Did you have hard time to source quality dropshipping supplier from 1688 Taobao? Are you looking for cheaper dropshipping cost than Aliexpress while faster delivery time?Have you worked with reliable Chinese dropshipping agent to dropship from China to worldwide countries? ShipAnt will share useful tips to help you find quality dropshipping supplier to help you dropship from China.

How to source quality dropshipping supplier from 1688

Although 1688 and Taobao are different platforms they are both belong to Ali group and share the same member system. Thus when you sourcing from 1688 Taobao you will only need to register one Alipay account/taobao account/1688 account to login the apps or websites. As for the Alipay/1688 register tutorial, as long as you have a valid credit card and phone number, you can easily register now, you can just google how to register Alipay/1688 account and follow tutorials step by step.

Once you logged in 1688 Taobao, there are usually 2 ways to source products, keywords and photo search, since both of them have millions of product listings, without accurate keywords it takes long time to source on 1688 Taobao, thus mostly users prefer to source via photo search and refine sourcing via keywords. Let’s take women yoga pants for example to source on 1688.

The number and arrows from the above photo when we sourcing from 1688 refers to the following:

1. Keywords search;

2. Photo search;

3. Product source from left to right are factories, suppliers, raw material factories;

4. Size;

5. patterns;

6. Female and neutral；

7. Stock inventory and preorder;

8. Season;

9. Advanced Filters；

10. Fitlers from left to right are sales, price, lowest price, highest price, moq and area;

11. From top to bottom are product title, features, price, sales qualitities/ amount, payment/shipping terms, re-purchase rates, 1688 member level and supplier company name;

When you sourcing from 1688 for specific products, photo search is the mostly popular way since there are millions of product listings, if you use photo search to source on 1688 the filter condition 3 to 9 usually no usage so we can ignore, 10 and 11 are the mostly important conditions when you sourcing on 1688.

How to source best seller products on 1688 if you are on the product selection period for your dropshipping business? If you are sourcing trending products on 1688, there are 2 ways for you to source the hot sale products, 1688 homepage and cross border best seller page which also called 1688 global.

The above photo is the 1688 home page, the 6 parts are:

1. Keywords search, you can search products and factory name there;

2. Photos search;

3. Best seller products channel for cross border ecommerce;

4. Product categories;

5. Recommend products based on your history search, best sellers, bags, kitchen, packaging, sports outdoor, home appliance, men clothing, toys, digitals, underware, women clothing, home decorating, lights etc. you can click to extend more product categories;

6. Product title, price, sales quantites, payment shipping terms, repurchase rates and supplier company name.

How to source best seller products on 1688 global?

In the 1688 global page, there are many best seller lists in different product categories and markets, you can check one by one via the following instructions:

1.  Global market. You can click the drop-down menu to check different country market product best seller list;

2. Product categories. It lists all the consumer goods categories and Level 2，Level 3 sub-directories for you to easily source the niche products best seller list;

3. It listed Southeast countries and product categories; If you are shopee, lazada and tiktok sellers on southeast Asia countries, this country list and product categories list are useful for you;

4. Best seller list and trending product list on the case bag categories, you can select different categories based on your store to check the best seller list and trending product list;

5. The photo lists children fashion best seller list on Vietnam market, you can also check also check other countries based on your target market;

6. Product categories, countries and supplier qualification filter;

7. Product title, price, sales quantities, shipping terms and payment terms, repurchase rates, 1688 membership level and supplier company;

In the 1688 global page, you can easily check the best seller products on different goods categories in different countries, you can easily source the products for your dropshipping business.

Although we introduced how to source quality products and best seller products on 1688, there are still issues affect your dropshipping business.

Top5 issues sourcing from 1688

As you can see from the photos above, they are in Chinese, that’s the biggest issues sourcing on 1688.

No.1 issue, language issue sourcing from 1688

When you google how to sourcing from 1688, you can always saw the related search terms how to translate 1688 into English or other language, thus language issues is the no.1 issues when we sourcing from 1688. It is not only affect the product research and filter products suppliers, but also affect the communication with customer service for product info such as price, stock, shipping time and aftersale etc.

