Hi All,
I have a few questions around shipping costs and dropshipping and was hoping someone could help me out.
I run my own dropshipping store (via Aliexpress suppliers) and would like to offer my customers free shipping on all product purchases. How much do you typically tack onto the product cost to cover your cost of product + shipping, while trying to keep a decent margin? As of now, I plan to ship worldwide to not limit my global reach, but incorporating the shipping cost into my product cost and maintaining a decent margin is something I have been struggling with. I find myself playing around on the Aliexpress site and picking different ship to locations and judging the shipping cost and shipping times (is there an app for this?) to decide on a flat fee to charge into my product price. I would also like to know how do you manage your shipping profiles as I currently have all my products in a general free shipping profile to ship worldwide.
Another question I have is, how do you handle supplier product increases on products.? As of now, my price updates are handled automatically via Oberlo, but I need to ensure I set my global pricing rules high enough to always ensure enough is charged to product cost + shipping + my margin. This is very tricky for me given I have items on the lower priced range x<$10. I have been playing around with tiered pricing increases. but it is very difficult to maintain with supplier increases and believe there has to be an easier way.
Finally, I was also wondering if you typically advertise shipping timelines on your dropshipping site? I have typically seen this avoided on other sites and there would be no reference to delivery timelines. How is the delivery timeframe to most worldwide destinations via Aliexpress Standard Shipping? Is this something you would advertise as a drop shipper and negative perception with longer delivery times. I understand I could offer expedited + charged shipping for faster delivery.
Appreciate all the help with this. I have been struggling with offering free shipping worldwide, while having Oberlo manage prices increases. I am spending too much time manually updating prices constantly and I want to automate this portion as much as possible.
