Who Is Making Money Dropshipping From Aliexpress?

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Dropshipping from suppliers on Aliexpress is being pushed as great business model, but who is making money out of it?

If you are, please post your story.
  • Tell us how long it took before you started to make serious money.
  • Tell us how much you are making.
  • Tell us what problems you have found.
  • Tell us what margins you are making.
  • Tell us why you are using this business model?
  • Tell us are you selling fakes or running a legitimate, legal business?
If instead you would like to start a high profit margin business importing small amounts of inventory on a low budget, maybe you might read Ask Me Anything About Product Sourcing And Importing For Profit. ― Veteran Importer Here. and get some ideas to help you. You can ask questions there if you want to.



Walter Hay
Provenchinasourcing
#ecommerce sites, wholesaling & drop shipping #aliexpress #dropshipping #making #money
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  • Hey Walter! I could not pass by your thread and I am quick to add my answers to your questions.

    I am using AliExpress dropshipping model for one year already. Starting with one site, now I have more than 20 sites generating $15,000 of net profit monthly.

    It took me around 4 months before I started making serious (serious for me money.

    The main problem I had is to find good promotion strategies. I have tested a lot and now mainly focusing on social media promotion on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and especially Instagram shoutouts.

    Another problem was a long delivery time offered by AliExpress sellers, but now many sellers provide epacket shipping option that takes only 10-15 days to US, offers tracking and free or very cheap ($2-$4) shipping. So, it is not a problem anymore.

    Generally, my margin formula looks like this:

    $0<Supplier Price<$2=Your Price: $7.95

    $2<Supplier Price<$5=Your Price: $9.95

    $5<Supplier Price<$30=Your Price: Supplier Price x 2

    $30<Supplier Price<$50=Your Price: Supplier Price x 1.75

    $50<Supplier Price<$100=Your Price: Supplier Price x 1.5

    Supplier Price>$100=Your Price: Supplier Price x 1.35

    I decided to try AliExpress, because I am a regular buyer on this marketplace for a long time and like it very much.

    I have sites that sell products in different niches. Some of my sites:

    Worldofharry.com
    Hokagestore.com
    KittenRules.com
    kSort.com
    LeggingsFan.com

    I run these sites under my own company.

    Expecting the question about trademark products.... No, I have not got yet any problems with copyright issues, however may be it is a bit risky of course.

    btw, I have many friends who run dropshipping business with AliExpress. Some of them are REALLY successful, so my 15K per month is nothing comparing with their profits but they mainly work on local markets.
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    • Thank you for your candid insight Yaros. May I ask you if you recommend joining their Ali's drop ship program or should I just drop ship off of their site?
    • Hi yaros, thank you very much for sharing this valuable information
      I am interested in acquiring the alidropship plugin, but I have questions related to the payment
      can you help me?

      How does the automatic order work with the alidropship plugin?
      If the payment in the store I receive with paypal, aliexpress does not accept paypal
      how do you do that?
      How does the automatic order work?
      Sorry for the ignorance, this is new for me but I am very interested.
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  • Hey,

    How do you deal with aliexpress cancelling orders due to fraud prevention?

    I've had several orders closed because I am sending multiple products to different addresses. However, I cannot afford to continue if my orders keep getting closed. I've sent them my id, bank statement, along with my credit card. Still waiting for an appeal.

    I have been able to source good products and make some profit but I stopped because of that issue. Please help.
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    • I have never come across with such issues. I have initially connected my card with their Alipay system and it works always fine.

      Also found this comment regarding such issue:

      'Guys, I have experienced it myself as well.

      I was on holidays in Greece and placed few orders from there - which caused my account being canceled.

      I have sent all the information to get my appeal processed as quickly as possible. Also, I have contacted them four times in 24 hours via their live support chat which has boosted the speed of my application handling immensely.

