u/pjmg2020

I know there’s a bunch of crew in this sub so maybe some of the crew will see this or pass it on. Separately, I’m happy to express my gratitude publicly as credit where credit is due.

I was en route LHR to SIN on SQ321. Over Romania I connected to WiFi. I received a flood of messages from my siblings that my mother was in the final stages of her life and that I needed to get back to Adelaide as quickly as possible—I was meant to be connecting on to Melbourne where I now live.

I was emotional and felt completely helpless and the crew were absolutely brilliant and brought great comfort.

Unfortunately, soon before our descent into Singapore I received the message that my mother had passed away.

The crew helped me be one of the first off the flight as I really needed to call family. They moved me toward the front of the plane and let me disembark with the BC passengers.

I was meant to have a 55 minute connection to a MEL bound flight—this had shrunk to 25 minutes as we were delayed arriving.

On disembarkation I quickly made my way to the transit desk to change my flight to a later ADL bound flight.

The transit desk staff were great too and helped me secure the last available seat on the next flight. In BC fortunately as the thought of another 6 hours in economy wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

I arrived in ADL 30 minutes early and was grateful to be with family after a roller coaster of a day.

Singapore Airlines and the Changi ground staff made a highly stressful and emotional experience hassle free and supportive. I wouldn’t have wanted to have this experience on any other airline.

I actually wrote this as a comment in response to someone claiming arbitraging from AliExpress is underrated.

Thought the comment justified having its own moment in the sun as a way of explaining how arbitrage works and the thinking behind me coining the term Ali Arbitrage.

Arbitrages work where there’s a value add.

If I drove around garage/yard sales and discovered all the hidden gem products and then sold them on a platform like eBay or even Marketplace for a competitive price, that would be a ‘positive arbitrage’. Customer is getting something that might be hard to find, they’re buying it at market price, I’ve bought it to them in a convenient format—i.e. they don’t need to drive around the countryside visiting garage sales.

The standard wholesale-retail arbitrage works as the wholesale prices are gatekept. They’re not available to the public. In order to buy the thing you must shop with an authorised retailer. You choose the right retailer for you based on their value proportion—you might buy 1L of Coke from the supermarket for $3 on your big weekly shop but you’re also ok to pay $4 for 600ML at the corner store on your way to the beach. (This example emphasises how it’s not always about price.)

Alibaba even works. The ‘gate’ that’s being kept there is MOQs. It’s open to the public but you need to satisfy an MOQ. For consumers that’s probably not a value proposition they want to entertain. Though, if you are looking to buy something in bulk this can be a good way to enjoy ‘wholesale’ pricing. The typical use case is, though, that a business will source on Alibaba in bulk, get the product close to their market, and can then operate under typical wholesale parameters and compete on typical retail grounds.

Dropshipping from AliExpress. Where’s the value add? If the customer were to shop direct they pay the same price as you do to the supplier and they’re subject to the same dispatch and delivery experience? The store that’s attempting the arbitrage becomes a pointless middle man. And, here’s the kicker, their ads may have promoted solution awareness for the customer which then results in them purchasing direct from Ali.

There’s a real kicker here I want to bring attention to as it’s scary. Literally millions of dollars of ad spend is being spent by ‘dropshippers’ to inevitably introduce customers to a product that they end up buying from someone else! I’d argue this is what happens on average. Customer sees your ad for a $70 massage gun. They rub their neck on the realisation that it is a bit sore and this could help. They Google ‘massage gun’. They’re hit with shopping ads from a bunch of local retailers they know and trust. They’re listing the product for a similar price but they can deliver it in 1-2 days or they could pop to a store and pick it up. Amazon has some for $30-40 with free shipping on Prime. And there’s an ad for AliExpres that had the exact product the initial store advertised for only $17. Why would they shop with that unknown store whose ad they saw? 99% of the time they won’t.

I’m sitting at a cafe eating my lunch right now. I’m going through recent followers on Instagram, following them back, and sending them a personalised message thanking them for connecting and letting them know I’m here if they need any help or have any questions.

This is a free touchpoint, takes no time to do—perfect for the commute or while kicking back on the couch—and shows that you’re human and accessible.

The more touchpoints you have with a customer the more likely they are to remember you and shop with you.

One word of caution—don’t send too many messages in one session or IG might freak out and think you’re spamming up the joint. Ten or a dozen at a time should be fine.

While you’re at it, the reactions you get to your content and ads on Facebook—go into the list of reactions and ‘invite’ the users to follow your page. Another free touchpoints.

Brands grow through mental and physical availability. This is you being more mentally available to them.

So many great bands and musicians have that one meandering epic that takes you all the places and gives you all the feels.

‘Obrigado’ has those vibes.

Great way to finish the album.

Clickbaity enough for you? You’re welcome.

Thing is it’s true. And it’s also a reality check on what dropshipping really is.

I run an online retail business in the hiking gear space. 60% of what I sell I hold stock for, 30% I offer on special order/cross-docking, and the remainder I dropship with local, reputable brands, wholesalers, and distributors. These are typically big and bulky items that I don’t want to double handle nor hold or extended product ranges where I hold the ‘core’ SKUs. Using dropshipping as part of an ‘endless aisle’ strategy is common in the retail industry.

I sent a handful of cold emails to prospective ‘B2B’ clients last week. Guides, associations, school outdoor recreation programs—the sort of clients that might want to buy what I sell in bulk and regularly. One wrote back almost immediately wanting a quote for a bulk order of a particular SKU that I don’t stock but I knew I’d be about to get pretty easily from a supplier across town.

Deal closed. I’ll make $1K contribution margin on the $3K sale, or around 30%. All I had to do was make a few phone calls, raise an invoice to my client (they paid immediately), pay my suppliers invoice, and check in in a week to make sure it’s delivered safely.

“But that’s contribution profit not net profit?” Indeed. But I run my business and cover my costs through regular business activities. These sorts of bulk orders go straight to the bottom line.

So, an hours work for $1K in profit. Best bit, they’ll probably be an ongoing client now and are likely to reorder monthly.