In this instructional video, Nathan Miller shares his experience testing over 20 dropshipping suppliers and categorizes them into three distinct groups. He first dismisses generic marketplace suppliers such as AliExpress, Alibaba, and 1688, citing lack of history, unreliable quality, long shipping times (15‑30 days), high risk of scams, and no US fulfillment. He then reviews established dropshipping platforms—CJ, DSers, Zendrop, AutoDS—highlighting their reputation, beginner‑friendliness, and reliable order processing, but noting higher costs, limited branding options, higher minimum order quantities (MOQs), and slower shipping (10‑20+ days) with limited US stock. Finally, he advocates private suppliers for scaling businesses, explaining their advantages (low MOQs, fast US and China 3PL shipping, price matching, custom branding, reliable logistics) and the importance of sourcing them through trusted contacts to avoid scams. Nathan uses Max Dropshipping as his current private supplier, showcasing its 3‑5 day US shipping, low MOQs, willingness to cover branding costs, and his own $2‑3 million brand successes with them. He advises beginners to stick with group‑2 platforms, while recommending private suppliers only once a store consistently ships 25+ orders per day, as private suppliers prioritize higher‑volume clients. The video concludes with a quick recap of how to classify any supplier into these three groups.
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I have tried, I kid you not, probably 20 different dropshipping suppliers, fulfillment methods, whatever you guys want to call it. And so in this video, I'm going to be breaking down the 3 different groups of suppliers that you can even use, and then the pros and cons of each. And then I'll break down exactly what I'm using as someone who is currently scaling a business and the benefits of that. So let's just get straight into it. It's gonna be a super informative video for you guys, so make Make sure you stay tuned. So first, we're gonna go over group 1. And group 1 are gonna be AliExpress, Alibaba, 1688, those kind of suppliers. And honestly, I don't ever recommend using these whatsoever. As someone who's done over 7 figures in revenue, right around the 7 mil mark, I've never used one of these suppliers. And the reason why is because you don't have any history with them. Any way to tell that they've done good work for you because the people you're finding on these platforms like AliExpress, they're just random people out there that you don't have any leverage basically. You don't know if they're scammers or not. And so there is no history there. It's complete guesswork. It's unreliable and they are very cheap as well. Cheap, not in the good way. The products they've sent out from What I've heard, even from me trying them in the past, have always been super cheap, super unreliable because they don't have to provide a good service to you because they just don't care. They're just trying to ship out stuff and get away with it for the most part. And so there is a big tendency to scam. Like I said, no reason to give you a great service, no leverage, never any USA fulfillment from the people you find on there, and then usually a high MOQ if they can't source the product. Products. And a lot of times the shipping time is going to be like 15 to 30 days, which is like not ideal. You're gonna get a lot of chargebacks doing that. You're gonna get a lot of customer complaints, a lot of where's my order. I'm sure you guys have dealt with that in the past, and that's why I just never recommend using that. Maybe if you are very, very beginner or something like that, but like honestly, even at that point, these next options make way more sense. For the second group here, right, we have Group 2, which is like the things that actually have been used and are like, have real companies behind them. So they kind of have to provide some sort of service to you or else, you know, their company could be under threat. And they have to have a good service because the reputation is a lot, right? So this is CJ, this is DSers, this is Zendrop, this is AutoDS, all of those These are like the big dropshipping supplier fulfillment companies that you see out there, and they are good, and I do recommend them for beginners because, like I said, they won't scam you. They're reputable sources, they're tried and true. Often they're more expensive, which is why I usually opt for this third option. They also have kind of a lack of branding, like usually you have to pay for that, get MOQ, like there's just not a lot of options there when it comes to actually going out and branding your product. And there's also little options for USA fulfillment. Some of them do have USA stock, but it's for very specific products, and they don't allow you to switch it over. So I don't really like that, especially if you're selling like a supplement or something. It's super important to have USA fulfillment and get it shipped to your customer within, you know, under a week or preferably under like 5 days or something like that. And that's just not possible with these suppliers. High OQ, and then the average, you usually get like a 10 to 20-day shipping time. Usually it's gonna be on the later end of that, so probably more than 15 to 20 days, but they have options like UniExpress and stuff that you can get like 10. And this is actually what I recommend for most beginners because they will always provide you a good service. They will provide you like very good, not the greatest quality products, but like they will get, make sure that you're shipping orders out and that they're the right products