Shein Dropshipping: The Ultimate Guide For Beginners

Shein is an affordable marketplace with a huge variety of products. But orders arrive in branded packaging, and you need to take your own product photos.

So, Shein won’t be the best option for everyone. 

We’ll look at what to consider when you use Shien as a dropshipping supplier. We’ll also explore the benefits and risks, how it works, and which products to sell.

Let’s get started.

Key Takeaways

• Use Shein to source your products and fulfill your dropshipping orders.
• AutoDS works with Shein, so you can automatically fulfill your orders.
• Shein’s worldwide warehouses give your customers fast shipping.

What is Shein Dropshipping? 

Shein dropshipping is when you use Shein as your dropshipping supplier. 

So, how does that work?

Let’s start with dropshipping.

Dropshipping is a way of selling products you don’t own. You don’t hold stock or handle the fulfillment process.

It works as follows:

• You find a supplier to source products.
• You list the products on your website or marketplace.
• A customer places an order on your site or marketplace.
• You contact the supplier with the order details.
• The supplier ships the product directly to the customer.

You can list Shein products on your website. When a customer orders from you, you place the order with Shein and use the customer's information. Shein will then ship the orders directly to your customers.

Should I Use Shein as a Dropshipping Supplier?

Shein is known for its affordable prices and a huge range of products.

But its branded packaging and copyrighted images don’t make it the right choice for everyone.

We’ll look at the pros and cons of using Shein as a dropshipping supplier.

Benefits of Using Shein as a Dropshipping Supplier

• Huge Variety of Products - Shein started as a women's clothing brand, but now they sell a huge range of products. Over 600,000 products. And in all sorts of categories.

The categories Shein has are the following: 

• Women's Clothing
• Kids Clothing
• Men's Clothing
• Shoes
• Underwear and Sleepwear
• Home and Kitchen
• Jewelry and Accessories
• Beauty and Health
• Baby and Maternity
• Sports and Outdoors
• Bags and Luggage
• Home Textiles and Sewing
• Electronics
• Toys and Games
• Tools and Home Improvements
• Office and School Supplies
• Pet Supplies
• Appliances
• Automotive

The huge catalog of products means most dropshippers can source their products from Shein. And there are options and variations to choose from.

• Warehouses Worldwide - Shein has warehouses worldwide. Currently, there are warehouses in Asia, America, Europe, and the Middle East. When possible, the products will be sent from the warehouses closest to the customer. This provides customers with faster shipping times.

• Affordable Prices - Shein is committed to providing low prices and making fashion accessible to everyone. Sourcing low-priced products gives you a higher profit margin.

• Worldwide Shipping - Shein ships to over 40 countries worldwide. This includes countries in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, and Australasia. You can make your products available to every country. This widens your audience and can increase sales.

• VIP Program - Shein VIP is a rewards scheme with multiple tiers. For every purchase, you can upgrade and earn rewards. It allows members to access exclusive promotions. If you use your VIP Shein account, you can upgrade quickly and access rewards.

Risks of Using Shein as a Dropshipping Supplier

Most Products Shipped from China - Shein does have warehouses worldwide. However, the majority of Shein's stock is stored in China.

So, if you’re selling in the US or Europe, it can take a long time for delivery. Sadly, this can be offputting for customers who want next-day delivery. 

Shein Packaging - Shein sends its products in branded packaging. 

Some customers might not mind the packaging as long as they are happy with the products. 

But other customers might not be happy. It can be confusing when they think they’re buying from your brand but receive Shein-branded products.

The branded packaging will detach the customer from your brand. This makes it difficult to build trust with your customers. It can also reduce the likelihood they’ll buy from you again.

It can also increase your return rate. When the customer sees the Shein packaging, they might go to the Shein website. Shein will be selling the product cheaper than you are.

So, customers might request a return and leave a damaging review.

Shein Returns - It can be confusing for customers to know how to return their products. Shein includes a return label inside each parcel. This makes it easy for customers to return their products directly to Shein. However, customers might be confused as they bought from you.

Not Shein. We recommend adding information on your website about how to complete returns.

