DHgate Dropshipping: A Step-By-Step Guide

Apart from AliExpress, DHgate shows some great potential to help you start a profitable dropshipping business. It’s not as popular as AliExpress, which can mitigate competition. On top of that, it has a great buyer protection program and good customer service.

In this post, we’ll show you how to find winning products on DHgate, import them to your store, and start making money. We’ll also tell you some tips to dropship from this platform more successfully.

What Is DHgate?

Founded by Diane Wang, DHgate.com is one of the largest online eCommerce & dropshipping platforms of Chinese goods. It allows international customers to buy directly from Chinese wholesalers and suppliers, effectively cutting down intermediary costs to offer the same quality products at lower prices than retail.

Currently, DHgate has over 30M products provided by more than 2.2M sellers globally. Product categories include Cell Phones & Accessories, Electronics & Cameras, Health & Beauty, Sports & Outdoors, Shoes, & Accessories, Home & Garden, Toys & Gifts, Fashion Apparel, Jewelry & Watches, Wedding & Formal Events, Computers & Games, Office & School Supplies, and many more.

Supporting both B2B and B2C, the platform has served at least 26M enterprise and individual buyers from 222 countries and regions.

Another noteworthy statistic is that DHgate consistently gets over 16M visitors/month, mostly from United States, China, United Kingdom, Canada, and France.

Is DHgate Legit?

DHgate is 100% legit. It constantly monitors all seller accounts 24/7 and will immediately block any fraudulent one. Furthermore, DHgate employs a quality control team to check for illegal and counterfeit products. Customer data is also encrypted to prevent hackers as well as the platform itself from accessing sensitive information and stealing money.

However, there’re 2 things we want to note.

The first one is that since the platform is so big, it’s avoidable that some sellers can bypass the system and scam you, just like on Amazon and AliExpress. Therefore, make sure to double-check sellers’ ratings and product reviews before buying or dropshipping anything.

Second, there’re no premium branded products on DHgate. If you see listings like Nike sneakers or Louis Vuitton bags, they’re replicas. The product quality is still good, but they’re just close copies of the original goods.

For further proof of legitimacy, you can check out DHgate’s reviews on Sitejabber.

For reference, here is Amazon’s reviews on Sitejabber.

You can also look into this review video about DHgate from Filo Garcia.

Is DHgate Good For Dropshipping?

Hosting over 30M products at a fraction of the price in pretty much any niche, along with product quality control, DHgate is definitely a good platform for dropshipping. On top of that, it has a great buyer protection program in which orders are guaranteed to get partial or 100% refunds if they’re not as described.

Below are other features that make DHgate a great option for dropshipping:

• Order delivery within 3 to 15 days.
• Deliver globally to over 222 countries and regions.
• Shipping carriers include China Post, ePacket, EMS, Hong Kong Post, Singapore Post, DHL, FedEx, and UPS.
• Order tracking via 17Track, ParcelApps, or Track24.
• Multilingual sales in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Korean, and Turkish.
• Accept a wide variety of payment methods, including Paypal, credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, etc.), bank to bank wire transfers, and Western Union.
• DHGate holds payments during transactions until buyers have received their orders (Escrow Payment Model). Hence, it’s easy for both you and your customers to get refunded.
• DHGate Meditate helps you settle disputes with DHGate sellers if both cannot reach an agreement within 5 days.

Does DHgate Work With Shopify?

DHgate is 100% compatible with Shopify. You can import the platform’s products into your Shopify store and fulfill them within a few clicks using the official partner app called MyyShop or a third-party app like Importify.

We’ll guide you through how to do that in the next couple of sections.

Besides, you can connect DHgate with eBay, Rakuten, Mercado Libre, Americanas via MyyShop and Wix, WooCommerce, Jumpseller via Importify.

Pros And Cons Of DHgate Dropshipping

Understanding the advantages as well as disadvantages of DHgate dropshipping will allow you to better prepare and adapt to various circumstances during your business life cycle.

