Aliexpress. It’s that hated word within the world of dropshipping mainly because it is an absolute ballache to deal with. Bad suppliers, awful packaging, terrible communication, broken products, etc. All of this is just so common and in all honesty, it’s time to stop dropshipping with Aliexpress. We know this can be hard since there are so many untapped products on Aliexpress that are not on supplier sites and in some cases such as that you are forced to use Aliexpress. However, for the most part, do not even think about fulfilling your products from there.
Over the last year or so, there has been a surge in independent fulfillment companies that specialize in dropshipping. These companies know what consumers want. They want a fast reliable fulfillment service that doesn’t cause any issues. One of the main stresses in dropshipping is that you don’t really have any control of how the goods are sent and packed. You can only assume that your supplier is packing them nicely and sending them on time. The issue is though is that you can never be 100% certain that what your supplier is saying is true. After all, for most people, these suppliers are thousands and thousands of miles away.
Of course, you can get an independent auditor to check out the supplier for you but when you’re starting up this costs money. Thankfully a lot of these drop ship fulfillment services are pre-audited and usually, there are many reviews on the service online unlike Aliexpress suppliers as there are just so many of them. You can look at supplier reviews on Aliexpress but not always are they reliable. You can also check the Aliexpress dropship center but again they’re not always reliable.
You cannot scale with Aliexpress. Your customer feedback will go down the drain which will potentially ruin your Facebook page and make them ban your ad account. You should only use a dropshipping agent or use a fulfillment center with domestic stock when you are scaling. It’s just not reliable or sustainable at all to keep dropshipping with just Aliexpress. Yet so many newbies fall for this!
In fact, in most cases, you shouldn’t even be testing products with Aliexpress. Just one bad feedback score on Facebook or one chargeback, PayPal issue, etc can cause a heap of issues. Banned ad accounts, payment holds, payment blocks, reserves, etc. It’s all just not worth it as at the end of the day customer satisfaction is key and if your customers are not happy then everyone else isn’t happy. Not Facebook, not Paypal, not Shopify, not Stripe and neither are you. That’s why choosing a reliable supplier is a must in dropshipping and one of the key ingredients to become successful.
What Other Fulfilment Services Can I Use Instead?
You can use many other fulfilment services instead of Aliexpress. From private suppliers to dropship market places. We will start with dropship market places first.
A dropshipping marketplace are things like CJ Dropshipping, Eprolo, Spocket, etc. These all may just sound like names to you but they’re more than that. Lets make things a bit clearer with first opening up Aliexpress.
Aliexpress has thousands and thousands of sellers and whilst some are great most are not so great. There are some big sellers on Aliexpress that mainly specialise in dropshipping and they have worked worked with many dropshippers in the past. Sounds like they’re reliable then? Well not exactly. You see most of them see you only as a transaction. You can do all you want by negotioating and creating a deal with them, but ultimately they can easily walk away from you anytime they like. They can stop fulfilling orders, use cheaper shipping lines and even send broken products. You can set as many Aliexpress disputes as you like but anybody who has used the Aliexpress resolution centre knows that its a handful.
Marketplaces such as Eprolo and CJDropshipping actually started out as Aliexpress stores. The reason why they left Aliexpress was due to fees. They set up their ownn private marketplace which then attracted many dropshippers due to faster shipping times which in most cases always look too good to be true. The shipping is more expensive but its faster. You get what you pay for. However, what i’ve noticed myself is that the products even with the expensive shipping seem to be the same price as the ones on Aliexpress. If not they’re a tad more expensive but never cheaper.
Then you have agents which you should only use after you have found a winner. These people are ideal for scaling as they can work one on one with the supplier direct. You can find these people on Upwork, Alibaba, etc. These peopel again sometimes can mess you over especially as there can be corruption between them and the supplier.
We suggest going with a company called HonestFulphilment as in all honesty they are the safest to use. It is ran by an american guy called Phil and he’s pretty honest as he used to do dropshipping in the past. He has no scam links with suppliers and everything that company does it pretty safe and sound. Though as it’s so good demand is high and they are selective who they work with.
You can use some other agents and servies too but make sure they have good reviews. You do not want to get played over as in all honesty it can destroy your business.
The safest way is to actually order your products in bulk to a fulfilment house to your top country, e.g. USA. You contact your supplier and get them to send the products in bulk over to a fulfilment centre who will sort out all of the orders for you. They will pack, ship and inspect all of your products. they can sort out custom shipping, different lines for different areas, etc. If your supplier messes you around this time, your fulfilment centre can always assist you on getting back on track.