With almost 3 billion visitors in just six months (July to December 2023), AliExpress is one of the most popular e-commerce marketplaces in the world. Low wholesale prices and a massive selection make AliExpress attractive to dropshippers. Unfortunately, there are major downsides to relying on AliExpress alone for your Shopify store. To grow your sales, customer base, and profits, you should research the benefits of AliExpress alternatives.
Why Do You Need AliExpress Alternatives?
The AliExpress marketplace primarily consists of manufacturers and suppliers from China. This keeps product costs low but also creates problems for dropshippers:
- Long shipping times: It can take six to eight weeks for your customers to receive some items. That can seriously hurt your customer base and reputation.
- Too many suppliers: Sorting through thousands of suppliers to figure out who you can trust takes a long time and puts your finances at risk.
- Complex return policies: Trying to return dropshipped products to manufacturers in China can be practically impossible. You may be forced to implement an expensive “returnless” refund policy.
- Low stock: Some manufacturers on AliExpress run out of stock quickly, leaving you scrambling to find alternative suppliers. Running your e-commerce store becomes more complicated than it needs to be.
- Difficulty adding products: AliExpress works with Shopify, but you have to add every product to your store manually with a CSV file.
Having AliExpress alternatives can make your business more flexible, improve your customer service, and help you generate passive income without juggling order fulfillment.
Is There a Better Site Than AliExpress for Dropshipping?
AliExpress alternative sites fall into three main categories: alternative marketplaces, dropshipping platforms with app integrations, and print-on-demand companies.
Alternative Marketplaces
AliExpress alternative marketplaces source products from different suppliers and locations. Platforms include manufacturers from China, but you can also find high-end fashion goods from Europe.
The wholesale discounts are especially valuable for established dropshipping stores on Shopify. Companies in this category frequently maintain warehouses in the United States, Europe, Australia, and other locations for faster order fulfillment.
App Integrations
With Shopify app integrations, you get the best of both worlds: ultra-low prices from AliExpress suppliers minus the headaches. Dropshipping apps often maintain a large catalog of items that you can browse, and adding them to your store is as easy as clicking.
For example, Zendrop, one of the most popular Shopify dropshipping apps, has a catalog of over 1 million curated products. Categories range from clothing and jewelry to beauty products and pet items.
Print-on-Demand Suppliers
Print-on-demand providers let you customize general goods from AliExpress and other manufacturers. For example, you can use POD to white-label products, adding your own logos, art, or slogans to hoodies. POD also allows for jewelry customization, gift personalization, and curated bundles.
What Are the Best AliExpress Alternative Sites for Shopify?
Discover a range of top-rated solutions that have worked for other Shopify stores.
1. Zendrop
With over 10,000 reviews on Shopify and an average user score of 4.8 stars, it’s easy to see that Zendrop provides great results. What makes this user-friendly app integration stand out is that it’s an all-in-one solution for dropshippers on Shopify:
- Curated suppliers: Zendrop sources products from trustworthy suppliers around the world, including dependable AliExpress merchants and manufacturers from Europe, South America, and other places.
- Automated order fulfillment: Syncing Zendrop with your Shopify store means orders automatically go to suppliers as customers purchase them.
- Local warehouses: Order fulfillment centers in the United States allow for lightning-fast shipping, happy customers, and easier returns.
- High-quality products: All products on Zendrop — including trending items — have star ratings from the Zendrop team and other dropshipping stores so you can select high-quality goods for your store without wasting time.
- Print-on-demand services: By partnering with POD suppliers and white-label experts, Zendrop makes personalizing your products easy. You can even add branded packaging.
In other words, Zendrop combines the benefits of an AliExpress alternative marketplace, an order fulfillment app, and a POD platform.
2. Alibaba
Alibaba is the original wholesale marketplace. It’s also AliExpress’s parent company. Instead of featuring low-volume vendors that run out of goods quickly, it connects your business with large-scale manufacturers that sell in bulk.
You may need a third-party order fulfillment partner to store your inventory if you go this route because Alibaba suppliers have minimum order amounts. The tradeoffs are larger product volumes, far cheaper prices, and much faster shipping.
3. DSers
DSers is an ideal choice for dropshippers who like working with AliExpress but find the interface and product management confusing. The DSers platform simplifies the process of adding items to your Shopify store, syncs order tracking automatically, and allows for bundling orders so your clients receive everything at the same time.
The downside is that DSers only works with the AliExpress catalog. You can use the platform to find alternative suppliers for those items, however.
4. Shein
Shein is an e-commerce giant that specializes in affordable fashion, high-quality clothing, and luxury accessories. Its focus on trendy apparel is good and bad for dropshipping on Shopify.
On the plus side, Shein’s inventory keeps up with — and sometimes sets — the latest trends on social media and city streets. That helps you stand out from more “traditional” clothing stores.
On the other hand, Shein’s fast pace means your suppliers may run out of inventory frequently. Shein doesn’t have a specific dropshipping program either, so your profit margins may be lower if you go this route.
5. CJDropshipping
CJDropshipping is a popular AliExpress alternative with the low prices that make dropshipping profitable and U.S.-based warehouses for faster shipping. This platform integrates with Shopify stores and works with DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS for cost-effective shipping.
Ironically, the popularity of CJDropshipping is also the main downside of the platform. If you use its products as is, your store is likely to have the same inventory as hundreds of other e-commerce shops.
Which Are the Best AliExpress Alternatives for Your Store?
The ideal dropshipping platform is different for every dropshipping business on Shopify. You have to balance your level of experience, budget, and niche with the products that get your audience excited. At StayTuned Digital, we can help you choose the best AliExpress alternatives for your store. Our ongoing support makes setting up dropshipping app integrations a breeze on Shopify. Contact us today.