CJ Dropshipping Review: How Does It Compare to Other Dropshipping Platforms?

Dropshipping has become one of the best systems for making money online. This business model doesn’t require a huge startup cost for sellers, as it spares you from having a warehouse or holding any inventory.

In choosing a dropshipping platform, you need to consider several factors. What platform offers winning products with the cheapest price? Which one ships items fast to customers? How will you integrate the platform with your e-commerce store?

Finding the right platform is crucial in making or breaking your business, especially if you are just starting. You would prefer a platform that offers great quality control and fast delivery time without hurting your pocket.

One famous platform that is widely used for dropshipping today is CJ Dropshipping. In this CJ dropshipping review, we will break down its different key features. We will also make a distinction between Oberlo, Spocket, and Modalyst as other dropshipping alternatives.

Let’s get to the point!

Table of Contents

What Is CJ Dropshipping?

CJ Dropshipping is one of the most professional dropshipping partners in China. It was established in 2000 by Andy Chou, the CEO, and his team. It’s widely known for its ability to focus on the customer’s needs and its fast same-day shipping processing.

CJ Dropshipping is a one-stop-service platform for a dropshipping business. It’s an integrated platform that covers services, such as product sourcing, order processing, and shipping fulfillment. CJ owns a production studio where they shoot videos for their products, and the photos and videos are freely available for you to use as ads.

Its main customers are Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay, Amazon, Lazada, and Shopee sellers who only focus on the marketing and leave the rest of the process to CJ Dropshipping. Their famous tagline says it all: “You sell- We source and ship for you!”

How Much Does CJ Dropshipping Cost?

What we like about CJ Dropshipping is that most of its services are free. Just like AliExpress, CJ allows you to drop ship their products for free. It offers a free product sourcing service with product prices normally lower than AliExpress and eBay.

What makes CJ admirable is that it also spares you from paying for a setup fee, monthly fee, storage fee, a fee per item sold, and hidden charges.

However, with its number of warehouses found in the US, Thailand, Indonesia, and China, the Service Fee charges vary per warehouse location.

The main rule is that if the products exist or are sourced in a CJ warehouse, the warehouse fee is free. They will only charge product fees and shipping costs if you dropship products directly from their warehouses. However, if the products do not exist in a specific CJ warehouse, you need to pay for the processing fee, shipping fee, and warehouse fee.

The shipping cost and time mainly depend on the location of the warehouse to where you source your products and where your customer is based.

CJ provides a wide variety of shipping line choices but encourages sellers to use CJ Packet as the most promising shipment carrier. CJ Packet is CJ Dropshipping’s special shipping line.

With any shipping concerns, you can use CJ’s shipping cost calculation to show your available shipping options, estimated delivery time, and shipping costs.

How Do You Set Up an Ecommerce Store With CJ Dropshipping?

CJ Dropshipping works well with the following eCommerce platforms: Shopify, eBay, WooCommerce, Shipstation, Lazada, and Shopee Stores. To set up an eCommerce store with CJ Dropshipping, you need to sign in with your username and password. Connect your store by clicking the “authorization” tab on the last option of the left navigation tab.

Shopify

In your CJ Dropshipping dashboard, click “Authorization”, select “Shopify”, and click “Add Stores.” Enter your Shopify Address. Do not include “.myshopify.com” since it’s automatically generated to avoid repetition.

If you are using your Shopify account, you can do the following instead:

1. Log in to your Shopify Admin.
2. Find the CJ Dropshipping app in the Shopify App Store.
3. Add and install the application.
4. After installing, it will create a CJ Account automatically.
5. A message will pop up that says “Authorization Successful”.

WooCommerce

1. On your CJ Dropshipping’s Authorization tab, choose WooCommerce on the left side navigation bar.
2. Click the “Add Stores” button.
3. Input your WooCommerce store URL (exclude pasting “https://”).
4. Go to the WooCommerce dashboard and click “setting.”
5. Click “Advanced.”
6. Click “Rest API” and fill in the description.
7. Choose “Read/Write” permissions to generate an API key.
8. Copy both consumer key and consumer secret.
9. Go back to the CJ App and fill in the information on the “Authorization” page.
10. A window will pop up that says “Authorization Successfully”.

eBay

1. Go to your CJ Dropshipping dashboard, click “Authorization” and choose “eBay.”
2. Click the “Add Stores” button.
3. Input your store name.
4. You will be redirected to your eBay Account.
5. Sign in to your eBay account with your email and password.
6. Click on “Agree” to complete the authorization.
7. You will be redirected to your CJ Dropshipping homepage.
8. A window will pop up that says “Authorization Successful.”

