Dropshipping in the UK
The UK is a world leader and has one of the most powerful economies in the world. This makes it a major market for e-commerce entrepreneurs around the globe. The UK’s e-commerce market was valued at EUR157 billion as of 2015. The beauty with dropshipping UK has always been the fact that your location is not among the leading factors of success because the burden of fulfilling orders is almost entirely placed on your suppliers. Drop shippers do not keep an inventory of products and pay suppliers only when the product is sold.
The UK market is much more responsive than the US market, which has been described as saturated. It also has a target audience who rarely responds to advertising and promotions. It is definitely cheaper to open an e-commerce shop in the UK than it is in the US. Dropshipping via Aliexpress has grown in popularity outside of China and Asia. This complete guide will help you start a dropshipping business in the UK with Aliexpress. This guide will give you a step-by-step overview of what it takes to get started and succeed with dropshipping on Aliexpress in the UK.
How does Aliexpress dropshipping work in the UK?
Let’s take a look at the steps involved in starting an e-commerce business and making it a success in the UK. Aliexpress, like most dropshipping platforms is very generic. It involves the following:
You select a niche
As I said, the UK market is very responsive to products and goods they require. Oberlo, a dropshipping platform, found that only 18% UK online retailers use dropshipping to manage their e-commerce business. To find a niche, you need to identify a gap in the market or inefficiencies that you can exploit. You will need to conduct extensive market research as well as competitor analysis.
It is crucial to verify that the niche you have chosen is available. If the demand is high, you must be able deliver the products on time. You can check if products in your niche are in stock on Aliexpress.
Register for an Aliexpress account
Next, register with Aliexpress to open an account and select the affiliate program to receive cash back.
Your Store
Next, choose the platform on which you want to build your ecommerce site and dropship to Aliexpress. Shopify is the most popular platform for entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom. Other popular ones include BigCartel, which focuses on artists; Magento due to its power; Alidropship with a build-your-store feature; and Woocommerce, which is the market leader because of the enormous popularity of WordPress.
For WordPress, for example, you only need to install WordPress on your computer. You can immediately make changes to your ecommerce store by downloading and activating the Woocommerce plugin. You will need a domain name, and a hosting provider to allow your website to be visible on the internet.
Finding Suppliers
Dropshipping is a business that relies on reliable suppliers. They will not let you down in terms of stock availability and delivery times. Alibaba has hundreds of suppliers ( find aliexpress dropshipping suppliers) but all of them have reviews and ratings that you can use to qualify each one of them.
Get products for your store
Aliexpress makes it easy to import products. You can edit product descriptions, images, and titles before you import the products into your store. Importing products is easy with the alidropship plugin for aliexpress and the google chrome alidropship extensions. Other features include automatic order tracking, search and marketing, as well as customization of your store. Aliexpress recommends that you import products with a rating of 4 stars or higher to ensure quality.
Pricing your products
Dropshipping is not a lucrative venture unless you have enough customers and products to sell. It is important to price your products in order to determine how much you make. Aliexpress has a pricing markup algorithm that updates your prices automatically after a certain time. This is important for financial and business management.
Marketing
You can’t expect customers to come by chance so advertise your store. You must be specific and precise about your target audience because competition is fierce. You can use the alidropship plugin to run promotions, give out coupons, and offer discounts. Customers can leave product reviews to provide feedback. You can create email lists as well as SEO product tags to optimize search engine optimization.
Start selling, experiment and then repeat step 5.
Your store will grow and you’ll have more products to offer, which could lead to prices changing again. Marketing costs could rise. You receive payment from the customer and inform them of the delivery date. Then, you will go to your supplier via Aliexpress and send the customer’s details and address. This is done automatically by Alidropship plugin
Your skills will make you closer to success
Before you sell, it is necessary to establish a policy of replacement and refund.
Before you begin any e-commerce venture, set a budget. This will help you decide which platform is best for you.
Always look for Aliexpress suppliers that have the epacket filter when shipping. It’s the fastest.
It is important to have emergency funds in order to handle large volumes of returns, especially if you deal with international suppliers.
You can check the stock levels regularly with your suppliers. Alidropship has automated this process and you will be notified when there is less or more stock.
You can reduce risk by having multiple reliable suppliers and planning for sufficient cash flow.
Maintain excellent customer service.
Is Aliexpress Dropshipping a Good Option for the UK?
Advantages
You can see that drop shippers are available in the UK market by simply looking at the statistics.
>Aliexpress is home to some of the most affordable products in the world, and it’s a great place for entrepreneurs.
You can also look beyond the UK to target your neighbours Spain, France, and Germany without additional shipping costs.
>Unlimited number of products
Registering a business in the UK is easy
Disadvantages
Dropshipping with Aliexpress in the UK is plagued by unreliable suppliers and faulty products.
>Delayed and prolonged deliveries
Poor communication with suppliers can lead to a lack of order and unsatisfactory deliveries
So what should you use?
Chinabrands marketplace is a great international dropshipping platform. Everything is automated, so you can focus on customer communication. Their delivery times are also much faster than Aliexpress. Chinabrands is able to vet all suppliers, which makes international dropshipping less risky. Chinabrands.com is the best place to start.
Conclusion
UK customers are focused on customer service and quality. To ensure your success with Aliexpress dropshipping in UK, you will need a solid business plan and reliable markets such as Chinabrands. Dropshipping success is possible if you are determined and focused.
