12 Sites Like AliExpress to Upgrade Your Product Sourcing
Updated on September 29, 2021
Tired of buying goods from wholesalers with high shipping rates and little variety of products?
As a dropshipper, you probably know that AliExpress is one of the most popular choices to source products. Many dropshippers who want to increase their profit margins order products directly from manufacturers.
AliExpress, owned by Alibaba Group, is one of the leading wholesale stores for dropshipping. However, people are looking for AliExpress alternatives because the shipping costs of goods coming from China are high and it can be hard finding suppliers who have available stock for your products all year round.
Finding a reliable supplier with reasonable rates means that you’ll avoid running out of stock and can even sell on other marketplaces such as Shopify, Amazon, or Walmart.
We’ll go through a list of 12 online shopping sites to find cheaper goods at competitive shipping rates so that you can continue scaling your dropshipping business.
SaleHoo
One of the most popular ecommerce platforms to dropship from, SaleHoo is considered a trustworthy marketplace by other users.
You have to pay a small fee each year to start browsing, but this entry fee increases the quality of wholesalers on the site.
Through their library of training videos, SaleHoo offers support to help you with your search.
Type of Products Available
You can view over one million products offered by more than 8,000 suppliers. You can find all the expected popular categories, such as electronics, health and fitness equipment, gadgets, and accessories.
Expected Delivery Times
Delivery times can be negotiated with most suppliers. Keep in mind that wholesalers that are based in China will need a minimum of 30 days to ship the products.
Payment Methods
SaleHoo accepts payments using PayPal or credit cards.
Banggood
This site is a close competitor of AliExpress regarding its prices and range of products.
Delivery times could be lower because stock is held in warehouses across Europe, North America, Hong Kong, and Australia, as well as China.
If you dropship more niche products, Banggood could be a suitable marketplace for you because they feature some less-searched-for items compared with the bigger sites.
Type of Products Available
You can find a wide range of products on Banggood although dropshippers visit this site for their selection of niche products, such as drones, smartphones, outdoors/sports, and apparel and accessories.
Expected Delivery Times
Banggood uses air freight that takes up to 30 days to arrive.
Payment Methods
You can pay for your order with Visa credit cards, wire transfer, PayPal, or the less-used option of cash on delivery (in certain countries).
CJ Dropshipping
CJ Dropshipping is a growing service more dropshippers are using. Their customer service is known to be responsive and helpful.
On top of ordering from a wide range of products, a unique feature is the ability to ask CJ Dropshipping to source specific products for you, as long as you provide the information on what you’re looking for.
There’s a handy “Trending” section that shows what is selling well for other dropshippers.
Type of Products Available
There are over 200,000 products to choose from on this marketplace. While the range may be smaller than AliExpress, an in-house team chooses better quality products to list.
You may find low prices for the products in your niche.
Expected Delivery Times
One of the reasons for the low prices is that shipping costs aren’t included in the total, unlike AliExpress.
Goods will be shipped after 5–15 days.
Payment Methods
CJ Dropshipping accepts payment by credit cards, PayPal, wire transfer, and Western Union.
Chinabrands
This marketplace offers a wide range of products to choose from.
You can request inventory be delivered to any location in the world, which might not be an option for the other marketplaces.
Type of Products Available
Chinabrands lists a wide range of products, from popular categories such as electronics and clothing to more niche selections such as DIY tools.
Expected Delivery Times
Shipping rates are notably cheaper than what other sites charge, but this comes at the expense of longer shipping times. If you don’t need quick turnaround times and you can find a reliable supplier on this site, you could lower your logistics expenses.
Payment Methods
The typical payment methods of PayPal, Payoneer, and wire transfer are accepted.
TomTop
If you’re constantly browsing for new products or suppliers, you might enjoy using this site. TomTop has frequent promotions for many products.
One of TomTop’s strengths is their fulfillment service because dropshippers who have used this site give feedback that products tend to arrive as advertised.
Knowing you get what you paid for based on a product listing’s images saves you the hassle of returning faulty or misrepresented products.
Type of Products Available
Although there is a wide range of products, the electronics categories are popular, such as smart devices, cell phones, and other types of gadgets.
Expected Delivery Times
TomTop has a wide coverage of warehouses in many countries. If a product is being shipped from a warehouse in your country, the average shipping time is five days.
