in 2025 Alibaba’s 1688 platform will launch a cross-border e-commerce platform – 1688overseas. With the launch of this platform, overseas local retailers (including online sellers, offline physical merchants, enterprises, etc.) can easily purchase source goods from China. The new platform “1688overseas” will continue to adhere to the B2B model, mainly targeting overseas small and medium-sized B-end buyers and local retailers. Referring to the successful experience of Temu, 1688overseas will launch a full-hosting service to help factory-type suppliers who lack cross-border experience to go overseas easily. Suppliers only need to prepare the goods to designated domestic warehouses, and subsequent global shipments, logistics distribution and other complex matters will be fully solved by the platform, greatly reducing the operating costs and risks of suppliers. 1688overseas will be launched as an independent overseas site of the 1688 platform, directly serving overseas B-end buyers, including small and medium-sized wholesalers, cross-border e-commerce sellers and local retailers. The platform plans to first be tested in Vietnam, Kazakhstan and global sites, and is expected to expand to 15 countries and regions by 2025.

About 1688 overseas

Positioning: Independent overseas site, directly serving overseas B-end buyers, becoming the “new entrance” of 1688’s internationalization strategy.
Target users: Overseas small and medium-sized B-end buyers, cross-border e-commerce sellers, local retailers.
Open sites: Vietnam, Kazakhstan and global sites for trial operation, plans to enter 15 countries and regions in 2025.
Sales threshold: Choice products that need to complete Alipay international account registration.
Shipping method: Sellers prepare goods to designated domestic warehouses, and the platform is responsible for global shipments.
Service functions: AI multi-language translation, product search traffic weighting, one store selling globally, etc.

1. Business model and competition

-Full hosting model: Similar to Temu, it aims to simplify seller operations and improve efficiency.

-Internal competition: There is competition with Alibaba International Station and AliExpress, but 1688overseas relies on 1688’s supply chain advantages and may attract more factory-type and industrial belt sellers.

2. Seller opportunities

-Supply chain advantages: 1688overseas inherits 1688’s supply chain integration capabilities to help factory-type sellers quickly enter cross-border e-commerce.

-Traffic and subsidies: New platforms are usually accompanied by free traffic and merchant subsidies in the early stage of their launch, providing cross-border sellers with opportunities to go overseas.

3. Future prospects

-Official launch: It is reported that 1688overseas may be officially launched in March 2025, but as of press time, Alibaba and 1688 have not yet issued relevant notices.

4. Target users

Overseas small and medium-sized B-end buyers, cross-border e-commerce sellers and local retailers.

5. Open sites

Vietnam, Kazakhstan and global sites are being tested, and plans to enter 15 overseas countries and regions by 2025.

1688overseas’ competitive advantages for dropshipping

From the perspective of model, 1688overseas is similar to fully managed platforms such as Temu, but it relies on 1688’s strong supply chain integration capabilities. This advantage may attract more factory-type sellers and industrial belt merchants to quickly enter the cross-border e-commerce field through the platform, further enrich the types of overseas goods, and may also intensify market competition.

In addition, the launch of new platforms is usually accompanied by a large amount of free traffic and merchant subsidies, which provides cross-border sellers with a rare opportunity to go overseas.

As early as March 2017, 1688 launched its cross-border exclusive supply business, which also marked the beginning of 1688’s involvement in the cross-border e-commerce field.

1688’s cross-border exclusive supply business mainly provides spot procurement services for cross-border e-commerce sellers, becoming a connector between “domestic source factories” and “Amazon, Lazada, AliExpress and other platform sellers”.

According to reports, from January to November 2023, the number of cross-border registered buyers of 1688 increased by 76% year-on-year, the number of cross-border registered buyers exceeded 5.94 million, the number of cross-border dynamic sales exceeded 130 million, and the scale of cross-border procurement of the platform was nearly 200 billion yuan.

At the same time, the GMV of the cross-border business of the 1688 platform continued to grow, and more than 200 billion yuan of GMV came from overseas small B purchases.

These data show the strength of 1688 in its overseas development. More importantly, 1688 is continuing to increase its investment in overseas business.

It is reported that 1688 hopes to connect the pallets to various e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Lazada, as well as SaaS e-commerce and community e-commerce through digital technology, so as to achieve one-click distribution.

At the same time, 1688 has successfully connected to the DeepSeek big model. In the cross-border e-commerce business scenario, AI can automatically translate product information to help merchants expand overseas markets.

Data shows that as of December 2023, the number of 1688 buyer members reached 200 million, the number of Class B buyers reached 65 million, the annual transaction volume reached 800 billion yuan, the number of annual moving goods reached 150 million, there were 100 production areas with a scale of 10 billion yuan, and 1 million source manufacturers.