Besides general advantages such as low risk, low-startup cost, or no inventory, you also have the below benefits when dropshipping with DHgate:

• Faster shipping times than AliExpress.
• Good buyer protection program.
• Better customer service than AliExpress.
• Less saturation and competition.

And, apart from common disadvantages such as low profit margins or problems with product quality and branding, here are other drawbacks of DHgate dropshipping:

• Not as diverse as AliExpress.
• Product prices are usually higher than AliExpress.
• Many products require a minimum order quantity greater than 1.
• Harder to find winning products than when dropshipping with AliExpress.
• Hard to source DHgate products as there isn’t currently any good service to help you do so.
• Not many suppliers for the same products. As a result, you might run into inventory issues.
• There aren’t many good platforms and apps that support DHgate dropshipping.

DHgate Terminologies And Icons To Understand

Understanding basic DHgate terminologies and icons will help you find better products and more reliable suppliers.

• DHrefer: A referral program that rewards buyers when they share products with others that leads to sales. As a dropshipper, you don’t need to care about this concept.
• Return Policy: A promise guarantees that you will receive assistant from sellers as well as DHgate to resolve any problem such as products are not as described or defective.
• Local Warehouse: Products are available in DHgate warehouses, providing fast delivery and better product prices.
• Logistics Delay Notification: This message tells you there might be some delay during shipping due to Covid 19.
• On-Time Delivery: A product with this badge under it will tell you how long an order will be successfully delivered. If your customer hadn’t received the item after the specified period, you could submit a refund request.
• DH Storage: Products are in the US warehouses. Customers also get perfect return and refund service.
• Chinese Brands: If a seller has this badge beside its name or in its profile, it provides genuine and very high-quality made-in-China products.
• Merchandise Quality: If a product has this badge under it, it has passed strict quality tests by an authorized third-party company.
• Field Certification: A seller with this badge beside its name is a trustworthy and reliable brand that has gone through authenticity and service checks.
• Square Trade: US buyers get an extended warranty for electronic products that have this badge under them.
• Premium Merchant: Sellers with excellent customer service and high-quality products.
• Top Merchant: A premium merchant having high annual sales with mostly positive customer reviews.

Note that some icon designs on DHgate might have been changed and not look exactly like the image above.

How To Start Dropshipping From DHgate

Here are 12 steps you need to start dropshipping from DHgate successfully.

1. Create A DHgate Account

The first step is to create a DHgate account, allowing you to fulfill your dropshipping orders later. You also get access to your purchased history or other member benefits.

On the DHgate homepage, hover your mouse over the account icon and click Join Free. The platform lets you register with your email address, Google account, or Facebook account.

After registering, DHgate will email you a confirmation link. You will need to check your mailbox and click on this link to verify your account. And, that’s all you have to do.

2. Sign Up With MyyShop Dropshipping

MyyShop is the official DHgate partner SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) application. Besides the ability to import and fulfill DHgate products, it also allows you to access a directory of verified manufacturers that offers high-quality DHgate products with fast shipping times. MyyShop claims to have more than 60% of products ready to ship from the US and European warehouses.

Additionally, the MyyShop’s buyer protection program guarantees you a 100% refund or replacement of orders without returning items if the following conditions are met:

• A maximum order value of $15 (shipping cost included).
• Within 14 days of package delivery.
• Customers are not satisfied with the items after receiving them.
• Each account can only demand the service for 5% of the total order quantity.

To sign up with MyyShop, go to the MyyShop dropshipping homepage and click Sign Up at the top-right hand corner.

Fill in all the necessary information, including your email address, phone, and password. Then, click Get Started.

After that, MyyShop will ask you a few questions related to your favorite categories and eCommerce platforms. This is just to help the app recommend and personalize your dashboard. You’ll still have access to all features MyyShop has to offer.

If everything works correctly, you will be able to access the MyyShop dropshipping dashboard.

3. Install MyyShop Dropshipping Chrome Extension

If you don’t find desired products in MyyShop’s curated directory, MyyShop dropshipping Chrome Extension allows you to import any DHGate item to your store with one click.

