How To Use AliBaba For Dropshipping

How To Use AliBaba For Dropshipping

by | Jun 15, 2020 | Ecommerce, Guides

If you’ve made up your mind about who your overseas source is for products you’re selling online, then it’s probably Alibaba that you’re doing business with. According to the numbers Alibaba is the biggest eCommerce company worldwide. That means bigger than even Amazon and eBay put together.

So what is Alibaba? It’s basically a very comprehensive directory connecting buyers and suppliers (mainly Asian suppliers) all across the world. They have literally millions of products to choose from and tons of suppliers ready to fill your orders.

Start Your Search

Purchasing items on Alibaba using their directory is pretty well self-explanatory. It is not so much different from a marketplace like eBay. You can browse through the categories of perform a more ‘item -specific’ search to find what you want.

You have 2 options when performing a search on Alibaba. One is to utilize the product descriptions for your search, like with ‘dog collars’. That will bring up lots of results in the dog collar category.

The second option is to utilize their drop-down menu and search for suppliers rather than for products. That way you can find the manufacturers who specialize in whatever type of products you’re looking for.

How to Use the Product Pages

Before you begin searching around on Alibaba you should know a few things about those product pages. As our former example was ‘dog collar’ we’ll keep that as our example here as well.

Unit Price

This will be one of the first pieces of information you’ll want to have. Price is always a good place to start. We can see that this listing has a price of $2 – $3 USD FOB. The ‘FOB’ is the abbreviation of ‘Free on Board’, which means that the seller is also going to pay the costs associated with getting this product to the marine port (For Asian products this is the cheapest way to go) and you (as the buyer) will pay costs associated with the actual transporting of your goods across the ocean blue to its final destination.

MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity)

The next source of information you’ll need is the MOQ, or ‘minimum order quantity’. This is the smallest number of items this particular manufacturer is willing to sell on one order. The thing to remember about MOQs is they’re not chiseled in stone and are usually negotiable. The MOQ in our ‘dog collar’ example is 200 units. When we multiply that using the high-end side of the price, which was $3.00 we are looking at an overall figure of around $600 plus the shipping if we choose to go with this supplier. This is a good thing to know going in so you have a starting place for your negotiations.

Payment Options

Once you understand how the MOQ and pricing work, you’ll probably need to know how to make payment to a suppler. There are pros and cons to the methods of payment available, so it would be your decision to choose the one that works best for you.

 

AliBaba verse Amazon

Both platforms serve millions of customers and have a staggering amount of product listings. You can get lost in each platform. Amazon does not like dropshippers where as AliBaba and AliExpress serve dropshippers very well.

Each platform has a very intelligent CEO overseeing the operations making sure that their platform is at the forefront of ecommerce. You can use what ever platform makes sense to you to sell on or buy from to resell. I have a strong dislike for Amazon as a selling platform because of Amazon FBA and the sad affiliate percentages that Amazon pays its affiliates.

How To Use AliBaba To Dropship

One of the best ways to fill in gaps in your product line is the drop shipping business – learn the ropes and you won’t be disappointed.

Although I would never use drop shipping as the sole base for my online store, the top platform for locating quality dropshippers is a service known as Worldwide Brands.

Dropshippers get pre-vetted by Worldwide Brands so that you can rest assured that you won’t get scammed.

I actually suggest using a mix of AliBaba and AliExpress for dropshipping because you can get a better mix of products and suppliers/manufacturers.

How To Dropship on AliExpress

  1. Sign up to a product automation software like ORBERLO
  2. Connect ORBERLO to your website and connect your AliExpress account
  3. You search the AliExpress platform for your product
  4. Review the products that catch your eye
  5. Review the amount of orders they have
  6. Review that sellers reviews 
  7. When happy go into ORBERLO platform and find that product
  8. Setup your product details and then import this product into your store
  9. When you have products on your store you need traffic. Visit Learn page to learn how to do that.
  10. Once you make a sale you will have the money to now buy that product from the AliExpress vendor. Go ahead and do that.
  11. Use your new customers details as the shipping address and complete the AliExpress order.