      Be nice and persistent and they will fix this in less than 24 hours'

      As I understood, usually, you just have to send scanned images of your credit card & drivers license. Also, there's a live chat button, which will redirect you to AliPay where you can seek for further assistance.
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  • I started testing AliDropshit about 10 months ago. Talked a lot with Yaros about Plugin. He wos provided the best support i had ever see. I do not want to write much about the plugin, because a lot has already been written. I can only say that AliDropship give you almost everything you need to successfully start Dropship. Only one depend on you - you have to work hard if you like to earn a big money. If you need only about 2 000 - 4 000 USD income (only your profit, not revenue), then you should import great products, start some ads and give good customer service. Dropship can give you the best opportunity to start e-commerce. AliDropship is the best choice if you like to do it. You need to speed with your decision, becouse now is the best time to start it. Good luck, WORLD IS YOURS!!!
  • One of the drawbacks is the long delivery time, of 6 weeks on average. I would be interested to know how you deal with this?

    I've seen some items on there I thought I could sell on eBay, but I would have to get them over here and then list them I think, rather than get them sent on a slow boat from China direct to the customer.
    • [2] replies
    • So far the only serious reply is from Yaros, who is selling a program to help people use the dropship from Aliexpress business model.

      He says: "No, I have not got yet any problems with copyright issues, however may be it is a bit risky of course" but selling counterfeits as he does is a risky way to run any business.

      It is easy to start a genuine, legal, and highly profitable business importing small amounts direct from real manufacturers, and I have taught hundreds how to do it. Many have started with only a few hundred dollars.

      Walter Hay
      Provenchinasourcing
      • [2] replies
    • The delivery time is 10-20 days when you use epacket shipping option.
      • [1] reply
  • I've made a lot of money from Alibaba - the drawback is stocking the product at your home or Amazon FBAing the product. I've used Aliexpress minimally - due to the mailing time issue. But...as someone recently told me - "what do all the as seen on TV products say? 4-6 weeks delivery" - which is a good point.
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    • The long delivery times are just one of the problems associated with dropshipping from suppliers on Aliexpress.

      • Returns will most often cost you more than the product cost you.
      • Suppliers on Aliexpress generally won't want to know you once they have your money and they have shipped the parcel.
      • They will be even less approachable if they haven't shipped, or if they have shipped an empty package (and that happens!)
      • They have the details of all your customers, so what's to stop them selling direct to your customers later?
      If you find the cost of using FBA a problem, that almost certainly means that you have been dealing with one of the countless traders on Alibaba masquerading as manufacturers, so you are not getting anywhere near the best prices.


      Walter Hay
      Provenchinasourcing
  • You are right when you say that there are more problems with it than advantages. I can maybe see an advantage being that you can sometimes purchase items with a minimum quantity of 1.

    However, there are soooo many disadvantages that you have already listed.
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  • Been reading topics in this forum for a while now (since starting with dropshipping from Aliexpress) and i think this thread is where i can share my five cents.

    I've been using Aliexpress for my own purpose for years since i was underage. Been buying different stuff (jewelry, phone cases, clothes, home products etc) and even ordered stuff to resell in my home country when i was still studying in school. While ago i was looking for ideas to create an income on my own and found different threads talking about dropshipping stores using Aliexpress as supplier. I knew what is dropshipping before.

    I started my first store in August and another one this month and i made profit already in first month. The money is not big (yet), which is logical due to the time i've been live with these (as with every ecommerce store), but i see future in this. For example this month i am able to pay my rent with the profit. I dont see Aliexpress as a bad supplier because of shipping times - even online shops in my home country have shipping times of 4-6 weeks and people still trust, buy and wait.

    I think using Ali is the cheapest and easiest way to start online business. That's my five cents.
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  • Ordered items for personal use from aliexpress but it never arrived. So did not go for the dropship business with it. I guess best will be buy in bulk from aliaba and then sell.
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    • Buyers on Amazon expect super fast delivery. So unless you combine Ali with FBA or you keep inventory at your house, I think you need your own store if delivery times are that long.
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  • I just got into the dropshipping model with Aliexpress, i'll be glad to share my success story if and when the time comes. I think it's a good first step on eCommerce before talking to real manufacturers, ordering items in bulk, come up with marketing strategies, etc.