After clicking Add To Chrome to install it, you should see a green MyyShop icon on any DHgate product page.

4. Pick A Supported ECommerce Platform

You can integrate MyyShop with Shopify, eBay, Rakuten, Mercado Libre, or even create a MyyShop store to start dropshipping DHgate products.

However, we still think Shopify is the best option. The reason is that the platform is easy to use, fast to set up, stable, and effortless to scale up.

Moreover, Shopify provides you with 100+ themes to design a beautiful and unique dropshipping store. Furthermore, the app market of 4200+ apps allows you to extend your store functionality to cater to all of your business needs.

For more information on creating a Shopify account as well as dropshipping with this platform, check out The complete guide to Shopify dropshipping.

5. Connect The Two Platforms

To integrate MyyShop with Shopify, go to the My Shop tab of your MyyShop dashboard. Then, click the Add your store now button next to the Shopify option.

You will be prompted with a setup popup. Fill in a custom nickname for internal use in MyyShop and your exact Shopify store URL.

After clicking Connect, MyyShop will redirect you to your Shopify dashboard to finish the setup process. If everything works correctly, you will see your Shopify account with an active status inside the My Shop tab.

6. Set Up Pricing, Publishing, And Automatic Rules

Before adding DHgate products to your Shopify store, setting up rules will allow for a faster and smoother importing experience.

The first one is pricing rules. To configure them, click the setting icon at the top-right hand corner of your MyyShop dashboard and select Pricing Rules.

We recommend setting the Sale Price Multiplier to 2.5 and Compared Price Multiplier to 3. They’re standard pricing practices considering all of the advertising and operating costs you will have to spend.

Note that this merely works as a general guideline to help you price your DHgate dropshipping products faster. You can always alter individual item prices when importing them to your store.

For the Assign Cents and Assign Compared At Cents settings, you can set both of them to 99. MyyShop will look at that number to form the cent value of your product price. For instance, a DHgate item costing $2.7 will automatically be assigned at $6.99 when adding to your import list ($2.7 * 2.5 = $6.75, then round up to $6.99).

The next one is publishing and auto updates rules. On the same page, click on the Settings tab.

You can turn on Set new products as published to make your products instantly visible on your Shopify storefront after importing or turn it off to publish products manually.

For the Auto Updates section, we recommend setting When product is no longer available and When variant is no longer available to Do Nothing. The reason is that the Unpublish Product and Remove Variant options will unpublish items or remove product variants from your Shopify storefront, which could affect Shopify SEO. The best action here is to set the quantity to zero to prevent customers from ordering out-of-stock products or find new suppliers for those.

Other settings are Do Nothing for When the cost changes and Update Automatically for When inventory changes. You should also turn on Notify Me to let MyyShop send notifications if there are any product status changes.

7. Find Winning DHgate Products To Dropship

To start finding winning dropshipping products on DHgate, just enter any keyword related to your favorite dropshipping niches in the search field. Here, we’ll use “jewelry” as an example.

Click on Bestselling to sort all products by the number of transactions. Doing this will help you quickly figure out the most popular items in the niche.

We recommend you choose the first few top-selling products to dropship. The reason is that there’s already proof for their demand. Furthermore, DHgate is not as popular as AliExpress. So, you don’t really need to worry too much about saturation and competition.

Additionally, it’s a great idea to sort products based on Customer Reviews or Superior Suppliers to see if there’re any other potential products.

Another method is to filter products by Sponsor. It indicates that the sellers have paid DHgate to be featured on the search results, essentially meaning that they have great products and take their business more seriously.

