If you hold AliExpress dropshipping business, you should know about Chinese New Year sooner or later. The great feast has a big impact on dropshipping all over the world. Ali2Woo recommend keeping calm and preparing your store for the expected delays. It will help you to stay profitable and satisfy your clients.
What Is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year is the greatest feast in China. And one of the greatest in the world. Traditionally, people start preparing 8 days before the date and celebration lasts 15 days, from Spring Festival to Lantern Festival. Students have even a month off. Besides that, this feast means enormous migration within the country and from abroad, because the Eve and the first days of the New Year are family holidays. Just like Christmas and New Year in the West.
In 2019 Chinese New Year begins on February 5th, Tuesday. The official celebration will take place since February 4th till February 10th. Such holidays give time off for many people and organisations. As well as it means a peak season for those who feed, entertain and trade.
What Does It Mean for AliExpress Dropshipping Business?
Certainly Chinese New Year will affect an dropshipping business. In this period of time orders from China may be processed longer and be delayed, including AliExpress products and ePacket service. Some wholesalers will shut down only for a week, some will take 15–16 days off, others will be closed for a whole month. They can start their brake earlier or later.
If you dropship goods from China or from a country that celebrates Chinese New Year (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines) you’d better know about the holidays and be prepared. Though you may have a good luck and your supplier will not shut down!
Contact Your Suppliers
Dropshipping includes constantly exchanging messages between wholesaler and retailer, supporting efficient communication. So write your supplier within the next few days to get the dates they will stop working and start again. Even if some of your partners are not located in China it’s better to clarify this issue — there are holidays in other Asian countries and Chinese communities celebrate all over the world.
What you can do knowing the dates. You should understand that the orders may be processed slower since January 28th. And the delivery will take longer or be delayed. As a businessman or businesswoman you can’t avoid this period and can’t close your website (you do not give up, do you?). Otherwise, you should make some changes in your routine to face Chinese New Year.
Pause Your Advertising
Pause your advertising campaigns or single ads — you have no need to promote the products you can’t supply. You’ll spend money, pay for a dead horse. Stop it in advance, a week before your supplier will shut down. After the holidays it is easy to restore all the ads.
Make a Banner and Some Messages
Announce the delays at your store, so your potential customers know the real shipping time. Just on the top of your website:
“There may be shipping delays between January 28th and February 12th”
“Due to Chinese New Year on February 5th your delivery may be delayed”
“Sorry, because of Chinese New Year the orders may be delivered longer from January 28th to February 19th”
“As Chinese New Year approaches, please expect shipping delays on January 28th — February 19th”
You can mention the cause or only write the delay dates. Although users can skip this information looking through your products you can also add notification to the cart page and confirmation emails:
“There is a delay with the items listed below. You’ll need to approve this delay so that we can continue processing this part of your order. We apologize for any inconvenience”
“There are in delays in processing and shipping orders. We expect all orders to be fulfilled and delivered within 3 weeks and apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. When your order ships you will receive an email with tracking information”.
You can even hide goods from your Chinese wholesalers on your website for these days — also pause them.
Make It Easier For Clients
As the celebration period starts, put more attention to relationships with your customers. Do not forget to warn them about the delay possibility, answer their questions. You can even discourage them from buying something you cannot provide in time. For example, St. Valentine presents. It may sound like a paradox, but such approach helps you to manage consumers’ expectations and gain their trust and loyalty. Wish you have some good product to replace desirable thing.
And even if your buyers agree to wait, they can get frustrated. Have patience and calmness, responding them, though it might be uneasy talking to message with displeased clients. Check your emails and chat several times a day to react and answer promptly. It can help people with feeling that someone is involved in their deal though they cannot avoid the delay.
Keep Making Marketing Efforts
Although you cannot promote several (or even all) of your AliExpress products, you still can promote your store itself. Keep preparing content and posting to your blog and social media, make photos and descriptions for new products, cooperate with influencers of your niche and plan new campaigns.
Look to the Future
All online stores will get over Chinese New Year like they did in Christmas time. A lot of Chinese suppliers, as well as ePacket delivery, will take only a week off. The way to manage it is to add information about the feast and its consequences to communications with your wholesaler and customers. Good luck and big profit in the year of Pig!
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