Follow these steps when integrating Lazada and Shopee. If you have a store on Etsy or Clickfunnels or if you have your website, do the following steps:

1. Click the “API” tab on the left portion of the website.
2. Click the “API Keys” on the top navigation bar.
3. Check the “API document” and you will see the step-by-step flow.

How Do You Add Products to Your Store With CJ Dropshipping?

Now that you have successfully connected your store to CJ Dropshipping, you might be thinking about what winning products are available to sell. There are three main ways to add products to your store with CJ Dropshipping App.

1. Browse on the CJ Dropshipping Website. You can hunt for products by categories or sections on the homepage. You can also search products by warehouses and find Print-on-Demand Products (POD) on the top navigation bar.

2. Use Keywords or SKU Number. You can also use keywords or the identification number of a product to find products easily. The SKU Number or the identification number of a product is provided by your agent, or by CJ Dropshipping product push and recommendation videos. Type keywords or the SKU number on the search bar. After finding the product, you can either list it to your store right away or add it to the queue or wishlist to process it later.

3. Search by image. This technique is the most accurate way to find specific products you want on the CJ App. Click the camera icon on the right side of the search bar. Choose the product image you want to upload.

If there are products that are not available on the CJ App, CJ Dropshipping offers other competitive services: Sourcing Products and Product Listing or Connection.

• Sourcing Products. You can request a specific product where CJD’s sourcing team will source from the best supplier. (More on this in the section below).

• Product Listing. If you find a product on the CJ App that you wish to sell on your store, list it automatically by doing these steps.
  1. Choose a store (eBay, Shopify, etc.).
  2. Select a category. If you don’t have any, you can add a category.
  3. Select the variants.
  4. Set your price, shipping method, and destination country.
  5. You can edit the details like title, descriptions, replace images, and rename each mode or if you’re satisfied with it and don’t want to change anything, click “List it Now” and the items will be listed in your store automatically.
• Product Connection. There might be good products already on your store that you wish to add to the CJ App. You can create a connection to do this.
  1. Click the “My CJ” page from the top of the navigation bar.
  2. Click “Products” still from the top of the navigation bar. You will see “Add Automatic Connection” in the top right corner. Hit the icon, find and pin the product you want to connect from your store.
  3. Find the same product on CJ App (you can do searching/sourcing). Paste the SKU Number on the search bar.
  4. Connect the product.
  5. Confirm the product and the product will be added successfully.

To check, you can head back to the “Connection” Page. You can find an option for “Add Sourcing Connection” beside “Add Automatic Connection”. The sourcing products that you have sourced successfully will show on the left and the opposite side are the products from your store. The Connect Process is the same as adding an automatic connection.

Using the CJ Dropshipping Chrome Extension

Another easy way for you to post sourcing and purchasing requests is by installing the CJ Dropshipping Chrome Extension. Start by adding the extension from the Chrome Webstore. Then follow these steps:

1. Log in to your CJ account.
2. Convert the product price to your currency.
3. Choose any platform you prefer, such as 1680, Taobao, AliExpress.
4. Search for your product by using the search bar.
5. If you found the product, click the button in the top right corner of the product image to post a sourcing request.
6. After clicking the button you can navigate to 1680, Taobao, AliExpress.

How Do You Fulfill Orders On CJ Dropshipping?

CJ Dropshipping allows you to import store orders from your store to its platform automatically or manually.

To automatically place orders, authorize your e-commerce store: Shopify, eBay, Woocommerce, Lazada, Shopee, and Shipstation. Once you have authorized your store, orders will be automatically forwarded to CJD for processing. Authorizing them to your store allows them to read the needed data.

Meanwhile, you can place orders manually using CJD’s template or creating orders. Fill out the necessary information, then pay your orders so that CJD will process them.

What Is CJ Dropshipping Shipping Like?

CJ Dropshipping understands that delivery is crucial in your online business. CJ Dropshipping is famous for its lowest shipping prices and shorter shipping time compared to AliExpress.

