Have Clothes, Will Travel
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 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 ordered $358 worth of products to bring my readers this review. I ordered shoes, sandals, handbags, dresses, and even a wedding dress.
DHgate is mostly filled with Chinese manufacturers who sell wholesale items. 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.
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.
This wedding dress cost me $26.65 and had free shipping. I had really low expectations for a $26 wedding dress, but yikes, this was still shockingly bad. 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.
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. 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.
This dress looks pretty close to the photo. It’s an absolutely stunning print that also looks very close to its original inspiration. 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.
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. To sum it up, DHGate offers a wide range of products and a wide variety of price points. The sellers are a mixed bag. It’s really a gamble, and the return policy is basically non-existent.