Hello,
Someone contacted me to ask me what was the difference with the products on my store and the ones on aliexpress as they are cheaper.
I don't really know what to answer to that.
Any suggestion?
Thanks
The first question that came to our minds when we decided to embark on our dropshipping adventure with AliE products was: "How do we compete with AliE?" Simple answer we told ourselves was, "you don't".
IOHO, to survive the dropshipverse, you have to work with percentages or probabilities. The odds are not that bad (one can safely ignore the naysayers) given the expanse of the online market and with it, the myriad personality types.
... to name a few,
1. The KnowAlls
There will be those customers (even us sometimes) who will turn every stone to get the lowest price; the net-savvy ones need just google some text related to a product, inspect the code for CDN links, etc. and find the same on AliE! This group of buyers are not your buy-on-instinct happy shoppers ... depending on your niche, you may be able to steer clear of the lot or simply accept that you can't win them over no matter what you say nor should you. Like them, you have a choice. You can tap a whole spectrum of other personas who will buy off your site.
2. The ShopBrowsers
The window-shoppers of old have graduated to online browsing and continue to browse and browse without actually buying anything - they form the bulk of your abandoned cart traffic ... which is a good thing! Stats show that some may yet still be converted into buying through re-marketing
This group is more interested in what's out there, to see what's trending rather than focus on sources and sourcing.
3. The Instinctuals
This is arguably the most loved buyer group - they blur the line between need and want by acting purely on instinct (well, almost). Perfect for deployment of those 'countdown timers', 'recent sales popups' and upsells/crossells motivators to close that elusive deal. The bonus here is this group tends to come back for more if they had a great user experience on your site.
You can probably break down the shopper populace into an infinite number of group types and the personalities that go with each. The point is there will always be buyers who will like your site, enjoy the user experience and appreciate your after-sales support, as much as they are those who will go elsewhere.
To answer your question, we would ask the customer to think of AliExpress as a warehouse of LEGO parts with thousands of suppliers he/she will have never heard of or will ever be in contact with. Dropshippers (ideally) close the gap, filter the best and save them the time and trouble of having to chance on the right one. We make sure you get the right LEGO part from the right supplier(s) coupled with guarantees. Will you not pay a markup for the right service?
Sure the customer can harp on the price and just want to pay less (you can't win them all) but they should leave with this lingering thought - that it's one thing to simply compare items and prices and another to build a trust-relationship. We owe it to our target niche to offer an awesome user experience and deliver items 'as advertised'. Those who appreciate our efforts will stay, shop and share their experience with others. Those who do not never will. Life goes on and we sell a few more items each day
We must accept that dropshipping is not something that works the minute you unpack the box. It's a process. It's super challenging - your first sale (a mini-eureka moment) is virtually proof of concept. It worked!
It doesn't stop there. Like everything else, knowledge is power. We are still learning and hope to share more of our experiences as we go along. To our kinsfolk, HAPPY DROPSHIPPING!