8. Check DHgate Product Quality

To make sure that you find a great dropshipping product from a reliable seller with fast shipping, there’re some criteria to keep in mind:

• The seller has been active on the platform for at least 1 year.
• The seller has at least 95% positive feedback.
• Badges next to the seller’s name, such as Recommended Seller, Top Selected Supplier, or Top Merchant.
• All service scores from the seller are above average.
• The seller has at least 500 total transactions (Click on the seller’s name to visit their profile to check).
• The product has at least 10 real photo reviews.
• The product has at least 10 transactions.
• The minimum order quantity of the product is 1.
• The on-time delivery duration of the product is within 30 days (a shorter duration is preferable but hard to find).

Sometimes you will see products with fewer transactions than reviews, which happens because some sellers use fake reviews to boost their DHgate rankings. This is not necessarily a bad sign, but you should investigate the review section more carefully to look for real reviews and avoid being scammed.

It’s important to note that there’re many good products and sellers that don’t fit all the criteria above. In these cases, it depends on you to decide and take the risk.

You can also visit this link on Trusted Seller List for a record of good suppliers that provide quality products with great potential.

9. Import Products To Your Store

To import a DHGate product to your Shopify dropshipping store, the first step is to add it to your MyyShop’s import list.

For products in MyyShop’s curated category, simply click Add To Import List. For other items on the DHgate website, click on the MyyShop Chrome extension icon on their product page.

Next, change the product’s title, description, variants, prices, and images inside the Import List tab if necessary. When done, click Push To Store to import it to your Shopify store.

It’s important to also double-check the My Products tab as well as your store’s catalog to ensure the product has been pushed to Shopify successfully.

10. Fulfill Your DHgate Dropshipping Orders

When customers order DHgate products on your Shopify dropshipping store, they will appear inside the My Orders tab.

To start fulfilling an order, click Order Product on the right side above it. MyyShop will direct you to DHgate’s checkout page and automatically fill in your customer information to help you finish the order quickly.

We recommend double-checking your customer shipping address, product details, and shipping methods.

Another important thing to do is to add a remark to the seller saying that “I’m dropshipping. Please DO NOT put any invoices, QR codes, promotions, or your brand name logo in the shipments. Please ship as soon as possible for repeat business. Thank you!”

The seller will look at the message and won’t put their branding on the shipping package.

Finally, choose a payment method and click Confirm To Pay to finish the order process.

After that, your dropshipping order in MyyShop will change from To Order to In Processing.

11. Update Your DHgate Order Tracking Number

Once the seller starts shipping your DHgate dropshipping order, MyyShop will automatically update its tracking number. In case there’s a delay, you can go to the My Orders tab and manually click on the Get Tracking Number button beside each order.

Additionally, MyyShop will change the order status from In Processing to Shipped and mark the Shopify order status as Fulfilled.

12. Track DHgate Packages

As we have mentioned, DHgate packages can be tracked through 17tracks, Parcel Apps, or Track24. However, it wouldn’t make a good user experience directing your customers to these third-party pages.

A method to solve this problem is to create a custom HTML order tracking page for Shopify to let customers track their orders right on your site.

Another way is to install an app like ParcelPanel, AfterShip, TrackingMore, or ShipWay, which will help you quickly integrate a custom branded order tracking page into your Shopify store.

Other Apps To Dropship From DHgate

Besides MyyShop, these 2 apps can also help you dropship from DHgate.

1. Importify

Importify helps you find and import products from various marketplaces into your dropshipping store with one click.

They include AliExpress, DHgate, Alibaba, Amazon, Etsy, Chinabrands, Banggood, CJdropshipping, Taobao, 1988, Wallmart, and many more.

Apart from Shopify, the app supports integration with Wix, WooCommerce, and Jumpseller.

Other advanced Importify features are:

• Spy on other Shopify dropshipping stores to see their winning products.
• Create pricing rules.
• Customize product titles, descriptions, images, variants, and pricing before publishing.
• Semi-automate order fulfillment for AliExpress, Amazon, and Dhgate.
• Map new suppliers for products.
• Auto-assign products to your store collections.
• Split variants into separated products.
• Connect existing products on your store to Importify to manage all items in one place.
• Import a Shopify store data to another Shopify store.

Importify is quite expensive, pricing starting from $14.95/month.

