Are you looking for the best dropshipping solutions for your business? I was too. Early on as an internet entrepreneur I found that Shopify was the ultimate and most effective platform for an eCommerce business. But once you have a sweet looking webstore, you obviously need to find a good dropshipper!
Oberlo is Shopify’s dropshipping plan. An app, that’s both advanced AND incredibly simple to use. So how is Oberlo for dropshipping, and why does it have a 5 star rating from its users?
Let’s break it down.
How Does Oberlo Work
Oberlo is designed to work in perfect harmony with Shopify. It’s all about getting the perfect products to fit your brand. But to fully understand how Oberlo works, and why it may be your best dropshipping option on earth, you’ve got to understand the importance of branding your business.
Your success in building a multi-million dollar business will depend on your understanding of brand.
Ever heard of Hunter boots? They’re nice rubber rain boots. Stylish little things. And they typically sell for around $150. Dear reader – rubber rain boots ARE NOT worth $150. Hunter pays a tiny fraction of that cost to get the boots in the first place. They’re nice, don’t get me wrong! But they’re not worth $150… the power is in the branding.
You’ll hear me say this a lot. Many of the nice products we purchase have value to us because they’ve become recognizable, and synonymous with quality, or even just a certain culture.
Think of some brands that people are paying a lot of money for!
Nike doesn’t even need to use words anymore! Everyone knows the checkmark. And they can sell shoes for over $100 that they got for a few bucks.
One company that easily comes to mind is Supreme. This company started 24 years ago, and just like your Shopify or Amazon store, it started as a little business in New York City, that no one knew anything about.
Catering to the skateboarding, hip hop, and rock cultures, it captured a vibe that appealed to youths wordlwide, Supreme is now a company that is worn by global cultural icons (like Justin Bieber and BTS), often sells out new products within literal seconds, and can charge $150 for its hoodies.
Here’s where Oberlo matters – Oberlo connects you to quality wholesale products that are completely unbranded. This means that instead of trying to sell products owned by other companies, the products can be YOURS. This is how to truly become the owner of a lucrative brand.
Who knows, maybe you could sell 50% of your Shopify business for $500 million the way Supreme did and retire in style.
Of course, creating a brand, and getting attention to your brand, takes a lot of time, work, and patience. But Oberlo partners with AliExpress to give you an endless array of reliable and quality products to be dropshipped directly to your customers… with your name!
Connecting Oberlo To Shopify
Finding products through Oberlo looks something like this screenshot below:
With a few clicks of a button you can find a vast array of quality products and dropshippers. A few more clicks and your inventory will be automated to add to Shopify, so that your store can run largely on its own.
Oberlo also gives you complete info on each product, including reviews to confirm its quality, and a comparison of the wholesale price, retail price, and the amount you should be able to make in the profit margin.
The thing that’s awesome about Oberlo and Shopify is that they are seamlessly designed for each other, so the process of importing inventory into your store is simple.
You can place bulk orders with Oberlo Supply, sync products to your webstore automatically, and even automates fulfillment and tracking so that you don’t need to worry about whether or not your products are shipping out.
Will You Be Able To Find What You Need On Oberlo (And Can You Trust It?)
So maybe you’ve done enough research, or you’ve had a brainwave, and you’ve thought up a really great product idea. You can picture it. Now you just need to make it happen. Catchy name: check. What’s next?
It’s important that you can trust your dropshipper. Oberlo and the AliExpress companies that you use to get your products do not put invoices or their own information in the boxes they deliver – it’s YOUR name on the box! Or at least the name of your brand.
Because of this, you will definitely want to make sure that you can trust your dropshipper. It reflects badly on you and your business if your products are showing up late or in pieces!
Fortunately, Oberlo screens all of the dropshippers it connects you with, and if a manufacturor doesn’t meet their standards, it gets the boot.
That gives you the peace of mind to just be a creator!
So How Much Does Oberlo Cost?
This is one of the best parts about Oberlo.
The starter plan for Oberlo is now completely free! $0! If you have Shopify and own a Shopify store, you are able to use Oberlo’s starter plan for free.
While some companies only offer you a skelatal starter plan that forces you to immediately upgrade, the starter plan with Oberlo allows for up to 50 transactions per month, and 500 products per month!
If your business is in its early stages this will likely be enough to fully cover your needs. If you’re selling higher ticket items (more expensive stuff with high profit margins), you’ll probably be selling in a much lower volume, and making your money through the margins; you may never need more than 50 transactions per month.
If you’re selling in high volume Oberlo has two more plans: a basic plan for $29/month that can handle 10,000 products and 500 transactions per month, and a Pro plan for $79/month, that can handle 30,000 products and unlimited transactions!
Your Adventure In Dropshipping Begins
The opportunity to start your own business in dropshipping has never been better than it is today!
You can try out Oberlo completely for free by clicking on the banner below!
I’ve seen a few tutorials for Oberlo and I have to say that it seems like the easiest thing in the world to get started with Shopify + Oberlo…
Which leads me to wonder, what are some of the things that I should be cautious about?
Hi Michael,
Oberlo and Shopify ARE incredibly easy to use, and efficient, but you’re definitely wise to be cautious and consider the things you’re going to need to watch out for.
As easy as dropshipping is, you’ll need to choose which dropshippers you use very carefully. Oberlo, or other services (like SaleHoo), can help you to narrow down which dropshippers are trustworthy, but a new business owner needs to be aware that not all of them are. If a new ecommerce entrepreneur starts choosing dropshippers without due diligence, you can run the risk of a company not fulfilling your orders, or even not being a real seller. If a company is slow to communicate, or asks for subscription fees, these can be some red flags.
Your dropshipping success will be aided by doing your research before utilizing any dropshipping supplier, even if it’s just a matter of finding the best profit margins, and the highest quality products.
I’m also an advocate of getting some kind of insurance (I’m a licensed insurance agent myself) once your business is established. There are affordable options, and once you have a profitable business you’ll want to protect yourself from any disasters.
Ultimately, though, strategy and education will be your strongest assets to take advantage of the dropshipping opportunity offered by Oberlo and Shopify.