AliExpress: features of the platform in terms of sales organization

AliExpress is one of the largest international trading platforms, where hundreds of thousands of sellers are represented, mainly from China. Here you can also find products from Korea, Turkey, Europe. For Russian buyers, a separate local platform for sales with the RF domain is provided. Today, it is developing very actively, in particular in the domestic market segment. Compared to 2021 figures, today the number of sellers from Russia has almost doubled and exceeded 60,000. At the same time, about 40 million potential buyers visit the site every month.

This means that you can also become one of the sellers who will sell their own products through AliExpress. Now we will dwell in more detail on the nuances of such activities. In particular, we will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of AliExpress. We will tell you how to register a business from the Russian Federation and look for a seller on the site. We will get acquainted with what sales schemes on AliExpress exist today and what commissions you will have to deal with. We will provide a number of recommendations that will allow to create a product card most correctly and attractively. We will tell you how to start working on AliExpress and get your first sales.

Advantages and disadvantages of the AliExpress platform for selling

Before starting your own business on AliExpress, it is important to understand what benefits you can get from this and whether there are any difficulties that you need to know about in advance. Let's start with the advantages and highlight the following points:

1. You, as a seller, will set prices for your products and the size of the permissible discounts. The platform does not delve into these processes at all, giving you complete freedom of action.
2. Preferential conditions for novice sellers. Today, the sale of the first 100 products or the first six months of work are exempt from commission. In the future, you will also have the opportunity to avoid such payments if you use advertising via mailing lists or social networks to attract users to your store on the platform.
3. Low commission. This is one of the few marketplaces that charges sellers a 5-8% commission for selling goods. The amount of payments will depend directly on the category of your product. This amount will already include fees for Internet acquiring.
4. The ability to organize direct communication with potential buyers. A separate chat is built directly into the product card, where people can write who want to get additional advice on a particular product.
5. The ability to sell a huge variety of product names. So, it can be household appliances and electronics, clothes for men, women, children, children's goods, beauty and health products, household items, goods for home, repair, construction, souvenirs and much more. But we want to draw your attention to the fact that perfumes, food, jewelry, dietary supplements are the categories, the sale of which will require the presence of appropriate documents, such as certificates of conformity, declarations confirming state registration, etc.

But still, along with the advantages, there are also disadvantages. It is impossible to say that there is something critical here, but judge for yourself. So, there is a fairly high level of competition, in particular with cheap Chinese goods. AliExpress itself was originally created specifically for the sale of goods from the Middle Kingdom. Buyers who come here are already subconsciously looking for products in the middle and lower price categories. That is, it will be difficult for you to compete with them, at least in terms of cheap goods. But the second disadvantage is this means that Russian sellers will be able to sell their products exclusively to buyers from the Russian Federation. This is despite the fact that the platform itself is international.

Practice shows that the greatest profit on AliExpress can be obtained from the sale of small-sized goods that are in stable demand: small-sized household appliances, electronics, goods for the home, sleep, leisure, clothing, etc.

If such restrictions do not stop you, if you have not changed your mind about starting your business on AliExpress, then we will delve into this issue further. In particular, we will consider how you can register here as a seller.

Registering a business on AliExpress

Sole proprietors, limited liability companies and even self-employed individuals registered in Russia can become sellers of goods on Aliexpress. Individuals without any status will not be able to sell on the platform. In addition, each company or entrepreneur must have a bank account, while self-employed individuals can easily get by with a personal account. At the same time, sole proprietors and LLCs will be able to simultaneously enter up to three stores on the platform, while self-employed individuals can only enter one.

The simplest solution for starting a professional activity on the platform is to start as an individual entrepreneur. In this case, you need to:

• Select the OKVED code. The solution in this case is code 47.901 "Retail trade carried out directly using the Internet information and communication network". Here you also need to focus on the type of product that you will sell. So, if these are office supplies, then the optimal code is 47. 62. 2, and if shoes, then 47.72.
• Choose the most suitable tax regime for yourself. If we are talking about an individual entrepreneur, then the simplified tax system (STS) is suitable here. Alternatively, you can choose an automated simplified tax system, but it does not apply to all regions. Its advantage is a smaller amount of reporting and the absence of mandatory personal insurance contributions.
• Register an individual entrepreneur. To implement this task, you can use special online services. No one will have problems here, since everything is very quick and simple. Open a bank account. This can also be done online.