We also ask our customers to contact us before they return an item so we can track it. You’ll need to manually manage the returns and update your customers. 

Refunds will automatically come back to your account. You’ll need to keep an eye on the return, update the customer, and process the refund manually. 

Copyrighted Pictures - You cannot use Shein’s product images. Especially ones including models. Shein’s product photos are copyrighted. Using them can result in legal issues. 

So, if you want to sell Shein products, you need to order a sample and take the photos for your listing yourself. It can be time-consuming and difficult to create professional listing photos. Especially if you have no professional experience.

Shein Sells to Consumers - Your customers can buy the products in your store directly from Shein. And for lower prices. Shein is the largest e-commerce-only fashion retailer globally.

It can be very difficult to compete. Many customers will opt to buy the products from Shein instead of your stores.

Controversies - Shein has been subject to many controversies.

These include environmental impact, labor law violations, intellectual property infringement, and more. 

Using Shein as your supplier associates your brand with controversies.

This can be damaging and offputting for customers. As well as the benefits and risks, there are a few other things to consider before you choose Shein as a supplier. 

What to Consider When Choosing Shein as a Supplier

Shipping, Returns, and Refund Policy - If you use Shein as a supplier, their policies are your policies. The main things to consider are the shipping times, returns window, and refund policy. 

Shipping: The shipping times vary depending on the shipping location. For the US, there are two options. Standard and Express. 

• Standard shipping takes up to 10 days approximately and costs $3.99 or free on orders over $29.
• Express shipping takes up to 7 days approximately and costs $12.90 or free on orders over $129. 

You can offer your customers these shipping options when they check out. Alternatively, you can include the shipping cost in your product cost. Then, list free shipping for every order.

Returns and Refunds: Shein has a flexible returns policy. 

Most items can be returned within 35 days of purchase. The first return is free using the return label. And refunds if the item is eligible and passes the quality check within 35 days.

Fulfillment - Shein isn’t widely used as a dropshipping supplier. So, the fulfillment options are limited. The most popular dropshipping supplier platform is AliExpress. AliExpress integrates with multiple fulfillment tools. These include AutoDS, DSers, Zendrop, Easync, AliDropship, Dropified, and more. 

Shein currently only works with one fulfillment platform, AutoDS. AutoDS allows you to fulfill your orders automatically using Shein as a supplier.Alternatively, you can manually fulfill Shein orders.

This is done by placing the orders on your account with your customer details. However, this can be time-consuming and risky, and it’s easy to make mistakes. Shein can also lock and suspend accounts.

Therefore, we always recommend using AutoDS to fulfill orders.

Multiple Packages - If your customer orders multiple products at once, there is still a chance that the products will arrive at different times and in multiple packages.

This might be confusing for customers, which can result in multiple customer service queries and poor reviews.

What Products Should I Sell From Shein?

Shein started as a women's dress brand, originally called SheInside. 

In 2012, a year after Shein started, they introduced cosmetics, shoes, bags, and jewelry. 

The company now sells a huge range of products. Including electronics, luggage, bedding, office supplies, automotive accessories, appliances, and more.

We’ve looked at the best products to source for your dropshipping store from Shein. 

We’ve considered popularity, availability, and affordability in our search.

1. Women's Dresses

We’ll get started with Shein’s roots. Dresses.

Shein has thousands of dresses in different styles and for different occasions.

You can choose to sell any type of dress in your dropshipping store. Shein has going-out dresses, casual dresses, formal dresses, vacation dresses, or office-appropriate dresses. 

2. Women's Loungewear and Pajamas

Casual clothing, sportswear, and athleisure wear have risen in popularity in the last few years. The increase is thought to be due to home working, social media trends, and streetwear culture.

Shein has a huge range of loungewear sets, pajamas, and tracksuits that you can add to your store.

3. Pet Products

The global pet industry is expected to grow to $500 billion by 2030, and 86% of pet owners shop for their pets online. 

This rise suggests pet products could be good to dropship. And Shein has a huge range of products that you can add to your store. 

