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Wei Linchao

Wei Linchao

Dropship and Logistics Specialist, the founder of Bestfulfill that help you with order fulfillment from product sourcing, shipping, branding, and customized package.

Gearbest vs AliExpress: Which One Is Better For Dropshippers?

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This Gearbest vs AliExpress review is important for several reasons. For new and experienced dropshippers, it is a long process to find out where to source products and how to contact dropshipping suppliers. 

Many factors are put into consideration when dropshippers choose where to source products. Are they to find them on AliExpress or Gearbest? Should they contact suppliers directly? Who provides the best shipping experience? And so on.

In this Gearbest vs AliExpress article, we will compare AliExpress and Gearbest in detail, analyzing the shopping experience, how to contact suppliers, customer support, and more. We will detail their pros and cons. By the end of this review, you will know which platform is better for you as a dropshipper.

Let’s dive in.

What is Gearbest?

Gearbest is a Chinese eCommerce company co-founded by Jonathan Magasanik in 2014. The Gearbest model is to globally ship Chinese products to international customers. About 42 million people visited the Gearbest website in December of 2021.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

Gearbest projects itself as a fun marketplace where you get a wide variety of Chinese items. From electronics to clothing and toys, almost any product can be found on Gearbest.

Even though the USA makes up 24% of GearBest’s traffic, GearBest customers are often Spanish, Portuguese, European, and Russian people. GearBest is the place to get Chinese products from already verified sellers who sell quality products.

For dropshippers, there’s no direct way to contact sellers. Buying on Gearbest involves dealing with only Gearbest. In fact, for some products, there’s no mention of the seller. Sometimes, you get brand information.

Gearbest partners with sellers, brands, and manufacturers who display their products on the Gearbest website. What Gearbest does is to fulfill the orders and then pay the sellers and manufacturers.

What is AliExpress?

No doubt, AliExpress is a bigger name than GearBest. AliExpress was launched in 2010 by the Alibaba Group (founded by Jack Ma in 1999). AliExpress is a B2C ecommerce platform where foreign consumers can have access to Chinese products.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

The major difference between AliExpress and Gearbest is that when buying products on AliExpress, dropshippers are dealing with the manufacturers and sellers, not AliExpress. This has its pros and cons, which are discussed further in the post. Dropshippers using AliExpress can directly contact sellers and manufacturers.

AliExpress has become one of the world’s leading eCommerce platforms and has surpassed Amazon in GMV.

Main Differences Between Gearbest and AliExpress

a. Website UX/UI

The major colors on the Gearbest website homepage are yellow and black. Yellow is used to show the fun spirit of the marketplace. 

When you land on the website, the very first thing you’ll see is the display of new arrivals. Most are from big brands like Xiaomi and Umidigi. There’s also an option to find out top-rate store deals.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

On the left-hand side is a list of product categories. Right now, the website is showing 14 categories including consumer electronics, health and personal care, drones, toys and hobbies. Under the category list and new arrivals sections, GearBest lists app collections, more new arrivals, and popular searches. 

Right at the very top of the homepage, buttons lead to the help center, app offers, country website, and choice language. Then comes the search area where you directly search for products, sign in button, favorites button, and shopping cart.

GearBest’s interface is significantly cluttered with fewer products, cleaner, and easier to navigate than AliExpress’ homepage.

GearBest vs AliExpress homepages is similar in many ways. They both have the search area, product categories, sign-in buttons, help centers, and new arrivals. These are all located in the same areas on both websites. 

However, the new arrivals display section on AliExpress also shows links to live deals, super deals, new user zones, and popular stores. AliExpress goes on to preview live shop deals, super deals and remaining time, new arrivals, and top selections.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

Below that is featured categories where the most popular categories are shown beginning with Home, then followed by Tech, Sports, and Fashion. Then comes the More to Love section which does not end. It goes on and on. It becomes easy to get lost in the vast selection if you have no specific products in mind.

Based solely on ease of navigation, Gearbest wins this section. However, AliExpress showed more cheap products that weren’t big brand names.

Both GearBest vs AliExpress have mobile responsive homepages and product pages. We found that all AliExpress pages have mobile versions. Extra GearBest pages like the About page have no mobile version. They all show the desktop layout.

b. Available Products

AliExpress is a much older site than GearBest. AliExpress currently has more than 100 million products on sale, by millions of sellers and suppliers.

Yet, even though Gearbest has a lesser number of products than AliExpress, a good number of their products are from top brands like Xiaomi and Huawei. Sometimes, GearBest sells products not made in China.

It all depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re interested in selling more top brand products, Gearbest is for you. If you’re more into cheap products, AliExpress will suit you better. Note that cheap does not necessarily mean less quality.

c. Payment methods

Gearbest accepts over 40 payment methods including all the major ones like PayPal, wire transfer, and credit/debit cards. It supports seven different kinds of cards including Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Diners, and Discover. Other payment methods accepted by Gearbest include Yandex, Qiwi, and Web money.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

AliExpress accepts payment via major methods like PayPal and credit/debit cards. Other approved methods include bank transfer, Alipay, Qiwi wallet, and Western Union. We recommend that if you want to use bank transfer on AliExpress, send the money to AliExpress and not to the seller to lower risk.

d. Shipping

Both Gearbest vs AliExpress ship products globally. They use shipping methods like EMS, DHL, FedEx, and UPS.

