Aliexpress drop ship negotiation (10)

I'm looking into drop shipping, picked a few products, where do I go from here? Do I just contact the supplier and ask if they drop ship, if they offer discounts etc.?
Is there anything else I should mention or ask from the seller?

Thanks!

I don't know enough about this topic to provide guidance - but will bump the thread to get more attention!


Amy

Off the top of my head, I would contact your supplier(s) via Skype or some other messenger to try and build some sort of a relationship. Tell your suppliers that you'll be dropshipping so they shouldn't send any promo materials with your orders like extra flyers and discounts, sometimes they can give away promos saying - "visit our store on Aliexpress...for a discount" which is not something you want.

You could ask them for discounts after you've made a few orders, but normally they'd start giving discounts after working with them for a while without having to ask. This can be discussed further down the line once you start ordering regularly.

Another thing you could ask is whether they have warehouses in whichever GEO you'll be selling - i.e. EU, US, UK, CA etc. Shipping times tend to be way faster than usual if they do.

Ask them if they have some materials they could send you, such as videos/extra images or any extra insights on how and where their products are being promoted.

Finally, be sure to "split-test" suppliers too, some are a lot faster and diligent than others. Once you get them on your side they won't have a problem with having to replace broken/missing items or catering to unhappy customers if you tell them to.

Wow! Thank you! That's a lot of useful information!

Great details here.

Not to hijack the thread, but another useful question: How do you get around them NOT putting their branding on the packaging when they ship out?

I assume one would piss a lot of people off if a customer buys from your store then google's the dropshippers brand name to only find that it's significantly cheaper on AliExpress.

One of the dropshippers I've reached out has already told me they don't have blank packaging.

Do you find this is actually a problem?

Yes, what I am looking for if we can get a list of europe/us dropshipping companies. Aliexpress is too slow for me.

Originally Posted by webjuice

Yes, what I am looking for if we can get a list of europe/us dropshipping companies. Aliexpress is too slow for me.

Here's what I've done to get product costs cut in half. Have to understand chinese culture a bit and how they price cut everything.

By you being a foreigner, you get an auto foreigner tax lol so on the ali's (baba express) you'll pay un USD and more

1688.com use a chinese side to contact suppliers, it'll be in Ren Ming Bi 6.8 to the USD depending on the time. But you'll see things that are 8-12 on aliexpress going for 20 RMB (3 usd).

I'd use ali to test conversion, as soon as you have 1-5 sales a day I'd do a buy on 1688 with a helper to call there and place an order of 100-1000, and then have it shipped to your 3pl. You'll be able to get inventory at 10-20% of the cost, so it's like getting 1000 units for 100-200 units on aliexpress.

Once at 500 or so rebuy 2-5k. Scale. Save/Make xxxxx over time by doing this, 1688 is easily searchable with google translate built into chrome, just need some negotiation help. This can be done alone or with a 3-5 an hour worker from upwork who's already a buying agent in Guangdong

I hope that sheds some insight, skype: mr.michael.o if you want to chat more about great chinese buying methods.

Originally Posted by archemike

Here's what I've done to get product costs cut in half. Have to understand chinese culture a bit and how they price cut everything.

By you being a foreigner, you get an auto foreigner tax lol so on the ali's (baba express) you'll pay un USD and more

1688.com use a chinese side to contact suppliers, it'll be in Ren Ming Bi 6.8 to the USD depending on the time. But you'll see things that are 8-12 on aliexpress going for 20 RMB (3 usd).

I'd use ali to test conversion, as soon as you have 1-5 sales a day I'd do a buy on 1688 with a helper to call there and place an order of 100-1000, and then have it shipped to your 3pl. You'll be able to get inventory at 10-20% of the cost, so it's like getting 1000 units for 100-200 units on aliexpress.

Once at 500 or so rebuy 2-5k. Scale. Save/Make xxxxx over time by doing this, 1688 is easily searchable with google translate built into chrome, just need some negotiation help. This can be done alone or with a 3-5 an hour worker from upwork who's already a buying agent in Guangdong

I hope that sheds some insight, skype: mr.michael.o if you want to chat more about great chinese buying methods.

I can second 1688.com. A little more background, it's the main domestic b2b marketplace for China. Chinese manufacturers started to realize that they can charge higher prices on Aliexpress and there are also a lot of "flippers" from Taobao (Chinese B2C) to Aliexpress. You might even just be dealing with large trading companies. Showing quotes from 1688 to your Aliexpress suppliers can really help to drop the price.

You also need to demonstrate that you're serious and act like you've done this before. Read some of the blogs and programs about sourcing from China such as Import-Dojo or Mike Bellamy's China Sourcing Academy - they help prevent a lot of normal pitfalls dealing with China. At the very least, get a Wechat to communicate with your suppliers, they'll be much more responsive than when you use Email.