Alibaba and search for the product you want to sell — you can then use the left sidebar to hone in on a suitable supplier.
It’s a good idea to filter suppliers by Trade Assurance — even if you don’t use the service yourself. “Ready to Ship” and “Fast Dispatch” are also good options to check, as suppliers that fulfill these criteria are more likely to dropship products.
Step 2. Check the MOQ and price
Once you’ve found a potential Alibaba dropshipping listing, check out the product page and the minimum order quantity — also known as MOQ.
Step 3. Compile a list of potential Alibaba dropshipping suppliers
Most of the suppliers you contact are unable to work for one reason or another. For example, they might:
- Unable to meet your verification requirements
- No inventory or ability to take on more work
- Provide unacceptable payment terms
Therefore, it is best to compile a list of potential suppliers and then contact them at one time.
At this stage, promising suppliers will:
- sell the product you want
- Minimum order 1
- Reasonable price list
- Be verified and provide a trade assurance
- Have a good comment/communication
- Acceptable shipping time and price
After you have compiled a list of at least 5-10 suppliers, it’s time to contact them.
Step 4. Contact the supplier and consult Dropshipping
Therefore, you need to contact these suppliers to see if they are willing to deliver the products to your customers.
The easiest way for contacting Alibaba’s suppliers is to use the platform’s instant messaging service. However, some providers will prefer your phone, email, or use WeChat.
Here is a template you can use to query dropshipping Alibaba Contacting:
Hi,
My name is xxx, and I am with xxx Company.
We’re searching for a reliable partner to dropship Product XYZ from Alibaba. Our customers are in the United States.
Please could you answer some questions:
- What is your minimum order quantity (MOQ)?—product link or picture
- What is the cost per unit?
- How long will orders take to arrive in the United States?
- What are your payment terms for new customers?
- Can you do a private label?
I would also like to order a sample. Can you please tell me the cost of a sample sent to:
Your address xxx xxx
Thank you.
Step 5. Agreed payment method
It is necessary to understand Alibaba’s favorite payment methods so that you can try to find a supplier who is willing to use your payment method.
Step 6. Shortlisted suppliers, order samples, and then select suppliers
Now is the time to choose the best supplier you want to cooperate with.
When filtering suppliers, make sure to consider the following:
- unit cost
- Payment terms
- How is the communication of each supplier
- Suppliers must fulfill orders in time
After you have chosen a good list of suppliers, it’s time to place sample orders. If you have two or more suitable suppliers, look for more opportunities to take advantage. For example, in this case, you may prefer to choose this supplier who can provide private label service. It provides opportunities to expand and develop your brand in the future.
Step 6. Alibaba Dropshipping Fulfillment
Alibaba launched a dropshipping service recently. you can visit dropshipping.alibaba.com to check directly. With wholesale item price but without MOQ limitation.
And they have linked with some Dropshipping service providers like Modalyst, Syncee, etc., Which can help to import products to your store and finish the order fulfillment automatically.
Some sellers don’t use any extensions with Alibaba dropshipping. They send their supplier the orders via CSV file from Shopify.
How to Dropship from Alibaba High MOQ suppliers?
When Alibaba dropshipping a product that has an MOQ, does that mean that you send the supplier an excel sheet of your orders every time they reach the MOQ amount and the supplier ships each product to individual addresses for you,
or is it that you have to put in the order every time you reach MOQ and have them send the bulk order to a fulfillment center to get sorted and shipped?
First, you need to find out if that supplier supports dropshipping.
If not, then your only option is to buy in bulk at the requested MOQ… but the MOQ can be negotiated so always try to get them to do an amount that you are comfortable with for your first order.
Now to answer your next question, if they (supplier) do not support Alibaba dropshipping then YES. You will have to buy in bulk and ship that to a fulfillment company in your country to have them ship the products to your customers.
Honestly, the path of least resistance if you are a newbie or low on capital is to use a fulfillment dropshipping sourcing company that has no MOQ and they will source the product, store them, and ship to your customers once you send them the product URL from Alibaba or requirement. This is exactly what we are doing.
Better start Dropshipping Business in China with Supplyia
With the rising advertising costs, the huge competition, the long shipping time, and poor quality control, there are really some people who hardly make serious money out of dropshipping from China businesses. So, more and more dropshipping sellers realize that they should avoid the traditional dropshipping model to achieve tremendous success.
In order to increase your competitiveness, we provide ODM/OEM dropshipping services at no extra cost. That means buyers can design or source certain products; for example, they can change the item’s color, add a unique logo to their products, or customize packaging… All of this will help you to create your own unique brands.
The new generation supplyia dropshipping model has the following benefits:
1. Avoid fierce competition
2. Avoid infringement
3. Your competitors don’t know the source of the supply
4. Possible To Build Your Own Brand
5. Customized shipping method(7-15 days)
Many of the drop shippers know that it takes an average of 10-30 days to deliver the package. This is an aspect of customer experience that you are willing to sacrifice. Now it is possible to work with us, accept and create customized products and packaging. If we help you solve this problem, you can get a lot of customers. The $1 upgrade OEM/ODM/packaging/shipping cost can have a huge impact on the repeat customer space.
Conclusion
Since Alibaba Dropshipping provides ePacket, air freight, and other transportation solutions with on-time delivery, tracking information, and competitive prices, it is possible to do dropshipping from Alibaba.
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