These include beds, clothing, toys, bowls, grooming, leads, collars, waste bags, and much more.

Before you sell Shein pet products, be aware that Shein has restrictions on returning pet products. 

4. Electronic Accessories

Shein sells keyboards, phone cases, laptop cases, travel bags, selfie sticks, smart watch bands, and much more.

They work with lots of different suppliers and manufacturers. This allows them to launch new accessories quickly. So when a new phone or electronic comes out, Shein quickly has cases and accessories for it.

Shein’s quick launches help your store stay up to date. And as a dropshipper, you have the edge over your competition. You don’t need to dispose of stock and lose money every time a new model is released.

5. Event and Party Supplies

From wedding decorations to party favors, Shein has everything.

You could create bundles of several party products. This can help encourage customers to buy more. It will also save them time and improve their experience with your store. 

For example, a floral birthday theme with plates, napkins, balloons, banners, gift wrap, etc.

6. Storage and Organizational Products

Organizational and storage products are products that help customers keep their spaces tidy.

Shein sells all types of storage and organizational products. Including kitchen storage, makeup bags, closet organization, jewelry boxes, car organization, desk storage, and more. 

You could create a dropshipping store that specializes in storage and organization. 

Or, if you have an existing store, you could sell complimentary products. For example, if you have a jewelry store, you could add Shein jewelry boxes, cases, and displays. These are great to offer at checkout as an upsell.

7. Water Bottles

Reusable water bottles have become a necessity for many. Whether it's school, work, or the gym, people are using reusable bottles instead of single-use plastic bottles.

Reusable bottles are increasing in popularity. This is because they are environmentally friendly and considered safer than plastic bottles. 

Shein sells different types of bottles. Some of the most popular options include ones with straws, air-up-style bottles, tumblers, extendable, stainless steel, and glass.

You can pick a demographic and find bottles to meet that demographic.

8. Kids Toys

Shein sells a variety of toys for kids of all ages. There are educational toys, puzzles, books, plushies, and more.

You could stock toys for a variety of ages. Then, if a customer is happy with the toys they purchase, they are likely to shop from you again. 

Toys do have some restrictions. Make sure to look at the rules, regulations, and legalities before you add them to your store. 

9. Men’s Fashion

Shein predicts trends. To produce these trends quickly, it works with a network of manufacturers and suppliers.

As Shein keeps up with the trends, so can you. 

Studies show that male fashion influencers are increasing in popularity. This is influencing the purchases made.

Check out popular influencers and the products they promote. This can give you inspiration for your men's fashion store.

10. Household Cleaning

The household cleaning industry is booming. The pandemic, risk of infection, and rise in cleaning influencers are thought to be the cause of the boom.

Shein sells a variety of household cleaning products and tools. These include mops, sponges, cloths, bins, buckets, and more. 

You can add these to your store and create a dropshipping cleaning store.

Shein does sell some cleaning products, like detergent and chemicals. We would avoid these, as there are some restrictions around what you can legally sell.

How to Dropship from Shein 

If Shein is the right supplier for your dropshipping store, here are the steps to help you get started.

1. . Product Research - Find a Product to Sell
2. Source Product - Search Shein for the Products
3. Create Your Store and Add the Product - Set Up Shopify, Take Photos, and Create Listings
4. Market Your Product - Advertise Your Products, Start Making Sales, and Fulfill Your Orders
5. Analyze and Optimize - Look at Your Store, Listings, and Ads to Increase Sales

Let’s look into them all in more depth.

1. Product Research 

You need to find a winning product to sell. 

A winning product is one that generates a high volume of continuous sales, with a good profit margin, and that satisfies customers. 

Winning products usually have low competition and high demand. 

You can find winning products in a variety of ways. We’ll look at how to find winning products using a product research tool, as well as how to find them using Shein.

Product Research Tool 

The purpose of a product research tool is to help you find a winning product to sell.

There are lots of product research tools available, but in this section, we’ll look at Dropship, as we think it’s the best. 

Naturally, we’re a bit biased. So, if you’re looking for alternative product research tools, check out our article with 20 of the best dropshipping research tools.

