After it launched in 2010, AliExpress quickly became one of the most popular sites on the internet, serving as the international division of Chinese online retail giant, Alibaba.
AliExpress is among the most visited eCommerce website in Russia and the 11th most popular in Brazil.
The service allows small businesses in China, and beyond, to sell products to buyers from around the world.
The site has poised itself to compete with the likes of eBay and Amazon, but for most users, the site is comparable to eBay.
Independent sellers use AliExpress to sell their wares to various consumers and other businesses while AliExpress itself sells nothing.
Since its inception, many people have discovered that AliExpress offers an excellent means for starting an eCommerce site using dropshipping.
The basic idea behind dropshipping with AliExpress is that the retailer keeps no products in stock, instead of selling directly from the manufacturer to the consumer.
Essentially, the retailer lists a product for sale on their website and when an order is placed, they send an email directly to the supplier to ship the item to the person who purchased it.
It’s an excellent way for people outside of China to take advantage of AliExpress’ substantial database of products with AliExpress dropshipping.
One of the most efficient methods for setting up an AliExpress dropshipping business is by using WordPress.
WordPress is, of course, a free and open-sourced content management site and one of the most popular website management systems in the world.
Through its plug-in architecture and template system, it’s easy to craft a well-designed page that allows users to easily sell products from AliExpress.
Launching Your Own Dropshipping AliExpress WordPress Business?
To launch your own dropshipping AliExpress WordPress business, many of the best AliExpress dropshipping WordPress plugins utilize something called WooCommerce, which is itself an open source WordPress plugin designed for small and large online merchants alike.
These AliExpress WordPress plugins import data from AliExpress to WordPress and usually provide multiple AliExpress WordPress Themes for the new store.
The WooCommerce plugin service was launched in 2011 and quickly became popular for its simplicity to install and customize.
Much of WooCommerce’s popularity is thanks to the fact that its base product is free and open source.
The service has nearly 330 extensions and more than 1000 plugins, while many premium themes now offer compatibility with the service.
Also Read: Aliplugin vs AliDropship
Best AliExpress WordPress Plugins
The number of plugins available on the WordPress platform is staggering.
Sifting through the various options to decide what works best for you can be a difficult task, so we’ve decided to look at some of the best Aliexpress WordPress plugins available to help with dropshipping through AliExpress.
Many of these services utilize the base WooCommerce app.
1. Our Favourite AliExpress WordPress Plugin – AliDropship
The key to AliDropship’s success is its simplicity.
The simple installation, built-in AliExpress WordPress themes, and full customization make it ideal for those new to the AliExpress dropshipping game.
But its automatic system updates, which will make sure your inventory is fresh and up to date, coupled with its full automation, make it just as reliable for seasoned experts.
You also have the option to buy a fully custom-built store created by AliDropship’s team of experts.
The service comes fully loaded with ready-to-launch, personal support, free updates, and what the site calls “proven strategies to run and promote your new business.”
Plugin Features
Here are some of the top features included in the AliDropship plugin:
- Free built-in themes that you can use to create your ecommerce store on WordPress. All themes are fully responsive and optimized for mobile devices
- Import products from AliExpress with a single click
- Interactive dashboard with detailed reports about your products, traffic stats, sales, profits, and more
- Use an automated markup scheme to automatically set prices for each item
- Fulfill orders with a single click
- Product information will be updated automatically and synced with information on AliExpress
- Use a built-in image editor to change your product images
- Use their cashback system to get up to 8% cashback when you place orders from AliExpress
- Filter items on AliExpress to find items in different categories or with specific shipping options
- Import reviews directly from AliExpress to increase conversions
The AliDropship Chrome Extension
To make things easier for their users, AliDropship has released a Chrome extension that allows you to import products when on the AliExpress website, fulfill orders automatically, and filter for products based on ePacket shipping availability.
Using AliDropship With WooCommerce
If you already use WooCommerce to run a WordPress eCommerce store, you can still use the AliDropship plugin to import products from AliExpress.
The plugin is compatible with WooCommerce themes so you won’t have to change the look of your store.
Pricing
The AliDropship plugin will cost you a one-time payment of $89. It comes with updates and customer support for life.
Custom Stores
As mentioned, you can also have the AliDropship team build a custom ecommerce store for you. There are three packages available, with prices starting at $299.
