AliExpress and AliBaba Review

If you are planning to setup an e-commerce website and use the drop shipping route, then I would highly suggest you check out AliExpress.com.

AliExpress.com run by AliBaba, is a website established in 2010 for global buyers who are interested in purchasing wholesale products directly from the Chinese wholesalers that produce them. With over 100,000 Chinese wholesalers available to online buyers today, AliExpress.com offers more than 9.5 million products from more than 4,000 categories, like automotive, fashion, computers and electronics, weddings and events, and more.

Product Quality

This could be the main issue when you order from China wholesalers. The electronic products especially look inviting and they could be mistaken for the famous branded qualities. However, we know that China wholesalers do not carry branded items. They have their own non-branded items or copied items bearing different brand names. The same goes with the apparels. They do not carry the famous brands of clothing however, like their electronic products they vouch that they are made from high quality materials. AliExpress have made it a point to make a thorough verification of their suppliers to ensure high quality products.

Shipment Method

AliExpress.com provides free shipping worldwide. It joined hands with the China Post Mail to provide free shipping worldwide to accommodate smaller orders especially the electronic items. Just recently, AliExpress.com launched Fulfillment by AliExpress which is designed to accommodate medium orders so that they can enjoy the same benefit of free shipment of bulk orders. This will allow importers at least 30% savings on the shipping costs. AliExpress.com supports DHL, FedEx, TNT and EMS with the UPS as the most preferred means of shipping the goods. These methods deliver product from 2 days up to 7 days which is good enough considering that we are talking here about worldwide deliveries.

Payment Options

AliExpress.com offers safe and secure payment option through Escrow. In this method both the buyer and the seller are protected. Here, AliPay holds the escrow payment. The payment is released to the seller once the transaction is completed.

Some of these sellers also have Free Return policies, where if you are dissatisfied with the product, you can open a dispute claim within 15 days of delivers, and you can get free return shipping.

AliExpress.com also has a site wide policy which states that if you do not receive your product within 60 days, that you can receive a full refund of your product price

Prices Competitive?

Traditionally and you might have noticed, Chinese online wholesalers always provide discounted items on almost all their products. AliExpress.com is not an exception to the rule. It provides the biggest discounts especially on holiday seasons and anniversaries.

Conclusion

AliExpress is not a scam, but there are unethical sellers so you need to be careful and do some research before considering making a purchase.  You may even consider testing the waters by making a small purchase before investing any significant amount of money in products.  

>> Click Here to Visit AliExpress.com Website

>> Click Here to Visit Alibaba.com Website

Volusion Review

Volusion is a leader in e-commerce software solutions providing businesses, small and large, with an all-in-one e-commerce software platform that will cater to just about any online store.

Their e-commerce solution handles all the essential features such as checkout, payment processing, and order management.

Features

Essentially, the Quick Start menu is designed to get your store branded, personalised and populated with products in as little time as possible. Within the options of Quick Start, you can choose your store design, by browsing through some of Volusion’s free templates, add branding via text or a logo, and then fill out a very short product form, which helps you get your inventory out on to your virtual store front.

Volusion operates an “in-house” credit card processing service called Volusion Merchant Service. For this payment medium, there’s a transaction fee involved. However, Volusion does not charge any transaction fees if you use your own payment gateway.

Volusion provides support for more than 50 payment gateways. Depending on the payment methods that customers prefer, you can set up your online business to accept credit cards or electronic payments from trusted companies such as PayPal, Stripe.

Volusion has a wide variety of apps designed to enhance your online store and these are available from the company’s own app store. Popular apps available through the store include Paypal Express,  designed to increase conversions with the security of Paypal, ShipStation, to create automated shipping labels, and Facebook Chat by Powr, an app to enable you to assist customers using the Facebook social media platform.

Attracting more shoppers to your webshop will be much easier when using the built-in marketing functions that Volusion offers. The platform comes with a slew of tools to help you promote your webshop such as social media integration, coupon creation, loyalty program, in-house email marketing, SEO hub and many more.

Ease of Use

Volusion was designed with the intention of helping store owners create an online hub to market and sell their products quickly and easily. The majority of Volusion’s features are centered around the idea of helping business owners track inventory and profit efficiently while making the user experience informative and intuitive for their shoppers.

