How to create a Dropshipping Store on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, PrestaShop and BigCommerce
What is a Dropshipping E-Commerce Store?
Dropshipping is a way to start an ecommerce business without keeping actual inventory. There are suppliers who will receive orders on your behalf and ship it as well. You just need to list products on your website, sell it and send an email (or automate order forwarding) to your supplier to ship the item on your behalf.
Benefits Of Dropshipping
Less Capital Is Required
Probably the greatest benefit of dropshipping is that it is feasible to launch an ecommerce shop without having to spend thousands of bucks in inventory up front.
You don't have to buy a product with the dropshipping model unless you've already made the sale and have been paid by the client. Without significant upfront inventory investments, it is feasible to begin a successful dropshipping company with very little money.
Easy to Get Started
Running an ecommerce business is much easier if you don't have to cope with physical products. You don't have to worry about:
- Manage or pay for a warehouse
- Packaging and shipping your orders
- Inventory tracking for accounting purposes
- Handling returns and inbound shipments
- Continually ordering products and managing stock level
Low Overhead
Because you don't have to cope with buying inventory or managing a warehouse, your overhead expenses are quite small. In reality, for less than $100 a month, many successful dropshipping companies are running from a home office with a laptop. As you develop, these costs are likely to raise but are still small compared to traditional brick-and-mortar companies.
Flexible Location
With an internet connection, a dropshipping company can be run from just about anywhere. As long as you can readily interact with providers and clients, you can operate and handle your company.
Wide Selection of Products
Because you don't have to buy the items you sell beforehand, you can give your prospective clients and range of products. If suppliers store an item, you can list it for sale on your website at no extra price.
Easy to Scale
If you receive three times as much business with a traditional business, you will generally have to expand your operations three times and infuse the growth capital etc., however in this case your dropshipping supplier is already equipped with handling more orders so you do not have to worry about the inventory or shipping. You can easily scale up your business as much as you want. What is better is that you can keep adding new suppliers to your list to expand your business quickly.
Dropshipping with AliExpress
AliExpress is a China based marketplace with a wide selection of products. They ship to all major international locations. Their costs are very competitive. They have almost all products ranging from clothing, jewelry, to electronics and home décor etc.
There are AliExpress integration plugins and apps for ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, BigCommerce and Custom & Others .
Add the products you’d like to sell from AliExpress onto your store (no upfront cost or fee), set a price with a markup, and whenever you receive an order, you pay for that product at wholesale cost and the AliExpress seller ships the orders directly to your customer.
Few important points to consider while setting up a dropshipping store:
Selling to a country A while working from country B: It is theoretically possible to sell your products in USA or other countries while you might be working from some other countries.
Shipping time: Shipping time is the biggest issue with dropshipping. A product may take upto 4-6 weeks to reach to customer. It is better to set the buyer’s expectations in advance regarding shipping time. If you are delivering in USA and Europe then opt for Packet delivery which is the fastest option to ship.
Choose your niche: It is better to choose a special category of products or narrow down your products to few related types categories. This will help you in creating a right messaging around your store and in identifying the target audience. It is best to choose something you are passionate about or have some knowledge.
For every niche there is a huge selection of products to choose from AliExpress.
Write your own descriptions for products: The product descriptions for many of the products on AliExpress are not written properly. Mostly it is written in Chinese and then translated to English by using Google translator. It’s a pain however you will need to re-write almost all product descriptions.
Use an order tracking app: With longer delivery times, you will receive emails and calls from customers asking where their product is. Use an order tracking app (available for Shopify and other platforms) to keep them informed about the product status.
Do free refunds: It is extremely difficult for a customer to return the product because they cannot ship it back to AliExpress. It is better to refund the full amount in case you receive a complaint. Keep this in mind while setting up the prices to count for these losses as well.
Price products properly: Price your product approximately twice the price. This will cover your expenses, losses and profit. Since shipping time and quality of products are not in your control, you need a good margin to cover for unnecessary surprises.
Setting up AliExpress dropshipping store on Shopify by using dropshipping apps
Shopify has a free app called Oberlo which is very easy to setup and it’s a breeze to work with this app once your store is setup.
Setting up AliExpress dropshipping store on Magento by using Dropshipping Extensions
There are many Magento Dropshipping Extensions that can allow you to integrate with AliExpress. Some of these are listed as below:
https://marketplace.magento.com/ced-aliexpress-magento-2-dropshipping.html
https://store.webkul.com/Magento2-Dropship.html
Setting up AliExpress dropshipping store on WooCommerce by using Dropshipping Plugins
There are many WooCommerce Dropshipping plugins that will allow you to integrate and sync with AliExpress. Some of these are listed as below:
Setting up AliExpress dropshipping store on Prestashop by using Dropshipping Modules
There are many Prestashop Addon modules that can be used for this. Some of them are listed as below:
https://addons.prestashop.com/en/dropshipping/26893-aliexpressapi.html
https://addons.prestashop.com/en/dropshipping/29854-aliexpress-dropshipping-product-importer.html
Setting up AliExpress dropshipping store on Bigcommerce by using Dropshipping apps
There are apps on Bigcommerce marketplace which can be used to create a dropshipping store connected with AliExpress.
https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/aliexpress-dropshipping-by-cedcommerce/
https://store.webkul.com/BigCommerce-AliExpress-Dropshipping.html
Last words:
Why will someonebuy from your store if they can buy it directly from AliExpress?
There are following reasons and advantages in buying from you (even if your prices are higher):
- You know your niche, your products and you are a trusted brand.
- You are an expert of your products and you know what you are selling. A better support and quality service is delivered by you.
- You have already tested and sold these products.
- You are a trustworthy and responsible brand and you refund the money for faulty products when there is no guarantee from AliExpress sellers for these same products.
- Marketing - You reach out to your target audience through various marketing channels. You are consistently pushing to market and selling your products to people.