With the global dropshipping market expected to grow at a rate of 28.8% to reach a staggering USD 557.9 billion by 2025, it’s not surprising many entrepreneurs are hoping to win their slice of the pie.
With so many platforms and suppliers, it can be a minefield deciding which is the best for your eCommerce venture
Many store owners are Shopee dropshipping with AliExpress, but what is Shopee and how does it work with AliExpress?
In our helpful article, we will give you the definitive answer so you can get started right away!
To use Shopee with AliExpress, you need to have an account with both platforms. The AliExpress plug-in doesn’t work for Shopee as it does for other platforms. Add listings to Shopee, and once you’ve made a sale, log in to AliExpress and add your customer’s address for delivery.
Ok so with the short answer in the bag, let’s start exploring a little more deeply and first investigate exactly what Shopee dropshipping is.
What is Shopee and Shopee dropshipping?
Shopee is one of the leading eCommerce marketplaces in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It was introduced originally in Singapore in 2015 and since then has grown to include:
- Thailand
- Malaysia
- The Philippines
- Vietnam
- Indonesia
- Taiwan
- Brazil
It’s worth noting that Shopee only offers limited overseas coverage. Currently other than Southeast Asia, Brazil is the only other country it ships to.
Shopee dropshipping model
Shopee isn’t purpose-built for dropshipping. Although it wasn’t historically set up to support the dropshipping model, it can be used manually to find products and make sales using a dropshipping model, meaning essentially holding no inventory.
Once your customers have purchased from your Shopee store, you will need to manually go into your AliExpress account and add the details of your customer’s address. AliExpress will then act as your ‘logistics’ partner by shipping the item.
“Shopee isn’t purpose-built for dropshipping such as some other agents such as HyperSKU”
What do I need for Shopee dropshipping with AliExpress?
The Shopee platform itself doesn’t support the dropshipping model, but before you can start dropshipping using Shopee you will need to use another provider alongside, such as AliExpress.
The AliExpress plug-in doesn’t work with Shopee as it does for WooCommerce, for example.
Here are some of our best tips to help you more easily understand Shopee dropshipping from AliExpress.
- You will need to be signed up as a Shopee user and have a live account
- Register as a Shopee seller totally free
- Create a login and an AliExpress account
- Browse products and add the details including images, color variations for example into your Shopee account
- In the price column, enter the price with your profit on top of the AliExpress seller price. Make sure you are working on a reasonable margin, or you might need to re-evaluate your product selection)
- Repeat the process until all your chosen products are added for sale on Shopee.
- When an order on Shopee is received, login to AliExpress and visit the seller’s page.
- Add an item to the cart and enter your customer’s shipping address.
- In the remarks column, don’t forget to enter a note to let them know you are dropshipping and not to add any promotional material
- Complete the checkout process, as usual, using your preferred payment method.
“The AliExpress plug-in doesn’t work with Shopee as it does for WooCommerce or Shopify”
Choosing a niche
Before you can properly take advantage of dropshipping with Shopee using AliExpress, it’s worth spending some time thinking about the type of products or niche you will offer your customers.
- Good profit margins: Products that are cheap to buy but that bring a high-profit margin
- Low-cost shipping: Choosing heavy products or those which incur high shipping costs is likely to put your customers off using your store. Search for products that are cheap to ship, and where possible, offer free shipping..
- Easy access: Try where possible to offer your customers products they aren’t able to find easily in your target geographical area. Offering difficult-to-source items can help make your store more attractive.
Ok so now we’ve discovered a few tips to help you choose your niche more easily let’s discover the kind of categories Shopee offers.
Popular Shopee categories
There is a huge variety of products to choose from including pet care, electronics, home entertainment, toys, and collectibles
Here’s a list of the most popular:
- Baby products
- Home appliances
- Accessories
- Mobile phones
- Healthy and beauty
Shipping speed and costs
As most dropshippers are aware, lengthy shipping times can make or break your enterprise. With Amazon and others offering literally same-day delivery, consumers are expecting goods ever more quickly.
Shopee can offer local products, fairly quickly by dropshipping standards, which is usually between 3 and 7 days.
However, the common case is that it can take several weeks. If shipping to Brazil, it can often take more than two months for goods to reach your customers. The best dropshipping suppliers can usually offer much quicker shipping.
Shipping costs are fairly low in price with most customers looking at paying around US$1 for most orders and some sellers offering free delivery on larger orders.
“If shipping to Brazil, it can often take more than two months for goods to reach your customers.”
Payments offered
Making sure your dropshipping partner offers a range of payment options for your customers is a wise decision. Currently, at the time of writing, Shopee supports the following:
- This is a digital wallet within the Shopee App. It can be used to pay for both online and offline purchases once you’ve set up a ShopeePay account and topped up your balance.
- Cash on Delivery
- Credit/Debit cards
- Online Payment
- Payment Center/e-Wallet
- Over-the-Counter
- TouchPay
- Google Pay
And finally…
So we hope that’s covered some of the main points of Shopee and how you can use it alongside AliExpress to join the ranks of other successful dropshippers!
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