AliExpress is famous for its cross-border shopping and is a good platform for customers to purchase essential Chinese items at low prices . E-commerce stores, on the other hand, often use AliExpress for dropshipping.
AliExpress offers an incredibly wide range of products at relatively low prices. However, some people find the shipping time for products purchased on AliExpress too long, and others only want products from a specific niche. That's why in this article, I'll present 23 AliExpress alternatives for those who want to learn more about sites like AliExpress.
I think we all know that AliExpress isn't just a C2C or B2C platform; there are many suppliers on AliExpress that also offer dropshipping services. Therefore, among the sites mentioned in this article, I'll categorize the best ones for purchasing from and the best ones for dropshipping.
1. Light in the box
LightInTheBox is a Chinese online retail site that doesn't have as wide a product range as AliExpress. Instead, it offers three main categories: clothing, small accessories and gadgets, and home and garden. Something LightInTheBox has in common with AliExpress is that you can also find dropshipping suppliers there.
The highlight of LightInTheBox is its innovative, data-driven business model, which allows it to offer personalized products, such as wedding dresses or evening gowns. If you have a business specializing in these product categories, you might want to try this site.
2. American green wood
American Greenwood is a specialized wholesale website in the United States that primarily sells small items and does not have many product categories. Its paper products come from sustainably farmed forests and are chlorine-free. All plastic materials used are compostable, recycled, or can be recycled. Nearly all of its products are compostable and leave no residue.
Like DHgate, the wholesale price on this website is related to purchase volume: the more you buy, the lower the price. Therefore, this website would be more suitable for small wholesale sales rather than purchasing or dropshipping.
3. Doba
As one Doba user puts it , “Doba is a dropshipping aggregator that, in essence, consolidates many different wholesalers into one convenient location.” In other words, Doba acts as an intermediary, connecting dropshipping suppliers with retailers.
Additionally, Doba also offers several technologies, including product search and filtering, inventory management, curated product lists, and proactive alerts for inventory and price changes.
Since Doba is a middleman, the wholesale price of 90% of Doba products would be exactly the same as, or even higher than, the retail prices on Amazon. And the price of the remaining 10% of products is only slightly lower than the current prices on Amazon.
4. Banggood
Banggood focuses on B2C cross-border export e-commerce. It was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, China. It is the largest online cluster for clothing, bags, luggage, and accessories. Therefore, if you're looking for products in these niches, you can try finding a direct manufacturer on Banggood.
Banggood has an independent dropshipping program. You must apply for a dropshipping customer account and select the products you want to sell. Banggood has 37 overseas warehouses covering all regions of the world. If you want to shorten the delivery time of your products, it's best to check if there is a Banggood warehouse located in your country. Learn more about Banggood's warranties and return policy .
Like DealXtreme, you can submit a wholesale inquiry if you need to purchase products in bulk.
5. Kole Imports
Kole Imports is one of the oldest wholesale websites in the U.S., headquartered in Carson, California. For the past 30 years, it has been one of the largest direct importers of general merchandise in the U.S. It offers a wide range of products, including clothing, fashion accessories, automotive supplies, toys, and pet supplies.
This website also offers a dropshipping service. Their dropshipping program will be available to you when you sign up for a free account on this page.
This website has something special: in addition to being a wholesale and dropshipping site , Kole Imports also sells liquidations. They resell surplus products, excess inventory, and third-party clearance items to their customers. So, you can check their dynamic offering of clearance products from time to time to see if there's anything that interests you.
6. World brands
Worldwide Brands is a wholesale and dropshipping website geared toward home-based businesses and online retailers, providing customers with direct access to 100% certified manufacturers.
On this website, you can search for a product by product type, brand, category, or even by state or city. If you can't find a product you'd like to sell, simply submit a product request, and the platform will locate a wholesaler for that product.
And this website offers apps for both iPhone and Android, so it should be quite convenient to use this website to manage your business.
But before you can enjoy Worldwide Brands services, you must become a member by paying a subscription fee of approximately $274 for lifetime access.
7. Supply map
SourcingMap is a Hong Kong-based wholesale platform that launched in 2004. Its featured product categories include automotive equipment and accessories, household and kitchen tools, hardware, and stationery. SourcingMap also offers a dedicated dropshipping program for small businesses.
