Is Drop Shipping Dead? The Future of Aliexpress Drop Shipping

In this post I will take an honest look at the current state of Aliexpress drop shipping.

I first started drop shipping beginning of 2016.

Back then, there were very few people talking about Aliexpress drop shipping.

It wasn’t exactly a new thing but it was only known to a small underground community of marketers. It was definitively easy to start a drop shipping store and make sales back then.

Consider this:

My first drop shipping store started generating profit within two days.

I literally set up my Shopify store, added three products and launched a Facebook campaign.

I hit a massive goldmine within two days and was making $100-$200 per day with 30-50% profit margins from Facebook ads. All sales were coming from a single product on the store.

It was really easy.

Seeing how easy I was making money, my wife decided to start her own drop shipping store, too. She took the same product I was selling and sold them successfully in Spain.

Within four days her store was making $200-$300 per day revenue.

Again 30-50% profit.

That was also when I started talking about it publicly.

After posting a YouTube video about Aliexpress drop shipping, a lot of people got interested.

Everyone smelled an opportunity to make easy money and wanted to jump on board.

I held the first drop shipping mastermind in 2016 with a hand full of people.

A relatively large number of students made their first sale within the first weeks of the training.

But the knowledge back then was limited.

Although there was less competition, there was also less information available about how to run Facebook ads for drop shipping or use Instagram influencers to drive traffic and sales.

So were things easier in 2016?

Yes and no.

It was easier to find a hot product and there was less competition.

The market wasn’t saturated at all.

But the lack of knowledge and experience still made it hard.

If in 2016 you would have had the knowledge and marketing strategies that are being used these days, it would have been incredibly easy to make a lot of money with drop shipping fast.

And of course lots of people did.

But paradoxically, more people are finding success now than last year.

As I said, I believe this is due to the massive growth of collective knowledge and experience.

While the competition grew, the marketing and advertising knowledge improved massively. People started using influencer marketing and affiliate marketing in creative ways. More information became available on how to properly set up, optimize and scale up successful Facebook ad campaigns. This lead to more people seeing success in 2017.

But more importantly, the people who became successful made more money.

So let’s talk about how this is possible.

Is Drop Shipping in a Bubble?

In 2017 drop shipping experienced a massive boom.

Suddenly everyone and their brother was talking about drop shipping.

Every other day a new self-proclaimed drop shipping “guru” popped up, started his own YouTube channel, flashed exotic cars and sold yet another expensive “get rich quick” course.

Heck, I almost fell of my chair when I saw Alex Becker promoting a drop shipping webinar.

That’s when I knew:

Drop shipping is in a bubble.

Tens of thousands of budding drop shippers entered the market over night.

Everyone wanted a pice of the cake.

Fair to say, this lead to a massive bubble that we’re still in.

In a recent Tweet Mark Cuban explained why he believed Bitcoin is in a bubble.

He said:

“When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making money it’s a bubble”.

Does this ring a bell?

This is precisely what’s been going on with drop shipping.

Most consumers haven’t caught up with Aliexpress drop shipping yet, and it’s likely they won’t for the next couple of years. Aliexpress drop shipping still works despite more competition.

As I said, I have had more successful students this year than back in early 2016 when less people were drop shipping. The increase in quality information and the development of new innovative marketing strategies compensated for the increased competition.

But how long will it last?

Will the Drop Shipping Bubble Burst?

Every bubble bursts at some point.

Drop shipping as a fulfilment model isn’t going anywhere.

People will still use drop shipping to fulfil orders and build successful businesses. Claiming that drop shipping as a fulfilment model will ever disappear is completely ridiculous.

It’s about as stupid as saying having your own stock will disappear.

Not going to happen.

But Aliexpress drop shipping is more than a fulfilment model.

It has turned into a “get rich quick” business opportunity that has attracted tens of thousands, heck, hundreds of thousands of people who are trying to get their piece of the cake.

Aliexpress drop shipping as a business opportunity will disappear.

Sooner or later the bubble will burst.

Consumers will catch up with Aliexpress drop shipping as a business model.

And when more and more people enter the market, all selling the same products to the same people, saturation will occur. Eventually it will get harder and harder to sell products.

People will talk about the “good old” times of Aliexpress.

Kind of like people are now talking about the early days of affiliate marketing.

Is It Too Late to Get Involved?

As I’ve mentioned already, tons of people are still crushing it.

In fact, more people are crushing it right now than in the early days of drop shipping.

Money is still to be made with Aliexpress drop shipping but you have to be on top of your marketing game. You have to test plenty of products and find untapped opportunities.

Drop shipping is still a great way to learn marketing.

Even if you start a store that only lasts for a few months, the experience of building a business, running Facebook ads and using influencer marketing can reward you for a lifetime.

It always boggles me how people are so short sighted.

If you think it’s not worth starting drop shipping because it’s too late, you probably shouldn’t start. You’re coming from the type of “get rich quick” mentality that would prevent you from succeeding at business long-term anyway. If you view Aliexpress drop shipping as a stepping stone to something bigger, as a great learning experience, and possibly as a viable way to make a little or a lot of cash on the side, you shouldn’t wait any longer and get started.

The window of opportunity is still wide open.

And I believe it will stay open for at least one or two more years.

What Is the Future of Aliexpress Drop Shipping? Where Are We Heading?

Aliexpress drop shipping will get harder and harder.

As more people enter the marketplace and push the same products to the same audiences, saturation will occur. This makes it harder for each individual to maintain a profitable store.

Eventually the bubble will burst.

During the Dot-com bubble, everyone was betting on the next big Internet startup.

Most of these companies didn’t survive when the Dot-com bubble burst.

But some did.

And the same will happen with drop shipping.

Some e-commerce businesses will survive when the bubble bursts and remain six-figure or seven-figure stores. Many of these businesses will have started as Aliexpress drop shipping stores and eventually transition to selling private label products using their own stock.

I have plenty of friends who have already done this transition successfully.

One guy from Switzerland started drop shipping on Aliexpress.

He now private labels the same product, has his own stock and sells it under his own brand.

He made over $100,000 in 15 days last time I talked to him.

Aliexpress drop shipping will have been a gateway for many successful e-commerce stores.

But once the bubble bursts, only those who built something remarkable will survive.

If you want to make sure you’re one of them, you have to focus on building a real brand rather than a “get rich quick” store. You have to choose the route of hard work, creativity and branding.

Another way to survive is to find local drop shipping manufacturers that have unique products.

There will also be a trend towards returning to private labelling and having your own stock. Not because it’s fun, but because it’s necessary to stand out in a noisy marketplace.

The emphasis will have to be to build a real brand.

There will be plenty of businesses that do this.

They will survive and thrive once the Aliexpress bubble bursts.