The 10 best dropshipping suppliers for your business
Dropshipping is a business model where retailers use suppliers to ship products directly to the end customer rather than managing the stocking and shipping themselves. Unlike traditional retail, dropshipping retailers do not keep physical inventory and only pay for the product when a customer first places an order. But how do you find a dropshipping supplier that meets your requirements? Our guide should help.
In this guide to dropshipping suppliers you’ll learn:
- What is dropshipping?
- How to find a dropshipping supplier
- 10 of the best drop suppliers in the USA
- Frequently asked dropshipping supplier questions
What is dropshipping?
The main benefit of dropshipping is that retailers can sell products without committing the large amounts of working capital required to buy, stock, and ship wholesale products. This can be invaluable for new companies or those experimenting with a new product before they commit the resources to purchase large amounts of inventory.
For a more thorough explanation of droppshipping, read our guide to dropshipping and its benefits and challenges.
How to find a dropshipping supplier
Finding quality dropship suppliers is crucial to launching a successful dropshipping operation in the USA or anywhere. Read on to learn how to choose the right one.
Read the reviews.
If the supplier has customer reviews, see what people are saying about their products and customer service. This will give insights into how customers will perceive your own quality when you sell those products yourself.
Review policies.
Since supplier policies will effectively flow down to your customers, you’ll need to understand how they handle broken products, missing packages, returns, and more. If the policies are not available on the supplier’s website, contact them directly to ask.
Try the products yourself.
If there’s a product you’re thinking about selling, order it yourself to see the product quality and the shipping speed. Based on these results, you can develop an accurate estimate of how the customer will perceive the level of service — for better or worse.
Understand the fees.
Dropshipping often includes hidden fees and costs. You will want a firm understanding of the different shipping rates, monthly subscription costs, stocking fees, and more to understand how these will cumulatively impact your overhead.
Look for automation.
As your business scales, manually managing inventory levels, placing orders, and tracking shipments may not be feasible. Ideally, the dropship supplier should have integrations with your ecommerce platform to automate these workflows, allowing you to focus on growing revenue streams.
10 of the best dropship suppliers in the USA
There are many different services and marketplaces which help you find great suppliers to align with your business. Read on to learn about some of the best suppliers for dropshipping.
1. AliExpress
AliExpress is an online marketplace owned by the Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba. AliExpress has millions of products and is typically the go-to dropship supplier for many dropshippers. Unlike many suppliers on the Alibaba wholesale services, AliExpress allows you to order single units of items. This eliminates the need to store dedicated inventory off site, letting you ship directly to customers.
Pros
- Sign up for free and find millions of products at affordable prices.
- Order directly through the website without speaking directly to any suppliers (a plus if there’s a language barrier).
- AliExpress also handles all shipment tracking and notifications.
- Boasts reliable automation tools for popular ecommerce platforms, such as Adobe Commerce, that automate order fulfillment.
Cons of AliExpress
The majority of AliExpress suppliers are in China. While this means cheaper prices and often worldwide shipping options, it can be slow to get products directly to customers in countries like the United States. The ePacket option makes this affordable but customers often have to wait weeks to receive products.
Conclusion
AliExpress is affordable, easy to use, and has a great product selection. Because of this, it’s often where dropshippers go to test out new products. However, given the slow shipping times for many products, it’s not always the best for a large or fast-growing ecommerce business that needs prompt and transparent shipping to avoid customer service issues.
2. SaleHoo
SaleHoo is a wholesale and dropshipping directory. Based in New Zealand, SaleHoo provides one of the largest international directories of buyers and suppliers.
Pros
- A great way for buyers to find different types of suppliers from around the world for both dropshipping and traditional wholesale.
- $67 yearly subscription is also very reasonable relative to the competition.
Cons
SaleHoo does not allow retail orders as other sites such as AliExpress do. Its process is more formal and requires direct communication with the suppliers. Therefore, you’ll have to build relationships and create communication channels with other businesses.
