When we looking for target small business who dropshipping wholesale from 1688 Taobao we  saw lots of people who post on facebook or quora as well as other social platforms want to dropship wholesale from 1688 directly without any agent service to save cost. How to dropship wholesale from 1688 without agent? How the 1688 agent service could help you save cost dropship wholesale from 1688 Taobao? Why mostly business from overseas dropship wholesale from 1688 with agent service? We will discuss the 3 questions in this article and we hope you can get a more comprehensive view on how to effectively dropshipping wholesale from 1688 Taobao.

How to dropship wholesale from 1688 without agent?

The answer is yes you can absolutely dropship wholesale from 1688 taobao without agent service along with Alibaba group started to open the 2 platforms to the overseas market. However, when you dropship from 1688 taobao you are usually face 5 big issues such as register, language, payment, shipping and aftersale.

How to register on 1688 Taobao. It is relatively easy to register 1688 taobao for west countries, you will only need to register with your phone and activate with your credit card, you can google 1688 taobao register tutorial then operate step by step. However, there are many people in overseas can register but failed to activate the account with credit card, in this case the payment part will be an issue;

How to communicate with 1688 suppliers. Since 1688 taobao are in Chinese language, and mostly supplier customer service speak Chinese only, if you do not know Chinese well, you can try google translate or other translation tools when you sourcing products on 1688 and confirm product price details with suppliers, it is relatively easy;

How to place order on 1688 taobao. Once you select the right products and confirmed the product details with suppliers you can add them in the shopping cart, on taobao you can pay with credit card direclty, however, on 1688 very few suppliers support international credit card, many people who want to pay directly may stuck this step, there are usually 2 ways, the first one is to apply one chinese bank card when you are in China and topup money on the card, connect the bank account with Alipay account to pay online, another is to ask your Chinese friends to help you topup your Alipay account directly so you can pay on 1688(based on our expirence, not all people could pay sucessfully). If you are import from 1688 regularly and in massive amount, you can register a Hongkong company to pay on 1688, you can google the procedure in details.

How to Ship from 1688 to EU USA. Here comes the most difficult part as 1688 platform mainly support shipping and tracking in China, it means when you pay you can only leave chinese address, for example, if you are dropshipping from 1688 to USA, when you place order you can only leave a chinese address with your friends or chinese shipping forwarder warehouse address. Once they received the packages, they will help you consolidate and ship to USA.

How to deal with aftersale on 1688. The main reason people like 1688 platform is the price and moq is relatively low, for example, when you sourcing a women dress on 1688, the same photo style price might range from $3 to $15 with multiple suppliers, people who stick to low price might prefer low price supplier better, once the clients received package, there will be lots of aftersale, however, 1688 taobao platform only offer 10 days free return & exchange policy, once the client return to China, the time is far more than 10 days, and the supplier wont agree for free exchange.

Thus if you need to dropship from 1688 without agent, you can register and topup Alipay for small orders, basically no problem, if you need to large wholesale from China, you can setup a trading company in China with your partners who help you in charge of the purchasing and shipping from factory to save cost, it is also a good idea.

Why mostly small business dropship wholesale via 1688 agent service?

Due to the language, payment, shipping and aftersale issues which might cause extra time cost and aftersale cost, lots of small business prefer 1688 agent service to help them deal with the purchasing and shipping to save time and cost with small parts of commissions. Lets take a look how ShipAnt agent service help you dropshipping wholesale from 1688 to help you save time and money.

 

1> Sourcing. We can help you source online and local Guangzhou wholesale market and negotiate with factories about the price, sample, material, producing time, workmanship as well as the payment terms;

2> QC. our warehouse have our own QC team and standard to help you reduce the flaws and other quality issues caused the aftersale;

3> Label barcode. If you have more than 100 skus, we can help you match sku on your store and print barcode to stick on the packaging, if you bulky wholesale for Amazon, ShipAnt could also help you doing the prep label service before consolidate ship to amazon FBA warehouse;

4> Repacking. All the clothing after QC will be repacked and stick barcode for warehousing;

5> Inventory management. We can help you manage your inventory after scanned the barcode for each product on our ERP system and sync to Shopify if you sell on it;

6> Warehousing. We have 800 square meters warehouse available to help you stock in Guangzhou and ship to EU USA warehouse, FBA or end users;

7> Custom label packaging. We can help you custom label tag packaging coupon card thanks letters to help you brand on the market;

8> Pick pack. We can help you fulfill orders directly to end users worldwide;

9> Shipping service. 5 to 10 business days standard shipping and 4 to 7 business prior shipping service, or bulky shipping via air sea train truck to eu usa available, stable and cost effective;

10> Aftersale. Guaranteed compensation policy for package lost during shipping;

11> Fluent english speaking. As a 15+ years foreign trade experience, we can talk face to face in English, no any language barriers.

