Walk through the AStools research workflow from cold start to a tested product candidate in under 30 minutes. Four tools, in order, with exit criteria you can self-check.
**Filter** by margin > 40% and sort by velocity. Pick the top 3 products that look like genuine demand spikes (not warehouse clearance).
Look for products that:
- Have positive 24h order velocity
- Are at < 60% saturation in their category
- Show price stability over the last 7 days (not in a free-fall)
Exit criteria: You have 3 candidate product slugs. Save them to your shortlist using the bookmark button on each card.
Open the calculator and plug in real numbers for each candidate:
- **Cost price** — actual AliExpress price (don't guess)
- **Selling price** — what your store will charge
- **Shipping cost** — to your top market (US/UK/EU)
- **Ad cost** — assume $0.30 CPC × 50 clicks per sale at v1 (i.e. $15 per sale)
Kill any candidate that nets < 30% margin after ad spend. The remaining 1-2 are your real shortlist.
Exit criteria: 1-2 products remain with > 30% net margin at realistic ad spend.
For each surviving candidate, paste the AliExpress seller URL into the supplier checker.
Reject the candidate if the supplier shows:
- Dispute rate > 2%
- Account age < 1 year
- Shipping promise violations in the last 90 days
- More than 3 fake-review red flags
If only one supplier sells the product, this is a hard pass — single-supplier risk is fragile at scale.
Exit criteria: Every remaining candidate has at least one A or B grade supplier.
Drop the 1-2 finalists into the compare slot. The side-by-side view shows score, margin, supplier grade, and review distribution at a glance.
The winner is the product where the comparison reads cleanly: high score, healthy margin, A-grade supplier, normal review distribution. If both candidates feel equal, pick the one with the higher TikTok viral potential — that's where unpaid distribution lives.
Exit criteria: You picked one finalist. Save it to your shortlist (it might already be there).
5
Order one sample
~5 min
Last step before any ad spend: place a single $5-15 sample order through the AliExpress affiliate link. Why:
1. Photos lie. Sample tells you what 1,000 customers will receive.
2. Shipping reality matters. Promised 14 days vs actual 28 days kills your store.
3. Your supplier's QC drift is invisible until you hold the product.
No sample = no test campaign. This is the cheapest insurance in dropshipping.
Exit criteria: Sample order placed. Wait for delivery before scaling spend; use the wait time to write 3 ad creatives.