Conclusion
SaleHoo has a very large directory of suppliers around the world and offers services at a reasonable rate. However, given the formalities and direct contacts with suppliers, it’s harder to get started and test new products. Therefore, this may be a better option for dropshippers with some experience with a particular industry or product.
3. Worldwide Brands
Worldwide Brands provide a directory of verified dropshippers, large and small volume wholesalers, and importers. The company is based in Florida and has over 20 years of experience in vetting its suppliers.
Pros
- Worldwide Brands provides a simple way to find vetted suppliers.
- Provides training material geared toward finding the right supplier and running online businesses.
- For US-based sellers, its Florida base may allow for more hands-on customer service.
Cons
Worldwide Brands is primarily a directory, so you’ll still have to make your own relationships and payment structures with suppliers. It also requires a one-time lifetime subscription fee of $299, so it’s a bit harder to test out the service to determine a good fit.
Conclusion
Worldwide Brands has a vetted list of quality suppliers, along with US-based employees who can help you find the best dropship supplier for your business. However, the upfront cost is high, and you will still have to build your own business relationships.
4. Megagoods
Megagoods is a distributor of consumer electronics. Unlike other services, the California-based company owns and warehouses its own products, enabling fast shipping in the US.
Pros
- Great for dropshippers selling electronics to US-based customers as the warehouse and fulfillment operations are all domestic.
- You don’t have to worry about international shipping times.
- Fairly affordable at only $14.99 per month.
Cons
Megagoods is focused on consumer electronics, so its product offering is more limited than the larger wholesale directories and marketplace.
Conclusion
Megagoods is great for US-based electronics dropshipping. However, its products are more limited — and since Megagoods is not currently integrated with any ecommerce platforms, you’ll have to build out a fulfillment process from scratch.
5. Doba
Doba provides an easy-to-use platform for sourcing dropshipping suppliers, ordering and tracking products, and managing inventory. The company is based in the US and has live customer support, which can be useful for brands expecting to provide their own customer service.
Pros
- Provides an end-to-end solution by managing all the operations and ordering.
- Integrates well with ecommerce platforms and marketplaces, making it easy to get started selling products.
Cons
It can be difficult to contact suppliers directly to form a direct working relationship. For large brands that may have custom demands for their suppliers, this can present a variety of issues. Service tiers can also get expensive, ranging from $29-$249 per month.
Conclusion
Doba provides a platform that manages the sourcing, fulfillment, and integration needs, which lets dropshippers of varying experience levels get started quickly. However, it doesn’t allow you to work with the suppliers directly and it can get quite expensive for the higher-tier plans.
6. Wholesale Central
Wholesale Central is a wholesale and dropshipping supplier directory. Based in the US, it has over 25 years of experience matching buyers and suppliers around the world.
Pros
- Has suppliers from around the world.
- Platform is very easy to navigate and explore.
- It’s free for buyers to use.
Cons
Wholesale Central is primarily an online directory and therefore any relationships, communications, or purchasing must be done directly with the supplier. Furthermore, most of its suppliers sell traditional bulk wholesale and do not dropship, so it will take a bit more exploring to find the right dropshipping partner.
Conclusion
Wholesale Central has a solid repository of wholesale suppliers around the world. It is easy to use and free for buyers. However, it can be a bit harder to find suppliers that support dropshipping, and any relationships and processes must be set up directly with them.
7. Wholesale2B
Wholesale2B is an end-to-end dropshipping service that lets customers research products, integrate them with their ecommerce platform, and manage both buying and shipping processes. Based in the US, Wholesale2B is working to automate the dropshipping process with minimal need for communication with suppliers or other logistics providers.
Pros
- Quick, automated way to get started dropshipping various products from suppliers around the world.
- Free to browse the service.
- Boasts numerous integrations with ecommerce platforms and digital marketplaces.
Cons
While browsing Wholesale2B is free, it requires separate monthly subscriptions for every service you want to buy. For example, if you want to dropship on multiple different platforms, you will pay separately for each of them. It also has limited customer service channels that are only available during business hours.
