Dropshipping delivery time is not a new issue. The role of fast shipping when it comes to dropshipping, or any e-Commerce business as a whole, cannot be over-emphasized. Everybody wants its fast.
You want your customers to get their products fast and you want the money to roll in fast too. Having it this way makes everybody go home with a win-win.
But we all know AliExpress shipping takes too long and people are looking for an alternative faster shipping than AliExpress.
Meanwhile, if you’re thinking of adding the shipping price to the products price for a faster delivery, it’s going to kill the business – which makes it a no go area.
Is all hope gone you may ask? Well, luckily, there are still a few ways around that.
We’re going to be sharing with you how you can tweak the shipping time directly on AliExpress, whereby you can have 2 – 5 faster shipping days on AliExpress, as well as other options and alternative to AliExpress altogether.
Let’s get started.
How To Have A Faster AliExpress Shipping Time
Below are some of the ways you can use in finding fast dropship suppliers and invariably have a faster delivery of your products.
->> See also: 4 Efficient International Shipping Tips for e-Sellers
1/ ePacket Shipping Option
ePacket is a shipping option offered by Chinese merchants. It allows merchant in China and Hong Kong to provide a fast and affordable shipping option for light packages.
(Source: Oberlo)
With the help of ePacket delivery options, it takes about 7 – 10 days for shipment from China to reach country like US, Canada, UK, Australia, etc..
While dropshipping to countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, etc.. might not support ePacket delivery at the moment, merchant can still expect delivery time of 21- 45 and most of the time before 30 days.
ePacket delivery allows customers to track their product at no additional cost. It also allows them to easily monitor and locate their products on websites such as EMS and USPS.
ePacket Requirements
The maximum length of the package can only be 24’ (60cm). The total length, height, and thickness should not be more than 36’ (90cm).
In addition to this, the package cannot exceed $400 in value and should not weigh more than 2kg to qualify for ePacket delivery.
As of August 2017, you can dropship to the following country using China Post’s ePacket service. The list can be updated at any time, because they are working really hard to increase the numbers.
- Austria
- Australia
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- UK
- US
If you’re targeting any of the above countries, using ePacket delivery can help scale up your business.
This is mostly because all supported countries can receive their products within 7 – 10 business days.
2/ Dropshipping from Vietnam using Boxme’s Solutions
If you’re feeling like AliExpress shipping is no longer the best way to go, your best bet might be to switch your stream of products into Vietnam and practice indirect dropshipping.
->> See also: Alternatives to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) for e-Sellers
Plenty of e-Commerce platforms out there, apart from Amazon and AliExpress, provide useful sources to dropship. And the number is so abundant that you could establish your central Vietnam store right away and leverage your products on eBay, Shopify, Etsy, Magento, etc..
Vietnam is well-positioned for fulfillment for the following reasons:
- It’s located relatively close to Chinese manufacturing factories, making shipping costs from the factory to warehouse lower.
- As discussed on our previous articles, Vietnam has a relatively favorable tax environment comparing to other countries within the same region.
- Vietnam connects to approximately 150 cities worldwide and has established direct flights to the majority of cities around the world. This can reduce transit times for parcels by as much as 3 days or more.
- Major shipping providers like USPS, DHL, etc.. either have a presence or a partner operating in Vietnam, which means a wide range of high quality, reliable services are available.
It’s also worth noting that Vietnam is listed as a “transition” (developing) country in the UPU classification system, which means that its postal system is being subsidized by the likes of USPS and enjoying certain benefits.
(Source: SaleHoo)
For online sellers in Vietnam like you, when it comes specifically to (international) shipping, third-party logistics providers (3PLs) can help meet AliExpress and Amazon’s shipping and routing requirements, and can even be an attractive alternative to AliExpress shipping.
->> See also: Everything You Need to Know about Your Vietnam Dropship Business
Let’s examine some of the ways 3PLs can help:
- When you partner with a 3PL, you negotiate set warehousing rates that are fixed and transparent throughout the relationship.
- 3PLs also prefer fast-moving inventory, but will work with you to identify the slow movers and the best way to handle them.
- 3PLs are generally able to customize processes to your precise fulfillment requirements with a variety of value-added warehousing services, such as custom labelling.
If international shipping bothers your everyday operation, let Boxme aid you with our ultra affordable solution!
3/ Netsale
Netsale is a complete alternative to AliExpress dropshipping for Shopify users. It’s a huge marketplace for dropshippers for sourcing high quality and discounted goods.