And in a super short summary that is dropshipping on AliBaba and AliExpress.

To learn more about how dropshipping works you can check out this mini course on ecommerce.

 

Purchasing Wholesale Goods Domestically

“Wholesale” is a word that I hear often. A lot of people reach out to us about wholesale prices and they want to know where they can buy products wholesale. “Wholesale” apparently means purchasing items at the lowest possible price.

Do you want to hear something surprising? This could not be further from the actual truth. When I shopped vendors for our online sales, every US wholesale dealer had incredibly high prices.

Yes, these companies were less costly than MSRP, but their prices were still so high that we wouldn’t have been able to attain or maintain a high profit margin on any of the items that we were truly interested in selling.

More than this, there were countless companies that already had the same items for sale at deeply discounted prices. So what is the benefit in buying from US wholesale vendors?

Given that very few things are currently being made in the US, wholesalers can handle all of the problems in importing and storing items from product manufacturers.

It won’t be necessary for you to go to a foreign location. There is no need to deal with customs or shipping. You simply submit orders and wait for your merchandise to arrive.

Another benefit gained by buying wholesale is the ability to sidestep time-consuming quality control measures given that your wholesaler will have made these checks on your behalf.

Buying Direct From Manufacturers Overseas

Purchasing from the manufacturer direct is by no means the holy grail of this industry, but it additionally requires the greatest amount of dedication, work and time. Currently, nearly all products are being made overseas due to cheaper labor costs.

My general rule for textiles and other goods is that if you’re working with a US vendor, you probably aren’t going to get the absolute lowest price. I will even say that if you’re working with someone who speaks excellent English, the prices aren’t likely to be good (All right, that may be pushing things a bit too far).

Tips When Opening Your Online Store

The #1 question I get regularly from readers interested in opening up their own online stores, is what methods to use to locate suppliers and vendors. They want to know if they should buy wholesale or should they give Dropshipping a try as well?

Whenever we first began our own online store, me and the little woman, we had these same questions. However, after performing quite a bit of researching on our options, I would like to share those experiences with you and enlighten you on what we learned about stocking our online business with merchandise.

Most of our experiences deal mainly with wedding linens. However, the principles should be the same regardless of what your topic or product may be.

Drop-Shipping Explained

Lots of people fall into the old trap of having everything dropshipped when they first start their online store. Well, it’s hard to blame them since it sounds so good when you first hear it. Not having to keep any items in stock yourself is a big load off. All you do is pay for the item and pocket the difference between your wholesale price and your customer’s price.

You have no inventory to keep track of and no obligations of fulfillment, it’s all done for you by the dropshipper. Sounds really great huh? Until you have to start dealing with other types of customer problems that you have no fault in.

Many new store owners fail to realize that those profit margins are not so good and if they should screw up your order or ship something too late – it’s YOU who gets to deal with the customer. You also don’t want to be dealing with a dropshipper who makes a habit of shipping faulty items. These kinds of problems become YOURS once you put yourself in that position.

Add in the fact the you have very little wiggle room in the profit margin and combine that will all the stress and headaches you have to go through, suddenly things regarding dropshipping just don’t look so good.

Even when you manage to locate a drop shipper that is reliable, your customer issues are still going to be popping up and when you have little control over regarding your products things can get difficult.

To sum it all up, you are putting your online store’s reputation into the hands of a 3rd party, who more than likely DOES NOT have your store’s best interests at heart.

 

Thanks for reading and as always if you like this and found it helpful drop a like a comment or give a bro a share. Peace!

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How To Be Safe Buying From Ali Express

How To Be Safe Buying From Ali Express

by | May 28, 2020 | Affiliate, Ecommerce, Guides

6 Ways to Safeguard Yourself When Buying on Alibaba

When doing business overseas you want to learn to protect yourself against loss. You want to be able to avoid scams and middle-men as well as getting substandard products. While there is no one solution that is totally infallible, using a few simple guidelines can prove to be very effective.