    Like you said Splatterfox, Shopify has grown huge lately and same goes with dropshipping with Aliexpress. If you know how to market well and how to reach your audience, and you sell the right products for the right people, I believe there is a high level of chance to make it work. Not getting rich, but generating a nice income that you can then use to invest in more profitable business models or grow in eCommerce with your own products and ideas.
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    • There is actually nothing wrong with Dropshipping. Even though I - like Walter - prefer buying in bulk, realizing lower costs, faster shipping, better customer experience etc. However, there are more things to explore than the pure Aliexpress dropshipping. Its an end consumer site. It offers horrible shipping times and often horrible quality since insights are very bad. Its basically the only place where it seems perfectly normal to do business purchases without texting the supplier even once before.

      I don't want to rant how bad Aliexpress is at all, and Yaros is a perfect example how there is also longterm money to be made. Its just that Aliexpress gives false impressions and oversimplifies the whole process - later on people approach me about missing products, products stuck in customs, no supplier reaction, wrong products, products at wrong locations, bad quality etc. because they bought the pig in the poke.
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  • Also, what is frustrating is Mastercard blocked my card to be used on Aliexpress after making just 5 payments. I settled it with the bank but now I'm waiting for an appeal (3rd day now), from Aliexpress due to my previous card declines.

    Did anyone face any issues with their credit card when doing multiple orders in a day?
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    • Many clients faced this problems as well, yes. I have a BusinessPremium credit card which costs me around 40$ a month (along with my business bank account). But I'm actually not entirely sure if this may solve or at least help with your problem.
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  • 1. It took a month and two weeks, the shipping time from Aliexpress to my fulfillment center was one long-ass month, and then it took two weeks (roughly) for my first batch of products to sell.

    2. No yo' business

    3. TIME. It takes a long time for the products to arrive and sell. The problem here is that money is being taken out of my business, and I have to wait for it to come back.

    4. My margins were pretty decent. Dont remember the exact number, but I was marking up the items pretty high. I was selling children's books.

    5. It was profitable. What other reason do you need? It's not working for me anymore, I have moved on to better sources.

    6. I'm too legit to quit.

    This was about a year ago for me. Sorry, I do not have all the details, but my point is that TIME is a huge problem because I need that money in my business for other inventory. Hope this helps!
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  • It's funny, I read this question, not even noticing that Walter Hay was the one who posted it. My initial thought when I saw "Who is Making Money Dropshipping From Ali Express?" was "people who sell courses on how to make money selling on AliExpress".

    So far, the only person who has claimed to be successful DROPSHIPPING from AliExpress is (no shock) a person who sells a course about it. (One or two people alluded to some degree of profit but they were not dropshipping.) I'm sure there are people making money dropshipping with AliExpress. The 80/20 rule probably applies there just like everywhere else. I just haven't met anyone yet who makes REAL money dropshipping from AliExpres who isn't selling a course about it.

    Sorry Yaros, but we get questions like this on our forum all the time and there are many people who chime in with success stories. Of course, we don't advocate AliExpress as a main supplier source for dropshipping. Maybe ALiExpress dropshippers are a more shy than people who dropship from real manufacturers.
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    • Aliexpress is a nightmare for many people who have contacted me direct. Some have staggered along for a while, making very little after the refunds and chargebacks come off their profits.

      Yes, @dave_hermansen, I have only had good reports from people who, like you advocate, buy from genuine manufacturers, and it is obvious that most of them buy from local manufacturers.

      If warriors want to make big money with the dropship from Aliexpress business model, the best way to go is to sell a course telling people how to do it.

      Walter Hay
      Provenchinasourcing
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  • I actually have about 5 stores and I only dropship from Aliexpress and I have none of the problems this guy above it talking about.

    If you know how to do it, it is the easiest way to dropship by far.

    I understand you guys are selling a course about something different than aliexpress, but you guys just look desperate. In every single thread you guys say the same thing, it is quite funny.

