Dropshipping Internationally, each country has a different rate and each product too.

unusualgoose
Visitor
1 0 0

Hello!

I'm starting a dropshipping store and I'm using a supplier on aliexpress and Oberlo. I have a lot of products, and I plan to ship to around 33 countries. The aliexpress suplier has different shipping rates for each country, and every single product has a different shipping price. Is there anyway I can link the aliexpress shipping information/rates to the shopify rates or do I have to enter every single product's shipping price as well as country? I don't know id I made any sense but I am very confused and would really apreciate some help!

Thank you!

Reply 1 (1)

Victor
Shopify Staff
2422 225 517

Hi @unusualgoose,

Thank you for reaching out and for outlining your plans with your new store. You cannot import the supplier's shipping rates directly into Shopify, as their rates will likely vary by product, shipping location and shipping method, and it does require some manual work on your part when deciding on and setting up your shipping rates within Shopify.

First of all, I would like to emphasize the importance of having a good understanding on what you will be paying the supplier for shipping when a customer places an order, as this information is vital when you're deciding on what shipping rates to set for your customers. It's important to see what shipping methods are made available by the supplier when shipping to specific countries, as in some cases the shipping options may be severely limited, and/ or expensive. For this reason I'd recommend doing this on a country-by-country basis, and setting appropriate rates for each country via shipping zones in the Shopify admin. The amount of work required here means you may wish to launch the store in a few priority countries first, before then expanding to more over time.

I'll provide below an example of how to go about this. Here I have a vintage woman's watch I want to sell to my customers, listed at a price of $3.29 USD. I can click here on the AliExpress page to view shipping rates and times for this product:

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I can see here that the shipping is set for Canada, where I am based, and that the estimated delivery is 30-50 days. However, if I click on the dropdown here, I am given more options:

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Whilst I see that the 30-50 day option is free, there is also a paid shipping option of $5.05 that has a faster shipping time of 15-30 days instead. I would need to decide if I'd rather make use of the free shipping option, which would cost nothing but result in the customer waiting much longer for their product, or the paid one, which would cost me money but comes with the benefit of the customer receiving the item much faster. The cost and speed of shipping, along with the cost of the product, would inform me on how much I want to charge my customers for both the product and for shipping.

If you are using the same supplier and shipping products of similar sizes, you might find that the shipping costs do not vary much from product-to-product, and as such as you can set your shipping rates for a country knowing that the price of shipping each product will not vary much. However, I would recommend checking the cost of shipping for each item you sell to each country you sell to, in order to set the most accurate shipping rates possible. This can be a laborious task, but not doing so could result in you significantly overcharging or undercharging your customers on shipping costs, which will cause problems for you when orders come in.

I would recommend checking out Oberlo's documentation on setting up shipping rates on Shopify, which explains more the considerations you need to make and how to set up rates within the admin. I hope the above helps you but please let me know if you have more questions.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

Victor | Social Care @ Shopify 
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