Popular Marketplaces + Dropshipping: Methods & Tools for Each

popular dropship marketplaces and what tools to use

Marc Andreessen wasn’t off the mark when he famously quipped on “Why Software Is Eating the World?” in a Wall Street Journal article in 2011.

If it weren’t for the resolve of entrepreneurship itself and the pure drive of entrepreneurs today, the choice of apps, tools, and software could you make you go all tizzy.

There’s an app, for pretty much everything. For most people, this perplexity of choice is enough to stop and give up. If there isn’t something yet, that’s another business idea for a startup to get cracking with. Either that, or someone will figure out a way to hack and put things together in a nano second.

But! you are not here to give up. In fact, you are just about to start dropshipping — I assume.

So, what better way to get started than to learn about the 4 most effective approaches to the popular dropship marketplaces, dropshipping methods, and tools where applicable:

Etsy + Spocket

Now, bare with us here. This is a secret we have come across recently that we’d love to share with you. Below, you’ll read about the more popular dropshipping methods, but this is a hidden gem that can make all the difference. While Etsy might not be the perfect marketplace for you want volume and scale, it’s still one of the best dropship marketplaces for handcrafted goods. Etsy makes up for lack of volume with sellers who personally create products or source products actually handmade by others.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s still MORE THAN ENOUGH suppliers on Etsy willing to work with your store, and here’s the kicker: most of them are based in North America. This will significantly cut down your delivery time compared to competitors who often import from China. It’s understandable that our clients sourcing from Etsy have seen at least a 30% increase in conversions — and a survey showed this is due to confidence in product based on being made in the US (and Canada) and delivery time.

For Dropshipping, Etsy makes for a great dropship marketplace to source niche products or local handmade products.

With that out of the way, Spocket is the only tool available for dropshippers at the moment to help source desired products into your dropshipping ecommerce store. They are literally expanding the dropshipping industry significantly, and all on their own.

Straight off the bat, Spocket gives you access to more than, 800,000 handmade items and helps automate your dropshipping business. With one-click product push to your store, automated fulfilment, and real-time stock updates, it gives you everything you need to automate your Etsy-based dropshipping business.

Aliexpress + Oberlo + Shopify

The Aliexpress, Oberlo, and Shopify combination is a popular one that most dropshippers tend to choose. Free plug for Oberlo here for having some of the best online resources and info for Ecommerce as well!

Shopify is an incredibly easy way to start an ecommerce store. Aliexpress happens to be a super marketplace for anyone who wants to start dropshipping anywhere.

Oberlo is the bridge that connects Shopify to Aliexpress. Oberlo helps you import products, update inventory, automatically update prices, track sales and shipping, and also change product suppliers. Arguably the best current system in place for dropshipping, definitely the most popular.

WooCommerce Dropshipping

Now, we know that most people love WordPress. While WordPress didn’t set out directly in the path of e-commerce, the rise of Woocommerce as the most popular plugin for using e-commerce on your WordPress site is unmistakably huge.

Chances are, you might choose to do dropshipping with your Woocommerce-backed WordPress store, and you can.

The Official WooCommerce dropshipping plugin developed by Dan Gaspar is your best bet yet. However, there are no tools like Oberlo or Easync (see below) that can automate prices, inventory, shipping, etc., for you. At least, not yet. So, you’d have to manually add and update supplier information, setup notifications, and more. This can be done somewhat easily, but will likely be time consuming as your grow and scale your dropship store.

Easync + eBay (Or Shopify or Amazon)

Not everyone might choose Aliexpress as the marketplace and/or Shopify as the hosted e-commerce platform.
What if you don’t use Shopify at all and maybe you just want to sell on eBay or Amazon? How about not using Aliexpress as the source marketplace for dropshipping?

Fair enough, and it’s important to know you still have options. for example Easync is a nifty little tool that makes your dropshipping business almost run on autopilot. Easync integrates with many independent Amazon marketplaces (such as .com, co.uk) and also others like Walmart, Sears, Overstock, and Aliexpress.

Easync is basically a tool that automates orders, helps you with re-pricing products dynamically, and also helps create listings across multiple dropship marketplaces.

Once you decide your actual store setup (like Shopify or even eBay, for instance), you’ll then pick a source market (like Amazon or Walmart) and then use Easync to connect your store with the market.

Your products will then be listed with a single click while Easync will also help choose the best offers for each seller (on the marketplace), price products dynamically, and even choose the fastest shipping options for your customers.

With dropshipping there are many ways to arrive at where you finally want to be. That’s why it’s important to plan out your approaches, platforms, and technology before you even get started with dropshipping.

Which approach are you going to pick and run with?

Be sure to check out our new landing page and let us know what you think!

Originally published at Dropaship.