Oberlo Review: Yet Another Dropshipping App

Introduction

For many businesses today and entrepreneurs alike, dropshipping is quite the lucrative venture (not me though). It basically takes advantage of the increasing spread and access to the internet around the world, and uses that to help you make money selling products, especially if you are not keen on dealing with inventory management and supply chains.

However, even though it has its own appeal as a business venture, it still remains a concern to many sellers whether they are dealing with the right suppliers and websites, because after all, you would not like to provide inferior or counterfeit products to your customers, yet this might be a major risk as you are not in control of the products themselves.

If this is a major concern for you, Oberlo might be the solution for that problem – and in this Oberlo review article, we will see whether this is the case.

What is Oberlo?

This is an exclusive app that is primarily made for the Shopify dropshipping website, and the aim is to allow you to import dropshipped products into your online store then ship them to your customers directly. The process is also made simple enough to work in a few clicks.

It is quite different from other dropshipping platforms because it is not entirely a fully-fledged eCommerce website, but instead acts as an extension, which you can install on any site that is built on a dropshipping website like Shopify. Oberlo will then package products and ship them too customers directly, after they place orders from your shop.

It exhibits the advantages that come with dropshipping services in many ways, which include:

• It doesn’t require you to have a physical store, since it involves eCommerce, and that will allow you to operate a successful dropshipping enterprise, regardless of where you are in the world. In addition, you will not need to take a physical check of the inventory, since the software can do that for you in real time.
• No need for too much capital in order to start the business, since you do not need to purchase your stock in advance – it therefore reduces your operational costs and expenses
• Access all tools you need online, and achieve the success you want in your business – all at a small cost or no cost at all.
• Can easily become a niche authority in time as you continue to sell products and services, and it provides you with numerous chances to test products easily.

Features of Oberlo

Who Can Use It?

As long as you have a Shopify shop, you can use Oberlo – even if you are starting a dropshipping business or are migrating an already existing store. It will primarily work with Shopify though, so you will need to link a Shopify store to your account, or create one on the platform when you sign up.

Pricing

This is quite affordable. There are three plans available, which all have different features as shown below.

	Starter package (free)	Basic package (monthly fee of $29.90)	Pro Package (monthly fee of $79.90)
Number of products	500	10,000	30,000
Maximum orders per month	50	500	Unlimited
Product syncing	Yes	Yes	Yes

Every plan will come with a free trial of 30 days, which will give you a chance to sample what it has to offer you before you begin paying for the service.

You can also cancel your subscription at any time but keep in mind that this will involve letting go of the dropshipping aspect, which leaves you processing orders manually.

All of them will also include:

• Free Chrome extension
• Daily product synching
• Automation of price updates
• Automatic order fulfillments
• Sales reports

User Interface

The last thing you probably want is a customer heading to your shop and being confused on how to navigate, because everything is all over the place. With Oberlo, you do not need to worry about it though.

The user interface is beautiful and assists both you and the customer to complete a wide variety of tasks such as the easy access you have to sales information and product inventories. If you want to edit the information of a product in Shopify, you can do so in just one click from there, rather than on the Oberlo dashboard.

Automatic Fulfillment of Orders

This is among the best aspects of Oberlo, because it eases the process of dropshipping entirely, and Once customers place orders, you simply need to locate it in your store and click the ‘Order Product’ button. If you are dealing with an assortment of products that are coming from various suppliers, you can still add them to your cart.

Oberlo will handle everything else. The customer will not know that you were dropshipping anyway because they will package and ship the items. In addition, you will not need to worry about stocking and shipping the products.

Supply

There are millions of products you can choose from when it comes to this platform which all sorted out into various categories such as jewelry, home products and beauty – all which you can check from the search bar. There are two types of suppliers to check for:

• Oberlo suppliers – these are all found on the platform itself. Oberlo will check various criteria such as their business documents and warehouses and operations, which eases any worry you might have of dealing with dishonest vendors.
• Verified suppliers – these are the best ones to go for. They have a proven track record, and they also meet the high standards of Oberlo in dealing with buyers, including processing at least 1000 orders, and a dispute rate below 2%. Their on-time delivery rate must also be at least 95%.

Customer Support

Oberlo offers you support on a 23/7 basis, and in addition, they have a policy of their customer care employees owning actual eCommerce stores, so that they can assist effectively when problems come up.

Pros

• Immediate integration with your Shopify store
• Automated fulfillment and price updates
• User friendly interface
• Easy importing of products

Cons

• Only supports AliExpress
• You cannot work on standalone sites on other eCommerce websites

Oberlo Alternative

The thing about Oberlo is its exclusivity for Shopify stores, but what if you want to make your store on a different platform like WordPress for example?

Though Oberlo does not cater other platforms aside from Shopify at the moment, fret not because you can still get to build your store on other platforms. There are some excellent Oberlo alternatives that you can utilise especially in the Woocommerce platform, by using apps and plugins such as Alidropship or even Dropified, which gives you the ability to setup and build dropshipping stores outside of Shopify.

With this alternative and cost effective solutions, you can still be able to build your dream store for a fraction of the investment you need to shell out for the Oberlo app.

Final Thoughts

Creating an account with the platform is the best way to learn on how to use it, and the process is fortunately easy enough to follow. It will also make your business of dropshipping easier and allow you to focus on growing your business.