A lot has changed in the affiliate marketing world in last 6 – 9 months. Some major updates by Google have killed niche affiliate websites and ranking on Google has become very difficult.
A lot of affiliate marketers have now moved to drop shipping business. Drop shipping business can be very profitable if done correctly. A simple example of drop shipping would be buying from Amazon and selling on eBay. This means that you don’t buy a product unless it’s sold on another platform.
This business has attracted lots of people as there are not many efforts. With platforms like Shopify and WordPress plugins like AliDropship, it has become easy to set up stores.
How Do Shopify and AliDropship Stores work?
You can create your own store with Shopify or AliDropship to sell products online. All you have to do is import products from Aliexpress into your store, add your margins and list them for sale. Once a sale is made, these systems place orders directly on Aliexpress and the buyer receives the product directly from Aliexpress.com. Most of the product owners are in China so these products are shipped from China.
How Long Does It Take To Ship The Product?
Since the products are shipped from China, it takes anywhere between 2 weeks to one month for products to reach the customer. These are average times and can change depending on your seller and the shipping method used. Shop owners usually choose the ePacket method for shipping as it generally faster as compared to other shipping methods.
Can I Setup a Store?
Anyone can set up a dropshipping store online. If you do not want to bother much about the technical aspects, you can set up using Shopify. Shopify will set up a full working store for you which includes web hosting. Shopify charges around $28 per month for this service.
What is AliDropship?
AliDropship is a WordPress plugin which does almost everything that Shopify does. You need to know about WordPress to use AliDropship. You will need your own web hosting if you choose to create your store using AliDropship. However, there are options where you can buy readymade AliDropship websites or get them to create one for you.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a platform which will let you create your stores easily in a matter of few hours. The best thing about Shopify is that you don’t really need any technical knowledge to create an online store. Any person who can use a Computer can build a store using Shopify. With Shopify, you don’t have to bother about web hosting or anything that’s a bit more technical for you.
What About Domain Name?
With Shopify, you get a free name like mystore.shopify.com. This is definitely not recommended and hence buying a domain name becomes a compulsion for both the platforms. Domain names are cheap and a .com is available for $9 a year.
What Do I Prefer?
I definitely prefer AliDropship over Shopify. Here are my 5 reasons:
- I have worked with WordPress all my life and I am used to it. I love WordPress!
- I have 5 dedicated servers where I host my websites and hence adding another store or website is not really a big expense for me. Hence, I would happily pay a one time $89 fee over $28 every month.
- I can optimize my store using various WordPress plugins which I have used for other sites. Also, plugins that I have bought or would buy in future can be used on my AliDropship store as well.
- I would not trust someone else host or control my website. I have heard of horror stories where people have lost their years of work because they had little or no control over the website files. Shopify does not provide any files if you plan to close your store. With AliDropship, I have ownership and control over everything.
- I have read forums where people have seen an increase in sales after switching to AliDropship from Shopify. Also, there are threads where people have talked about making lesser sales after switching to Shopify. This reason alone stops me from building stores using Shopify.
I personally prefer AliDropship over Shopify but this does not mean that either of the two is better or worse as compared to the other platform. Some people like and prefer Shopify because of following reasons:
- Shopify has lots of apps and themes available. This can make our store loaded with lots of features and better in terms of looks.
- Some people have had issues with AliDropship and have given up on it because it had bugs and was painful to use.
- Shopify stores are usually to set up and anyone can set up a store in about 2 hours. AliDropship requires some technical knowledge.
- Shopify is a bigger company and after acquiring Oberlo, they will be looking to beat their competitors. I won’t be surprised if they acquire AliDropship and start their own WordPress integrated platform.
Conclusion:
It won’t really matter who you choose. A person with knowledge of web hosting and WordPress would choose AliDropship while Shopify would definitely attract people who do not have much knowledge in this area. The most important step is to set up a store and get some steady sales going quickly.
