Whether you’ve been doing e-commerce for years or are just starting to learn the ropes so you can open your own store, most online entrepreneurs know that you must keep your customers happy.
Quality products that are unique to the market of the customer go a long way, of course… But it’s just as important that you don’t make them wait by taking too long to ship.
Many e-commerce business owners focus on getting their products from China, and AliExpress in particular, so they can put a good markup and profit margin on them.
At first, it can be a little scary to give customers long delivery times for products made in China, especially in this day and age when things need to happen now, if not 5 minutes ago…
…ePacket shipping and delivery comes along to help save the day!
What Does ePacket Delivery and Shipping Mean?
ePacket is a courier service for global manufacturers and wholesalers mainly from China and Hong Kong that helps cut down on long shipping timelines and expensive shipping alternatives.
It was made for e-commerce merchants and was welcomed with open arms, as “days to a couple of weeks” was a much better range for shipping times than “a few weeks to over a month.”
What Should You Know About Shipping by ePacket?
If you want a quick answer to the question “Should I focus on ePacket shipping products for my dropshipping business when I buy from China?”
Yes, is the answer.
Having the option to ship with ePacket when you buy products from Chinese manufacturers on AliExpress is very important if you want to keep your customers happy.
- More Features of ePacket Shipping
- Tracking from Door to Door
- Free returns on undeliverable
- The recipient pays the duties and taxes.
- Less expensive than first-class mail in the U.S.
Which countries can ship and deliver ePackets?
As of last year, the following 43 countries could use ePacket. Please note that this list varies from source to source (this is a complete compilation of notable countries).
How long does it take for ePacket to ship?
Now let’s move on to the more important question.
Since entrepreneurs save money and time, how do they spend the time they save? (Here are the normal times for China Post)
- 20 to 30 business days in Brazil
- Mexico: 20 business days (Additional 10 – 20 days) (Additional 10 – 20 days)
- Russia, Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia: 7-15 business days
- All other countries where shipping is possible: 7–10 business days (Additional 3 – 10 days)
- As you can see from the list above, ePacket shipping will usually cut delivery times by 25–50%. Still, this will be different from one supplier to the next and from one product to the next.
Because of this, this should be seen as a general range. It is best to double-check specific products.
What Are The Requirements To Qualify For ePacket Shipping?
With such great value, there are obviously a few restrictions involved with ePacket and the types of products it can contain. Therefore, according to Shopify via United States Postal Service (USPS), the package must:
- have a length of no more than 24″
- The length, height, and width together can’t be more than 36″ (90cm)
- Maximum weight – 4.4lbs (2kg)
- Merchandise value under $400 USD
- Tracking service availability
- The $55 insurance covers the package.
How Do I Know If A Supplier Offers ePacket Shipping For Their Product?
For starters, you can go in and individually check the product you are considering to sell on AliExpress – this is a few extra clicks, but ultimately you can get to the information you need (below, left) (below, left).
(Above, right) If you click on it again, you can see the other shipping options. This will give you a better idea of how much time and money you save, which makes ePacket the best choice.
Quick tip: If you want to buy products for more than one country, don’t forget to change the ship-to country (ePacket is not available to Brazil for this example – meaning it may be various between countries).
As e-commerce business owners, we’re always looking for ways to make things go faster. Sourcing products based on ePacket availability is no different. Here are a couple of different software tools that I like to use to quickly see ePacket availability for whole pages of products instead of looking at each one individually.
AliExtractor Shipping Filters for ePacket
AliExtractor
This is a great tool for researching products. Most dropshippers use it to quickly see how many reviews a product has and how much it sells each month so they can decide if it’s worth putting in their shop.
But it also gives you a quick look at ePacket availability, if that is one of the things you want to know. AliExtractor costs $29 per month, but you can get AliExtractor Lite for free from the Chrome Extensions store.
One Last Thing
As an e-commerce business owner, and especially if you’re in the dropshipping business, it’s important to know if ePacket shipping is available to the countries where you do business and to the products you want to sell.
Customers want to save money, get things quickly, and stay in charge more than ever before. By letting them get their products faster and for less money, and by letting them track their little ePacket as it goes from door to door, everyone wins.
