The single table that answers most questions
| Platform | Agent | Convert links | QC stage | Consolidate | Best at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taobao | Required | Yes | Yes | Yes | Breadth of catalogue |
| Weidian | Required | Yes | Yes | Yes | Stock that lists nowhere else |
| 1688 | Required | Yes | Yes | Yes | Five or more of one thing |
| Temu | No | No | No | Automatic | Speed and low-value basics |
| DHgate | No | No | No | Not possible | One item, one trusted seller |
| Alibaba.com | No | No | No | Freight forwarder | Importing at quantity |
Why "spreadsheet" means two different things
In Group A a spreadsheet is a conversion queue. Every row holds an ID that is worthless until routed through an agent, which is why converters exist and why sheets survive agents closing — the IDs outlive the wrappers.
In Group B a spreadsheet is a shopping list, or on DHgate a seller list. Nothing needs processing. The value is entirely in the curation: which storefront, which item, what actually turned up.
Running Group B links through a link converter does nothing, and is one of the more common wasted steps for people arriving from the agent side of the hobby.
Choosing by what you are buying
- One specific model or colourway → Taobao or Weidian. Nothing else has the catalogue.
- Something where fit or finish matters → Group A, for the QC stage alone.
- Several items at once → Group A, because consolidation collapses several freight charges into one.
- Five or more identical pieces → 1688.
- One cheap thing, quickly → Temu or DHgate.
- Genuinely importing to resell → Alibaba.com with Trade Assurance, or 1688 through an agent.
Where AliExpress and Shein sit
Two platforms come up constantly and are absent from the table above, so it is worth placing them.
AliExpress belongs firmly in Group B. It ships internationally, needs no agent, and carries the most developed buyer protection of any direct platform here — an escrow-style hold with a defined dispute window. It is usually the priciest of the direct options, and that protection is most of what you are paying for. If a spreadsheet points at AliExpress, buy from it directly; there is nothing to convert.
Shein is Group B as well, but it is a vertically integrated fashion retailer rather than a marketplace — it is not a place third-party sellers list, so the notion of a curated seller sheet does not really apply. It also sits on the dupe side of the line rather than the rep side, which is a different category of purchase with different expectations attached.
Two things that are true of all six
The split runs deep, but a couple of realities apply regardless of which group you are in.
Import charges do not care about your route. VAT, GST and duty are assessed on goods entering your country, not on how they got there. An EU buyer pays VAT from the first cent on a DHgate parcel and on an agent parcel alike. The only genuine variation is whether the charge is collected up front by a tax-paid line or presented at the door with a handling fee attached — which is a convenience difference, not a saving.
Sizing behaves identically everywhere. Chinese apparel is cut for a different average build across all six platforms, and footwear lasts run the way they run irrespective of who sold you the shoe. Measure once in millimetres and work from the listing's centimetre table rather than the letter on the label — that advice does not change based on which group you bought from. The size converter covers it.
What this cluster does not claim
These pages are written to be accurate rather than to rank. The measurable US search volume across this entire category is about 350 a month — w2c spreadsheet at 210, temu spreadsheet at 90, and two smaller terms. Searches for "dhgate spreadsheet" or "weidian spreadsheet" do not register in the keyword data at all.
They exist because the questions get asked constantly in Discord servers, on Reddit, and increasingly to AI assistants — and because the answers circulating are mostly wrong in the same specific way: treating six platforms with three different business models as though they were interchangeable.