Discover Better Dropshipping Alternatives to Shopify
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- The allure of Shopify dropshipping
- The challenges of Shopify dropshipping
- Inconsistent profitability
- High competition and ad costs
- Costly product testing
- The alternative: Dropshipping on retail websites
- Advantages of retail website dropshipping
- No need for inventory or warehouse
- Low start-up costs
- Wide range of potential customers
- The role of software in retail website dropshipping
- Z drop and List Perfectly
- Automating product listing
- Hiring assistance for retail website dropshipping
- Scalability and profitability of retail website dropshipping
- Conclusion
Why You Should Forget Shopify and dropship Elsewhere
Coming a successful Shopify drop shipper, like a lot of these YouTubers you see, is enticing for so many people. I get it—I've been there. It's intoxicating to think that the formula to making money and Lambos is simply finding a winning product on AliExpress or wherever, throwing it up on a Shopify store, and running some ads to it. But deep down, we all know that it's really not that simple. So, eventually, you decide to learn more about it and take it somewhat seriously. One video tells you that the problem is your product, so you try product after product, thinking that that's the issue. Another video tells you that the problem is your website, so you spend more money on apps that they recommend and hours tweaking the layout of your landing page, hoping that the issue was simply your conversion rate. And yet another video tells you that the problem is your ad creatives, so you spend days trying to record and edit them yourself or even hundreds of dollars purchasing them from a company that specializes in that. And eventually, after enough videos, time spent, and money spent, you come to the realization that it's not as easy as everyone makes it out to be.
That's why, in this article, I want to cover why you should forget Shopify and dropship elsewhere instead. I'm not saying that you can't be successful running ads to a Shopify store; you certainly can. But for most people without a multi-thousand dollar budget that you're willing to lose in order to test products, you're better off going in so many other directions. If you're running ads on popular platforms like TikTok, Facebook, or Google to buy traffic to your product listings, it's extremely difficult to stay profitable consistently. While the reward for finding a profitable product and ad campaign that drives sales consistently is certainly high, that reward can be short-lived since often, other competitors will flood into the market and drive your ad costs up once they realize it's working for you. Not to mention, it can cost you hundreds, often thousands, of dollars to realistically test the product in the first place. That means you can waste thousands of dollars just testing products with no promise of ever finding a winner. Most of these Shopify videos would have you believe that you only need a budget of $50 or as little as $10 a day in order to test these products, and then of course, you can shut down the campaign if it's not working for you and just move on to testing the next product. But the truth is, that's never going to be enough data overall to make an informed decision about whether a product and an ad campaign is a long-term winner or not. And deep down, we all know this. But the small chance that it could work often overrides our logic.
As someone who has been an entrepreneur for six years now, I've been able to work for myself, on my own schedule, buy a new car, this house, provide a comfortable life for my wife and I, and save and invest plenty of extra money towards our family's future. And saying that isn't me intending to brag; it's simply so you know I at least have a competent grasp on the basics of running a business. And I've learned through experience that the last thing you want to do when starting a business is to get on the hamster wheel of constantly burning money. Starting a business is hard enough, but trying to outearn your mistakes when you're starting will make it next to impossible. Instead, you should look for opportunities where there's a lot of potential upside but hardly any downside risk. That's why I don't recommend Shopify dropshipping to beginners or mostly anyone. I personally recommend dropshipping on retail websites instead.
Dropshipping on sites like Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and others like them is literally the best online business that you can start right now. It has all the upside of a dropshipping business—you don't need a warehouse to store inventory, you don't need to spend any money on products before you actually sell them, you don't need to fulfill or ship orders yourself, and you don't even need much money to start. Plus, you have location freedom because you can work from anywhere in the world. But it also has none of the downside risk of spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars to find out if a product is even viable in the first place. The reason for that is there are already customers on these websites, already looking for products. And that means you only need to spend your time listing these products in order to make sales. The only risk is your effort, not losing lots of money.
Moreover, there is even software out there that will list to these websites with the click of a button. Two software programs that I consistently recommend are Z drop and List Perfectly. These software programs copy products in bulk from one website to another—they copy the title, description, and pictures of a product in literally seconds and also mark the price up to a certain percentage. So if it sells, you make money. This is how my team and I are able to put hundreds of products up across many different websites every single day, sometimes even more.
Additionally, if you don't feel like doing it yourself or if you already have a job or something else going on, then you can hire somebody to do it for you for as little as two dollars on a site like Fiverr or onlinejobs.ph. Retail dropshipping on sites like these is great for beginners because you can get started with little to no money at all, unlike Shopify, and it's also extremely scalable too.
In conclusion, if you're looking to start a dropshipping business and want to minimize the risks and maximize the potential, I highly recommend forgetting about Shopify and instead focusing on dropshipping on retail websites. The advantages of this approach, including low start-up costs, a wide range of potential customers, and the ability to automate the product listing process, make it a superior choice for beginners and experienced entrepreneurs alike. With the right strategy and determination, retail website dropshipping can offer substantial profitability and long-term success. So, don't get caught up in the Shopify hype. Explore the opportunities available on retail websites and embark on your dropshipping journey with confidence.