    Anyways, people that actually do dropshipping and e-commerce know what's up, they know what works and what doesn't, and this is why more and more people are doing this business model.

    Anybody that is actually making money online doing e-commerce knows that:
    -The sellers on aliexpress are the same sellers (most of the time) than on other places, like Alibaba for example
    -It's about selecting the good ones, by using the rating system of Aliexpress...If you do that, you will get a good one
    -If you select E-packet, you get a tracking number and it takes 2-3 weeks to get the products depending where the client is located. Product is broken? Again, if you know how to select the good sellers, they refund you immediately or send another one, sometimes both.

    Also, nobody making money with this business model? Do you guys even do e-commerce for real? Just join a few facebook about e-commerce and you will see tons of people that just got started 2-3 months ago making 5k in profit every month.

    Do it. Just type in facebook : Shopify ecommerce , and you will find tons of these groups. Then come back here when you guys are aware of what is actually going on.
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    • Let me know when the national media is interviewing you. Show me all of the sites you have sold for 6 figures. I have a real track record, my friend.

      I actually try to help people and RARELY even mention our course. I'm still waiting to see you provide any help to someone instead of jumping in on every thread you can, trying to convince people that your method works and that those of us who actually have been making real money for more than a decade and have real media credentials to prove it, don't know what we are talking about.

      Still, the only people who have claimed to make REAL money from dropshipping via AliExpress on this thread are selling courses with that as all or part of their model. So far, all I see are vultures trying to prey on the naive.

      Oh, and we DO mention AliExpress as a supplier method ... WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS.
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  • But how do you guys dropship from aliexpress and how do you put ur online busines name on the shipping package so the customer wont find out its coming from china
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    • you have to use plugin which have option to import product. and i think they have option for place order automatically or manually. So when someone buy a product on your site you can place order manually on ali-express or automatically.

      dropship provide this feature too. so plugin has the option to which you can forward the message to the manufacturer for not mention their name.
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  • Maybe the Aliexpress/Dropshipping model has already had it's day, do you think?

    So many people were promoting this business model recently, surely the competition is so great now?

    With the promise of only needing to spend £5 per day max on Facebook ads, whereas probably in reality, you'll need to spend hundreds if not more, before you find that profitable product.
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    • It still work like charm. $5 is a little bit low,

      With $5, if you do a PPE ad, you will know if it has the potential to work quickly, but you will need to spend about $20 on your ad to see if it works or not.
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    • Recetly Shopify has purchased Oberlo (one of the best solutions for AliExpress dropshipping business) for 15 million US dollars.

      Canada's Shopify buys Lithuaina's Oberlo :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics

      I don't think that Canada's ecommerce giant would spend 15 million dollars on this plugin if it did not see potential in Aliexpress/Dropshipping model. So, everything is just starting.
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  • Hello guys! Can anyone share with me what dropship software he uses for Aliexpress dropshipping biz.?
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    • I use Shopified App
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  • I am new to this forum and I just have to say the content on this thread is very informative @yaros thanks for your post, I am interested in dropshipping and I hope to get a lot more information on this forum.
  • This is interesting information and inspirational. I know there is a lot of competition, but if you don't try you will never know if it works.
  • sigh I wish I could say the same to you but my business ain't earning...alot of youtubers saying they're earning xx,xxx amount of dollars everyday dunno who to listen to...
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    • You probably just don't know what you are doing to be quite honest. It is not as simple as just uploading a product to your store then boom you're rich.
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    • Give it a try for three months maximum and if it doesn't work for you, change the niche and learn more, understand your mistakes and work accordingly. No pain no gain you know.

      Take a look at this guy and this one for some motivation.
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  • Thanks Yaros for sharing so much information. I've started an online store using shopify recently. What's your opinion on selling on amazon? They have gated most of their categories and subcategories. There are fees now to apply to sell and those fees are not cheap.

    I also have a blog site.
    www.breaie.com
    www.breaie.net

    The store still needs more work.
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    • Shopify is the giant but it doesn't make new features for dropshippers for a long time.
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