No.2 issue, import product info from 1688 to Shopify and other platforms

When you found the right products or suppliers, mostly of you can only import the product info manually, How to import products from 1688 to Shopify? Currently 1688 released its API to developers, in the past, mostly of our clients can only import from Aliexpress to Shopify as 1688 doesnt open API to clients overseas, now there are different ways to import products from 1688 to Shopify, of course you need to be good at Chinese and programming;

No.3 issue, payment issue on 1688

Although you can register Alipay account with your international credit card, it doesnt work on 1688, it means you cannot buy from 1688 directly with your credit card, you need to find people who help you topup your Alipay account or find Chinese sourcing agent to help you buy from 1688. If your company scale is big enough, you can register a Hongkong company to order from 1688 which is okay too;

No.4 issue, shipping issue

Since mostly of you are selling on Amazon and Shopify or etsy, you need to ship from 1688 to amazon or end users, while mostly 1688 suppliers cannot ship directly from China to overseas countries, you may need to find a Chinese 3PL to help you fulfill orders from China or help you pack and ship to overseas warehouse.

No.5 issue, Aftersale issue

There are tens or even hundreds of suppliers for the same products you sourcing on 1688 with different prices, mostly of them cannot keep the same material and quality while mostly sellers keen on the cheapest price the better rule, it might inevitably have quality issue which affects the return and refund rates on your store. The aftersale will be a big problem then since 1688 platforms only offer 7-day free return exchange service.

Thus if you want to dropship or bulkyship from 1688 you will need to solve the above 5 issues sourcing from 1688.

How to find a reliable 1688 sourcing agent

To save time and money sourcing from 1688, there are many ecommerce sellers partner with Chinese sourcing agent to solve the above top5 issues sourcing on 1688. How to find a reliable 1688 sourcing agent? Firstly you will need to know your requirements in detail, which means you will need to know what kind of role the sourcing agent should join in your business, let’s take etsy store for example:

Key skills required for this role include:

– Proficiency in Chinese language

– Knowledge of the Chinese Dropshipping market

– Familiarity with 1688 platform

– Excellent communication and negotiation skills

– Ability to work independently and meet deadlines

for the 1688 sourcing agent, you will be responsible for:

– Receiving orders from multiple Etsy Stores and communicating with suppliers on 1688

– Quality control

– Managing and fulfilling orders on 1688

– Ensuring timely delivery of products to customers

– Communicating with suppliers regarding order status and payment

– Maintaining accurate records of orders and customer information

Once you know what kind of 1688 sourcing agent is suitable for your business, then you can make a list of questions based on your concern to inquire different Chinese sourcing agent and compare with them to select the best one, if you do not know how to make the question list, you can check ShipAnt FAQ, there list all the questions being asked by our clients.

ShipAnt all in one service sourcing from 1688

ShipAnt is a Chinese 3PL located in Guangzhou since 2018, before 2020 it called 86Deal, we mainly help ecommerce sellers from Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, eBay, tiktok and woocommerce dropship and bulkyship from 1688 to worldwide countries.

ShipAnt all in one service include:

1.Sourcing purchasing. We can help you source from 1688 taobao and pinduoduo, filter quality suppliers via samples and price, taking photos and videos on samples once they arrived our warhouse, then negotiate with suppliers for bulky wholesale price based on your orders;

2.Quality inspection. We can help you check the flaws delivered to our warehouse, pick out them for exchange with supplier to ensure all goods in good condition shipping from China.

3.Manage inventory. Our ERP could integrate with amazon ebay shopify woocommerce tiktok to manage the inventory;

4. Barcode and label. We can help you barcode each product to ensure accurate and efficient order fulfillment in the warehouse;

5. Custom label packaging. No matter label, tag, flyer, coupon card, thanks letter or packaging can be customized based on your requirements;

6. Warehousing. We have 800 square meters warehouse in Guangzhou to help you stock goods before shipping to clients in worldwide countries, free of charge;

7. Automated order fulfillment. We can help you declare lower goods value, print shipping label and sync tracking to store automatically;

8. Competitive shipping rates via sea and air. No matter shipping to USA and CA, or ship to EU we can offer competitive shipping rates with 5 to 15 days standard shipping and 3 to 7 days prior shipping;

9. Guaranteed aftersale policy. We have compensation standard if the package lost or delayed;

Please check ShipAnt service page for more detail. You are welcome to inquire ShipAnt service if you need to sourcing from 1688.