general sourcing / Buying guide
1688 dropshipping
1688 has no dropshipping function. Sellers ship to Chinese addresses, in bulk packaging, with no tracking your customer can use and no ability to leave your branding off.
What people call “1688 dropshipping” is really an agent holding your stock in a Chinese warehouse and shipping single units out as orders arrive. That works, but it is inventory, not dropshipping.
In this guide
Why direct dropshipping fails
- Sellers will not ship internationally, so there is no route from seller to customer.
- Wholesale packaging is bulk packaging — ten pieces in one bag, no retail box.
- Domestic tracking numbers do not resolve on international carriers.
- Lead times to Western customers run 15–40 days with no visibility.
The arrangement that does work
Buy a wholesale tier, hold it at an agent’s warehouse, and have them pick, pack and ship single units per order. You carry the inventory risk and get wholesale pricing plus per-order fulfilment.
This is how most successful 1688-based stores operate. It requires capital up front, which is exactly what dropshipping was supposed to avoid.
Costs to model before you commit
- Per-order pick and pack, typically a fixed fee per unit.
- Storage after the free period.
- Last-mile shipping per unit, which is where the margin usually goes.
- Dead stock — the risk you took on by buying a tier.
Questions & answers
Common questions
- Is 1688 cheaper than AliExpress for dropshipping?
- Per unit, substantially. Once per-order fulfilment and storage are added, the gap narrows and only holds at volume.
- Can I get custom packaging?
- Yes, but it is a separate order with its own minimum, usually in the hundreds or thousands of units.
Your next step
Have a link you want checked?
Send a 1688 or Taobao product link and you get back the specification in English, the supplier check, and the landed cost to your country before you commit to anything.
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