Entrepreneurs can easily customize their online storefront with Volusion’s revamped site builder, which provides easy access to product display settings, navigation menus, and more. The drag-and-drop platform is tied in with users’ store management systems, allowing business owners to easily switch between design tools and the features covering order processing, customer relationship management, inventory tracking, marketing, design, and analytics.

Pricing

Volusion provide plenty in terms of features, but pricing will always be a big question when deciding on the best ecommerce platform. Currently, Volusion offer five different price plans, starting from $15.00, going up to $195.27 per month.

The five price plans make it appealing for both new merchants, and ecommerce veteran to jump on board the Volusion bandwagon. Each price plan offers something a little bit extra, and you are free to upgrade or downgrade at any point in your store’s life.

How Does Volusion Compare With Shopify and BigCommerce?

Volusion is certainly not the only player in the online e-commerce field. Established names such as Shopify and BigCommerce are hot on their tail. When it comes to which service you should choose for your online store, there are positive and negative factors for each.

If you are interested in the widest selection of mobile-responsive themes or apps then you may choose Shopify over the rest. Meanwhile, if you wish to sell unlimited products without shelling out for a premium plan then you might choose BigCommerce.

However, Volusion comes with benefits including a budget-friendly way to recover abandoned shopping carts and also includes many useful marketing tools for free.

What about Pricing Comparison?

With the lowest monthly fee at just $15.00, Volusion trumps Shopify‘s starter fee of $15.56. Additionally, you will find that Shopify impose a 2% transaction fee on every item sold, whereas Volusion imposes no such fees. This renders Volusion’s Mini Package a better deal. Additionally, BigCommerce’s lowest deal is $24.95, putting Volusion in a very good position when it comes to price plans

Final Verdict

Volusion have been around for a long time,and their professionalism across the board is definitely clear to see. They know exactly what functions are needed to run a successful online store, and it’s hard to argue with the way in which their CMS implements these functions.

Whether you want to sell physical products, virtual goods or a subscription service, Volusion offers an all-in-one shopping cart that will cater to just about any online retail store. While this platform has a few drawbacks, the features it offers, in general, are impressive.

If you’re apprehensive about settling for this e-commerce platform, it’s highly suggested that you give their free trial a run before making up your mind.

>> Click Here to Visit Volusion Official Website

Favorite Stock Photography Sites

Visual communication has more sticking power with your audience. So where do you get your visuals? Here are some of our favorite stock photo sites.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is one of the ‘Big 6’stock photo agencies on the internet today and refer to themselves as simple, elegant and user friendly. This is the largest microstock in the world which is currently selling around 20 millions of royalty free images, with this figures increasing by 90-100 thousands weekly.  With a long history of stock image selling and buying, Shutterstock caters to designers and corporate accounts that require large inventories of stock photos. For this reason their buying model is subscription only.

Getty Images

Getty Images is arguably the most prestigious and well-known stock photography agency in the world. Its strong global presence, huge pool of images including exclusive collections, and impeccable reputation make for a first-class, premium stock photo service like no other.

You can buy this premium photos on demand. Rights Managed images’ price vary according to intended use, ranging from a couple hundred to up to thousands of dollars. Royalty Free photos on the other hand, cost from $125 to $500. But you can get them for as low as $100 to $375 each using an Ultrapack. If you’re after top class stock photography, Getty Images is definitely one agency to explore.

Dreamstime

More than 15 millions of royalty free images, presented on Dreamstime, can be purchased either on an individual or on a subscription basis.

Since the minimum payment constitutes only $9.99, almost everyone can afford single purchase of images at Dreamstime. The payment is transferred to your balance as 8 credits which can be spent within one year from the date of payment. Images and photos are priced from 1 credit for small-scale versions, which are good enough for blogs and websites’ posts. Medium- and large-scale images can be purchased for 3-5 credits.

Pond5

Pond5 is an online hub for stock footage. You can buy or sell royalty free footage. The clips range in length anywhere from 3-60 seconds and they are each individually priced by the artist. From a quick scan, the average price range seems to be between $20 – $50 per clip. Some clips are even free and others are priced much higher for speciality footage.