There are thousands of products on Netsale at a huge discounted price ready to be sold on your Shopify store with a fast shipping of 7 – 10 days deliveries, depending on the designated country.
If you’re looking for a faster alternative to AliExpress, you might as well check out Netsale. Netsale is known for fast deliveries and you’ll also enjoy a higher markup on the products you’re dropshipping.
Equally, using Netsale gives you the opportunity to entirely automate the dropshipping process for your online store.
Few of the advantage of using Netsale includes:
- Enjoy 2 – 5 days faster shipping of your products
- Enjoy access to several suppliers from different countries, especially within the Southeast Asia
- Automate the entire process
- Access to thousands of products within different niches
- Import products directly to your Shopify store
4/ Ship from the United States on AliExpress Website
The last option is to tweak AliExpress itself to get a faster delivery. But mind you, this is only going to work for those that are selling to the United States.
There are US suppliers on AliExpress that have their warehouses located in the US. So, using this is going to be a domestic shipping and equally a faster delivery system.
To do this, simply go to the AliExpress search tab and enter the product you’re looking for. From the result page, you should see a box with ship from.
Click the drop-down button and choose the United States. The next page is going to bring several similar products in warehouses in the United States.
Once you see the one that interests you, check the estimated delivery time because they vary from each other.
The downside of this is that the products usually cost around $2 – $5 more, which is actually not bad. This can still be added to the initial product price and yet still make your profits.
Another downsides to this is that there are limited product choices, because not all sellers on AliExpress has a warehouse in the US. So the kind of product you can find is going to be limited.
Finally, like you know already, it only works in the US. So, this might not be the best option for you if you want to sell to other countries.
None of the Above is Helpful to Me. What Should I Do?
Well, dropshipping with AliExpress has brought about daily complaints as regards the delivery time and delays. This is nothing new.
However, it should be noted that Aliexpress has improved over the years and currently is still working on it by partnering with major local and international postal service companies.
But not to worry, even with the above outline, you can still work something out.
1/ Dropshipping Cheap Products
A not too expensive product is worth the wait. This is because cheap products on AliExpress come with free shipping, and most customers are willing to wait for it.
You can source for cheap products on Aliexpress, but be careful not to dropship inferior products.
2/ Dropshipping Hot Items
Your customer won’t mind the delivery time once your product is unique. This is why it’s very important to take time while choosing your products.
->> See also: What Makes a Product that Sells when Dropshipping?
Be sure the products you are dropshipping cannot be easily sourced for from the bricks and mortar traditional stores.
3/ No Emergence Products
The whole idea of dropshipping business is to generate impulse purchases driven by emotions and not dropshipping life-critical products.
->> See also: Dropshipping Niches to Avoid for your e-Commerce Business
If you want to sell prime necessity products, like medicines – which your customers have an urgent need for, then you should provide your own means of reaching your customer need and not through a supplier.
Once your customer knows they are not buying out of urgency or a burning desire but because they like your products, then they can afford the wait.
(Source: ABetterLemonadeStand)
4/ Disclaimer Notice
This is very important when it comes to dropshipping with Aliexpress, because most customers get restless when they notice their products are getting longer to deliver.
This is totally going to be different when you write the shipping information very visible in your store for your customer convenience – and for your own safety too.
You can write on the product description that: “Please be noted: The average shipping time is xx days”, and the customer will know what to expect from their purchase.
5/ Customer Support
Using your customer support to your own advantage can go a long way in your dropshipping business.
It’s impossible not to have upset clients that will call and message when they think their item is missing.
But not to worry, you can patiently handle such situation in the following ways:
- Include the shipping time once again when you send the confirmation email to your customers. It’s appropriate to remind them of the expected delivery period, because not all of them will be attentive to read this in the product description. You can either do this manually or for your convenience, do it automatically with AliDropship Plugin. It will automatically notify your customers.
- Again, once you receive the tracking code from your supplier, send it immediately to the buyer, then explain how to use the information to know about the current location of the package. You can also install the AliDropship plugin to do this automatically.
- Finally, make the refund policy very clear. This will increase your customer trust when the return policy is clearly stated on the product page. Whether it be 30 – 45 days or 60 days, kindly explain that you will make 100% refunds if the product is not delivered within this period of time. If this is clearly written, your buyers will only get their refund if the product did not reach its location on the 46th or 61st day!
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