I’m trying to start up an online store. Recently I tried to order some products from AliExpress to check their quality and see if the market wants them. I was thinking to dropship those items. Now I had some issues with AliExpress and the customer support isn’t helpful at all. The issue has been occurring for more than a week now. My payment is being cancelled for security reasons. Which leads to no product being shipped.
What should I do if my store is automated (in the future) and such an issue suddenly happens? I find it disappointing to know that AliExpress doesn’t really offer much customer service.
This made me also rethink my entire business plan. Is it a good business to be in? Wouldn’t it be better to focus on wholesale and being an importer of more valuable items? Keep my own stock?
How do you guys deal with things like this? Ideas?
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You’ll fail. Give up. You can’t even order a product.
Nope. Instead go for private label. I made a profit of $1.6 Million last year and on track to make $2 Million this year.
So you outsource manufacturing to produce your own brand?
Exactly!
Hey! Would you like a graphic designer for your e-commerce store?
Drop shipping is one of the lowest value businesses. The more value you add to the market, the more you’ll get back. Consider how you can add value to the world with your skillset.
I don’t have much skillset. I’ve been a maintenance man in a hotel before. Now I want to venture into something else.
Take the time to learn some new skills that are more valuable. You’ll earn more in the long run.
Find products on AliExpress. Work with supplier to establish relationship. Work with supplier directly off of AliExpress and get discount.
Dumb idea. Find your own suppliers that are not on AliExpress.
Great unactionable response
Not unactionable at all. It’s what separates the winners from the losers. Thewinners put in the work to find the deals. The losers says it’s too hard because they’re too lazy.
Drop shipping is okay to start out with when you don’t have enough money to invest in stock. Try to stock and ship products yourself for more control over the supply chain and to offer a better customer experience.
So using Alibaba instead?
No. Use suppliers you find yourself. Build barriers to entry.
How do I do those two things?
Do research to find possible suppliers. Call them to negotiate deals.
A good long term business has defensibility. Since building drop shipping will be simple, anyone can look at your products and clone it within a week.
You mean that building a complicated business is better?
They can’t clone it if you have exclusive agreements for branded products.
It’s not a good idea to build a business that relies on a single business for survival, unless you have some contract guaranteeing delivery
It can be a good idea if you can make great money in a short period of time. To take an extreme example, if you coukd make $1 million in the next year from a business that you knew wouldn’t last longer than that, why wouldn’t you?
Those are the types of opportunities you should grab with both hands.
People have been multiple millions from building businesses that relied on a single platform. If the business fails, so what? You already made your millions.
In no way am suggesting you give up your job and do this if paying for rent and food depends on it. Do it only if it pays enough.
I think it’s mistake to dismiss opportunies without looking into them properly.
Sure if you KNEW… the problem with doing things like OP is he spends all the time setting up a business and building a customer base then the products disappear and he’s left holding the bag.
What kind of products do you need? I am from China, I think we can cooperate more reliably than you from AliExpress and Alibaba