Which package you get will determine how many products your store will come with, how much SEO work will be done on your store, and how much social media and video marketing will be done for you.
This service is a great option if you want to set up an ecommerce store but don’t have time to do all the necessary work.
The AliDropship team will do everything from niche research, to product selection, to marketing.
You will have complete ownership of your store once it is set up.
Hosting
AliDropship also offers hosting plans for ecommerce stores, optimized for their plugin. Hosting packages start at just $48/year and go up to $220/year.
All plans include unlimited bandwidth and a free SSL certificate.
Free website setup is also provided.
Depending on your plan, you will also get:
- 3-17 GB disc space
- 20-80 email addresses
- 5-30 websites
Domains are not included; you will have to purchase your domain separately from a third-party domain registrar such as GoDaddy or Namecheap.
Add-Ons
There are a number of add-ons available on the AliDropship website that you can install to enhance your ecommerce store, which also integrates with the AliDropship plugin. Examples include:
- Google Merchant
- Social Rabbit
- Facebook Business
- Upsell
- Abandoned Cart
- And much more
Other Services
If you don’t want to pay for an entire done-for-you ecommerce store, you can still outsource some of your tasks with AliDropship’s other services. Here are some of the services offered:
- Banner ads design
- AliDropship plugin setup
- Website installation
- Custom design
- Custom development
- Product data entry
Check Special Pricing of Alidropship
Interesting Post: Oberlo vs AliDropship
One-click import, process automation, unlimited product choice, free updates, number of tools, one-time payment, and more.
2. Ali2Woo
Ali2Woo is our 2nd favorite AliExpress WordPress plugin. Ali2Woo offers the ability to easily import products directly onto your WooCommerce store and ship directly to your customers.
What sets Ali2Woo apart is the advent of its Google Chrome extension, allowing users to more easily import products to their AliExpress WordPress site.
You can also search and import goods directly from AliExpress to your WordPress Dashboard and all functions are available without using the extension, so you can use whichever method you prefer.
The company boasts that its solution offers better automation for AliExpress dropshipping businesses.
With Ali2Woo’s plugin, synchronization occurs in the background without the user having to do anything.
There are AliExpress WordPress themes compatible with Ali2Woo available on Themeforest as well.
Top Ali2Woo Features
Some of the top features of the plugin include:
- Create different versions and variations of products to account for different colors, sizes, models, etc
- Customize product information when you import it
- Automatic inventory and price syncing
- Create pricing rules to automate pricing
- Filter products to only import those that offer ePacket shipping
- Import reviews from AliExpress
- Import products and reviews in different languages
- Import prices in different currencies
- Use your AliExpress affiliate key to sell products as an affiliate instead of as a dropshipper
- Fulfill and ship orders with a few clicks
Pricing
There are two pricing plans for Ali2Woo:
- Ali2Woo Lite – Free
- Ali2Woo – $35 for a one-time payment
All plans support unlimited orders.
Custom Stores
Like AliDropship, Ali2Woo offers custom, ready-made stores. There are three package options:
- Base – $299 (50 products)
- Advanced – $499 (100 products)
- Pro – $899 (200 products)
These pricing options cover everything involved in setting up a store, such as niche research, store setup, custom design, Google Analytics integrations, on site SEO, and social media marketing.
Hosting can be added from a third-party hosting company for around $48 per year, and you will get lifetime support and updates.
Interesting Comparison: Ali2Woo vs AliDropship
3. Importify
Importify is another WordPress plugin for importing products from AliExpress to a WordPress WooCommerce site.
Notably, Importify supports product imports from over 35 online marketplaces including the likes of AliExpress, Amazon, Etsy, Taobao, DhGate, etc. This makes Importify useful for sellers looking to diversify their supply chain.
Other important Importify features include a price markup system, the ability to set the default product status for importing into WooCommerce, product research functionality, product customization, and many more.
Importify allows you to conduct searches in order to find and import specific products that you like.
For example, you can search for a specific product ID or use filters such as category, price range, feedback score, shipping options, condition, and more.
You can also set pricing rules to automate pricing for all products.
Product information will be updated automatically to reflect your current stock and inventory availability.