Dropship’s Product Database

Uncover the secrets of other Shopify stores by spying on them. 

Dropship’s Product Database allows you to search through millions of Shopify sellers’ products./ You can search using the advanced filters and categories. 

Enter your winning criteria and find products that match it.

You can see real-time sales, revenue, product launches, store themes, apps, prices, listings, and much more. Looking at real information allows you to make data-driven decisions for your store.

Dropship’s Ad Spot

Dropship has a library of millions of Facebook ads. 

You can search for ads by copy, domain, creative type, engagement, creation date, and call to action. Or you can do a quick search for top performers and weekly winners.

Dropship will find ads that match your search criteria. Looking at how many views the ad has and the engagement can give you product inspiration, as well as tips for your ad campaigns.

Dropship’s Top Stores and Products

Every 24 hours, Dropship releases a list of the top-performing products and stores.

You can see the sales and revenue of each product and store. From the top stores and products, you can also add the products to your Sales Tracker so you can analyze the performance over time.

Dropship Portfolio

Let Dropship do the product research for you. 

Every week, Dropship releases a list of winning products. 

Every product that's dropped has a full analysis. Dropship releases the product’s benefits and drawbacks, a list of competitors, ad content, suppliers, and more.

If you want to go sell the product, Dropship makes it easy to import the listing to your store.

Shein Dropshipping Product Research

As we’ll be using Shein as our dropshipping supplier, it makes sense to use Shein to find a product to sell. 

These are the three methods we use to find winning products on Shein. 

New In

As we looked at earlier, Shein monitors trends. 

It can launch new products quickly as it works with a variety of manufacturers and suppliers.

Shein has a New In section, and you can sort the results by New Arrivals. This shows you all of Shein’s latest product launches. 

Look through the new products for inspiration for your dropshipping store.

Style Gallery

Shein has a style gallery. The style gallery is a collection of images social media influencers post featuring Shein products.

As the customers have posted the photos to their audience, it increases the product’s visibility. Increased visibility can boost traffic and sales.

Look at the Shein products included in the style gallery. This can help you identify trending products to dropship.

Best Sellers on Sale

Shein has a section of best-selling products that are currently on sale.

Underneath each product in this section, there are badges. The badges show if a product is a best-seller in a certain category, as well as how many products have sold recently. 

We know that all of the products in this section are in demand. In demand is one tick on our winning products checklist. 

Take a look at each product in more depth to see how competitive it is and whether it’ll work for your store.

2. Source Product 

Now you’ve found a winning product to sell, it’s time to find it on Shein. 

To do this, simply type the name of the product into Shein’s search bar.

Search for the best product to list in your store. You can use the images and description and look at the reviews to help you decide. 

We then recommend that you order the product to your address.

Shein doesn’t allow you to use their images in your listing. So you’ll need to take the photos yourself or find a professional photographer to take them for you.

After you’ve found the right product and taken your photos, you can build your store and create the listing.

3. Create Your Store and Add the Product 

This step will vary depending on where you’re selling.

We always dropship from our own site. To create our sites, we use Shopify.

Shopify is our favorite platform to dropship on as it’s easy to use, connects with seller software, and is cheap to start out.

We have an exclusive 3-month for $3 Shopify trial if you haven’t got an account already. It allows you to test all the features and start making sales before paying for a full subscription. 

Alternatively, you can use WooCommerce, Wix, or BigCommerce or choose a marketplace, like Amazon or eBay, to list your products.

Once you’ve chosen where you’re going to sell and set up your store, it's time to create your listings.

There are two ways to create listings: 

Manually Add a Product Listing

To manually add a product, you need to create the listing.

You can copy Shein's title and description and upload your photos. Then, set your price and add any key features and product feedback.

AutoDS Automatic Import

AutoDS is an automation tool that works with Shein. It allows you to import listings from Shein automatically. 

To do this, follow these steps:

• Copy your product URL from Shein
• Open AutoDS
• Click Single Product Import
• Paste the URL
• Click Edit Now

As we stated earlier, Shein’s images are copyrighted. So, you will need to replace Shein’s images with your own. You can also make any other changes to the listing before you launch.

