DHGate - conflicting information

In Marc Ransoms Salehoo Newsletter which I received today via email, he talks about wholesalers in China: Here is the specific part of his email to which I refer -


A couple of the best suppliers are:

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Here are some important points to bear in mind when dealing with China:

- Worried about quality? Don't listen to the horror stories. As long as you spend time talking to your supplier, check their reputation on the SaleHoo forum, ask for a sample, and start with a small order first, you shouldn't have any problems.

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So, as a new Salehoo member, I thought I would check out DHGate, and to be honest, all I have found so far, are the horror stories that Marc mentions.

Even on their own webiste forum, there are many posts decrying DHGate as
"fraudsters and cheats" ... the link is here below:

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That got me a bit worried so I looked further and then found this forum quite quickly...

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Dug only a little further and realised that DHGate does not seem to be a supplier at all. It appears to be a third party organisation. It does not sell the products but is the "intermediary" between the supplier and the purchaser.

I won't go on listing all the "horror" and other stories.... you can find dozens of them quite easily yourselves if you do a simple Google search.

However, the point of all this rambling is that I have concluded from my reading that DHGate itself DOES have some suppliers with great bargains and many of the suppliers are legitimate with reasonably good trading practices.

How then Marc, do we as purchasers, sift through the enormous melee that is DHGate and pan out the baddies from the goodies?

Could Salehoo, rather than recommend DHGate generally, instead, refer to specific suppliers from the DHGate website as being reliable or not?
I know you have said that you need to spend time talking with the supplier and asking for samples, however, many of those unfortunate purchasers who have slammed DHGate, state that they did exactly that, and still had many problems.

I hope this post does not sound offensive.... it certainly is not meant to be. As a prospective purchaser from China I am keen to know as much as I can. ;)

Hi Olga,

I understand where you're at right now and it's good that you are being cautious in your dealings with Chinese suppliers. Your conclusions are spot on too!

Your suggestion regarding SaleHoo going through each seller on DH Gate is welcomed but may be difficult to realize. Why? I'm sure DH Gate adds new suppliers on a daily basis and there is no way of keeping tabs plus the total number of suppliers alone already make the task quite challenging :)

How then Marc, do we as purchasers, sift through the enormous melee that is DHGate and pan out the baddies from the goodies?

I would say RESEARCH is the answer to your question:) I'm sure many would have the same answer. The best way for you to find the good suppliers is by doing your research - checking for background info on that seller on 3rd party forums, contacting the supplier to get to know them better and doing a sample order to check on their products' quality. Also, another thing you may refer to are the reviews and feedback scores of each seller. Just remember do NOT buy anything branded!

I have collected a number of forum threads on DH Gate, hope you find the tips in the posts useful. You will also notice that we have a number of members who are happy with DH Gate suppliers (some of them even shares their supplier's name) -

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Hope this helps :)

Nine out of ten suppliers on DhGate could be considered bad suppliers. Your job is to weed out the bad ones and find the needle in the haystack. It is a major pain and takes some work and loss of money.

Nine out of ten suppliers on DhGate could be considered bad suppliers. Your job is to weed out the bad ones and find the needle in the haystack. It is a major pain and takes some work and loss of money.

Couldn't agree more with what planes just said :) So starting weeding!

The best of luck, cheers!