2. Aliexpress Dropshipping & More

Similar to Importify, AliExpress Dropshipping & More also supports dropshipping from a wide variety of marketplaces, including Aliexpress, Dhgate, Alibaba, Amazon, Banggood, Bonanza, Dealsextreme, Ebay, Gearbest, Sammydress, Lightinthebox, Miniinthebox, Overstock, Target, Trendsgal, Tomtop, Tmart, Wish, Walmart, etc.

Here’re other noteworthy features the app provides:

• Search AliExpress products within the app and import them with one click.
• ePacket shipping filtering.
• Automatic pricing rules.
• Auto-update inventory.

AliExpress Dropshipping & More pricing starts from $5/month.

Apps To Import DHgate Reviews

Reviews can significantly boost the trustworthiness of your eCommerce store and increase your conversion rate. In one study, researchers found that shoppers are 270% more likely to purchase products with as few as five reviews. Therefore, it’s a must that you have reviews for your dropshipping products.

1. Ryviu

Ryviu is one of the best Shopify apps to import DHgate reviews to your dropshipping store. Then, it displays those reviews in a beautiful and SEO-friendly rating widget. You also have the ability to let customers leave a review on your online store.

Here’re other powerful Ryviu features:

• Photo reviews.
• A wide variety of themes and designs to customize.
• Show prominent reviews and review carousel widgets on any store page.
• Integrate Google Rich Snippets to display product reviews in search results.
• Besides DHgate, you can import reviews from AliExpress, Amazon, or Etsy.
• Export reviews into CSV files.
• Send review request emails after orders have been fulfilled.
• Provide an advanced email template editor.

Ryviu is free up to 20 imported reviews for each of the first 50 products. Pricing plans start from $4.99/month.

2. Editorify

Another app to import DHgate reviews into your Shopify dropshipping store is Editorify. This app is developed by the same company that creates Importify.

Some noteworthy features of Editorify are:

• Allow customers to write reviews manually.
• Filtering reviews to choose which ones to display.
• Keyword blacklist to hide unwanted reviews.
• Import reviews from AliExpress, Etsy, and more.

Editorify is free up to 3 reviews per product and 25 imported reviews from AliExpress. Pricing plans start from $9.95/month.

A Tip To Save Money When Dropshipping From DHgate

LetyShops is one of the best dropshipping Chrome extensions, allowing you to get cashback up to 7.5% when dropshipping from DHgate.

After installing, go to DHgate and click Activate Cashback to turn on the extension.

If the LetyShops icon in the upper right corner of your browser is green, the service is activated. If it’s red, reload DHgate and try again.

And, that’s all. Now, you can fulfill your DHgate dropshipping orders like normal and get a percentage of your money back to your personal LetyShops account, which you can withdraw whenever you like.

Tips To Source DHgate Products To Scale Your Dropshipping Business

There aren’t any trustworthy services on the internet that provide reliable solutions to source DHgate products in large quantities. Therefore, if you want to scale your DHgate dropshipping business, you have to contact DHgate sellers on your own and ask them to source products in advance.

To start contacting a seller, click on their name and select either Chat or Message.

Here’s a quick template you can use:

Another method is to use Alitools Shopping Assistant to try finding the same products on AliExpress and work with CJDropshipping to source them.

DHgate Alternatives For Dropshipping

Below are the 7 big alternative marketplaces to DHgate to find low-cost products to start dropshipping.

1. AliExpress

Founded in 2010, AliExpress is the largest Chinese B2C international eCommerce website on the internet. The platform has over 100+ million products of 200,000+ sellers in every category at low prices and helps you deliver them to 200+ countries globally.

AliExpress is also the most popular marketplace among dropshippers and is heavily supported by Shopify with the help of third-party Shopify dropshipping apps like Modalyst, Oberlo, DSers, Topdser, or Dropified.

You can pay for AliExpress goods using 20+ payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, Wire Transfer, Paypal, AliExpress Pocket, etc.

