Last Updated on March 5, 2024
Dropshipping has grown over the years to become one of the most popular retail fulfillment methods. According to Market Data Forecast, the global dropshipping market was estimated at $128 billion in 2020. Findings from the same research body indicate that the industry may grow at an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% from 2021 to 2025.
But despite being a fairly bullish market, dropshipping isn’t without its pitfalls. Among the commonly reported challenges by budding dropshippers pertains to finding a reliable supplier.
If you’ve been mulling over launching a dropshipping business but are yet to settle on the right supplier, this article is for you. Read on as we uncover the 15 most reputable dropshipping suppliers in 2023 and how they made the list. But first, let’s start by understanding what this business model entails.
What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where businesses sell products without maintaining actual inventories.
A dropshipper simply sets up an e-commerce website and markets certain products as their own. When a buyer places an order, the retailer transfers such orders to a third party. This could be a manufacturer, wholesaler, or another retailer. The third-party entity processes the received orders and then ships the products to the customer using the dropshipper’s shipping address.
The primary advantage of dropshipping is its hands-off approach to retail. However, success in the industry lies heavily on the reputation of drop-shipping suppliers.
Choosing the wrong supplier is the surest way to ruin your dropshipping business. You deserve a company that not only deals in quality goods. But also one that can avail such products within the least expense of time.
15 Dropshipping Suppliers
1. Amazon
Amazon is the leading online retailer worldwide. As of June 2022, the company accounted for 37.8% of all e-commerce transactions in the United States. So, it’s not surprising that Amazon is also a leading dropshipping supplier.
The one thing that sets Amazon apart from most dropshipping suppliers is its ease of setup. An account is all you need to start selling on the website. And the account registration process is as easy as inputting your name and email address or mobile number.
After signing up for an Amazon account, you can sample an array of products spread across multiple categories. From health and fitness to pet supplies, home appliances, food and beverages, and even electronics, the platform has it all. Much of the dropshipping activities on the website take place on the Amazon Marketplace, which is a platform that connects third-party sellers with customers.
Amazon also maintains a customer-friendly returns and exchange policy. That makes it an excellent website if you’re dealing with fussy and unpredictable customers.
2. AliExpress
AliExpress is a dropshipping supplier that needs no introduction. The company has been a go-to solution for millions of dropshippers around the world for some time now. It prides itself on offering a wide collection of products. Popular categories include fashion & accessories, jewelry & watches, electronics, beauty & hair products, kid & hair supplies, home & gardening, and automobiles.
Most AliExpress products come incredibly discounted. So, you’re assured of earning substantial resale profits regardless of the items you order from the supplier.
Free shipping to most global destinations allows you to tap into overseas customers. Besides, you don’t have to pay an extra shipping fee for every transaction, which further reflects positively on your profit margins.
A reasonable money-back guarantee, reliable payment gateways, and 24/7 customer support are other reasons to make AliExpress your number-one dropshipping supplier.
3. Alibaba
Despite its common confusion with AliExpress, the two are distinct marketplaces that operate on fairly different business models. The primary distinction between Alibaba and AliExpress is that the former implements a business-to-business (B2B) model that involves bulk orders while the latter deploys a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model that entails distributing goods in small quantities.
But despite these differences, Alibaba resembles AliExpress in many aspects. The company maintains a vast collection of ready-to-sale products. Most items are priced considerably below the market rates. Besides, there are always ongoing promotions on selected products.
Alibaba uses a Trade Assurance concept wherein the company protects your orders against theft and damage. This assurance guarantees that goods get to your customers exactly as packaged and within the indicated shipping period.
There are also regular trade exhibitions during which brands showcase their offerings on the Alibaba platform. As a dropshipper, you can take advantage of these trade fairs to find other reliable suppliers who sell on the marketplace.
4. eBay
eBay isn’t inherently a marketplace. But that doesn’t mean you cannot dropship on the platform.
eBay allows dropshipping provided that you adhere to a few housekeeping rules. The most important of these rules is that you must take due responsibility for all shipment by ensuring the goods reach the intended customers within the period indicated on the original product description.
