WooCommerce Dropshipping with AliExpress: Step-by-Step Tutorial (2026)

WooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a full online store, and it pairs well with AliExpress for dropshipping: you sell on your own site and the supplier ships each order directly to your customer. This tutorial walks through the whole flow with Build the Drop, from connecting your store to shipping your first order, and explains what happens automatically on each plan.

Why WooCommerce for dropshipping

With WooCommerce the store is yours: your domain, your hosting, your customer data. WooCommerce itself is free and doesn't charge a fee on your sales (your payment gateway does have its own fees). And because it runs on WordPress, you can shape the store with any theme, page builder or plugin, and keep a blog on the same site for content and SEO.

The trade-off is that you are responsible for the technical side. You choose and pay for hosting, keep the HTTPS certificate valid, and update WordPress, WooCommerce and plugins. If you prefer not to look after a server, a hosted platform like Shopify is simpler. If you like having full control, WooCommerce is a solid base for a dropshipping store.

What you need before you start

• Hosting with HTTPS enabled for your domain. Build the Drop only connects to stores served over https://.
• WordPress with the WooCommerce plugin installed and the basic store setup done (currency, shipping zones, taxes).
• A payment gateway configured and tested, so customers can actually pay and orders reach 'Processing'.
• Permalinks set to anything other than 'Plain' (Settings → Permalinks), because the WooCommerce REST API depends on them.
• An administrator account to approve the connection, and product reviews enabled in WooCommerce if you want to show imported reviews.

The full flow, step by step

1. 1Connect your store: Dashboard → Stores → WooCommerce, enter your https:// URL, click 'Connect WooCommerce' and approve access in wp-admin. No plugin, no API keys.
2. 2Connect AliExpress as your supplier from Dashboard → Suppliers, so Build the Drop can place your orders.
3. 3Find products: search AliExpress from Build the Drop, check each product's score and import the ones you want to sell.
4. 4Set your price rules before importing, so every product reaches WooCommerce with your margin already applied.
5. 5Reviews: on Starter and above, product reviews from AliExpress are imported as native WooCommerce reviews. Make sure 'Enable product reviews' is on in WooCommerce → Settings → Products.
6. 6When a customer pays, WooCommerce moves the order to 'Processing' and notifies Build the Drop through a webhook. The order appears in your dashboard ready to fulfill.
7. 7Place the order on AliExpress with one click (Free and Starter) or let it be placed and paid automatically with auto-pay (Pro and Business).
8. 8When the supplier ships, Build the Drop adds a note to the WooCommerce order with the carrier and tracking number, visible to your customer, and marks the order 'Completed'.

Orders and tracking

WooCommerce tells Build the Drop about every new order and every status change through two webhooks created during the connection. What matters is the status: an order is ready to fulfill once it reaches 'Processing', which in WooCommerce means it has been paid.

• 'Pending payment' and 'On hold': the order is waiting for payment, so it isn't sent to AliExpress yet.
• 'Processing': paid and ready. Place it on AliExpress with one click, or it is placed automatically if auto-pay is active.
• 'Cancelled', 'Failed' and 'Refunded': these changes are reflected in Build the Drop too, so you can see at a glance which orders not to fulfill.
• Tracking: WooCommerce has no built-in tracking field, so the carrier and tracking number are added as a customer note, which WooCommerce emails to the customer, and the order is marked 'Completed'.

What's automatic on each plan