10 PRO TIPS TO CHOOSE A SUPPLIER ON ALIEXPRESS
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You don’t just wake up and choose a supplier for your dropshipping business.
Do you know that your success in dropshipping business lies somewhat on your choice of suppliers?
This is an updated version of the previous article “How To Find And Choose Quality Suppliers On AliExpress.”
Read on to find new and better tips on how to find an ideal supplier for your store.
Choosing a quality supplier is paramount; it doesn’t just ensure your customers get quality service and products but one that serves them rightly afterward.
You may know what products to sell, have killer marketing strategies, and ready to sell. A wrong choice of supplier can ruin your dropshipping plans.
Key Factors You Must Consider to Choose a Reliable Dropshipping Supplier
You don’t have to forget these vital factors that help you choose a good supplier for your dropshipping business.
- Area of operation: Where do you target mostly while marketing?When you want to choose a supplier, go for those who can deliver to your target locations without a hassle and within a short period.
- Affordability: Of course, you want to make the profit; that is one of the major reasons you’re in business. Various suppliers have different prices for a particular product; you need to do your research properly to find those with the best deals without compromising quality.
- Modern Technology: Your choice of supplier must have invested in their use of technology. With improved technology, you can enjoy automated updates on inventory, order fulfillment, and other real-time activities.
- Reliability: You have to note that you own and run your business, and your customers will blame you and not your supplier if anything goes wrong. You need a reliable supplier who delivers as advertised, one who can deliver products within the time frame you announce to your customers. It’s also necessary to ask those who are already into ecommerce to suggest good suppliers, then make your research.
- Seller Guarantee: You need to protect yourself and brand from counterfeit products, and a good seller should grant you refund policy. Check out that the product you want to import is guaranteed genuine, and your supplier has to guarantee this too.
- Top Quality: Good quality is synonymous with high cost, but ensuring top quality goes beyond just that. Product packaging, brand label, and even transit protection go to define your product and service quality. You need to choose a supplier who prioritizes these and do well to discuss these with them before you opt to use their service.
- Outstanding Customer Support: When doing dropshipping business, some pop-ups will appear on your site. To create a good shopping experience, you need strong and responsive customer support that can listen to the needs of your customers and help them out swiftly.
- Shared Culture: Shared culture objectives house good supplier relationship, and that is why you need to discuss with your supplier to let you know if your potential business relationship will be hassle-free.
- Offer Relevant Product Option: It’s often better to choose a supplier that can offer you a wide variety of product within the category you know.You can get better deals with such suppliers and can ensure your customers’ satisfaction.
Tips for Finding Quality and Reliable Suppliers on AliExpress
Most e-commerce entrepreneurs choose AliExpress as their marketplace, and many of them have attained remarkable success.
You too can hit your milestone when you choose your supplier from AliExpress!
Before you proceed, here are some tips you can’t afford to miss if you want to get a quality and reliable supplier on AliExpress.
1. Don’t always Fall for the Cheapest Prices
Literally, quality is synonymous with a high price!
Suffice it to be that prices go down with quality on AliExpress. With this in mind, you don’t have to feel you have got a juicy offer when you bump on the lowest price.
Make your research and find the price range from most sellers and any odd price most probably indicates compromised quality.
It’s good to know that Chinese sellers on AliExpress often have tight margins.
2. Analyze Basic Information of the Supplier
Take your time to look at the details of your potential suppliers.
Look at their business name, what they sell, do they manufacture as well?
How many units of products have they sold? When was the store opened?
How many units of products have they sold? When was the store opened?
To check for these, hover over the supplier’s name and you’ll find details that will help you narrow your potential suppliers.
3. Check other Products the Supplier Sells
Does your choice of supplier sell different niche-products?
Suppliers who sell a variety of items in different niche often lack topnotch professionalism and offer less-favorable pricing.
For instance, if you want to import tech products, go for suppliers who focus on tech niche specifically.
With this idea, you can cross-sell as you’ll get a better product idea when you choose a supplier with a specific market focus.
4. Purchase from Sellers That Have 95%+ Positive Rating
When you talk about seller evaluation on AliExpress, you shouldn’t undermine Positive Feedback Rate and Feedback Score.
While the Positive Feedback Rate indicates the rate of feedback the supplier has gotten over time, the Feedback Score shows the volume of sales made by the seller.
To make a good decision, keep your eyes on Feedback Scores of 2,000 or more, and 95%+ Positive Feedback rate.
However, sellers passing these don’t mean they are a perfect choice. Likewise, some sellers with lower ratings and scores can even outperform those with higher rates.
Another good tip is to stay away from products that have not gotten any feedback. Apparently, you wouldn’t want your customers to be the testers, and possibly pour their bad experiences – this kills your brand. You can import AliExpress reviews from your site too.
5. Communicate with your choice of supplier
When you shortlist suppliers, there is a need to communicate with them.
Call your potential suppliers, ask questions, analyze their professionalism, inquire the shipping details and negotiate in the case of big orders.
Make use of their live chat or call each supplier, then take note of how long it takes each of them to reply.
6. Don’t Fall for Fake Brand Products
The truth is that most of your customers want quality products and some of them are ready to pull out any amount to have what they want.
Imagine selling fake brand products to them; you’re just killing your brand. To stay out of this, it’s better to leave out branded products as you will hardly get the real items.
7. Never Join the “Out of Stock” Team
No one would cheerfully want to tell their customers they are out of stock.
When you do, you don’t just lose customers but trust too. Here’s the way to go; get more than one supplier for the same or related products, so you don’t run out of products to sell to your customers.
If your first supplier goes out of stock, you can fall back on your second supplier, even if it entails selling a slightly different version of what the previous supplier used to offer.
When cases like this arise, you may make no profit or even lose a few bucks in the process; the aim is to maintain a large customer base that can always return and shop anytime confidently.
8. ePacket Shipping Service
Regular shipping can take about 20-60 days to deliver, but ePacket shipping cuts shipping time drastically to around 7 days.
When you want to choose a supplier, it’s imperative to find one that offers ePacket service because faster delivery doesn’t just build your brand but improves your buyers’ experience.
ePacket service was put into place to make shipping out of China cheaper and quicker.
9. Order Samples
Now, you have completed your due diligence and found a couple of suppliers you can buy from; it’s time to test orders.
If you have the financial power, you can place about 3 to 5 orders with various sellers and check their delivery time, product quality and shipping package.
You can wait till the products are up on your stores before you order samples, but the best is to order before putting them up for sale in your store.
After every evaluation, the test order can be the last point of your supplier evaluation. Once your suppliers pass this and meet your requirement, you can use them.
10. General Tips for Safety – Buyers’ Safety Policy
You need to know your rights on AliExpress. As a buyer, you’re entitled to a Full Refund if a customer doesn’t get an ordered product.
Likewise, a Partial Refund is granted if the received item is not as described by the seller. You can click on Open Dispute if you wish to get a refund due to the seller’s inability to deliver within the said time or if the delivery is not as described.
You can discuss possible solutions with the seller or go ahead to Escalate Dispute to AliExpress.com if you’re not satisfied with the seller’s suggestions.
At this point, AliExpress will resolve the issue.
At this point, AliExpress will resolve the issue.
Dropshipping from AliExpress gives a fair share to everyone!
While AliExpress as a platform gets its share of the revenue, you make your sales and get your profits while the suppliers also gain.
Get Ali2Woo plugin today, choose quality and reliable suppliers, and take your e-commerce business to another level!