The biggest benefit of dropshipping on eBay is that you can get your hands on incredibly discounted products by participating in auctions. Items purchased from eBay’s auctions can fetch significant profits if resold at the prevalent market rates.
eBay also maintains a large product inventory. The website features several items on its homepage depending on analytics from current online shopping trends. You can leverage these free insights to promote the featured products more vigorously before a trend dies off.
5. Doba
Doba is a dropshipping platform with an app that integrates with your e-commerce store. The mobile app performs most functions as its desktop counterpart. You can log in from any location to maintain your inventories, process orders, or handle other transactions pertaining to your online store.
Doba has a ‘New Arrivals’ section that features new or limited-stock goods. There’s also a ‘Top Sellers’ section if your customers are predominantly the brand-loyal type.
Alternatively, you can use the search bar located on the company’s homepage to hone in on the inventories you’re looking for.
Note, however, that Doba charges monthly fees for their dropshipping services. Plans start from $39.99/month but there’s a 30-day window period to test-drive the service before committing fully to it.
6. Modalyst
With more than 350,000 e-commerce stores served and over 50 million shoppers reached, Modalyst is undeniably one of the top dropshipping suppliers around. Numerous media outlets, such as Bloomberg, Forbes, and MSNBC, have rated Modalyst as one of the top dropshipping and print-on-demand software. But that’s not the company’s only selling point.
Like most reliable dropshipping suppliers, Modalyst maintains a huge catalog of products. We’re talking 10 million and counting.
It would also interest you to know that Modalyst is an official partner of Aliexpress Dropshipping. The implication is that all data pertaining to your inventory, including product pricing and shipping, is synced through the company’s application programming interface (API) connection with AliExpress. The result is speedy and secure order management.
Still on integrations, Modalyst’s application integrates seamlessly with Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, and Alibaba.
7. Etsy
Etsy is the go-to dropshipping platform if your primary interest is in vintage and craft products. The company is also famous for its unique handmade items.
It’s important to emphasize that while Etsy permits dropshipping, you can only dropship products in the Vintage and Craft Supplies categories. The company prohibits reselling anything in the Handmade category unless it’s made or designed by you (in which case you won’t be dropshipping it).
However, there are tons of goods under the Vintage and Craft categories. These range from jewelry & accessories to clothing & shoes, home & living, wedding & party, toys & entertainment, to mention but a few.
There’s plenty of stuff in the gifting categories too, from anniversary to wedding and birthday gifts.
8. Megagoods
Megagoods is a California-based supplier that specializes in the distribution of electronic goods. The company is a perfect fit for dropshippers who deal exclusively in electronic products. It also caters primarily to the US market.
But despite its limited product range and geographical availability, Megagoods ranks among the most reliable dropshipping suppliers out there. The company is most noted for operating its own warehousing, which reduces concerns about shipping and inventory management.
Megagoods is also an excellent distributor of brand name electronics. The supplier offers private label shipping, which makes it all the more ideal for dropshippers.
There’s free shipping on selected products and destinations within the US. Note, however, that you’ll need to handle the entire fulfillment process by yourself since Megagoods doesn’t integrate with e-commerce platforms.
9. Sunrise Wholesale
On top of Sunrise Wholesale’s homepage is the image of sunshine complete with a bright-yellow bar, a clear indication that the company delivers happiness as far as fulfilling dropshippers’ needs goes.
Sunrise Wholesale maintains a catalog of over 15,000 items. The company also provides sales reporting tools and inventory updates through email to help you keep tabs on specific items in your inventory. Automatic price adjustments ensure consistency with your pricing even during significant price fluctuations.
The one drawback to Sunrise Wholesale is that it only ships to North America. But if you’re based in the United States or Canada and are looking for a dropshipper that guarantees fast shipping, Sunrise Wholesale is your best bet.
Top products you can ship with this distributor include electronics, toys & games, jewelry & accessories, kitchen tools, garden supplies, and home décor.
10. Wholesale2B
Wholesale2B is a great place to source products by vetted distributors. The company allows you to sample items from over 100 different suppliers.