Dropshippers mainly use ePacket since it covers almost all countries with a good shipping time. However, as CJ Dropshipping expands its customers around the world, the sellers requested special lines to specific countries like Brazil and Mexico. To solve the problem, CJ Dropshipping established CJ Packet as a shipping line in 2018 as a partial substitute to epacket and was only available for the US market. Since many customers shifted to CJ Packet because of its competitive price and faster delivery, they have expanded it to other countries in 2019.

Since CJ Dropshipping has 7 available warehouses: 3 in China, 2 in the USA, 1 in Thailand, 1 in Germany, and 1 in Indonesia, it has made its shipping time more efficient.

CJ Dropshipping delivery time differs from which warehouse you sourced the product. Let us assume that your product is not available in the US warehouse, so you have to get it from the warehouse in China. Ordinary products from China to the USA take 7 to 12 days via CJ Packet and 12 to 22 days via CJ Packet YDS US. USPS is faster up to 10 to 20 days, but it costs at least a dollar more.

However, if the products are stocked in the CJ US Warehouse it will be shipped shortly 2 to 7 days by USPS+. That’s the greatest advantage of having CJ warehouses around the world. It saves time, money, and energy.

What Features Does CJ Dropshipping Have?

Given that there are a lot of dropshipping platforms that offer a free dropshipping directory, companies need to provide additional features that secure product quality and speed up delivery. CJ Dropshipping seems to be too good to be true because of the many offers and features it has for free.

Let’s dive into the features that make CJ Dropshipping stand out.

Automatic Order Syncing

The Product Listing/Connection feature connects the products on the CJ App and your stores. The orders placed in your store will be synchronized to the CJ System and CJ will handle the product for you. It makes order control easier and efficient for you since you don’t have to log in to different platforms to manage orders.

To know the status of the order that is successfully placed on the CJ App, you have the tracking number. Since you have authorized your e-commerce store, the tracking number is automatically synced to your store.

Multistore Support

If you have established your eCommerce store, such as Shopify, CJ Dropshipping can boost your business since it supports store authorization. Others compare CJD to Shopify and fail to maximize its feature because CJD doesn’t replace Shopify—it partners with it.

This feature allows you to handle and track your orders in one app. It also allows you to generate more sales without the tedious effort of looking for a profitable product and a good supplier since CJ can do the searching and sourcing for you. All you have to do is import CJ products to your eCommerce stores with just a few clicks.

If you have multiple eCommerce stores, such as on Shopify and WooCommerce, you can manage both stores in one CJ Dropshipping account. There’s no need to create separate accounts for each eCommerce store.

Various Payment Methods

To process your orders with CJ, you can pay with various payment methods.

1. PayPal. It allows you to send payment securely using a credit card or bank account. You can also trace your payment status using your PayPal account.
2. Western Union. Since Western Union Bank is common and available to many, you can also use this payment method. Contact your CJ Agent to provide you with the receipt detail.
3. Payoneer. This payment method allows you to win a bonus with CJ Wallet since there is no minimum limit amount. You can use this method in two ways: pay dropshipping orders or charge your CJ Wallet.
4. Payssion. This method is ideal for users living in a country that doesn’t widely use PayPal. With Payssion, you can pay CJ by Local Mobile Banking Transfer that is available to more than 200 countries.
5. Bank Wire Transfer. This method only takes two to three days to transfer your money if your local bank has direct correspondence directly to Bank of America as an example. If your local bank doesn’t have a direct correspondence, you need a third-party bank that will charge you an additional fee of $10 to $20. Yet, if you use this method, CJ will offer up to a 2% bonus for wallet charging.
6. Store Credit. This method is the authorized signature currency of CJ Dropshipping. It has no time limits. You can buy and spend it on the CJ platform.
7. Credit Card. CJ App accepts any kind of credit card.
8. Midtrans. This is specifically for Indonesian Merchants.

Whatever payment method you use, communicate with your CJ agent to inform them ahead and for them to provide you with specific details like receipt details and bank account number.

Custom Packaging and Branding

Having your logo and custom packaging is an effective way to raise brand awareness. CJ Dropshipping offers customized products and packages to support your business.

They offer customized packages, such as express bags, jewelry boxes, shoe boxes, etc. They also do customized products like metal necklaces, velcro, and more. They have laser engraving machines and color printers for your custom logos and packaging.

You can either choose from the two offers: Pre-Designed Packaging and my Custom Packaging.

