AliExpress vs. Gearbest

General Overview

As we mentioned before, both AliExpress and Gearbest can be a great tool for online business owners. In this article we take on their perspective and put each marketplace under the magnifying glass to see how they can be used to maximize your profits.

Both AliExpress and Gearbest offer dropshipping services, which may be particularly attractive to eCommerce entrepreneurs. In case you haven’t heard of it before, dropshipping is where you sell items online, but when a customer places an order, the supplier of that product will fulfill it on your behalf, meaning you don’t have to store, pack and ship out the items you sell.

As you can imagine, this saves you a lot of time and additional cost, essentially removing you as a middle man from the selling process and meaning you can pocket a decent profit while skipping part of the operational functioning of the business.

Another selling method is purchasing items in wholesale to resell. Usually with this method you can enjoy higher profit margins than you would with dropshipping. Gearbest offers wholesale pricing for some products, which we will look at further on.

To start, we have come up with a brief comparison table:

General Overview	AliExpress	Gearbest
Online Marketplace
Retail
Dropshipping
Wholesale
Extensive Search Filters
Vetted Sellers
US Warehouse
Multiple Shipping Options
24/7 Customer Support

AliExpress

What is AliExpress for?

AliExpress is a direct-to-consumer marketplace where third party sellers retail products to global buyers. With a seemingly endless supply of products from all categories, it’s no surprise that online entrepreneurs are using this platform to find their next sellout products.

AliExpress, like Gearbest, cuts out ‘middlemen’ in product sourcing, meaning you can purchase items directly from their source - i.e. the supplier that manufactures them, rather than through secondary retailers. In large, this is why prices are cheaper than you would find elsewhere.

Many AliExpress suppliers are open to dropshipping arrangements, you just need to find a trending product to sell and go from there.

Take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of AliExpress below. In terms of price and selection, AliExpress outperforms Gearbest, but doesn’t do so well for quality consistency or shipping times.

Advantages of AliExpress

• Cheapest products: We challenge you to find cheaper products on the internet (if you do, please let us know where!)
• Huge selection: With a virtually endless range of products, there are many candidates for your next bestselling product.
• Extensive search filters: With a generous range of search filters, AliExpress makes it easier to discover the products you want among the millions.
• Non-vetted suppliers: AliExpress does not vet their sellers, which means that you need to be careful when selecting suppliers to work with. We recommend ordering product samples first to check for quality.
• Multiple shipping options: Most suppliers offer a range of shipping options, including faster carriers and various price points.
• No order bundling: There is no way to bundle orders with more than one product, unless those products have the same supplier. This means your customer will receive separate packages for orders with more than one item and you will have to pay for multiple shipping fees.
• Long shipping times: AliExpress states that shipping can take 15 - 45 days. Because this excludes weekends, your customers could be waiting 60 days in total for delivery (that’s 2 months!)
• Lengthy returns process: As a dropshipper, you will be in charge of handling your returns. This means your customer will need to ship their return to you before you can then ship it back to your AliExpress supplier. This process can be lengthy.
• Buyer Protection: AliExpress offers 60 day buyer protection, where you can apply for a refund if your customers order doesn’t show up in this timeframe - although, this is best avoided!

Disadvantages of AliExpress

• Non-vetted suppliers: AliExpress does not vet their sellers, which means that you need to be careful when selecting suppliers to work with. We recommend ordering product samples first to check for quality.
• No order bundling: There is no way to bundle orders with more than one product, unless those products have the same supplier. This means your customer will receive separate packages for orders with more than one item and you will have to pay for multiple shipping fees.
• Long shipping times: AliExpress states that shipping can take 15 - 45 days. Because this excludes weekends, your customers could be waiting 60 days in total for delivery (that’s 2 months!)
• Lengthy returns process: As a dropshipper, you will be in charge of handling your returns. This means your customer will need to ship their return to you before you can then ship it back to your AliExpress supplier. This process can be lengthy.
• Potential language barrier: Communication can be difficult with some suppliers, especially for specific requirements.

Screenshots of AliExpress

Dropshipping on AliExpress

Many suppliers on AliExpress will dropship their products for you on request, but you will be in charge of manually requesting order fulfillment when they come through. That is on top of needing to load up individual product data and descriptions to the place where you sell your products online.