Pricing
Importify has three pricing plans, which include:
- Basic – $14.95 per month
- Premium – $27.95 per month
- Gold – $37.95 per month
Note: Importify has a free trial period of one day.
Interesting Comparison: Ezusy vs AliDropship
4. ALD – Dropshipping and Fulfillment for AliExpress and WooCommerce
ALD is an exclusive dropshipping and fulfillment plugin for AliExpress and WooCommerce. It lets you import products from AliExpress to your WooCommerce store easily. The plugin is free but there’s a PRO version.
To use this plugin, you either connect your WooCommerce store to AliExpress using the WooCommerce REST API or a Secret Key. The ALD plugin features a Chrome extension for more performance. To use the extension, your website must have a valid SSL certificate.
With ALD, you can import AliExpress products to multiple WooCommerce stores at the same time. Also, you can import single products or an entire category of products. You can configure import rules by using several options to automate the process.
Likewise, you can set product price rules with the following options:
- Price setting for all imported products
- Pretty price rules
- Currency exchange rate for imported products
- Shipping cost
- Regular price
- Sale price
- Multi-quantity prices
Some of these rules are restricted in the free version.
Pricing
ALD PRO costs $20 and it is based on a one-time payment.
Also Read: WooDropship vs AliDropship
5. Wooshark
The last but not the least on our list of the best ALiExpress WordPress plugins for dropshipping is Wooshark.
Sure, you can import products from AliExpress to WordPress using Wooshark, but the service also integrates with eBay, Amazon, and Etsy as well, giving you extra control over what’s in your store.
This open source software also allows you to customize the product information when you import it.
That means you can set the price based on a pre-designed formula or leave the original. You can also set titles, images, and place orders on AliExpress with an automatically filled-out order form.
Wooshark has now added support for additional stores, including BangGood, BigBuy, and TMart, giving you more product sourcing options. Support for Alibaba is planned as well.
When importing products, you can also import their reviews. There is an image editor you can use to edit images when you import them.
You can also edit product reviews, details, and descriptions when importing them.
Although Wooshark is only geared for dropshippers for now, they plan on releasing support for affiliate marketers as well in the future.
Affiliate marketing has certain advantages over dropshipping as it comes with fewer responsibilities.
In order to use Wooshark, you will need to install the Wooshark Chrome extension. This will allow you to import products directly from any AliExpress product webpage.
As Wooshark is an open source plugin, it is free to install and use.
Pricing
The Wooshark WordPress plugin is available for free; however, it has a premium for its Chrome extension which costs $29.99 billed once.
Is AliExpress Good For Dropshipping?
The majority of buyers on Aliexpress are actually retailers and small enterprises trying to resale to consumers. To welcome dropshippers, AliExpress introduced the Aliexpress Dropshipping Center.
This dropshipping center facilitates the eCommerce model making AliExpress one of the best platforms for dropshipping. AliExpress has millions of products in its database. It should eb a cakewalk process to find what you’re looking for.
In addition, dropshipping with AliExpress is completely free, unlike some other alternatives that demand charges for setup and monthly fees. If you’re starting dropshipping on a budget, you’re better off with AliExpress.
With AliExpress, you can make more income since products are relatively inexpensive. Also, it is easy to find trending and best-selling products as there are lots of dropshippers on the platform. There are no minimum orders; you can begin by ordering a single product.
So, is AliExpress good for dropshipping? Yes. It is.
Also Read: Wooshark vs AliDropship
Wrap Up
Of course, when setting up your online AliExpress Dropship WordPress store it’s important to note some of the challenges you may face.
All items on AliExpress have an estimated delivery time which is usually between 20 and 60 days.
Check Special Pricing of Alidropship
That means your buyers could be waiting for as much as two months for their product. The wait time can be even longer during certain seasons.
One of the benefits of AliExpress dropshipping is that nearly all shipments, including those with free shipping, will be given a tracking number once they’re shipped.
From there, you can follow the package and make sure it arrives at its final destination.
There are a number of options out there for people who want to start their own AliExpress dropshipping business.
Sites like AliExpress and WordPress, along with services like WooCommerce and the others listed above, make the job much easier to launch your own AliExpress Dropshipping WordPress website. Our recommended AliExpress Dropship WordPress Plugin is Alidropship.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.