Is DHgate Legit? My Honest DHgate Review of $350+ Worth of Products

DHgate is an e-commerce platform that is gaining worldwide popularity thanks to its extensive range of affordable products, specifically its designer “dupes” and replica products. TikTok is fueling this popularity, especially among Gen Z shoppers and Millenials.

I am not immune to this and have also been seeing DHgate pop up frequently on my social media feeds. And the customer reviews I see regarding it have been decidedly mixed. Some influencers LOVE its affordable designer dupe options, whereas others call the products they received from DHgate “absolute garbage.” From what I can see, there hasn’t been much in between!

So, I decided to see what DHgate is all about for myself and to help my readers understand whether or not shopping on this site is worth it. I’ve been shopping online and reviewing websites such as DHgate for a decade now.

I ordered $358 worth of products to bring my readers this review. I ordered shoes, sandals, handbags, dresses, and even a wedding dress.

This post will explain in detail my shopping experience with DHgate, the quality of the products I received, their shipping policy, their return policy (or lack thereof), and whether or not I personally recommend shopping on DHgate.

*Disclosure: Have Clothes, Will Travel uses affiliate links. Meaning, if you click a link and make a purchase, Have Clothes, Will Travel gets a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible!

What is DHgate?

As I mentioned above, DHgate is an online marketplace that is based in Beijing, China, and the retailers it features on its platform are also based in China. This means that DHgate does not actually make any of the products it sells on its website; it is just a place for retailers to list their products, and then DHgate gets a cut of the sale for hosting the product on its website. It’s a site similar to Temu, Amazon, Alibaba, or Aliexpress in this sense.

DHgate launched in 2004 and provides a wide variety of products at low prices, including apparel, electronics, jewelry, home goods, and more. For the purpose of this review, I am only focusing on their clothing, shoes, and handbags.

I placed my DH gate order on Jan. 6, 2024. After I hit the “order” button, I received absolutely no confirmation that my order was placed. There was no email or anything showing that I had indeed made a purchase. Needless to say, this was not a very reassuring first interaction with DHgate.

This is why it’s important any time you shop online, but especially with shady companies like this, that you us a credit card as a payment method and NOT your debit card. This way, if you don’t receive the item, you can easily open a dispute with your credit card company. You are NOT able to use PayPal to pay for your order on DHgate.

I did end up getting an email the next day regarding one of the items I ordered, and it showed that “my order was about to be shipped” and provided me a tracking number. Over the next few weeks, I did get a similar email from all the vendors I purchased from.

You can also check the status of your order by logging into your DHgate account and clicking on the orders tab.

DHgate Shipping

Delivery times on DHgate can vary significantly, depending mainly on the chosen shipping method. Commercial shipping options like UPS, DHL, and FedEx are supposed to ensure delivery within 5-7 days, while economic shipping methods like ePacket can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.

DHgate Delivery Times

I opted for the economic standard shipping with my order. And because a different supplier sold each item, each item shipped separately and at a different time. Some items were shipped via DHL, some USPS, and some EMS.

The quickest I received a shipment to my address in Wisconsin, USA, was within 17 days of placing it. In my experience, the longest shipping time from a DHgate seller was 24 days.

Some of the items shipped from a United States address, but most shipped from China. This didn’t really seem to affect the shipping time at all. The orders coming from China actually arrived faster in my experience than the U.S. vendors.

DHgate Shipping Fees

Some items had free shipping, but most were expensive. For example, I ordered a $26 wedding dress from China with free shipping, but a handbag that shipped from the U.S. cost $18 for standard shipping! So, you have to pay attention to what these sellers list their shipping prices at!

DHgate Return Policy

DHgate has a return and refund policy. However, it’s not a typical policy that most online shoppers are used to.

This policy is designed for you to return something for a refund IF 1.) you never actually received the item 2.) It looks absolutely nothing like the photo/it isn’t even the same item you ordered. They call it “apply for a dispute.”

“If the buyers reject the merchandise during the inspection period, DHgate.com will inform the seller and the cause of rejection. The buyer can then choose discount negotiation or return the merchandise.”