1. Pre-Designed Packaging. It includes all the packaging CJ has. If you want to check out a specific type of packaging, CJ has updated a new feature. Packaging Material allows you to select whichever material meets your specific needs. Every item title that starts with “MOQ’’ and has different numbers because there is a minimum order quantity for this feature. However, the quantity will be automatically set as its MOQ once you hit “purchase” and the shipping cost might also be higher since other materials might add weight.
2. Custom Packaging. For some packaging materials, you will see a pencil and a ruler icon at the right bottom. It indicates that you can design that package. You can add a photo and text to it. Save the design and it will be automatically saved to your “My Custom Packaging” page. What’s more amazing is that CJ will not display this on the platform since you own this design and you own a copyright to this. However, the challenge to use this feature is that it requires you to purchase a private inventory from CJ since they have to pre-stock these custom packaging in their warehouse. It’s highly advisable to choose a warehouse where your products are stocked for a faster processing time.

US-Based Warehouses

CJ’s US-based warehouses reduce shipping time. If the product is sourced in the US warehouse, it will only take 2 to 4 days delivery via USPS from the time a customer places an order.

Yet, the good features of having different warehouses don’t end with that. CJ US Warehouses helps boost your dropshipping business because it prevents delays in a high-demand season or a pandemic and it meets sensitive customer needs.

Print on Demand

Another attractive feature that CJD offers is Print on Demand services. It requires no monthly fee, no storage fee, no minimum number of orders, and you only pay once you submit an order. Also, CJ prices are lower than Printify and Printiful, which are the POD go-to platforms.

They also offer thousands of available print-on-demand items, such as T-shirts, pillowcases, mugs, phone cases, backpacks, and jewelry. They even source your POD products for free.

Product Sourcing Request

Compared to AliExpress, CJ Dropshipping has limited product listings. But they have another competitive service to compensate for the lack. If there’s a hot selling product you have on hand and you can’t find it on the CJ App. You can request a product source.

You can post an existing product from your store or upload an image with specific details for an individual product. The CJ Team works well in looking for the best supplier and a better price. They will be the ones to upload the item on the CJ App. The sourcing process usually takes 24 to 48 hours and may take longer in a high season.

Although this service is for free, there is a limit to the number of your requests per day:

• To new registers who are level 1 users, you can post 5 sourcing request a day
• For level 2 users, you have 10 available requests
• For level 3 users you have 20
• For level 4 users you have 50 available
• For level 5 and VIP users you have unlimited requests

If you wish to post more sourcing requests every day, you can purchase a paid plan to increase the number of requests you can post.

Does CJ Dropshipping Provide Customer Support?

CJ Dropshipping provides customer support via telephone, email, and a live chat action. You can email support@cjdropshipping.com for help or chat with your CJ Agent.

Their help center provides specific answers through blogs and articles that answer FAQs. They provide tutorials from getting started with your business to fulfilling an order and even gives you an overview of their Pro Service.

A great number of video tutorials are also available on their official YouTube channel.

In general, the seller provides support to end customers. However, if there are issues with the products and the after sales support of the seller is not enough, CJD can provide further assistance.

What Is CJ Dropshipping’s Return Policy?

Dealing with returns might be tricky for beginners in dropshipping since you don’t handle the items yourself. To begin with, you must understand the return policy of your supplier. Make your policy in agreement with your supplier’s return policy. A supplier might support a 20 to 30-day return policy.

CJ will make a Refund, Resend, or Return an item if it’s due to delayed orders, orders not received, products are damaged, incorrect or missing products, and orders cancellation.

The general flow of the return policy starts with a customer submitting a return or exchange request. They must provide pictures or videos of the damaged product. You as the seller must determine the reason for the request and if it applies to the reasons mentioned above. Contact your supplier to get the return authorization code or the return link.

When the supplier approves the return, provide the return address, and the return authorization code or the return link if the customer will return the damaged item directly to the supplier. Instruct your customer to post the tracking number.

If ever the customer ships the damaged item to you first, provide pictures or videos of the damaged product to your supplier. Send the package to your supplier. Keep in touch and follow up on the status of the package. Let the supplier refund you or re-ship to the customer.

If your supplier reships items to the customer, update the customer via email if the package reaches them successfully. If ever the customer wants a refund, provide them the money and send an email to ensure that they receive the refund.

