One of the most important factors when talking about creating a dropshipping store is the right choice of suppliers. Many are not aware of how important it is to find an adequate dropshipping supplier, and the first thing they look for is the price. Most beginners choose the supplier who has the lowest price of the product they offer, which has its advantages and disadvantages. We believe that this step should be approached thoroughly and with a lot of analysis, and in this article, we will explain why.
It is essential to ask yourself a few basic questions when choosing dropshipping suppliers:
- Is the supplier responsive?
- Can the supplier keep up with the pace of growing orders (which can reach hundreds of orders per day)?
- What is the overall rating of the supplier?
- How satisfied are the current customers with the services of suppliers?
- What shipping options are available?
These are just some of the most important questions you need to ask yourself before choosing dropshipping suppliers.
Now let’s dive deep into some of the essential processes of finding the best dropshipping supplier:
Step 1: Sorting the search results of dropshipping products
The selection of suppliers with which to start your business begins on the AliExpress product search page. The first thing you should do is type in the name of the desired product. The vital thing to know is that you need to sort search results by orders first and not by price!
In this way, you will first be shown the products with the most orders.
If you use Shopify, you can install the Oberlo Chrome extension, highlighting the products for which the ePacket is available in green.
Step 2: AliExpress Supplier Research
Now you need to open several products taking into account the relevance of the same, that is, AliExpress sometimes displays search results and products that you did not search for, but the products are probably tagged so that your search term activates them.
Now that you have opened a few relevant products see your AliExpress supplier’s feedback. Our recommendation is to look exclusively at AliExpress vendors who have a store rating of 95% positive. If the product/supplier is new to the market, you can also consider 90% feedback, but only if you cannot find another supplier.
Look at Detailed Seller Ratings to see which ratings are displayed for Item as Described, Communication, and Shipping Speed.
AliExpress Supplier Example 1
As you can see, the supplier from our example has a positive feedback score of 97.6% and all green detailed seller ratings. The buyers often note that the sold items fully match their description, that communication is stellar, and shipping speed is good. These are all indicators of an AliExpress vendor we can trust.
AliExpress Supplier Example 2
The following example is a supplier who has a Top Brand Badge on their profile. This is a clear indication that we are talking about a trusted supplier. Not only that, but this AliExpress supplier also has all green Detailed Seller Ratings. When you add 83% five stars reviews to this, you can safely trust this AliExpress supplier.
What exactly does the Top Brand badge mean?
AliExpress rewards all its top-rated suppliers, i.e., popular brands or authorized resellers, with Top Brand badge. AliExpress suppliers get a Top Brand badge if their products are of top quality, have a reliable business reputation, and have good after-sales service.
AliExpress Supplier Example 3
This example shows you an AliExpress vendor with not-so-good feedback and poorer overall scoring.
It seems that this supplier’s feedback is not good. As you can see, all the trust parameters we have mentioned so far are not satisfactory.
- Item as Described: 4.4 Below AverageAs you can see, the items don’t fully match the descriptions, which is good because your consumers may get something they didn’t ask for or that the product they receive is not the same as the product you presented on your online store.
- Communication: 4.3 Below AverageCommunication issues may mean that this AliExpress provider is not up to date in replying to messages. This can put you in an awkward situation where your customers rely on a response from you and you from your supplier who doesn’t reply to your messages for days.
- Shipping Speed: 4.2 Below AverageEveryone who deals with dropshipping knows how important the speed of delivery is, and if you choose a supplier whose product will take 2 months to deliver your product, you are in trouble. This problem can negatively impact your review and the payment processor or dispute rate, increasing. You may risk termination of cooperation with companies whose payment processors you use.
Step 3: Product review research
You must constantly analyze and read product reviews well. Read customer reviews to get a broader picture of the quality of AliExpress vendors’ products and services.
Pay special attention to analyzing images in the product reviews section. Based on the pictures, you can get important information about the quality of the product. Research the comments well as more customers may point to potential difficulties they have had in ordering and waiting for the product.
Step 4: Shipping Time
Click on shipping options marked with red.
On the product page, check the availability of sending products in the countries you want to do dropshipping and what all the sending options are.
Now that you have selected the country for shipping check what shipping methods are available. It would help if you choose shipping options that have tracking information available. Tracking your order is very important because you want your customers to find out the current location of their order at any time. This way, you will spare yourself constant communication with consumers and correspondence with suppliers who do not have tracking options available.
Don’t always choose the cheapest option. Think carefully about the product you offer. Check shipment time. It is essential that your customers are satisfied with your services to improve your business constantly. Some of the most secure options are ePacket or AliExpress Standard Shipping.
Step 5: Guarantees
Another important step when choosing an AliExpress supplier is service and product warranties. On-Time delivery in most cases is 60-70 days, however, some suppliers do less than that.
Why is it important to choose a supplier that offers a warranty on your products?
If the item is not delivered within the mentioned days on the supplier’s page, you can open a dispute. This way, you make sure that your money is returned to you. It often happens that you find yourself in a situation even when you choose a good supplier, following all the essential parameters so that the product does not arrive at the agreed time. This means that you will probably have to return the money to your customers, but in order to insure yourself, it is important that you get your money back from the suppliers. Of course, you can always try to agree with the supplier beforehand and find a common solution, if not, you can also open disputes.
Step 6: Communication with AliExpress supplier
Successful communication is very important when choosing the most reliable AliExpress supplier. When you are looking for the best supplier do a short survey of the speed of answering your questions. Choose several suppliers and send messages to all of them at the same time so that you can see which of the contracted suppliers responded to you the fastest because it can often happen that some suppliers do not answer you at all.
Here are some important questions you can ask your potential AliExpress suppliers:
- What are the average delivery times?
- What is the average processing time?
- What kind of packaging is used?
- Is the supplier also the manufacturer of the product?
- Do they facilitate dropshipping?
- Is there a minimum order requirement?
- What happens with returns or refunds?
Frequently asked questions about AliExpress dropshipping suppliers.
Should I let my customers know that the shipping time might be up to a month?
Yes. This is the best practice. Be as much as transparent as you can. Also, write about shipping time on your Shipping Policy page.
Do I need to inform the AliExpress supplier before dropshipping?
Absolutely! If you don’t do this, your package may contain invoices from AliExpress suppliers, and that can reflect poorly on your brand’s reputation. Therefore, always contact your supplier before sending the package and explain to him that you are dealing with dropshipping and do not want invoices to be included in your packages.
Does the shipping cost the same for all the countries?
No. It is crucial that when researching AliExpress suppliers, you check the delivery time of the product for the country where you will be doing dropshipping.