Conclusion
Wholesale2B provides an automated dropshipping platform that makes it easy and inexpensive to get started selling on most ecommerce platforms. However, it charges different subscription fees for different services that can add up quickly if you’re selling on multiple platforms or using their other services like web analytics.
8. Sunrise Wholesale
Sunrise Wholesale is a dropshipping service offering 15,000 to 30,000 products across various categories to buyers in the US and Canada. The Los Angeles-based company has been around for about 20 years and has numerous integrations with ecommerce platforms.
Pros
- Easy to ship to US and Canada-based customers. Manages its inventory so can ship within a week, unlike most international suppliers.
- Integrates with ecommerce platforms to make selling products easy.
Cons
Since it manages most of the inventory itself, Sunrise Wholesale has a relatively limited product selection, which typically ranges from 15,000 to 30,000 products — unlike millions available on other dropshipping services. It also requires a monthly subscription fee of $49.
Conclusion
Sunrise Wholesale can be a great solution for dropshippers trying to get products to customers fast in the US and Canada. However, it has limited product offerings and you cannot ship internationally outside of these two countries.
9. Inventory Source
Inventory Source provides dropshipping automation software that lets users sync products from various supplier networks, place orders, and track inventory. Based in the US, Inventory Source focuses on offering a flexible platform for managing the dropshipping process from start to finish.
Pros
- Connect to not only its own supplier network but also create and manage your own suppliers.
- You’re not restricted to its curated lists.
- Expand operations over time without moving to a new software provider.
Cons
While Inventory Source has a large directory of suppliers and products, it charges extra for all supplier sellers select.
Conclusion
Inventory Source provides flexible dropshipping automation software to manage the entire process and can connect to their large supplier network. However, their billing structure makes it difficult for users wanting to buy from multiple different suppliers, which can be prohibitive if you have a general-purpose store or operate multiple brands.
10. National Dropshippers
National Dropshippers is a simple service partnering with manufacturers and distributors around the US to dropship their products. Based in New Hampshire, the service offers fast delivery and flexible membership plans.
Pros
- Offers fast shipping in the US by partnering with local suppliers.
- Sellers can browse their catalog before joining.
- Boasts flexible membership plans to fit your operating needs at reasonable rates.
Cons
National Dropshippers only offers a few thousand products to sell. It also only provides limited ability to export certain sets of products to your ecommerce platforms, so ongoing maintenance is a bit more manual than other dropshipping services.
Conclusion
National Dropshippers has some of the fastest shipping in the US by partnering with a network of domestic suppliers. However, their product selection is very limited along with minimal automation and integrations with other platforms.
Integrate your dropshipping supplier with your custom ecommerce site
Finding the right supplier is essential for building a successful ecommerce business. You’ll also want to make sure they integrate tightly with your ecommerce platform to ensure scalability as operations expand. Adobe Commerce integrates with a number of key dropshipping suppliers to make this a fast, seamless process.
Request a free demo of Adobe Commerce to see how an integrated ecommerce platform can help your dropshipping business succeed.
Frequently asked dropshipping supplier questions
Where do I find suppliers for dropshipping?
You can find dropship suppliers in the US and elsewhere by simply doing your research. There is lots of content online talking about the various suppliers and comparing their features and potential drawbacks. Our guide to the 10 best dropshipping suppliers includes names like SaleHoo, Megagoods and Doba, for example.
How do I contact a dropship supplier?
Contacting a dropship supplier is much the same as contacting any other company in the retail supply chain. The bigger dropship companies have sophisticated websites where you can easily create an account and sign up to their services. And then of course most have dedicated customer services and sales channels where you can speak to a representative on the phone.
What is a dropshipping supplier?
A dropshipping supplier is a third-party business which sends products to customers on behalf of a retailer without having any involvement with the sales process. The dropshipping supplier is focused on the stocking and shipping of the products, and only ships a product once a retailer has paid for it – after a customer has placed an order at its ecommerce store.