When you receive an item order, you will need to go onto AliExpress and purchase the item yourself but input your customer’s address. This can be a time consuming process if you are getting many daily orders.

To make your life easier, there are lots of tools out there that can be used in combination with AliExpress to help you easily import AliExpress products into your online store and get suppliers to fulfill orders when they come through, without having to manually purchase items on AliExpress each time an order comes through.

Tools such as SaleHoo Dropship work in combination with AliExpress by vetting millions of AliExpress products that can be easily imported into your online store. This can save you a lot of time finding reliable products that you know are going to be high quality.

You can also use tools like SaleHoo Dropship to automatically upload product information into your store, saving you the hassle of a manual input. On top of inventory and order management system features, using a dropshipping tool is a seriously worthwhile consideration if you want to grow your online business.

Gearbest

What is Gearbest for?

Gearbest is another Chinese marketplace serving the global market, dedicated to “providing high quality products and services through a professional rating system to select top suppliers and optimize the procurement of quality goods.”

Initially, it was primarily known as a place to purchase cheap electronics in wholesale, but it has since developed to be more resemblant to AliExpress, offering a far broader range of products categories, from appliances to toys, while retaining a strong focus on electronics. You can even find brand name products such as Huawei and Lenovo at great prices!

As a business owner you can use Gearbest to find eligible products to purchase in wholesale to resell or you can use Gearbest suppliers to dropship products, however, this process can be clunky, which we will look at in the Dropshipping on Gearbest section.

First, we take a look at the pros and cons of the platform. In particular, Gearbest outperforms AliExpress for the quality of their suppliers and shipping times.

Advantages of Gearbest

• Huge selection: Like AliExpress, Gearbest has a lot on offer which can make it a great place to source products to resell.
• Extensive search filters: You can narrow down your searches to easily identify the right product candidates.
• Vetted suppliers: Gearbest prioritises the quality of the items listed on their marketplace. This involves checking the production facilities, credit rating, product samples and the after-sales care of all suppliers who apply to sell on their site.
• Wholesale options: You are able to purchase some items in wholesale, benefiting from lower per-unit prices.
• Multiple warehouses: Gearbest has warehouses across the globe, including in the US. This usually means shorter shipping times for items in these warehouses.
• Average shipping times: Gearbest lists their average shipping times on their website. The average shipping time to the US (non-express) is 18 business days - typically better than AliExpress.
• Lengthy returns process: As a dropshipper, you will be in charge of handling your returns, not your supplier. This means your customer will need to ship their return to you before you can then ship it back to your supplier in China. With considerable shipping times, this process can be lengthy.
• Money-Back Guarantee: Gearbest offers a 45 day money back guarantee if your item is faulty or doesn’t arrive.
• Potential language barrier: Not all suppliers may have fantastic English, which could lead to communication difficulties.

Disadvantages of Gearbest

• No order bundling: There is no way to bundle orders with more than one product, unless those products have the same supplier. This means your customer will receive separate packages for orders with more than one item and you will have to pay for multiple shipping fees.
• Shipping restrictions: Not all items can be shipped worldwide. Not all products offer express shipping options, or even a choice of carrier.
• Lengthy returns process: As a dropshipper, you will be in charge of handling your returns, not your supplier. This means your customer will need to ship their return to you before you can then ship it back to your supplier in China. With considerable shipping times, this process can be lengthy.
• Potential language barrier: Not all suppliers may have fantastic English, which could lead to communication difficulties.

Screenshots of Gearbest

Dropshipping on Gearbest

Similarly to AliExpress, it is possible to dropship with Gearbest. First you will need to identify and add Gearbest products to your store. This can be a time consuming process when you have to upload product information and images manually for each item. This is again where a tool that can streamline this process comes in handy. With SaleHoo Dropship you can browse millions of pre-vetted products on AliExpress and upload them into your store to start dropshipping in just a few clicks.

If you do choose to use Gearbest dropshipping without a tool, then after a customer places an order with you, you will need to go onto Gearbest and purchase that product yourself, but put in the address of your customer. You also check a little box that says ‘Dropshipping’ with Gearbest but with AliExpress you can just ship it to your customer directly as if you were sending them a gift.

Top Alternatives

There are many other places to source items online, or to find dropshipping partners, whether from China, or other countries.

Check out our Related Articles below for some more online marketplace comparisons to see what’s out there.