This wouldn’t apply if the item doesn’t fit you or you just don’t like it, unless the seller is very generous. From what I understand, this is quite a bit of work to get a refund, as you have to go back and forth with the seller about why you are rejecting the item. And even if you get a full refund from the seller, you may or may not end paying for the shipping.

For the most part, go into a DHgate order knowing that you are likely going to be stuck with whatever it is that you ordered – whether you like it or not. Don’t expect to return it or exchange it like you would on Amazon. There are DHgate Facebook swap and sell groups for this very reason.

Note: DHgate has a live chat customer service option to ask questions before placing an order. It can be found underneath the seller profile, off to the left side, when you click on an item.

DHgate Product Quality

Again, I ordered shoes, sandals, handbags, dresses, and even a wedding dress to test the quality of DHgate clothing and accessories. I’ll review each item individually in this section.

All of the sellers I ordered from had high customer ratings. I also think that the reviews on DHgate items are authentic, at least for the most part. Unlike sites like Shein where absolutely every item has a 5 star rating and glowing review, you can find negative reviews on DHgate.com. You can even search each product for reviews based on the number of stars, how recent it is, and based on country.

Now, let’s take a look at the items I ordered from Dhgate!

The material this dress is made out of is REALLY scratchy and uncomfortable. If I were actually to wear this for an entire night, I think I would get a rash from it. I’m also not convinced it wouldn’t just unravel or rip.

I know it’s not really fair to say a $26 wedding dress is bad quality…but it is really bad quality and looks nothing like the photo. If you’re looking for a cheap wedding dress, this is not it.

Several reviews of this dress in 2019 did point this out, but all of the recent ones were very positive. (Maybe these were fake reviews?) So, I was warned that this dress might not look like it’s photo, and one review did mention the scratchy fabric. Curiosity got the best of me, though!

Final verdict on the wedding dress

It’s a no for me. $26 for a wedding dress was too good to be true. This dress is terrible! I would be wary of ordering inexpensive wedding dresses on DHgate.

These Birkenstock dupes I ordered from DHgate were only $25.32. However, they charged $17 for shipping! The $42 price tag is still significantly cheaper than the real Birkenstocks, though. Let’s see how they compare!

Now, they aren’t identical. The real pair definitely is higher quality and uses real leather. I’m not convinced the fake pair is leather, even though that’s what it was marketed as. That said, for nearly a hundred dollars less than the original, these dupes are pretty dang nice.

This dupe bag came with a dust cover and was packaged well. For a handbag that cost $35, it is decent looking, and seems to be pretty OK quality wise. However, it smells SO bad. I’ve been trying to air it out for the last month, but it still has this horrible chemical smell to it. Ick!

Let’s see how it compares to the real thing…

Now, there is no way that this bag would be considered a “super fake.” Anyone familiar with Saint Laurent handbags would be able to spot the differences between the real and the fake bag. This also doesn’t feel like real leather and has a rather shiny, plastic look to it in real life.

However, I think this is a pretty decent handbag for the price. If you just like the style of the YSL bags but don’t want to shell out thousands of dollars, this could be a good alternative.

Final Verdict on the Fake YSL Bag

It doesn’t hold a candle to the quality of the real handbag and wouldn’t be mistaken for the real thing. However, for its affordable price tag, it is a pretty decent quality bag. I’m still team “real” bag, but I’m not upset about the purchase of this handbag at all.

This dupe bag came with its own dust cover and is in great condition. However, once again, this bag has a horrible chemical smell, not as bad as the fake YSL bag, but still pretty bad.

But does it compare to the real version? Let’s take a look.

Now, there are differences between these two bags, most noticeably is the gold “Sardine” handle. The real version will have imperfections and unique markings on it, while the fake is perfectly smooth. The real bags handle is also quite heavy, whereas the fake is very lightweight.

Again, it’s not a “super fake” quality handbag, but it’s a decent quality handbag that looks shockingly similar to the real thing.

Another difference between the real handbag and the fake is that the fake has an interior zipper for your cards/cash. In comparison, the real one is totally open and is just one single compartment. I’ve dropped the real bag several times and hate that my card/keys go flying! The zipper compartment in the fake is actually a better design, in my opinion.