However, international deliveries for products shipped from China take at least 20 days.
Payment Methods
You can pay using credit cards, wire transfer, or the less common option of cash on delivery.
Worldwide Brands
Being one of the few paid marketplaces on this list, Worldwide Brands is known for a higher quality of products because of its exclusivity.
For a one-off entry fee payment, you can get access to millions of products to order from on a safe marketplace.
Experienced dropshippers often order from here for the better quality of suppliers.
Type of Products Available
You can choose from many types of categories such as toys, smartphones, gadgets, and outdoor products.
Expected Delivery Times
China-based suppliers will ship your order within a month. Local wholesalers with the warehouses in your country will take roughly a week to ship.
Payment Methods
Most credit cards and PayPal are the accepted forms of payment by Worldwide Brands.
Gearbest
Although the name implies it’s a marketplace filled with gadgets, you can find most commonly ordered products.
There are many deals you can take advantage of where products are discounted for a short time.
Type of Products Available
The variety of the selection is comparable to the bigger sites. You can choose products in the home, garden, computers, and watches categories, to name a few.
Expected Delivery Times
Delivery times are up to seven working days if products are shipped from the warehouses or five days in the US.
It’ll be closer to a month if the supplier is based in China. Shipping is free because the price is baked into the total cost.
Payment Methods
The most common payment methods that are supported include credit cards (Visa and Mastercard), PayPal, and wire transfer.
LightInTheBox
LightInTheBox is a popular marketplace for finding trending products.
It’s a useful online shopping website to compare with other dropshipping suppliers in a similar niche or to see if certain products are gaining popularity.
Type of Products Available
There are many types of products, ranging from fashion-based SKUs such as apparel and accessories, jewelry, and beauty products to gadgets such as smartphones and drones.
Expected Delivery Times
Because the HQ and warehouses are in China, expect the products to be shipped in 15–30 days.
Payment Methods
Credit cards, PayPal, and Western Union are all accepted forms of payment.
DX
This site used to be known as Deal Extreme and has a good reputation for offering competitive prices over many products.
Type of Products Available
You can find a good deal on reasonably priced products in your niche, such as toys, gaming consoles, electronics, phones, DIY, or garden items.
Expected Delivery Times
Delivery times are reported to take up to 15 days.
Payment Methods
DX will accept payment by credit cards and PayPal.
Taobao
Possibly the closest competitor of AliExpress, Taobao is a large ecommerce site in China that is also owned by Alibaba.
The focus market is specifically B2C for products from Chinese manufacturers.
Although you’ll find a huge selection to choose from, keep in mind to check with a supplier whether they ship to your region.
It’s worth noting that the site is available only in Chinese at the time of writing this. While Google Translate can help with understanding some of the listings, it might be better to hire someone with a firm grasp of written and spoken Mandarin to help with the ordering process.
Type of Products Available
There are millions of products available across a large spectrum of prices.
Some of the items that you could order include sports and outdoors gear, apparel and accessories, jewelry, electronics, and other niche hobby products.
Expected Delivery Times
Because the target market is customers from mainland China, it’ll take at least a week or two for your order to ship from China, as long as the supplier delivers to other countries.
Payment Methods
Taobao accepts credit cards and PayPal as suitable payment methods.
DHGate
Online retail shoppers and ecommerce entrepreneurs who sell products in the B2C and B2B markets use this site because of the diverse range of products.
Although there are allegedly over 20 million products to buy here, you’ll need to check if a potential supplier only accepts bulk orders or can fulfill individual orders.
Type of Products Available
The range of products is everything you could probably think of.
You can buy low-ticket items such as bags and apparel to high-ticket products like automobiles and high-end smartphones.
Expected Delivery Times
Products are shipped from China and have been reported taking 15–45 working days to reach the destination.
Payment Methods
Several mainstream payment methods are supported, such as PayPal, credit cards, wire transfer, and Western Union.
Focalprice
If you have an eye for offers, Focalprice might be a good choice for you.
There are many clearance sales and discounts available.
The minor downside is that there is a slightly limited range of products available, but it could be worth checking out now and again to pick up a great deal.
Type of Products Available
The most popular categories that you can find on other marketplaces are listed here, such as bags, electronics, toys, outdoors, and wearables.