basically. Which is what really matters. And like this third option I'm about to talk about, sometimes they don't take you too seriously because you kind of have to have some history for them to actually want to do business with you. And so if you're a beginner, you don't have any orders and you need to get orders shipped out and you need to have fast response time and someone to work with you, I do recommend these. And so last but not least is group 3, and these are gonna be Private suppliers, right? So private suppliers are super, super clutch. They are more important the more you scale. But there are some tricky elements when it comes to finding a private supplier. And that's why it's really important you find some from a trusted source because some of them can have really good USA options. Like they have a separate USA factory, 3PL, whatever you want to call it, that can actually ship out your products. Some of them can have really low MOQs, some of them can have really reliable shipping, low pricing, and all the good benefits of having a private supplier, which is the pricing, the shipping, the adjustability, the branding even. But some private suppliers will still scam you. And so it's why it's like you can't just work with any private supplier. You need to have it from a trusted source, from someone who's been using it, or even better, from a friend or Something like that. You can't, like, they can be the best, the number one, but if you find a bad one, it can be the worst, right? It could just be like an AliExpress. So that is why I currently use Max Dropshipping, and Max Dropshipping is my current private supplier. And as you guys can see here, their shipping rates are insane, right? We have 3 to 5 days. This is their USA shipping, and the competitors are usually 5 to 9. Normal shipping, Union Express, 7 to 12. That's honestly kind of basic, but then their actual other shipping is also 7 to 12. So they have pretty fast shipping even from China, because these two lines are probably from China. This is their USA one. But as you can see, it just beats the competition in every factor. Maxx also has very low MOQ. And even sometimes, if I was doing orders on a product and I wanted to switch it over to branded, which you should be doing if you're doing like more than like, I don't know, 50 orders a day, I actually got my MOQ paid for. So I literally, instead of having to pay like $3,000, $5,000 upfront, they literally covered the cost for me just to have my business, which was really amazing to see. They have very, very low and competitive pricing. They'll always price match. Even if you find lower pricing, they're willing to work with you. And I've personally used them for over 2 years now. I use them for my current brand that I've done over $2 million in sales. My last brand that did $3 million, I used them for. And so I've never really had any big issues with them. I've used other private suppliers between them actually at one point because they were a lot cheaper at the time, but I ended up getting scammed by those private suppliers. And like they told me they had a product they could ship out and they didn't have it. And so I couldn't ship orders for 30 days, which is awful. They do custom branding with that MOQ as well if you're doing orders. So if you're doing like over 20, maybe 20 to 30 orders a day, they will actually go ahead and cover the cost of MOQ. They might add like 10 cents, 50 cents to your COGS, probably more like the 10 cents range, and boom, you have custom packaging as soon as they can create it, which is super sick. And then last but not least, probably one of the most important things is they have a USA 3PL. So basically they have a China 3PL and they have a USA 3PL, which just means at the start you can get super cheap shipping shipped from China, but when you need to switch over to branded and actually brand the hell out of your store because it's printing, you can do USA 3PL, which is 3 to 5-day shipping, super important for churn, super important for, you know, just Basically happy customers, and happy customers means a good business and a thriving business, right? So probably the most important thing is that USA3PL, which a lot of these private suppliers don't have, they only ship from China. So this is super sick. This is what I currently use. I will put a link in the bio. If you guys are at this level, you guys are doing at least like 25 orders a day, I'd say, you can probably reach out to them and they'll get back to you. But if you're not, if you're a beginner, do not be using them because they will not prioritize you at all because they need to make money. They're going to be providing a really good service, and providing a good service requires a lot of capital, and they need to make profit from the people they're serving. So if you're not doing the orders, there's no profit in it for them because there's no upfront fees, of course. And so do not reach out to them. But if you are, I definitely recommend it. I'll put the link in the bio, but Yeah, this is basically all the options you have for e-commerce for fulfillment. And I know I just stuttered, but this is basically it. And I think I might have left out some, but you can probably tell what group they fit into. Are they private? Are they one of the big four? Or are they just kind of like an Alibaba, AliExpress thing? And it's the same for all of them. If something is kind of like AliExpress, it's gonna have the same sort of stuff going on with it. So that's the video, guys. I hope you guys got the good information you need, and yeah, definitely reach out to Max if you guys are printing. So, later.