The major difference between AliExpress and Gearbest is that GearBest handles all shipping for products ordered on the platform. On AliExpress, it is the sellers who set up the shipping options and you choose how to ship. On AliExpress, if you have any shipping complaints, it is the seller that you contact.

On AliExpress, some sellers offer free shipping. Sometimes the shipping fee has already been included in the price, which is why they offer free shipping. Anyways, choosing the free shipping method may cause you to wait 39 to 45 days for products to be delivered.

GearBest’s shipping is divided into three main categories. Unregistered or Registered Air mail, Priority line, and Expedited shipping. Air mail delivery takes about 16 to 30 days. For about 40% of air mail orders, the packages are delivered between 8 to 15 days.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

The priority line method delivers packages between 1 to 7 days for customers in Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. Russian and Brazilian customers get their goods within 16 to 30 days while customers in the US and the UK get their goods within 8 to 15 days.

Using DHL, a majority of users (regardless of country) get their packages within 1 to 7 days, while using EMS raises shipping time to 8 to 15 days.

Shipping fees on AliExpress vary greatly because it is sellers that decide how much to collect on shipping. One supplier may have overpriced shipping compared to another one. Using Gearbest, shipping fees are generally the same because GearBest takes care of shipping and charges based on product weight.

Another major difference between GearBest vs AliExpress is the location of the warehouses. Almost all of AliExpress warehouses are in China and Hong Kong.

Gearbest has warehouses in China, Europe, the United States, and Spain. They’re able to do this because they sell many top branded products. Of course, the location of these warehouses affects the shipping time. If your customer is in Europe and orders a product located in the warehouse in Europe, shipping time is reduced to a few days. 

e. Beginner dropshipper friendliness

For new dropshippers, AliExpress is the better choice versus Gearbest. The reason is this. A beginner dropshipper is still learning the trade and building an audience. Often he cannot afford to sell top branded products because of stiff competition. 

On AliExpress, a dropshipper finds cheaper goods. He learns how to contact and negotiate with suppliers. He can find private label suppliers on AliExpress and also has a larger pool of products to select from. 

Even though Gearbest has more warehouses, may offer faster delivery times, and has branded products, there’s no way to contact suppliers on Gearbest.

f. Customer support

Both GearBest and AliExpress have an in-depth library of help articles that customers may need. The two websites arranged these guides in categories – shipping, return policies, and opening disputes.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

However, both websites don’t have any easily accessible buttons for live support. The link on AliExpress that seems to lead to the support center is broken at this time. Gearbest does not seem to offer any live chat support either.

Both have email support that you can send complaints to, although it’s unclear what the response rate is. With AliExpress, almost all disputes are between you and the seller.

g. After-sales services

If you have to return products or request refunds, the way you go about it is different for Gearbest vs AliExpress. 

With AliExpress, you’re working with the supplier or the seller. This means that the refund policy and process varies among different sellers. So, returning goods to different suppliers may mean different methods.

With GearBest, the process of returning a broken item or asking for a refund is the same. You should know that when processing returns, Gearbest does not refund shipping fees and any extra costs incurred while moving products.

Gearbest vs AliExpress

h. Plugins, Add-ons, and Extensions

Dropshippers know that one of the main reasons sellers choose a marketplace is the ease of integration with other apps.

AliExpress is wildly popular. There are tons of plug-ins that will integrate AliExpress with your online store. There’s Oberlo for Shopify and Ali2Woo for WooCommerce. There are product sourcing tools for AliExpress and lots of Chrome extensions that you can install.

One can’t say the same for Gearbest. Save for a few tools like AutoDS and Importify, there are not many tools that work with GearBest.

Gearbest vs AliExpress: Pros and Cons

◆ Gearbest Pros

  • Sells popular branded products
  • Has an organized and intuitive user interface
  • Shipping methods and fees are uniform across the website
  • Warehouses are in China and Europe
  • Accepts 40+ payment methods
  • 45-day return policy
  • 1 year warranty for tech products
  • Has an intuitive mobile app

◆ Gearbest Cons

  • Number of products is significantly less than AliExpress’
  • No private labeling or custom packaging
  • No free shipping
  • Gearbest products are generally more costly than AliExpress products

◆ AliExpress Pros

  • Dropshippers can easily contact suppliers
  • Accepts several payment methods and has developed a payment method – Alipay
  • Runs a buyer protection program
  • More than 100 million products available
  • Hundreds of AliExpress add-ons, apps, and extensions available
  • Some AliExpress sellers offer free shipping
  • AliExpress products are generally cheaper than GearBest products
  • Easy to order private label goods and pay for custom packaging

◆ AliExpress Cons

  • Warehouses are in China
  • Dropshippers have to deal with different policies by the different sellers
  • Easy to get lost in the vast selection of products

Conclusion

Gearbest and AliExpress are great tools that dropshippers can use to build a solid business.

For dropshippers, AliExpress may be the better choice because they get to browse more products, build rapport with suppliers, and negotiate dropshipping deals. They get to sell products that are not popular or are private labelled, which will separate them from competitors.

Gearbest seems better for the experienced dropshipper who already has a following or has no need for private labeling and custom packaging. 

Choose the one that seems right for your business or both. 

Or, contact Bestfulfill to source products and negotiate with suppliers on your behalf.

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