Expected Delivery Times
The warehouses are based in China, so expect your order to take at least 30 days to ship.
Payment Methods
Focalprice is flexible in their payment options, accepting PayPal, credit cards (American Express, Visa, and Mastercard), Discover, and bank transfers.
What to Look For in a Good Supplier
Some of the best sites may be more suitable for your dropshipping business, but this doesn’t mean that all suppliers will be the right fit.
It’s important to know how to spot a good supplier before you commit to any long-term arrangement.
Start by checking the business’s review profile. If it has an average high-quality rating and positive reviews, this feedback shows that many dropshippers find this supplier good to work with.
However, watch out for newer suppliers who placed a few fake reviews to improve their status. Looking at a supplier’s selling history gives you more assurance that the reviews and services are legit.
The longer a supplier has been registered and actively selling, the more likely they are to be a reputable seller.
Another sign of a good supplier is whether they accept different payment methods. Being open to reputable services like PayPal and credit card service providers offer you protection in case any deals go wrong.
If a supplier is firm about accepting payment through a single method like a wire transfer or cash in hand, this could be a warning sign to avoid using them. This might lead to a scam, where they ask for payment first and never send you the stock, making it difficult for you to get the money back.
How to Vet Potential Suppliers
As you do your due diligence, make a list of suppliers you’ve spoken with so that you have a range of choices at the end of your search.
When you reach out to suppliers, keep your introduction short and to the point. Let them know who you are, what type of products you’re interested in ordering, and ask for contact details so you can continue the conversation.
Common messaging apps in these situations include WhatsApp, WeChat, and Signal. If a supplier replies, message them on their platform of choice and start gathering more information about their guidelines.
Questions you can ask include the following:
- What’s your minimum order quantity (MOQ)?
- Can you deliver to my country?
- What is the expected delivery times?
- What are the shipping costs?
- What is the price per item?
- What are your payment terms?
In the future, there will be some room to negotiate after you’ve established a good relationship with the supplier or if you’re ordering in significant volume.
If a supplier’s terms are reasonable, order a sample from them. This gives you a chance to conduct a quality control test for similar products from different suppliers. You might need to pay for a sample yourself, while other suppliers may offer you one free sample.
Why You Should Have More Than One Supplier
Even if the supplier you’ve been using up until now hasn’t had any issues, it’s almost always a good idea to increase the number of suppliers you can order from.
If you only use one supplier and something happens to their production line or their usual logistics has a roadblock, you’re at risk of running out of stock because you can’t receive new inventory.
The alternative is that you order far in advance, but there’s also the risk of inventory overstock when products don’t sell as quickly.
Having a wider range of suppliers to order from protects your revenue stream from dropping and helps retain your store’s reputation. It’s one of the ways you make your dropshipping business more defensible against copycat brands and in keeping up with buyer demand all year round, as well as lowering your expenses by ordering stock at lower prices.
How Much is Your E-Commerce Store Worth?
Buyers who are interested in acquiring an online business will find a dropshipping business with different suppliers a more attractive asset because of the lower risk of stock outage and the potential of fast shipping (if a supplier has warehouses in your region).
Although it’s not part of our valuation formula, it’s worth diversifying suppliers for your online store.
Our valuation formula for dropshipping businesses is as follows:
12 Month Average Monthly Net Profit x Multiple
We use a monthly net profit because we feel it provides a closer look into the business’s performance compared with an annual profit metric. 12 months is the recommended pricing window to take seasonality into account.
How is the multiple worked out?
Many factors make up the multiple, such as the age of your business, how many SKUs are being sold, the number of social media followers, and if you have an email list.
If you’re interested in how much your ecommerce business is worth, try our free valuation tool. It’ll give you three selling price points: typical, absolute, and minimum.
If you’re not in a hurry to sell, you could hold out for the absolute selling price to get a higher deal.
Settling for the lower end of the pricing range could be an option if you’re looking to exit from your business quickly.
A typical valuation is the best of both worlds and will be crafted to get you the most money profitable while making your business attractive to our buyer pool.
To get some free advice, speak with our exit planning team. They’ll be able to walk you through the sales process and help you craft an exit plan that maximizes your eventual sales price.
Even if you don’t sell now, planning your exit strategy for the future could give you a higher sales price, if and when you decide to sell.
