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Ordering A Custom Dropshipping Store From AliDropship: Q&A Series #4

By Olga L.

a cover of the article on starting a dropshipping store

Considering the constant demand for a custom dropshipping store from AliDropship, we decided to devote a whole separate Q&A session to it. Enjoy!

1. What’s a custom dropshipping store?

In practice, it’s a ready-made dropshipping store that is created for you exclusively. The store is developed by the team of highly skilled designers, programmers, and other technical specialists.

Therefore, this is a wonderful solution for people who don’t know how to build a dropshipping store from scratch (or don’t want to waste their time on this). That’s why a huge part of AliDropship clients prefer ready-to-go solutions.

2. What does the whole process look like?

First of all, you place an order and make a payment.

PLEASE NOTE: you only make ONE payment to get an AliDropship custom store, with no recurring fees! While running a dropshipping store, your only ‘must-have’ regular fees will be the domain and hosting payments. These are necessary to keep your store ‘visible’ on the internet. So, even if they are already included in your Custom store purchase, you’ll need to renew your domain and hosting ‘subscriptions’ in a year to keep your store operational — you’re welcome to ask your personal manager to tell you more about that.

After that, a dedicated member of our project management team gets in touch with you. We assign a personal project manager who will guide you through all the steps of the work.

They give you access to a special questionnaire – that’s where you can write what you want your store to be like and monitor the progress of your store creation.

3. What will I get? What will the dropshipping store include?

When the development process is over, you get a customized online store adapted for your needs and wishes.

This store has a number of unique features you won’t find anywhere else:

  • At least 50 already imported products with professionally edited pictures and descriptions (the number depends on the package you choose)
  • Automatic updates of product information
  • Automatic price markup for any product groups
  • Professionally designed theme optimized for high conversions
  • Distinctive design elements (logo, header, icons, favicon, etc.)
  • Integrated promotional tools: discount coupons, emails for abandoned carts recovery, and subscribers lists for further interactions
  • All-in-one dashboard to monitor your sales, orders, stats, and activities
  • Integrated Google Analytics
  • Integrated payment gateways (2Checkout, Stripe, PayU, etc.) to accept payments with both PayPal and credit cards
  • On-site SEO and social networks accounts

For the Ultimate package, you will also be provided with our special social media promo tool. We install and set up the Social Rabbit plugin that will automatically promote your business on 4 top social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

4. Сustom dropshipping stores creation includes niche research. Can I choose my own niche?

Basically, you can choose ANY niche you like. It’s recommended to work in a niche you’re passionate about (or at least know quite well).

You will then need to evaluate the niche from the point of view of:

You can take a look at our exclusive ‘Niches and products’ blog section. There, we systematically post the results of our regular market research, and give you the most promising product ideas you can try in the upcoming season.

To check the commercial potential of the niche you’ve chosen, use our free niche research tool!

Yes, it is likely.

Every country has its own laws and legal requirements in terms of selling branded products. And all the holders of intellectual property rights have their own policy of dealing with such cases. You need to be really careful about your niche and product choice!

6. How do you choose and edit products for the website?

If you want to target a global audience with your online store, we can fill it with items from AliExpress as they can be shipped worldwide. This is the detailed instruction on choosing the nicest products that we follow!

In short, we evaluate the items from the point of view of:

  • Product rating
  • Number of orders
  • Sellers rating

If you want us to import products of a particular type or style, please, let us know before we start uploading products. You can attach some examples of products for each category.

We also have a guide on editing product pages. And we follow it with every AliExpress item we add to the stores. The basic rules are:

  • Only add high-quality pictures
  • Edit titles to make them short and clear
  • Rewrite product descriptions to make them informative and illustrative

And if you want to enjoy all the numerous benefits of fast shipping (such as more repeat purchases and higher customer satisfaction), there’s an alternative option. We can fill your store with awesome products from Sellvia! Kept in a California-based warehouse, they will reach your US buyers on time — that’s a huge game-changer, right?

7. Do you have any guides on how to promote a dropshipping store?

You can use a range of our free educational resources:

8. Will there be a special payment gateway for my country?

Generally, we integrate PayPal and credit card payment options into our dropshipping stores. But there are more options to choose from: here you can find the full list!

Choose the payment gateway you like the most, and let us know which one it is. We will ask you to register with this system by yourself (as it asks for your personal data), and that’s it! As soon as you have a ready account within the payment gateway of your choice, we will integrate it into your store and make sure it works perfectly.

9. If I only have enough money to buy the Basic Package, can I upgrade it later?

Of course! If you can’t get the desired package right now, just start with getting the Basic one. Later on, as soon as you want, you can upgrade your store to the Advanced or Ultimate level.

For all these packages, we do the same work, but on a different scale. For example, the number of the items we add to a store is 50 for the Basic package, 100 for the Advanced package, and 200 for the Ultimate package. But it’s not the limit! You can always add more products yourself if necessary.

The same goes for all the extra services that only are available on the higher levels. Even if they are not included in the package you’re buying, you surely can ask us to add the necessary ones for an extra cost (or you can do it yourself if you wish).

Please note that the store theme choice doesn’t depend on the package you’re ordering! It doesn’t matter if you’re buying a Basic or an Ultimate store – you can anyway choose one theme out of the multiple options we offer.

10. If I buy your Ultimate Package, when I can start making money?

The package description says “This package is perfect for those who want a 100% hassle-free start and immediate profits”. So, what do we mean by immediate profits?

The day you receive your store is the day you can process your first order.

Everything is set up already, so you can drive in visitors and accept their payments IMMEDIATELY after getting the site from us. From the technical point of view, your store is fully ready for operation when we hand it over to you.

The only thing left for you to do is… start driving traffic to actually get your first sales!

As you imagine, we can’t predict how soon you will start getting income – it all depends on your own promotional efforts. But what we CAN do is share our marketing experience and knowledge with you! You are welcome to ask our digital marketing experts to help you out: choose any of the numerous marketing services and give your store a boost from day one!

Did we cover everything you wanted to know about buying a dropshipping store? Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section below!

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By Olga L.
Olga is a Copywriting Director at AliDropship. Having graduated from the Faculty of International Business’ as an Advertising specialist, she puts years of her copywriting experience into making clear and informative guides, tutorials, and other educational materials for dropshipping newcomers worldwide.
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