> And what's stopping consumers from bypassing drop shippers altogether?
Situational awareness and a narrative of trust. The number of advertisements on facebook these days promoting some retail site where every single product can be found on aliexpress for less money _and_ free shipping is staggering. The only reason you would buy from them is 1) You don't know what's on aliexpress because you don't know about aliexpress, 2) You don't know what's on aliexpress because you don't trust rando chinese factory sellers without western-friendly spin.
I suppose, depending where you live, local laws may provide more assurances if something goes wrong with the order. Here in Australia at least you are not obligated to deal with anyone other than whoever took your money.
Though in my experience most AliExpress sellers are friendly and willing to refund or work through issues anyway. I've had fewer bad surprises on there than Amazon.
Not a big aliexpress shopper but last time I checked everything is being sold in volume. You don't buy one thing you have to buy many. I am wrong? If that is the case buying one radio instead of 25 makes more sense.
Alibaba is about volume. AliExpress does single quantities too. Except for really cheap things and then you can several items together but nothing you'd really call bulk.
Situational awareness and a narrative of trust. The number of advertisements on facebook these days promoting some retail site where every single product can be found on aliexpress for less money _and_ free shipping is staggering. The only reason you would buy from them is 1) You don't know what's on aliexpress because you don't know about aliexpress, 2) You don't know what's on aliexpress because you don't trust rando chinese factory sellers without western-friendly spin.