4. Market Your Product 

Your supplier is ready to go. And you’ve created your website and listing.

It’s time to drive traffic to your site and start making sales.

You can generate traffic in tons of different ways. Including the following:

• Social Media - Create social media accounts for your brand. Your target audience will determine the platforms you use. For example, if you’re targeting a younger audience, we recommend using TikTok and Instagram. And if it’s an older audience, look at Facebook. Stay active on your accounts. Do this by posting relevant content and engaging with your target audience. This can help them discover your brand. You can then drive your social media audience to your website. 

• Optimize Your Website - When a potential customer is investigating a product, they will likely search Google.If your website is search engine optimized, then it will appear in a preferable position in the search results. This can help potential customers find you.Search engine optimization (SEO) can be achieved in various ways. The main areas of SEO are technical, on-site SEO, and off-site SEO. For more information on Google SEO, check out the SEO starter guide on Google Developers.

• Email Marking - Create email campaigns to funnel your audience to visit your site and purchase your products. To do this, you will need an email list. If you don’t already have one, you will need to build one. You can gather emails in various ways. The methods we’ve found most effective are the following: Create a Facebook ad that offers a free product or service in exchange for their email and create a giveaway on social media, and to enter, they need to provide their email and opt-in to marketing emails.

• Influencer Marketing - Contact influencers in your niche to see if they would be interested in working together. You can offer them the product for free in exchange for them posting about it online. Alternatively, you can pay them to feature the product. The influencer's audience size and engagement will determine if it's a free or paid collaboration. Influencers have an existing audience that trusts their opinion. Working with influencers allows their audience to discover your products. The influencer's audience will also trust the products based on their recommendation. This can help generate traffic and sales.

• Paid Ads - Meta ads are the most common ads for dropshippers to run. But you might want to run ads on Google, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Where you run your ads will depend on the market you want to target.

Meta ads allow you to create Facebook and Instagram ads. You can add copy, content, and a call to action and set the demographics of your target audience.

If you need inspiration for your Meta ads, check out Dropship’s Ad Spot tool. It allows you to search for Facebook ads by copy, keyword, and engagement. 

Your listings are now active on your website. And you’ve created a marketing plan to generate sales. You need to decide how you want to fulfill your orders.

There are two ways you can fulfill your dropshipping orders. 

Fulfill Shein Dropshipping Orders Manually

When you receive an order on your website, you can visit Shein and place the order.

You’ll enter your customer's details and ship the order directly to them.

This method will work for sellers who are only processing a small number of orders.

However, once you start taking a large volume of orders, it can be difficult to manage.

Manually fulfilling orders has a high risk of errors and is very time-consuming. 

Fulfill Shein Dropshipping Order Automatically 

You can use an automation tool to process your orders automatically.

Automation software connects your website and your supplier.

So, a customer places an order on your website. The automation tool finds the order and places it with your supplier (Shein). Shein then sends the order directly to your customer.

From our knowledge, only one automation tool works with Shein. AutoDS.

AutoDS has two automatic order fulfillment options:

• AutoDS Automatic Orders - Connect your Shein account with AutoDS and set up your preferred payment method. AutoDS will then place the order automatically through your Shein account.
• Fulfilled by AutoDS Service - Instead of using your own account, use AutoDS’s buyer account. You preload your balance onto the AutoDS buyer account. Then, when you receive an order, AutoDS will use their account to purchase the products. This means there is no risk of your personal Shein account being blocked. This service can also help manage your returns.

Both options provide customers with status updates and tracking information.

We always use automation software as it saves us time and ensures everything runs smoothly. This increases customer satisfaction and increases the likelihood of repeat purchases.

5. Analyze and Optimize

Yay - you’re making sales. 

It’s time to analyze your dropshipping business. Look at what’s working and what can be improved.