I use AliExpress and Ali Baba A LOT! I even bought my girlfreinds birthday present from Ali Express

Here are her birthday socks haha

ali express printed socks

 

At first she was sad because she had sloth feet but she warmed up to these printed socks and now she has a collection of monster feet printed socks.  That my friends is the power of Ali Express, people buy random stuff online to pass time, have a laugh and to spend their hard earned money. This si where we come in with our ecommerce stores and product promotions. 

Here are a few things you can do to help yourself when dealing with overseas suppliers –

1. Verifiy Your New Supply Partner

Believe it or not Alibaba has put a verification program of their own into place. It gives you several different levels of verification. They have 3 levels of verification all total and the chart down below goes into it a little deeper. The verification badges appearing on the product list as well as supplier profiles help give you an idea of what kind of vendor you’re dealing with. Having a look at these badges is a good was to start your search.

 

2. Ask Questions Around The Product Nothing is as it Appears

As your search begins to narrow down and you have weeded out most of the competition, it’s time to get down to some more serious types of questions. Request a copy of a business license to verify who they are, or maybe even a phone number and then call it right away.

Contact them on Skype or their main contact channel and request some sample products. You can get variations like red or blue etc. This helps you see what type of communication you will have with the person who will be handling the product and shipping process of your business.

You should feel totally free to ask any questions that pop into your head. It’s not too far fetched to have somebody at the factory snap a selfie and send it to you while on the factory floor. You could have them include a copy of today’s newspaper as well as a product of theirs. Of course, you don’t want to push them away either. Too much distrust will only breed and foster more distrust. It’s wise to be cautious but not overly distrustful.

If you plan to scale you need a solid partner and someone who has clear communication with you. What if you had the biggest front end sales month ever for your store and corona virus 2 hits and you need answers on shipping and delivery dates as well as inventory levels. You need clear communication.

 

3. Get Some Product Samples First

It’s just good common sense to check out some samples prior to committing to any large amount of inventory and money. You should get the samples in order to verify the ‘quality’ of the products for yourself. You can even contact them using a fake name and email address.

You 100% need to get the products before you sell them. This helps you see what the delivery time is like, what the boxing or packaging lookslike and most impoirtanly what the actual product looks and feels like.

I wont promote any products that I havent at least had a play with to test its quality.

Bonus tip – use this to film unboxing videos and product demos 🙂

4. Things That Seem Too Good to be True

Everyone has heard that when this happens things usually are too good to be that true and usually aren’t. Be wary of promises and prices that run up your skeptic meter.

You can read reviews of past buyers to get a quick pulse check on that product and the vendor.

Never be afraid to walk away from any deal that doesn’t ‘smell’ right. You are the buyer and Ali Express is a buyers market.

5. Get It In Your Hands & Try To Break It

Your dropshipping products are going to fail if you dont know the quality of what you are selling. My advice and its saved my butt more times than not is to get that product in your hands.

Now you have it you should try being a little rough with the product to stress test the product. You may need to buy 2 or 3 of the same products. You do this because you can really nail your product descriptions and features benefits descriptors by knowing the limits.

If it breaks and you only just picked it up then change the product or find a better manufacturer.

6. Use A Pen Name Account To Buy & Review

I would never be buying items from Ali Express with my real account. I say this because as you build success you will naturally attract trolls and copycats. This can not be avoided.

Use a throw away email account where the name is random and not your name or your business name. These manufacturers on Ali Express need reviews to help their businesses and you should be leaving reviews out of courtesy.

But you also need to be safe with your behaviour online. Use a random profile to leave reviews. Keep safe and this allows you to shop and review unkown to any copycats.

I love dropshipping and ecommerce, but you need to be smart when using these latforms. Esopecially for the long term play. I hope this helps you get more from Ali Express. Enjoy.

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How To Sell Products While In Lockdown

How To Sell Products While In Lockdown

by | Apr 3, 2020 | Affiliate, Business, Ecommerce, Marketing

Being in lockdown is tough the isolation and confinment can get to you. That good news is that everyone else is feeling just like you. Theres all these people stuck at home with nowhere to be and noo where to go.

My focus for the last 7 days has been to jump on opportunity.

“My team and I have been researching products and marketplaces that you can “buy low, sell high.”