Although SourcingMap claims to have been in business for over 10 years, its website appears to be poorly maintained. Furthermore, I found that several product links on its website led me to an item that is out of stock, and it's possible that they don't update the information on the website very frequently.
8. TVCMall
TVCMall is a cross-border online wholesale platform specializing in mobile phone accessories. The website was launched in 2008 and later introduced its automated warehouse management system in 2016. It currently has over 1.5 million registered users.
It is headquartered in Shenzhen, China, home to China's most comprehensive and efficient electronics supply chain, so electronics from this site may be cheaper than those on AliExpress.
On the product page, you can see a price comparison table that you can use to compare the price of the product listed on this website within a certain purchase volume with the prices of products listed on other wholesale websites. By doing so, you can determine the most profitable wholesale channel.
9. Shoe sales
SaleHoo is a New Zealand-based online wholesale marketplace that began operating in 2005. But the biggest difference between SaleHoo and other wholesale websites is that it only offers a wholesale directory, subject to a $67 annual subscription fee ($127 lifetime) instead of listing products directly. Once you subscribe to this SaleHoo directory, you'll be given access to their supplier database and some market research tools.
In addition to the wholesale directory, SaleHoo also offers dropshipping and e-commerce training courses as its other two core services. For dropshipping, you must pay a subscription fee, which is charged monthly or annually.
10. Lightake
Lightake is a China-based B2C online store offering toys such as magic cubes, tactical clothing, educational toys, puzzles, and building blocks. If you run a business in these product categories, you can expect to find the latest models here at a relatively lower price.
Dropshipping is also available on Lightake. According to their dropshipping policy, they can provide unlimited dropshipping services for orders under $50, while for orders over $50, it's recommended you contact them to inquire about the availability of their dropshipping services.
11. Geek Shopping
The name of this website goes some way to suggesting the product categories it offers: sports and outdoor activities, consumer electronics, computers and phones, wearables, and car accessories. Geekbuying's business model is basically the same as AliExpress's: it supports retail sales, while also allowing wholesale purchases at lower wholesale prices.
And if you need to customize or label your products purchased on Geekbuying, Geekbuying also offers relevant services.
Dropshipping is also possible. Geekbuying offers discounts ranging from 1% to 5% depending on the order amount. The higher the order amount, the greater the discount you'll receive. However, you can negotiate directly with customer service personnel to get a lower price.
12. TOMTOP
Tomtop specializes in pet supplies and accessories, although everyday products are also available in other categories. Established in 2004, Tomtop is a reputable trading company among Alibaba suppliers.
Tomtop has a dropshipping partner program, which you can access by logging into your account on a website called Quarkscm.com. If you want to dropship through this channel, you must ensure that your account balance is sufficient to cover your orders.
13. Gearbest
Gearbest is a China-based wholesale website offering electronic products, including mobile devices, wearable smart devices, and other electronic accessories. It could be considered one of AliExpress's main potential competitors.
One of the highlights of this wholesale website is its comprehensive shipping and quality inspection process. Gearbest products can be shipped from local warehouses worldwide, and they currently have warehouses in Germany, Belgium, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, the United States, Australia, Japan, the Czech Republic, Russia, and the United Kingdom. You can set your default location to any of these countries and regions.
As for dropshipping, Gearbest doesn't officially offer any special dropshipping programs, so it may not be a very favorable market for dropshipping. If you're serious about dropshipping on Gearbest, you can try sending a wholesale inquiry to the seller and see if you can fulfill it through other channels.
14. Printing
Printful is a very special website among all the websites listed in this article, because it is a pretty creative-oriented dropshipping website that offers printable products or products that can be customized with printable content, such as t-shirts, hats, posters and the like.
With seven fulfillment centers located in North Carolina, California, Mexico, Canada, Spain, and Latvia, Printful specializes in dropshipping personalized products.
If you have a printing business idea, Printful may be the platform you need. You can use integration tools to sync products with your store, similar to how products are integrated from AliExpress.
15. Pet stores in the United States
With decades of experience, Pet Stores USAis now one of the leading wholesale and dropshipping service providers in the U.S. pet industry.