We recommend going through every aspect. This includes the following:

• Listing - Can you update your listing page to attract more visitors? And convert them to customers? You might want to hire a professional photographer or an editor. They can help you create more professional product photos.  You could also update your keywords, title, or description. If you’ve had any positive customer feedback on your sales, you can add these to your listing page. Positive feedback can encourage new buyers as they feel secure making a purchase.

• Fulfillment Process - How are you fulfilling your orders? If you’re manually fulfilling your dropshipping orders, consider using an automation tool. As we looked at earlier, AutoDS can automatically process your orders with Shein.

• Customer Service - Are you able to reply to all customer queries quickly? This will include emails, help desk requests, and social media comments and messages. Providing fast and great customer service can increase brand trust and improve your customer's experience with your brand. This can increase your sales.

• Content Management - Content management includes any content you post. It usually includes the following: Posting on social media, writing blogs or updating information on your website, and sending emails to subscribers. Are you able to post frequently? Are you receiving the engagement and clicks you want? If not, consider spending more time on your content. Or hire a content manager to help.

• Returns and Refunds - Are you receiving a high number of returns? Reach out to customers to find out why. Look at the reasons why and make changes. This can help reduce your return rate and increase customer’s experience with your brand.For example, apparel can have a high return rate. Usually, this is due to the size and fit. Consider adding an accurate size chart to your listing. Or use models of different shapes and sizes to show customers how your product will look. 

• Ads - How are your ads performing? Can you change the keywords and adjust your budget? What about your copy, call to action, and graphics?

Alternative Dropshipping Suppliers to Shein 

Shein isn’t the right option for everyone's dropshipping store. 

Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives. 

We’ll look at three other sites that are equally as affordable and stock a huge range of products.

Temu

Temu is an e-commerce shopping site and app. It is operated by Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings.

It was launched in September 2022 and was quickly the most frequently downloaded app in the US [1]. 

It offers a huge range of products for low prices. It also runs large discounts, promotions, and referral schemes to boost sales.

Most of the products available on Temu are sold by Chinese vendors. The vendors ship the items directly to customers.

Temu is considered Shein's biggest rival. Shein also sued Temu in December 2022, and Temu sued Shein in December 2023. 

AliExpress

AliExpress is an e-commerce marketplace. It was designed to link sellers with buyers across the world.

It is based in China and is part of the Alibaba group. 

It offers both business-to-business and business-to-consumer purchases. 

AliExpress sells almost anything you can think of. 

It is usually our first option when we’re sourcing dropshipping products. AliEpxress allows us to contact the supplier directly with any questions or requirements for our orders. And as it offers business-to-consumer purchases, it allows us to order one item at a time.

Romwe

Romwe is an online fashion retailer based in China. 

It sells men's and women’s clothes, shoes, and accessories.

The company was acquired by Shein in 2014. But it still operates as a separate website and brand. However, some of Romwe’s items are sold on Shein’s site. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Does Shein Use Dropshipping? 

No. Shein orders its products from various suppliers and manufacturers and stocks them in its warehouses. 

Can I Sell Shein Products on WordPress? 

Yes. You can create a store on WordPress using the WooCommerce plugin.

You can then connect WooCommerce with Shein using AutoDS.

This allows you to import products and fulfill your dropshipping orders manually. 

Can I Sell with Shein? 

You can dropship Shein products on your own website using an automation tool like AutoDS.

You can also sign up to sell on Shein’s marketplace. This is only an option for experienced sellers. To sell on Shein, you need to apply to the marketplace. Shein reviews each application before you can start selling. 

How Do I Sell on Shein? 

Shein allows third-party sellers to list their products on their site. 

To do this, you need to apply for a seller account. 

Then, you can use Shein as a marketplace, similar to Amazon or eBay. 

Final Thoughts

Shein isn’t our first choice of supplier. This is due to the branded packaging and copyrighted images. 

However, it does have a huge variety of products and affordable prices. It also integrates with AutoDS. So it could be a good option for your store.

Hopefully, this article has helped you decide whether Shein is right for you.

To find the perfect product to source from Shein, check out Dropship’s Product Database tool and Ad Spot tool. Dropship currently has a 7-day free trial available.