The Disaster They Call AliExpress | Chris Malta's EBiz Insider Podcast

Chris Malta's EBiz Insider Podcast

If you haven't heard of AliExpress yet, good. Do your best not to hear of it. If you have heard of AliExpress, run far, away from anybody who tells you it's a good idea. If you're actually using AliExpress, you have my most sincere sympathies, really.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

If you haven't heard of AliExpress yet, good. Do your best not to hear of it. If you have heard of AliExpress, run far, away from anybody who tells you it's a good idea.

If you're actually using AliExpress, you have my most sincere sympathies, really.

Okay, I brought it up, I know. So now even if you haven't heard of it, I have to talk about it, because someday you WILL hear of it, and you need to be protected.

AliExpress is where the con artists send you and tell you you'll get products drop shipped to your customers directly from China at low, low prices.

Not true.

Let's break this down point by point.

First, there is no way you can know whether the supposed drop ship supplier in China is real. Chinese companies aren't subject to the kind of regulation we have in the US and other countries, you run a huge risk of not having your orders delivered at all. Even if a company appears legitimate, there is no oversight. Tremendous numbers of people using this service have experienced situations where orders never arrive. Tracking numbers are fake and customer service is non existent.

Second, you're dealing with companies that will very often ship cheap imitation products (that often don't even look like their product pictures) to your customers. This results in returns angry customers and a bad reputation for you. Imagine your customer's frustration when they receive a product that looks nothing like what was advertised, is poorly made, is the wrong color or is even completely different item.

This erodes trust in your business, and once your reputation takes a hit, it's incredibly hard to recover. Maintaining customer trust is crucial, and consistent disappointment can lead to a flood of negative reviews, which can easily destroy your business.

Third, you can't return products to these companies. If you try to return something, (a) they most often won't accept it and (b), if they do, it'll often take weeks to get it done. The Return process is a nightmare filled with flat out refusals, long delays and costly shipping fees, and let's not forget that even if you manage to return the item, getting a refund is another uphill battle.

Most often, the cost of shipping the item back to China is more than the product worth. This leaves you stuck with unsellable inventory and financial loss.

Fourth, if you get cheated, you lose your money, period. There is no legal recourse between the US and China. The different legal systems mean that once your money is gone, it's gone. This lack of protection leaves you vulnerable, and it'll cause serious financial issues. You might think PayPal or your credit card company will protect you, but disputes involving international transactions, especially with Chinese suppliers, rarely end in your favor.

This means your hard earned money could vanish with no way to recover it.

Fifth, having something drop shipped from China takes weeks three to six weeks on average. Do you really think your customers are going to wait that long for you to deliver their products in today's online environment? Customers expect reasonably fast shipping. Weeks worth of waiting time will frustrate your customers. They'll cancel orders, demand refunds and leave negative reviews, all of which damage your business.

Slow shipping times can be a deal breaker for customers, leading to lost sales and damaged credibility.

Let's talk about a couple of other practical points. Quality control is another major issue. When you order products from AliExpress, you have no way to inspect the quality before they reach your customers. The fake gurus will tell you to order samples. If you do that, you might actually get a decent sample pretty quickly, but when you start placing regular orders for your customers, everything changes.

That's when the junk products start to show up. Inconsistent product quality is disastrous for customer satisfaction and retention, as I said earlier. This leads to a high rate of returns, refunds and complaints, which can overwhelm your business and eat into your profits.

Communication barriers are also a significant challenge. Language differences and time zone disparities make it impossible to resolve issues quickly. If the dropshipper is even willing to talk to you, getting a clear answer or solution can take days or even weeks. This lack of efficient communication can delay problem resolution and frustrate both you and your customers.

There's also the issue of payment security. Lots of small business owners have reported unauthorized charges and problems securing refunds. The financial risk involved with untrusted suppliers will severely impact your business operations.

Look, you can't make this stuff up. It's real. I can't even count how many people I've taught and mentored who have already been nailed to a wall dealing with these people for the exact reasons I mentioned here. As a home based business owner, China is not your answer to dropship product supply. Not ever.

Importing from China is even worse, but I'll deal with that in another episode.

Yet the idiots who claim to teach you all this amazing eBay, Amazon and website stuff will tell you to use AliExpress. Why would they do that when they know it doesn't work?

Because it sounds easy, and everybody wants easy. When they tell people their amazing gazillion dollar cash machine programs are easy, people buy them, and then those people fail, because in real life, there's nothing easy about building and running a real business.

So what can you do about getting real products from a real drop shipper? It's simple. Use a US based dropshipper.

These are wholesale companies who already import high quality products into the US from China and many other countries. They can buy in bulk at vastly lower prices than you can. They'll deliver quickly and everybody's happy.

Do yourself a favor and don't fall for AliExpress, PLEASE.

For lots more honest info about e commerce based on my 30 plus years of actual experience in this business, check out my Free EBbiz Insider Video Series at ChrisMalta.com.

Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time.