Most suppliers on the Wholesale2B marketplace are based in the US. However, you can also find some from as far as China. Despite a distributor’s location, you can be sure they’ve been duly vetted and certified as credible.
Wholesale2B also has a price comparison feature that you can avail to check the prices of a particular product across other e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. The website implements powerful inventory management systems while also offering useful reseller information, such as supplier policies, shipping location, and the time taken to receive tracking codes.
However, while Wholesale2B itself is free, you’ll need to pay for dropshipping on other platforms. Support isn’t commendable either, as it mostly handles queries during the day.
11. DHGate
DHGate often features prominently among the top alternatives to AliExpress. That already speaks volumes about the company’s efficiency as a dropshipping supplier.
One of DHGate’s coolest features is a built-in escrow service that protects both sellers and buyers from scams. The escrow service boosts the website’s buyer confidence as they know their funds are in safe hands. That’s good news for retailers too, as it translates to a high number of potential clients.
In addition to its escrow features, DHGate offers secure payment gateways. There’s also the option of joining the company’s VIP Club to unlock even more kickbacks.
Another great thing to love about DHGate is that it allows you to purchase items in small wholesale lots even if you only order a single product.
12. WholeSale Central
The name points to the business model used by this dropshipping supplier. As you may have guessed, Wholesale Central is a business-to-business company. It’s a wholesaler that caters primarily to retailers or other wholesalers.
The company is based in Connecticut, United States. However, its wide range of products is available nationwide. There are over 400,000 products from more than 1,000 online wholesalers spread across 50 categories.
WholeSale Central’s website is clean and fairly easy to navigate. The best part is that the company’s dropshipping services are 100% free to use.
However, note that not all items available on WholeSale Central’s marketplace are dropship-ready. Therefore, be sure to do your assignment before adding a product from the wholesaler’s website to your e-commerce store. Also, the platform doesn’t offer integrations with other applications.
13. SaleHoo
SaleHoo is committed to helping over 137,000 online entrepreneurs find reliable and low-cost suppliers. To that end, the company partners with hundreds of brands to ensure its marketplace never runs out of items that e-commerce store owners can add to their inventories.
But SaleHoo doesn’t only avail an array of products for resale. The website also plays an active role in maximizing your revenues by offering several solutions and contacts you need to excel at dropshipping.
For instance, there are several e-commerce courses taught by e-commerce experts through in-depth video lessons, real-life case studies, and bonus educational resources. Only a handful of dropshipping suppliers are so committed to ensuring their clients succeed in their endeavors.
SaleHoo charges an annual membership fee. However, there’s a 60-day money-back guarantee on the off chance that you wish to opt out.
14. CROV
CROV is a relatively new dropshipping supplier, having been founded on Jan 1, 2020. However, the company has continually positioned itself as a one-stop wholesale center for small and medium-sized businesses for the limited duration it has been around.
CROV provides dropshippers with a wide range of products. All items on its website are listed only after screening wholesalers to eliminate scams and defective goods.
One unique feature with CROV is a product request function. Using this feature, merchants can contact the company’s professional sourcing team to obtain supplier recommendations based on their specific needs.
Although based in the United States, CROV ships to over 40 countries worldwide. Shipping fees depend on location, purchase quantity, and the preferred shipping method.
15. Inventory Source
Inventory Source is the best dropshipping supplier on this list in terms of automation. This platform addresses most inventory management and order fulfillment challenges by automating the whole process. Orders are automatically processed and inventories automatically synced.
Automatic uploading of product date and keeping it synced around the clock is an ingenious strategy for eliminating the often-tedious process of manual product inventory management. Any changes made by suppliers are auto-updated on a dropshipper’s e-commerce store.
Inventory Source also integrates with several e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and Magento. The website brings over 230 pre-integrated suppliers under one roof, giving dropshippers lots of options in terms of where to source their inventories.
Inventory Source charges $99/month for inventory automation and $199 for full automation. Also note that there are additional charges for each supplier you integrate with.
Wrap Up
Dropshipping is the future of e-commerce. So, if there was ever a better opportunity to invest in this industry, it’s got to be now. We hope you can consider the above-listed companies as your go-to distributors for your upcoming dropshipping startup.