Once these works are completed, you have every right to launch sales on AliExpress. What you need to do for this, read on.

Nuances of starting a business on Aliexpress

AliExpress offers a separate service for all those who would like to register on the site as a seller. Therefore, you need to go to it, and then perform the following steps in sequence:

• Create a personal account. There is nothing complicated here, you just indicate your email address, come up with a login and password for access, confirm your consent that the site will process your personal data.
• The automatic response of the site to your registration is sending a questionnaire to your email to launch a store. Here you select the type of organization, indicate the identification number and phone number. After clicking on the “Create a store” the following window will open in front of you, where you specify information about the business itself, in particular passport details, postal code, company name, name of the CEO, etc. Most of this information is automatically pulled from the tax service data. But if this does not happen, then you will have to enter everything manually.
• Signing a cooperation agreement. The agreement itself will automatically appear in your personal account after completing the registration. You must sign it either online through this account, or through the Diadoc service. The site will offer you both options, and you choose the one that is most convenient for you. In parallel with signing this agreement, you will also need to attach a number of scanned documents, in particular an extract from the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs or the State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs, a scanned passport, as well as a power of attorney for the right to sign, if you trust a third party to sign the agreement. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the list of scans will differ depending on the type of organization with which you start selling on Aliexpress.
• After verification, which on average takes about 7 days, you will receive a response. If everything is done correctly, then you will need to provide more detailed information about your store. If errors are made, the site will provide recommendations and ask you to make adjustments.
• Choose the most suitable sales scheme for yourself on AliExpress. There are 2 options: FBA and FBS. In the first case, we are talking about organizing sales directly from AliExpress warehouses. In this case, you, as a seller, delegate all responsibilities related to the delivery of products to the platform itself. In this case, you will be required to deliver goods to AliExpress warehouses in a timely manner. But only those who have already worked on the marketplace and received at least 60 orders over the past month can use this solution. This delivery method is suitable for all categories of goods, with the exception of alcohol, food, medicines, jewelry, products with less than 66% of their expiration date left, and pyrotechnics. It is also suitable for oversized goods (weight less than 80 kg and package size up to 3.8 m in any direction). Also, in this case, you will need to pay a certain fee for storage, packaging, order processing, delivery and returns. FBS is a scheme that involves selling goods from the seller's warehouse. In this case, you, as a seller, will be responsible for sending the goods yourself. Unlike the previous option, there are no restrictions here. If necessary, you can combine both sales schemes, for example, sending large-sized goods yourself, and the rest, through AliExpress services.
• Create product cards for your products. This can be done in different ways. If you sell up to 100 products, you can do everything through your personal account. If the range is wide, you can use Excel, place a link to an updated XML file, or through the API. The latter option is suitable for stores with over 10,000 products in their range. The product card itself will include the correct name of the product, including the brand and main characteristics, the parameters themselves, a brief description, and photographs. By the way, AliExpress will allow you to put a picture with discounts, coupons, and promo codes on the main photo, which can be called a fairly effective marketing move. Aliexpress has a built-in guide that will help you fill out the product card correctly.

This means that your preparatory work for launching a business is complete. But it is also very important to properly promote your product cards to attract customers. To achieve these goals, you can use promotions and sales, create a unique storefront, use affiliate programs, and launch advertising links. AliExpress also has special promotional tools, such as coupon codes and interactive promotions. You can also connect the AliExpress Plus service, which allows customers to purchase products with fast delivery. To demonstrate new products, you can launch streams through the platform's built-in application.

Summing Up

Aliexpress is one of the most famous and popular marketplaces in the world, which has been offering cooperation with Russian entrepreneurs for about 5 years. You can sell absolutely everything here. The only thing is that for a number of product categories, which we have already discussed in the review, it will be necessary to provide the appropriate permits.

To increase the efficiency of working with AliExpress, to ensure the ability to use a number of automated solutions, including for promoting your own store, to organize the security and privacy of work on the network in general, we recommend using mobile proxies from the MobileProxy.Space service. Follow the link https://mobileproxy.space/en/user.html?buyproxy to get to know this product in more detail. Free two-hour testing will allow you to see their high efficiency, stability and ease of use before purchasing mobile proxies. Also at your service will be a round-the-clock technical support service, instantly responding to user requests. We also suggest evaluating favorable tariffs, as well as the possibility of purchasing the product for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 1 year with quick and easy renewal.

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