Compared to dropshipping directly from 1688 taobao, the professional dropshipping agent service classify the dropshipping requirements into more flexible and personalized service to help ecommerce sellers save money and time dropshipping from 1688.

Pros and Cons dropshipping from 1688 directly VS dropshiping from 1688 agent

Although dropshipping from 1688 directly could help you save commission cost, it doesnt necessary mean your total cost can be reduced compared to the after sale cost and time spent, thus we should calculate the average order cost on dropshipping directly versus agent service, then you will have a brief idea.

Pros dropshipping from 1688 directly

1> Cost transparent. When you dropship from 1688 directly, the product cost, shipping cost are transparent, no hidden fees;

2>No commissions or service fee. If you dropship from 1688 directly instead of apply 1688 dropshipping agent service, the commissions or service fee can be saved.

Cons Dropshipping from 1688 directly

1> Language issue. Although we can use google translate or other translator tools, sometimes the communicating with supplier customer service might be easily caused misunderstanding;

2>Payment issue. No matter you apply chinese bank card or topup alipay, the transaction amount is restricted due to the strict chinese bank money laundry laws; If you have large amount orders, the payment can be difficult and unsafty;

3> Shipping issue. Unlike Aliexpress, 1688 platform doesnt support overseas tracking, thus you will still need to find dropshipping agent or Chinese 3PL to help you fulfill orders with more stable and cost effective ways shipping from China to EU USA as well as other countries;

4>Aftersale issue. Due to the price difference are huge on 1688 for the same product, sometimes the cheap price product might have higher aftersale rates due to the quality issue, which cannot being return or refund.

Pros dropshipping from 1688 agent

1> Easy sourcing. You only need to send the product photos and target price for the dropshipping products, the 1688 dropshipping agent will help you find the best suppliers met your budget price, it saves your time to source and communicate with suppliers;

2>Competitive shipping rates. Since the 1688 dropshipping agent mainly ship ecommerce packages from China to EU USA, the shipping rates are cost effective than post and courier service;

3>Consolidate packing. If your orders from different 1688 suppliers, the 1688 agent could help you consolidate to ship to end users for better user experience;

4>Less aftersale rates. The 1688 agent could help you doing quality check in warehouse to reduce aftersale rates and exchange return flaw goods directly in China;

5> Unify packaging. No matter custom brand packaging or use plain packaging, the 1688 agent could help you remove different supplier info promotional cards for better user experience;

6>Keep you focus on store marketing. With all in one automated order fulfillment service, the 1688 agent could help you in charge all the order fulfillment works to keep you focus on store branding and marketing.

Cons of dropshipping from 1688 agent

1> Service fee. The dropshipping agent charges service fee for the service they provided, but all cost together should be similar to Aliexpress cost, if you have best seller products, the total cost might be lower as long as the products do not have large volume weight;

2>Mutual trust. Since the 1688 agent work likes your parter, it is very important that the 1688 agent you found are good at english communication, faithful, responsible and reliable, there are many scammers available online, and it takes your time to find a reliable 1688 agent to partner with.

According to the comparision of the pros cons of dropshipping from 1688 directly versus dropshipping agent service, both of them has their own advantages and disadvantages, in short, if you can figure out  all the issues dropshipping from 1688 and the total cost is cheaper than dropshipping via 1688 agent, you can dropship from 1688 directly without agent service, if the total cost and time spent are higher than 1688 dropshipping agent then it is useless to dropshipping directly from 1688, switch to 1688 dropshipping agent service could help you focus on store marketing and product selection.

What about wholesale from 1688 directly without agent service? It is the same rule, you can compare the commission you paid for 1688 agent service compared to the time and cost do it yourself, if you think it is worthwhile to do it yourself, you can setup a trading company in China and do it yourself directly, else outsource them to 1688 agent would be much more easier with your budget price. Thus whether dropshipping wholesale from 1688 directly without agent or not, it is totally depends on your business scale, requirements and cost match or not. You are welcome to discuss with your ideas how to dropship wholeale from 1688.