In the dynamic world of e-commerce, where trends evolve rapidly, finding the right products for your dropshipping store is a crucial aspect of achieving success.
Among various options, AliExpress stands out as a go-to platform for dropshipping entrepreneurs. With that said, AliExpress boasts millions of products, so it’s easy to get overwhelmed searching for products for your store.
This comprehensive guide will take you step-by-step on how to find trending products on AliExpress to help navigate through the vast sea of options. From narrowing down your niche to filtering your search results, we’ve got you covered!
Why Choose AliExpress for Dropshipping?
AliExpress has been around for more than a decade. It continues to be one of the best platforms for e-commerce stores utilizing a dropshipping model.
While there are various reasons for selecting AliExpress as the platform to find your dropshipping supplier, the product variety definitely stands out. In fact, you can find more than 100 million products on AliExpress alone!
Besides that, AliExpress offers worldwide shipping to over 190 countries. Online sellers can buy products from suppliers that offer free shipping. Even if that isn’t the case, AliExpress’s standard shipping costs won’t break the bank.
Talking about affordable shipping, the product pricing is the best on the market. You’ll find products at significantly lower costs than sourcing them from alternatives like Amazon or eBay.
Wondering why products on AliExpress are dirt cheap? We’ve explained 9 reasons why AliExpress is so cheap in detail.
If you’re finally convinced that AliExpress is the platform for all your dropshipping needs, let’s move on to where to find trending products to sell.
Step-by-Step Guide to Find Trending Products on AliExpress
Few platforms can compare with the versatility and benefits that AliExpress offers for e-commerce entrepreneurs. Although, if you’re searching for other options, we’ve reviewed the top 20 dropshipping suppliers in detail.
Meanwhile, if you’re convinced that AliExpress is your best bet, let’s move forward.
Undoubtedly, AliExpress offers just about everything under the sky on one platform. However, it’s easy to go down a rabbit hole searching through millions of products.
Instead of wasting days, or even weeks, exploring products on AliExpress, a better strategy is to go through a step-by-step process. We’ll help you do just that in this section!
1. Search by Category
It’s important to narrow down a niche using market research before you move on to deciding products on AliExpress. A winning strategy for finding products for your store is to find the best-selling dropshipping products for that year.
Most e-commerce stores already have a focus angle, but if you’re new to online selling and could use broader product searches, AliExpress search by category can help.
You’ll already find a wide range of categories here. But to further limit your product options, you can click on one of the subcategories to find the product types trending on AliExpress in that niche.
For instance, if you redirect to Beauty & Health >> Massage & Relaxation >> Eye Massage Instrument in the above image, this is what you’ll see once you click on eye massage instrument:
To summarize, each category will enable you to scroll through thousands of different product types in one particular niche as well.
You might consider LED light massagers a better fit for your store than eye rollers. In other words, you can find a specific product type in this step before moving to the next step.
2. Search by Keywords
Once you have no doubts about your product type, it’s time to find that product on AliExpress.
For this step, you want to search for the product using the search bar.
You can enter generic keywords like keyboard, massager, stationary, etc. However, using specific keywords can save you time and effort.
Let’s go back to our last example – eye massagers. If you search for eye massagers, the search results will include all types of massagers. Alternatively, searching for LED eye massagers will bring relevant products only.
If you’re not sure what keywords to use, perform a generic search first. Look for keywords in the product names of what you’re looking for and go back to refining your research using those keywords.
3. Shipping
Despite landing the most relevant product listing using specific keywords, you still have a few more steps to go.
For e-commerce stores relying on a dropshipping model, shipping charges can eat up a major chunk of your incoming revenue, especially for products like electronics.
One of the most significant benefits of AliExpress is its free shipping option, so why not utilize it?
The best part is that you don’t need to open hundreds of tabs to check for shipping charges either.
After searching for a product, you’ll see an overview of relevant products to scroll through. At the bottom of the product overview, you can see the shipping charges as per your location.
It’s advisable to go for free shipping, especially if you’re a small or medium-sized business. To avail of this option, tick the free shipping tab on the left side of your interface.
With that said, if you already have a business that’s up and booming, you might want to consider the AliExpress Shipping Plus option for faster deliveries. In fact, fast shipping dropshipping offers a range of benefits worth exploring compared to standard options.
4. Ratings
Another step when searching for trending products on AliExpress is to find high-quality products. After all, at the end of the day, the product quality will make or break your online selling game.
Once again, you’ll find the number of orders and ratings overview when you’re scrolling through a search result. However, you’ll have to go through tons of products, even those with bad ratings.
Therefore, the next step is to filter by ratings.
AliExpress offers a quick shortcut for this, by redirecting to the left-hand column and clicking on the box next to the “4 stars or up” option.