I’ve spent the last week scanning the usual suspects trying to understand market demand for this current moment. It was a painstaking task but very important.

My Research Grounds:

  • Marketplaces
  • Amazon
  • Ebay
  • AliExpress
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Empire Flippers
  • Flippa
  • Gumtree
  • Other domain sales platforms

My research produced some really good results and I want to share some of what I found with you here today. Ive found a lot of business categories where you can buy businesses at an all time low. I know this may sound like the behaviour of a vulture but its just business.

I’ve been pretty keen to shift non essential tasks and projects to the side so that I could dig my teeth into the shift in the market. Theres something unusual and almost once in a lifetime happening right now. I know Ive not been through any other world changing event to the scale of this corona virus.

My thoughts originally were to use this for my own portfoilios benefiet but then its better to share so we all get a slice of that cheese. I know a lot of people are in struggletown with businesses collappsing and money running dry.

>> See post about building a resilient business.

There is a huge shift in how people are using online search now and the daily habits of each user. This is new territory for all of us especially online marketers. Ive seen some crazy stuff growing in popularity and search interest thanks to Google trends. At times like this its important to keep your head on the swivel.

 Below I will list what Ive seen and what you can use to sell more while isolated at home.

If you are looking for something to do in quarantine that can make you online money…

Or if you are stuck inside looking for a new side hustle that will make you teh money you want for your next project this is for you…

Or like millions of people and my girlfriend you just got laid off and you need something right now to keep the lights on…

Then I can help you with a strategy thats stood the test of time the “buy low, sell high” tactic will give you some ideas that start you on your online journey.

Here are 3 things that people are flipping right now for fun and profit:

1. Trading Cards.

In my younger years collecting and trading NBA basketball cards was my addiction. Collecting all the rookie cards of the big players took most of my after hours time when I wasnt actually playing ball.

But the unique situation we are in is that all major sports leagues are in exile sadly. So what type of trading cards can be used in this corona virus time? Suprisingly still sporting cards and battle cards.

Most sporting team cards are still growing in popularity the weird thing is with the seasons suspended these leagues are still growing in populaity. There are millions of people at home and what do you think the TV networks are doing? they are showing replays and sports from the past. This is what is helping propell the rising interest in these trading cards.

>> Buy Michael Jordans 20k pointc club card on Ebay.

Michael Jordans rookie basketball card

Ive never been a magic cards collecter guy, Ive got friends who are huge dungeons and dragons nerds, White Dwarf and Magic The Gathering card collectors. These card collections are exploding right now so how can you pivot to include trading cards in yoru product sales? can you make a set of cards on your industry.

I’m seeing huge popularity spikes in this niche. Think of all the dads stuck at home and the lack of live sport on TV, and then think what is one really great way for parents to bond with their kids? sports of course. With the parents and kids at home trading cards with popular sporting stars is one sure fire way to strengthen a bond by using sports trading cards. Kids also love those battle cards and using pwoerups and level up type cards, this is like old school pokemon but with cards.

PLUS… due to the economic slowdown, a lot of collectors are strapped for cash, which means that you can “buy low” right now. This is a perfect product for our buy low sell high strategy.

Proof is in the search results:

NBA trading cards

Just look at those prices for a basketball card. Crazy money for a trading card.

Trading card money is made in two ways:

This niche is one for collectors so finding and collecting full sets is a valuable focus and also finding those rare cards, limited print cards and the big stars rookie cards.

Another tactic is a little more of a gamble but buying stars that are about to rise as as valuable or popular players. This can be a little harder in oru current now because the players are sidelined. But there is big money in flipping these cards much like stocks the players tsock value rises and falls as their performance reflects on impact.

2. Designer hand bags & Perfume.

Weirdly as we are all self isolating and social distancing so why would someone need a designer handbag it boggles the mind. I’m not a fancy guy I really enjoy thrifty shopping and functionality of clothing and accessories. My girlfriend HATES when I buy clothing and accessories based on functionality 😆.

