Dropshipping from Aliexpress to Shopify：Step-by-Step Guide

Starting an eCommerce business involves many rigorous processes, from finding a good store for your inventories, paying huge costs with no seen profit, and looking for easy ways to ship your goods. There are indeed so many challenges that come to mind. However, all these become past with dropshipping.

Dropshipping is the perfect way of building your eCommerce business without worrying about inventories. It is a process of listing some products for sale on your eCommerce store and sending your supplier an email to ship such items on your behalf to a customer.

If you are interested in starting a dropshipping business without making unnecessary mistakes, this article provides a detailed guide on how to dropship from Aliexpress. Read on to find out more.

What is AliExpress?

AliExpress is the biggest and most popular online marketplace established in 2010 by Alibaba. The platform has over 100 million products available for sale daily.

AliExpress offers a wide range of products for dropshipping, from children's toys, clothes, men's wear, wristwatches, women's clothing, jewelry, and many more, at affordable cost.

With this eCommerce platform, you can successfully dropship products to any part of the world and import the same to your online store. One beautiful fact about AliExpress is the website is user-friendly and easy to navigate, and there are no upfront costs. Isn't that amazing?

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is the process of selling a product and passing the order to a 3rd party supplier who ships directly from his or her warehouse to the customer.

Here is how it works: you own an online store that sells various products, but you have none of these products at home or store. So when a customer places an order on your dropshipping store, you will, in turn, pay your supplier to send the product to the customer.

The supplier handles the packaging and shipping of products while your customer receives the products directly from the warehouse. With dropshipping, it is less work and more money. This is why more people are turning to it to make more money, become bosses, and work with flexible times.

However, while Dropshipping can be quite lucrative, you must learn and understand the processes involved, especially if you are new to the eCommerce space. Continue reading to understand how to dropship from AliExpress to your Shopify store.

Why Dropship Between AliExpress and Shopify?

Dropshipping between Aliexpress and Shopify is seamless. Shopify encourages sellers to dropship, unlike other marketplaces like eBay that might even get your account banned if your dropshipping method does not go in line with their standards. 

In addition, Shopify has provided the Oberlo app or extension to help eCommerce sellers quickly find products on AliExpress.

AliExpress, on the other hand, is an incredibly affordable platform. In fact, it is possible to buy products less than the market cost and increase the price by 400% when selling to a customer in your Shopify store. You get to make a lot of profit with less stress.

Aliexpress also has a wide range of products for dropshippers; all you need to do is focus on a niche or more and find all the products you need. The platform is easy to use, offers fewer risks with no upfront fee.

How To Dropship From Aliexpress To Shopify

Dropshipping from AliExpress to Shopify is quite simple. One of the best ways to get started is by installing the Oberlo browser extension on your laptop. This extension allows you to import products from Aliexpress to your Shopify store quickly. To do this, just follow these steps:

Step 1: Create an account on Shopify.com

If you do not have an account on Shopify.com, the first step is to create an account by signing up. There are different plans available to choose from, as a newbie simply opts for the 14 days free trial or the basic plan of 29 USD per month.

Next, enter your email, password, and store name. Ensure that you use a simple store name. Then put in your personal information and click enter store. Your store has been successfully created.

Step 2: Customize your store.

You need to choose a theme for your Shopify store. To do that, go to your Shopify dashboard, click on "online store," then go to explore free themes and choose one that suits you.

Step 3: Next, Install Oberlo.

In your Shopify dashboard, click on Apps; on the search bar, type Oberlo. Then, click the install app button on your next page to add Oberlo to your store. On the Oberlo Dashboard, go to settings and step up a few things like your store name, product weight, and so on. Next, go to the auto-updates section and click on the "Notify My boxes."

Next, go to the supplier section at the top of the store and set your default shipping method to epacket; add your phone number. Finally, in the custom note section, put a note to tell your supplier that you are dropshipping. Then save to settings.