5. Pricing
You can’t overlook pricing when dropshipping products for your online store. Getting to the right products at the right price will eventually decide your business profits, so don’t miss this step!
This step might require prior market research. Are your customers inclined towards cheap products or product quality? If it’s the former, AliExpress’s pricing filter feature is another incredible tool.
Again, redirect to the left-hand column on your AliExpress product listing page. Find the price column, it should look like this:
The pricing range you select depends on your product type and your customers’ preferences regarding product pricing.
Generally, the secret to dropshipping success is to find cheap products that you can sell at higher prices to maintain marginal profits.
6. Sorting Tabs
Last but not least are the sorting tabs. These little buttons may seem insignificant, but they can be a deciding factor in finding the best products for your store.
Currently, AliExpress allows sorting product listings using three tabs: best match, orders, and price.
The default tab on the site is “Best Match”. This sorting tab allows viewers to find the most relevant products in their search results at the top. While this organizing tab helps you get to the products you’re searching for within minutes, it’s worth exploring other tabs.
Next, you’ll see the orders tab. With this sort by category, items with the highest number of sales will show up first for products you’re searching for. Of course, order numbers are higher for those that offer high quality at a good price.
Lastly, you can reorganize your search results based on pricing. The platform allows you to list products by low to high and high to low. Again, you’d want to find products based on low to high pricing first for your business.
Top Product Features to Look Out for on AliExpress
AliExpress doesn’t lag when it comes to product options to revamp your online store. Here’s the thing – even if you’ve shortlisted a bunch of products, you can only add a few at a time.
So, what’s next? Next up, it’s time to explore the products and find the perfect match for your e-commerce business. The following AliExpress product features will help narrow down your search.
Market Relevance
Most online sellers overlook the importance of researching if a product is still relevant in the market. However, knowing if customers are still buying a product is an essential factor when searching for items to add to your store.
Imagine selling skinny jeans in today’s age. Sure, they were a hit a while back. However, if you want your jeans to really sell and not just make a handful of sales, you’d want to consider baggy, wide-leg, or straight jeans instead for the ongoing fashion trends.
Similar is the case with fidget spinners. They were the next big thing a few months back, but not anymore. Right now, you’d find mechanical keyboards booming on e-commerce sites.
Before buying products for your store, conduct market research. See what products are trending on various e-commerce sites to get insights into what customers are buying nowadays.
Best-Selling Products
Keeping product pricing when selecting items for your e-commerce business is a great rule of thumb. After all, it decides how much profit you can make from your sales.
Undoubtedly, a more important factor is the product quality. Sure, you can make pennies off of cheap products through dropshipping. Alternatively, why not choose products that fly off the shelves because of their quality?
The best trick for this is to use AliExpress’s order tab and list the searched products by number of orders, as previously explained.
This step allows you to find suppliers whose order numbers guarantee a better experience than new suppliers on the platform.
Product Details
With millions of sellers with similar products online, customers weigh in numerous factors before making a purchase, including product descriptions and photos.
As a dropshipping business, you need a stellar description accompanied by high-quality photos to score sales in today’s saturated market.
On AliExpress, product details can help you decide on a supplier for a product.
Meanwhile, you’re the front face of your e-commerce store. Therefore, you need as many details as possible to provide to your customers on your product pages.
Suppose you order a product in bulk and put it up on your online store only to get customer queries regarding the product features, material, color, etc. Ultimately, your potential customers will move towards a store that’s transparent regarding product details.
Suppliers with multiple pictures and detailed descriptions are always a green flag.
For instance, the following supplier has provided multiple pictures and a description, including product features, materials, and sizes.
Customer Ratings & Reviews
Customer ratings and reviews are another important factor before jumping into placing a bulk order.
If you’ve gone through the product details and are impressed, the next step is to go through ratings and reviews by other customers.
As mentioned in the previous section, it’s best to find suppliers with 4 or more ratings. Plus, the higher the number of 4+ ratings, the more chances of a high-quality product.
Once you’ve shortlisted suppliers based on ratings, read the reviews.
Customer reviews offer further details on product quality, packaging, shipping, etc. More importantly, you can also see actual product pictures from other buyers and then make an informed decision.
Final Verdict
If you’re searching for dropshipping products to start an eCommerce store or add new products to your site, this guide will take you through the entire process of finding trending products on AliExpress.
Make sure you follow the steps and you’ll be sure to land with some amazing products. Don’t forget to look out for the top product features.
If you want to make the most of AliExpress as a dropshipping platform, learn more about the AliExpress Dropshipping Center in our detailed guide. Here’s a hint: this tool takes the guesswork out of discovering products, evaluating market competition, and finding suppliers on the platform.