Designer Handbags and Perfume are spiking to all time highs right now. Ive seen post after post after post around these items being hunted online. I get that all the stores that sell these are closed except pharmacies or chemists but they sell knock off garbage perfumes not designer.

When shoppers cant get hold of products they want that product goes into high demand. There are still a lot of people who have excess money that they want to offload and dont forget about people pre corona virus who were excessive shoppers who now have to commit to getting their retail therapy online. 

With designer handbags and name brand perfumes being a huge interest all you need to do is know where to look to find these items at wholesale prices. There is so much fraud in the space that finding real, authentic fragrances can be a challenge so dont just go to AliExpress and get that channels perfume because its a knock off and can get you into all kinds of problems. This does present a real opportunity for selling the real brands and NOT cheap immitation handbags and fragrances.

My advice is to take 2 angles for this and present yourself as a wholesale buyer, liquidator and bulk buyer of goods and look for auctions, liquidations and wholesale places for opportunities. Most people who do this normally may be laid off or on leave.

The second angle is as a seller and store owner of a store that sells these things.

The overview of how this works:

  • Know where to look for these products
  • Know what brands are in demand
  • Buying at a low price
  • Know what marketplaces to be promoting that you have these products
  • Negotiating and promoting your webpages where you will sell these items
  • Sell product at a higher price than you paid for it

Some search terms you can optimise your web pages for:

  • Designer handbag
  • [name brand] handbag
  • Handbag [name brand]
  • [name brand] perfume
  • perfume [name brand]
  • buy [name brand] online

There are entire markets and buyer types to flip high end colognes, designer handbags and perfumes to. I am far from the target market so this niche was new for me to be diving into but the riches are in the niches and as far as I can tell this niche is ripe for the picking. There were so many people searching for and asking for these products that it would be hard not to make money if you have the actual products.

This right now presents a very rare opportunity for you to buy low priced items and sell high on your website to an already hungry to purchase audience.

THIS is a perfect product for our tactic of buying low and selling high. I hope you can start to see the shift in perspective of how Im looking at the markets now.

This bag is a Christian Dior designer handbag that retails for $6,462 see actual handbag here.

3. Buying Businesses and Websites.

I love domain flipping and business flips. These have been a huge part of my income over the last 3 years. In a nutshell I buy a website or business at a low investment price and perfrom some work to these websites using my onlien marketing skills to create a website that now functions as a high converting store or lead generating website.

>> If you want to work with me on a website or business you own contact me here.

This is the perfect time to start looking for investment opportunities. A lot of businesses have closed or are closing their business down. There are also a lot of websites that people who used to have employment that no longer do and c an not sustain teh fees for running and managing websites. This is a sad reality of what this virus has done to the economy. 

I would look at Flippa, Gumtree, Shopify Exchange or FE International and look for businesses for sale. The filters will help you navigate to the most relevant opportunities for you. I set filters ranging from $3,000-120,000 so I have a range of business types.

Now this is a longer play and not a buy today and flip tomorrow unless you work very fast. This takes me riughly 2-4 months to get my hands on teh new purchase and make some cosmetic edits and some backend changes to get that site healthy and looking good. I also like to track activity on teh front end of the website buy adding Google Analytics and reviewing any affiliate programs, ecommerce settings or existing CRM type sale systems.

My process revolves around taking something that is not working for someone else and refining what they have on the front end. It needs to look nice for people using the website. I like to then focus on backend adjustments to make sure the website is Google friendly and in good health. Once Ive done these two steps my entire focus on the UX and conversion rates of the website. 

When I am happy with the data I have and the visitor engagement is looking healthy I will start to get the site ready to flip for a much bigger payday.

This is my 3 tips for selling online while locked down and self isolating but still making money. I use the buy low and sell high method in dropshipping and site flipping all the time and its made me a lot of money 💰💰

I’m focused on businesses that are fun to build, regardless of what the economy is doing.

Ill be setting up a mini course on how I do this so people can see the step by step process to take control of their lifestyle and finances. Stay Tuned. If you want to do this on your own, you can totally do that too.

Take note take action and take advantage of the market. If you liked this drop a comment, share it or show me your results in a month or two ✌️.

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