At present, the 1688 platform has deeply rooted in 177 industrial belts, covering 40 cities in China, and has a huge source manufacturer resource.

The number of buyers continues to grow. At present, the number of buyers has grown to 96 million, and the number of paying buyer members has exceeded 10 million, showing strong market appeal.

1688overseas dropshipping VS Alibaba&AliExpress dropshipping

Although 1688overseas is regarded as an important step in Alibaba’s internationalization strategy, the competition between it and existing platforms such as Alibaba International Station and AliExpress cannot be ignored. How to find a balance between internal resource allocation and business collaboration will be a key issue that Alibaba needs to solve in the future.

It is reported that 1688overseas may be officially launched in March 2025, but as of now, Alibaba and 1688 have not issued any relevant notice. ShipAnt will continue to pay attention to the dynamics of this platform and provide sellers with the latest interpretation and operational suggestions.

With the launch of 1688overseas, Alibaba’s international layout has taken another step forward. For cross-border sellers, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Honglian Cross-border recommends that sellers can deploy on multiple platforms, and continue to deepen their presence on platforms such as Alibaba International Station and AliExpress in addition to 1688overseas to diversify risks.

In the face of increasingly fierce market competition, sellers need to flexibly adjust their strategies, seize platform dividends, and enhance their own competitiveness in order to remain invincible in the wave of globalization.

1688 overseas vs Temu which is better for dropshipping

1688 Overseas, which will directly serve overseas small and medium-sized B-end buyers, local retailers, and even cross-border e-commerce sellers. It is worth mentioning that 1688 Overseas will also learn from the successful experience of TEMU and launch a full-hosting model. There are reports that 1688 intends to officially announce 1688 Overseas in March, which will undoubtedly bring competitive pressure to TEMU. Therefore, ShipAnt also brings you a comparison between 1688 Overseas and TEMU today!

1. 1688 Overseas VS TEMU platform positioning 1688 Overseas 1. B2B core positioning: directly serve overseas small and medium-sized B-end buyers (such as local retailers, cross-border e-commerce sellers), relying on 1688’s domestic supply chain advantages to provide source factory direct supply of goods.

2. Regional layout: initially test the waters in markets such as Vietnam and Kazakhstan, and plan to expand to 15 countries and regions in 2025, focusing on emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

3. Model features: adopting a full-hosting model (similar to TEMU), sellers only need to prepare goods to domestic warehouses, and the platform is responsible for global logistics and operations, lowering the cross-border threshold for factory-type sellers.

TEMU

1. B2C low-price strategy: focusing on C-end consumers, seizing the sinking market in Europe and the United States with the “extremely low price + social fission” model. In 2025, the user scale will be close to 91% of Amazon, covering more than 80 countries.

2. Full category expansion: extending from clothing and daily necessities to high-unit-price categories such as home appliances, trying to break the “low price and low quality” label, but progress is slow. 2. 1688 Overseas VS TEMU model comparison

1688 Overseas VS TEMU impact and opportunities 1688 Overseas

1. The supply advantage of Chinese white-label sellers may be diluted, and overseas buyers can directly purchase the same low-priced products, intensifying price competition.

2. It poses a threat to the four cross-border dragons (such as TEMU, SHEIN, and TikTok e-commerce), especially the supply chain integration capabilities that may divert TEMU’s factory-type sellers. It forms internal competition with Alibaba International Station and AliExpress, but attracts sellers from industrial belts with its supply chain advantages.

3. Factory-type sellers can directly reach overseas B-end customers through the platform, reduce the number of middlemen, and expand the order scale.

TEMU

1. The bidding mechanism leads to profit compression, strict quality inspection (goods that do not match the instructions may be fined), and sellers need to bear the risks of logistics problems.

2. It is suitable for sellers with low-cost sources and large-scale production capabilities, and can quickly place orders with the help of platform traffic, especially for daily consumer goods.

3. It quickly occupied the European and American markets with a low-price strategy, but faced compliance pressure (such as the EU VAT reform) and supply chain stability challenges. It needs to deal with the blow of 1688 Overseas, especially the direct competition from the B-end supply chain.

For overseas sellers on Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, Woocommerce, eBay and other platforms 1688 overseas is undoubtly a great news for cheaper product price and quality suppliers on the dropshipping business compared to dropship from Alibaba or Aliexpress. If you are new to 1688 dropshipping and do not know how to dropship from 1688, you are welcome to inquire ShipAnt 1688 dropshipping agent service.