2. CJDropshipping

Established in 2014, CJDropshipping is the best dropshipping service to help you source any product from AliExpress, 1688, Tabbao, and many other Chinese marketplaces.

Providing a team of 1,114 professionals and 200+ warehouses worldwide from China, the USA, Germany to Britain, Australia, and France, CJDropshipping makes it easy for you to scale your dropshipping business without worrying about running out of stocks or long shipping times.

The platform also lists products at lower prices than AliExpress, allowing you to make even bigger profits. Additionally, it allows you to brand your dropshipping business by shipping your products with custom packaging.

Similar to DHgate and AliExpress, you can pay for CJ dropshipping goods using Paypal, bank wire transfer, credit card, Payoneer, Payssion, and Midtrans.

3. Banggood

Banggood is an alternative to DHgate that focuses on high-quality goods. With a network of trusted suppliers in 100+ Chinese regions, 37+ overseas warehouses, and an efficient supply chain, it’s able to keep the cost low and still provide relatively fast shipping to 200+ countries globally.

Currently, Banggood accepts 40 different secure payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, RuPay, UPI Payment, KONBINI, Multibanco, Paypal, Klarna, etc.

By becoming a Bangood’s dropshipping partner, you gain a 5% – 20% discount on most items. The program has no membership fee and offers 24-hour customer service.

4. ChinaBrands

Chinabrands links you to 5,000+ reliable retailers, suppliers, and manufacturers to provide you with 10,000+ high-quality products at wholesale pricing. Additionally, it cooperates with 400+ trustworthy logistics channels to ship 95% of orders within 24 hours to 200+ countries worldwide.

To pay for Chinabrands’ products, you can use Paypal, Payoneer, wire transfers, and CB Wallet.

Note: ChinaBrands seems to be shut down at the moment.

5. Tomtop (Quarkscm)

The next alternative dropshipping platform to DHgate is Tomtop (or Quarkscm – an exclusive dropshipping website under Tomtop).

Established in 2004, Tomtop offers a diverse catalog of products specializing in video games, computer accessories, mobile phone accessories, clothing & jewelry, home & garden, car accessories, and RC models. It has also been verified as a Gold and recommended Alibaba supplier since 2006.

Dropshipping with Tomtop brings you great advantages such as high-quality products, fast shipping times, a money-back guarantee program within 45 days, and 1-year repair warranty.

Tomtop accepts various payment methods, including PayPal, credit cards, wire transfers, BOLETO, and QIWI.

6. Gearbest

If you’re interested in dropshipping premium electronic devices and gadgets, Gearbest is a great help.

Gearbest is a company under the renowned Chinese cross-border enterprise Globalegrow. All of the suppliers and products on the platform have gone through a strict selection process and comprehensive quality control to ensure authenticity.

As of now, Gearbest is the house for 5,000 famous Chinese brands and top suppliers. Some famous ones you might be familiar with are Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Huawei.

The platform provides over 40 global payment methods with a risk control system to ensure payment security.

7. Alibaba

The final alternative to DHgate dropshipping we’d like to introduce is Alibaba. Many people often see it as a wholesale B2B platform. However, with the help of Syncee or Modalyst, you can start real Alibaba dropshipping with no minimum order requirement (no MOQ).

Launched in 1999, Alibaba.com is the number one platform for global wholesale trade, providing millions of products in over 40+ different major categories. Buyers can go to the website, request quotations from any supplier in minutes, and pay for orders in a secure trade assurance manner.

DHgate Dropshipping – Conclusion

If you’re tired of AliExpress, DHgate is a great alternative for dropshipping. The platform provides many high-quality products from reliable sellers with fast shipping times. Moreover, it has a great buyer protection program and good customer service. On top of that, DHgate is not as popular as AliExpress among dropshippers, effectively reducing product saturation and competition.

To start dropshipping from DHgate, you can use MyyShop, Importify, or AliExpress Dropshipping & More. Also, remember to use LetyShops to get cashback and re-invest into growing your business.