Step 4:  Install Oberlo on Chrome Extension

Apart from the Oberlo app, you also need to Install Oerlo as a chrome extension to help you import products directly from Aliexpress.  After that, you need to import Aliexpress products to your Oberlo store.

To do this, open the Aliexpress website on Chrome. On the Aliexpress window, look for the products you want to import. When you find the product, click on the Oberlo icon at the top right corner and add to the import list.

You will be redirected to all the products you just imported on Oberlo Dashboard. Next, you need to move the product from Oberlo to Shopify.

Step 7: Create product categories for similar products

On your Shopify store, including your product categories for similar products so that customers can find them easily. To do this, go to your Shopify dashboard, click on the product, then collection and create a collection, name each category differently.

Step 8: Edit your products uniquely

While editing your products, pay serious attention. Ensure that the product title and descriptions are all unique.

To get started: Go to your Shopify dashboard, click on all products, choose the product you want to edit, remove the existing caption Aliexpress. Then, change the product descriptions and ensure the new description is optimized for search engines.  Insert price or discounts if any.

Step 9: Add free shipping and set up your payment system

As a new dropshipper, it is recommended that you include free shipping. Please note that shipping isn't free entirely; you can add the price to the product.  This makes shipping looks free to the customer. Remember that everyone loves free things in the retail world. In addition, you need to set up your payment system.

On your Shopify Dashboard, click on general, go to the standards and formats section. Set up your default weight to pounds and currency to dollars. Then activate your PayPal express checkout as your payment system.

Step 10: Work on your branding.

Here you will need to include your brand logo and color; you can choose a logo from thousands of online logo generators. Also, edit your about us page. Ensure it is catchy and inviting.

Alternative to dropshipping from Aliexpress to Shopify: dropshipping from Doba to Shopify

At the moment, AliExpress is the leading online marketplace for dropshippers. However, it has some demerits, including unreasonable shipping charges, scarcity of some products, among others.

This is why so many dropshippers are searching for a better alternative for their products. If you are in search of an alternative to Aliexpress, then you should try Doba.

Also known as the most comprehensive online marketplace, Doba provides a wide range of high-quality products for dropshippers. With Doba, you only need to find the products you are interested in Dropshipping, list the same on your website, and start selling; there is no need to partner with many suppliers.

Doba takes charge of all difficult tasks of contacting a supplier and sending out the products to the consumer. What does this imply? It means that you get to spend less time managing your eCommerce business while making more profit.

In addition, Doba is dedicated to providing high-quality products from suppliers to dropship to various parts of the world. This marketplace provides integrations with top e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and more allowing sellers to add products to their stores and sync orders to the suppliers to fulfill efficiently.

Pros of Doba

Pros

·       Userfriendly, efficient and easy to navigate website

·       Lots of educational resources for new dropshippers

·       Thousands of products to choose from

·       Free trials to get you started

·       Customer support

·       Email update from suppliers on discounts and promotional offers

·       Payment via PayPal and other methods

Conclusion

Over the years, Dropshipping has increased significantly due to the benefits it offers to eCommerce store owners. AliExpress to Shopify dropshipping is one of the best ways to find and source produce for your eCommerce store. While prices are lower, quality is high.

In addition, Aliexpress is built to work with the Shopify ecosystem. With the Oberlo app, finding dropshipping products has become quite easy. The extension is easy to install and use. If you can't use the Oberlo app, you can simply copy and paste the product URL to import from AliExpress to the Oberlo app on Shopify. 

On the downside, it is vital to note that due to the popularity of the platform, dropshipping from Aliexpress to Shopify has become quite competitive. Therefore, if you need an alternative platform that also offers a wide range of unique and high quality products, and also integrates effectively with other marketplace, you should opt for Doba, one of the comprehensive marketplaces for dropshippers.

With Doba, you get to find unique and beautiful dropshipping products for less price. Click here to get started.