The tips shared in this article are absolutely essential for anyone who is using AliExpress to source their products. These tips will help you increase your traffic, your customers and your profit margins and ultimately make you more money.
Don’t turn your passion into your profit
This is something that most people won’t tell you but it is super important when it comes to being a successful marketer and for any type of business, not just dropshipping. I know that’s a really bold thing to say, but bear with me.
So many marketers come online and they start marketing the things that they think are cool, the things that they think are a good idea, but the fact of the matter is – you are not going to your own website and buying products. Other people are, so quit focusing on what you like and what you want, what your hobbies are and start focusing on everybody else out there wants.
I’ve always said to people that the majority of the money that I personally make, is marketing things that I could care less about. One example might be cat socks. I’m not even really a cat person and I have dogs. But, people buy the heck out of these crazy cat socks that I get from AliExpress.
So, as a marketer, you have to understand that you are not a consumer. Forget what you think, forget what you like and start making other people’s passion into your profit. Focus on what other people want, put it in front of their faces and you’re not going to have to sell it to them because they already want it.
FREE + Shipping
Use the word “FREE”. This is a big one. This is the reason that some businesses make a million dollars or more in a single year. So many marketers come to SaleSource and they are trying to start a dropshipping business or AliExpress print on demand and they’re failing. They can’t sell their products, they’re marketing them, but nobody’s buying them.
We look at their websites and they’re selling stuff for $20, $50, $100 without leveraging the most powerful word in the English language when it comes to marketing, the word “Free”. It will create what’s called a “buying frenzy”, it will give your product a sizzle effect. In other words, it’ll become a hot product and it will go viral all over Facebook. It’ll get tons of comments, tons of shares and a lot of tags.
And it’s not like its hard to find items on AliExpress that offer free shipping (so that the shipping doesn’t eat into your profit margins), most items on AliExpress offer free shipping.
You can attach this word free to the products that you marketing, by using the “Free + Shipping” formula. What it will do is to allow you to market to your customers without having to sell them. See, what you do is go and find a product that they’re already interested in and let Facebook intelligence put that product directly in front of their face and then offer them a deal that they cannot refuse. People love free stuff and you’re still able to profit from the item with the shipping and handling.
The Free + shipping formula leverages the word free, makes your ads go viral and makes it a no-brainer for customers to click on your ad, come to your website and it increases your urgency and your conversion rates, as well.
Use the scarcity tactic to your advantage
The issue of customer potentially price checking your items is one of the most common questions that we get asked at SaleSource. “Why would people buy from you?”, “Why don’t they go directly to AliExpress, see that is cheaper there and buy from them instead of you?”.
First of all, most people don’t even know what AliExpress is. If you are reading this article then obviously, you know about AliExpress and the chances aren’t you move within circles of people and communities that also know what AliExpress is.
But the truth is, that is a very small sample size and confirmation bias comes into play here. Most people out there haven’t even heard of AliExpress. They don’t know what it is. And so they’ll have no idea of how to go and price check your item against the ones on there.
That’s why the side that you should be more concerned with people price-checking your item against is amazon.com. For instance, take the self stir mug on AliExpress that’s selling for $6-8.
On Amazon people are selling it for $8.99-9.95 and after Amazon fees, even if they’re buying this item in bulk, the chances are they are making a loss. They are selling it as a way to increase their sales volume.
And even worse, not only are they selling it’s super cheap, but they’re also offering free Prime shipping. So how do you stop people from price checking these items against Amazon? The answer is very simple – scarcity.
What do I mean when I say to create scarcity? It’s very simple – make the customer feel that they have stumbled upon a limited time offer. There are lots of ways that you can create scarcity. One of them is that in your Facebook ad copy and your product page copy you can say that there is very limited stock available and that once it’s sold, it is gone forever.
Or you can say things in your ad copy and your product page that this item is 50% off, but only for the next 30 minutes or instead of saying that’s only for a limited time, that it’s only for the next limited number of customers, for example the next 20 customers. Or you could also say that the next 50 customers will get this item 50% off.
Scarcity is extremely powerful, because it captures the customer’s attention. It makes them feel like they need to act now, otherwise they will miss out on this incredible offer. These are just some examples of ways to create scarcity. Think of other ways that you can add scarcity to your products as well.
Final Words
Starting a successful ecommerce business isn’t easy and whilst it is important to pick the right niche, get a well-designed store and run successful ad campaign – this isn’t everything. Finding new, original ways to drive traffic to your store, negotiating with suppliers and using strategies like free + shipping and scarcity are equally as important at an intermediate/advanced stages of your business. Find a way to implement these tips to your AliExpress dropshipping business and you will quickly see results!