At this point, I’m more inclined to use the fake bag than the real one, thanks to this little zipper pocket.

This dress looks pretty close to the photo. It’s an absolutely stunning print that also looks very close to its original inspiration.

However, the dress doesn’t have any belt loops, so the belt it comes with just slides down and looks weird. The material is also a weird scratchy polyester type material. It’s not as bad as the wedding dress, but it’s not great.

Now, in photos, if I fixed the belt with some loops, you might not be able to tell the difference between this dress and the original. However, in person, this dress is just not that impressive quality-wise.

I don’t have the real version of this dress, but I have a similar Zimmermann dress we can compare it to. (The dress with long sleeves is the real Zimmermann dress.)

Of course, these dresses have a HUGE price difference, so it’s not fair to judge the DHgate dress based on this. (I just was curious myself how “good” this replica was.)

Chestnut Fur Slides Sheepskin (Ugg Dupes) Review

I’ve never been a huge Ugg fan, but these slides looked great to wear in winter for quick walks to the mailbox, to and from my gym, and standing outside with the dogs as they do their business. They cost $29.82 but $19 for shipping! However, that’s still quite a bit cheaper than the real Ugg’s $109 price tag.

The photos on DHgate of these slides too were very clear and detailed. I felt like I had a very good idea of what these would look like in person, compared to everything else in this post that has super grainy, weird photos.

Chestnut Fur Slides Sheepskin Sizing

I ordered my normal size 8 for these but should have sized up to a 9. I have wide feet, and this is an issue I run into frequently with most shoe brands. These are just so narrow that I can’t get my feet all the way into them, and it hangs off the end.

It’s a shame because these are super nice slippers! If they fit, I would wear them all the time around the house and for quick little jaunts outside. The inside is really soft, too.

I’ve still been wearing them around the house, hoping they would stretch out, but I’ve had no such luck yet.

This is better quality than I was expecting for a bag at this price point! The stitching isn’t too bad, and the outer material doesn’t look too bad in person, either. Will anyone mistake it for a real one? Absolutely not, but it costs less than $50 with shipping.

The straps on this bag are pretty thin, though. You couldn’t put too much stuff in it and comfortably carry it around. It’s also smaller than I was expecting, there weren’t any measurements on the website, so I just assumed it would be a similar size to the real one. That’s not the case. (I could have reached out to the seller using the chat feature to avoid that surprise. My bad.)

However, I like that it came with a nice dust cover and matching pouch!

Verdict on the Neverfull Bag

I think this bag looks better in person than the website images and seems to be of decent quality. This isn’t so good of quality that someone will think it’s real, though.

This would be a fine choice if you’re looking for a decent Louis Vuitton Neverfull dupe. (Just be aware that the size is a little smaller than the real one.)

Is DHgate safe?

DHgate is safe in the sense that it is not going to steal your credit card data and run. DHgate doesn’t actually release your payment to the seller until the item shows that it’s been delivered. This is part of the DHgate buyer protection that they offer. If you don’t receive an item you ordered, you can file a claim with DHgate for reimbursement. If that doesn’t work, you can easily file a claim with your credit card company too.

Final Verdict on DHGate.com

To sum it up, DHGate offers a wide range of products and a wide variety of price points. The sellers are a mixed bag, and you never know exactly what you are going to get. Some times the items are awesome high-quality products for the price, sometimes they’re pretty poor quality, and they don’t fit at all. It’s really a gamble, and the return policy is basically non-existent. So you’ll likely be stuck with an item regardless of whether or not you like it or it fits properly.

Personally, I don’t like gambling like that when I shop online. Based on their complicated return policy, I don’t foresee myself ever ordering from DHgate again.

That said, DHgate is a legit and safe platform to purchase from when you go into it with caution and understanding their return policy. By being aware of the platform’s policies, vetting sellers, and setting realistic expectations for product quality and delivery times, you can take advantage of the platform’s wide product range and competitive prices.

Have you ever ordered from DHgate? Let me know in the comments!

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