CJ additionally provides a Dispute Team to assess the situation, so you must work with them and must respond to the dispute at a given time. Sellers who don’t open disputes on CJ will be blocked automatically.

What CJ Dropshipping Alternatives Are There?

With the rise of online selling worldwide comes the greatest demand for dropshipping platforms. Let’s see how CJ Dropshipping is different from its main competitors.

Oberlo

Oberlo is a dropshipping tool owned by Shopify. You can use it for free if you own a Shopify store. It allows you to import products into your Shopify store from their list of suppliers for you to choose from. It’s recommended for beginners as it’s user-friendly. It sources its products from AliExpress, the direct competitor of CJ Dropshipping that is also based in China providing affordable products. Oberlo also provides access to learning materials related to dropshipping business.

In terms of store support, Oberlo only supports Shopify stores whereas CJ Dropshipping supports many eCommerce platforms like Shopify, eBay, Woocommerce, and more.

To start with your dropshipping business with Oberlo, you need to set up a Shopify Store which requires a subscription plan, but it offers a 14-day trial. Oberlo offers a free plan where you can get started in learning how to run a dropshipping business. You should also consider buying a custom domain with a price ranging from $14 per year.

Spocket

Spocket works similar to CJ Dropshipping in terms of fast delivery time to customers living in the United States and European countries. More than 50% of the suppliers are from these countries.

Product prices are higher since they vet suppliers from around the world compared to CJ Dropshipping that offers the lowest price. It provides a lot of different products and a huge choice of different categories.

One of the best features of Spocket allows the seller to try the products yourself. If you’re a beginner in the dropshipping business, this feature will help you check that the items you’re selling are of good quality.

Similar to CJ Dropshipping, Spocket also automates orders for sellers to focus more time on marketing and Spocket takes care of the rest of the process.

Modalyst

Modalyst offers millions of products for you to source. It has its catalog of hundreds of brands, as it focuses on curating a variety of premium products from known names.

Similar to CJ Dropshipping, you don’t need to pay for a product on Modalyst unless a customer orders it from you. Modalyst also ships faster in the US and European countries since most suppliers are based there.

However, you need to upgrade to paid plans to access full premium suppliers and get Modalyst’s unlimited product sourcing per brand. If you’re using a free plan and most premium plans, you’re charged a 5% transaction fee. Upgrading to its pro plan will cost $90 per month.

CJ Dropshipping FAQs

Is CJ Dropshipping free?

Yes, CJ Dropshipping is free. It has no storage fee, no monthly fee, no setup fee, and no minimum order required. You’re only charged a processing fee if you buy products from other channels.

If you buy directly from CJ, there will be no processing fee even. For warehouse fees, they will only charge products that are sourced outside CJ and are kept in CJ warehouses for too long with a low circulation rate, but normally, they don’t charge you with that. You can also use their app for free and request product sourcing for free.

Is CJ Dropshipping legit?

Yes, CJ Dropshipping is legit. It was established in 2000 by Andy Chou (CEO) and his team. It was first known as a Jewelry and Commodity manufacturing worldwide. Then, it changed its name to Yiwu Cu Jia Trade Co., Ltd. when it focused on the dropshipping business in 2015.

cjdropshipping.com is the official dropshipping website of Yiwu Cute Jewelry Co., Ltd. located in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province in China.

How do I use CJ Dropshipping?

Using CJ Dropshipping is straightforward. You have to create an account first, connect your eCommerce store and add products.

If there are products that aren’t available on the platform, you can request a product sourcing for free. CJ staff will source the best supplier and the cheapest price possible for you.

Orders from your store will automatically transpire to the CJ platform. You can manage everything through its mobile app. It is available for Android and IOS users in 151 countries.

Does Oberlo Work with CJ Dropshipping?

No. Oberlo works similarly to CJ Dropshipping as a dropshipping platform.

CJ Dropshipping Review Conclusion

CJ Dropshipping is a good choice for dropshipping brands. It provides product sourcing from big suppliers like Taobao and 1688. Its available warehouses in different countries provide you with an effective solution for a faster delivery process. It also provides you almost all of the dropshipping services for free.

If you’re a beginner, the CJD website might look overwhelming since you’re handling a lot of store control in one interface. The different shipping options and available warehouses might confuse you with the shipping cost. It’s best to familiarize yourself with the platform so that you can reap all the drop shipping benefits it provides for free.

Try CJ Dropshipping today!