Why am I making the statement to not dropship from AliExpress on Amazon when AliExpress is the #1 dropshipping eCommerce website in China, with great prices on a wide selection of products?
The truth is, it will get your Amazon seller account suspended. |
I called Amazon‘s support with a number of questions. One of them being about the Valid Tracking Rate in Shipping Performance.
Amazon wants sellers to have a Valid Tracking Rate of over 95%. Like you can see on the screenshot to the right, our Valid Tracking Rate is 0%.
We just could not understand what it meant since we always added tracking numbers to our shipments.
At this time, we were solely dropshipping from AliExpress.
So what we found out was when shipping from China (or Internationally in general) and if using an International courier, other than the couriers’ Amazon is cooperating with, the tracking number becomes invalid. Amazon cannot track packages sent via E-Packet, Turkey Post, etc.
If the courier is not included in the list below (screenshot is taken from Amazon’s Seller Central), the tracking number becomes invalid.
Even that Amazon makes you think it is okay to ship with “none Amazon couriers” having the option called “Other”, it will get your account suspended in the long run.
Note that you will not get any error message warning you to not continue using the “Other” courier option. You will only start noticing odd numbers in Shipping Performance.
Use The Amazon FBA Program On International ProductsThe title itself indicates what the support representative told us when questioning how to ship from China (and other International suppliers) without risking getting our seller privileges removed. And like we suspected, the only way to not risk getting your seller account suspended is to use the Amazon FBA Program according to Amazon’s support. It is a smart way for Amazon to maintain control, and force more and more sellers to use their FBA Program. After all, Amazon Prime increases the shopping experience for the customer since it offers free one-day shipping. So I can understand why they are steering sellers in that direction. |
However, this takes away the benefit of dropshipping and not having to invest in expensive inventory.
What is great with dropshipping is that you do not need to keep any inventory. You can ship your products from the supplier directly to your customers.
You can read more about dropshipping here:
⇒ Is Dropshipping Legit? Benefits And Disadvantages Listed |
Cons And Pros Of Amazon FBA
When using the Amazon FBA Program, you have to send inventory to Amazon’s warehouse. Sometimes, several warehouses, which increases shipping expenses. You also have to pay for packing, labeling, etc. A big con. | The pros, on the other hand, are that Amazon is handling everything after they have accepted your FBA shipment. Amazon takes care of packing, shipping, customer service, and possible returns. |
That said, we will use online retail as eCommerce business model from now on and only use domestic authorized suppliers for our Amazon listings.
It is much safer.
For instance, you know what you will get and you can sell brand name products that are already selling well on Amazon.
UPDATE – DON’T DROPSHIP FROM ALIEXPRESS AT ALL!I mentioned earlier that we would continue dropshipping on eBay. Eight months later, I wish we never had dropshipped from AliExpress at all. We sold hundreds of a popular toy before Christmas and we dropshipped them from AliExpress. Since it was relatively close to Christmas, we did not have time to first order a sample. This was our biggest mistake in our eCommerce journey, so far! |
Anyway, both AliExpress suppliers shipped out secondary CRAPPY toys that should have gone straight into the trash to all our customers. We had to refund EVERYBODY and send replacements.
Not to mention, the embarrassment of apologizing for ruin people’s Christmas!
Not a fun experience at all. We lost lots of money having to refund everyone but were hardly getting a cent back from AliExpress.
Even worse, all HOURS it took to answer messages/complaints on eBay and process all the refunds.
You should know that the customer service on eBay is more time consuming than anywhere else. It seems to be a norm to ask tons of questions, even if everything is mentioned in the product listing.
After opening about twenty refund disputes on AliExpress, we were hit by the next surprise. AliExpress decided to suspend our account instead of returning our money.
Imagine that!
We only got about two percent of the total dropshipping purchases back.
We provided photos of all the broken toys we received from our customers, showing evidence of smashed packaging and broken toys, but they banned our account despite this. You could easily see the toys were broken and in really poor condition.
We tried to reach out to AliExpress’s customer service but never got hold of an actual person to speak with. We were constantly forwarded to a voicemail saying they were busy with other customers. We left about ten messages but never heard back.
“AliExpress’s customer service is obviously hiding or does not even exist!”
I was not going to give up and wrote to AliExpress on Facebook. Always a good option!
They did not ignore me on Facebook, but “played” stupid. After tons of questions, they told me we had to reach out to the seller who sent us the broken toys.
“Daahh…you guys suspended our account so how would that even be possible??”, was my response.
I did, in fact, give up after this. I felt it was a waste of time, and too much frustration to continue this nonsense back and forth.
That said, I realized we would never see our money again and we just had to suck it up and learn from this mistake – TO NEVER EVER AGAIN DROPSHIP FROM ALIEXPRESS!
If you have a different experience of dropshipping from AliExpress on Amazon, or any other eCommerce platform, please let me know in the comment section below.
The knowledge level of Amazon’s support representatives varies a lot, so there may be a way around the shipping issue from overseas. Many times you get to speak with a person from India with a strong accent, hardly even perceivable, and you hear a TV playing and children crying in the background. I am surprised a Billion dollar company does not have higher standards in regards to its seller support. |
I hope this blog post was useful and made you think twice about dropshipping from AliExpress on Amazon.
The goal t is to help you to avoid my mistakes. Do better, and please do not repeat my mistakes!
Cheers!
Stina Pettersson
The Future Is Your Creation
Email: [email protected]
thefutureisyourcreation.com
Gold For Security In Times Of Crisis
A sidetrack to this blog post, but it can be a good opportunity to get your investment strategy in check now when we are facing a coronavirus-caused depression. The question is not if the coronavirus will cause a recession, but how severe that recession will be.
Although the stock market is primed for recovery when the coronavirus crisis passes (it might take months or years according to Government officials). And investors who have not already taken the time to protect their assets need to do so immediately.
About The Author
Stina Pettersson is an aspiring entrepreneur who is working on achieving her goals as an Internet Marketer.
Stina was tired of her corporate job as a Marketing Specialist and wanted to stand on her own two feet.
Stina is originally from Sweden but has resided in the U.S. for the past seven years.
“My main goal is to maintain a flexible lifestyle, where I set my own schedule. Even that I work hard, I love what I do every day, and I also have the opportunity to help other people which is a huge gift.”
I aim to provide the best and most accurate information to my readers on this website. Some of the links in this post are from sponsors. Read my Advertising Disclosure. |
First piece of advice is to never reveal your suppliers. You did not spill the beans here since everyone knows of those that you mentioned. And in my opinion they are junk and would look elsewhere. It is not easy to start off and the drop shipping route is something I would not start of ebay. Some people are successful at it but I would stay away from it at least until you worked with a supplier for sometime testing them on other venues. You basically have your business in their hands. Most of those suppliers on those sites you mentioned are selling junk that no one wants.
Hi Lisa,
thank you for your comment and advice. I never reveal my suppliers when it comes to the online retail business model, but regarding AliExpress (which I can hardly put in the category of authorized suppliers) I needed to warn people. Like you say, they are selling junk and are unethical. My goal is to help people avoiding my mistakes.
Dropshipping definitely comes with some big cons. Unethical dropship suppliers can destroy your whole business, like they did for me. It took long to recover from the financial loss they created.
I’m glad you are repeating the importance of knowing your supplier before dropshipping, and especially on third party marketplaces, where they can suspend you if something goes wrong.
Thanks again for your feedback. It’s much appreciated.
Cheers!
Stina Pettersson
The Future Is Your Creation/Make A Living From Home