Pet Stores USA is a purely wholesale platform: they do not offer any retail products that compete with their retail partners, as they claim. Product categories on Pet Stores USA are categorized based on different types of pets, such as birds, cats, dogs, and fish.
To start dropshipping with Pet Stores USA, you'll need to fill out a contact form on the website and wait for them to contact you to complete the registration process, or you can call them directly during business hours.
16. Yaaku
Yaaku is a Chinese wholesale and retail fashion clothing website offering products such as dresses, t-shirts, skirts, sweaters, pants, underwear, jackets, coats, and other fashion items. If you're looking to buy clothes wholesale, Yaaku can be a good alternative to AliExpress.
Yaaku is known for its affordable prices. The unit price of most products listed on the site is no more than a few dollars. However, remember that if you purchase in large quantities (for example, an order over $1,000), you should always contact the customer service team first to negotiate a lower wholesale price than the unit price listed on the product page.
Yaaku supports dropshipping, although I couldn't find any website that explains this in detail. Therefore, be sure to speak to their customer service and sort everything out before starting the dropshipping process.
17. Brand distribution
BrandsDistribution is an online B2B marketplace for clothing and fashion accessories that began operating in 2006. But it's nothing like the other wholesale clothing website, Yaaku, we mentioned earlier. The products you can find on BrandsDistribution are primarily branded clothing or shoes, and high-end fashion products such as watches and sunglasses.
Bringing together over 120 fashion brands, BrandsDistribution offers both wholesale and dropshipping services.
To begin wholesale purchasing, you'll be asked to complete an application form that includes a description of your business, the brand you're targeting, your annual purchasing budget, and other personal information. For dropshipping, they offer a proprietary system developed by them called BDroppy to provide their customers with a turnkey dropshipping solution.
18. Wholesale 2B
Wholesale2B is a software development company focused on the dropshipping sector. Because of this, wholesale2B has advantages when it comes to the technical side of dropshipping. They can provide features that can make your business easier, such as inventory tracking, order management, and website creation.
However, it seems that Wholesale2B's customer service isn't entirely satisfactory for some users. Their customer service team can only be reached via email or live chat, and they are only available during business hours.
Wholesale2B offers several service plans to meet the demands of different customers. You must pay for these plans to start dropshipping. You can still register for a free account, but you can't do anything other than browse their listed products with that account.
19. DHgate
DHgate is a cross-border B2B and B2C online marketplace based in China and one of the earliest established e-commerce platforms. Seeing AliExpress as its main rival, DHgate decided to operate with a similar business model.
The name "DHgate" means "the gateway to Dunhuang," a Chinese city that connected China to the rest of the world in ancient times. With over 2.2 million sellers, DHgate has expanded its marketplace to over 200 countries and regions around the world.
To dropship, you can do so through MyyShop, a dropshipping platform launched by DHgate. There's an easy-to-use tutorial on the DHgate dropshipping page, where you can log into MyyShop directly using your DHgate account.
20. Global sources
Global Sources is one of Asia's largest and oldest B2B marketplaces, with over 1.5 million buyers worldwide, spanning over 240 countries and regions.
Global Sources' mission, as stated on their website, is to "connect the world's high-quality buyers and suppliers with the right information, at the right time, and through the right channels." That said, they should have made an effort to make their services and products as accessible as possible to any potential user. However, the truth is, it's not the most suitable website for dropshipping for small businesses today.
Products listed on Global Sources are not directly accessible; for each product, you must send a query to the supplier.
Therefore, if you wish to purchase many different products from this website, this could take quite a while, as you will need to submit an inquiry or RFQ (request for quotation) for each product you are interested in.
21. Spocket
Spocket is a US and EU-based dropshipping website offering product categories such as clothing, jewelry, cars, home and garden, and gifts. Additionally, Spocket offers dropshipping plugins that seamlessly connect to major ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and AliScraper.
Spocket offers different plans for dropshippers: if you pay monthly, there's a Starter, Pro, and Empire plan, priced at $24/month, $49/month, and $99/month, respectively; if you pay annually, there's a Pro, Empire, and Unicorn plan, priced at $29/month, $59/month, and $115/month, respectively. The range of products available varies between plans. There's also a free plan that you can use solely to browse Spocket's product catalog.
