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Spocket vs. Oberlo: A Comprehensive Review

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Dropshipping is undoubtedly a big business model. eCommerce revenues are projected to account for 13.7% of all global retail sales in 2019. The same study found that the world would have about 1.92 billion digital buyers in the same year. Despite this, almost half of all small businesses in the United States do not have a website.

There’s not a lot of reason for not getting an online presence for your company in this day and age. And drop shipping helps businesses from anywhere on the planet to sell to consumers from across the globe.

Companies like Shopify are making this extremely simple. Today more than 800,000 stores are operated by Shopify. Indeed, Shopify has established itself as one of the most popular platforms for dropshipping websites. There are tons of apps in the Shopify store that allow users to find suppliers and easily set up their own dropshipping business.

Two apps that are standing on the top of the list are Spocket and Oberlo. In this article, I’m going to address the main differences between these two famous Shopify dropshipping apps, with the intention of helping entrepreneurs like you make an informed decision about which app will suit you best.

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Spocket vs. Oberlo: Overview

Spocket Overview

Started in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2017, Spocket set out to reinvent the dropshipping business model and help online retailers compete with Amazon by reducing the need to keep inventories and erasing upfront costs usually faced by retailers. The business currently empowers more than 20,000 entrepreneurs across five continents, enabling them to run their own online stores.

The company grew rapidly since its early days. Approximately, one year after it opened its doors, the company received $1.5 million in financing from investors such as Mistral Venture Partners, 7 Gate Ventures, Panache Ventures, and the Plug and Play accelerator.

Oberlo Overview

With a bit of a head start, Oberlo, based in Lithuania, launched operations in 2015. Two years later, Shopify purchased the company for an estimated $15 million. Although Spocket focuses on North American and European providers, Oberlo allows users to import goods directly from the Chinese AliExpress Mega Store.

Since its launch, Oberlo has sold more than 85 million items worldwide. Now that we have gone through a brief review of these two apps, let’s dig into how they actually operate.

Spocket vs. Oberlo: Getting Started

Spocket

As mentioned above, Spocket can integrate directly with Shopify stores – it is also compatible with WooCommerce stores. So the first move is to set up a Shopify account by clicking the “Start Free Trial” button. Shopify will take you through every step of the way to get your store up and running. It doesn’t take a lot of time.

After that, you will need to navigate to the Shopify App Store and locate the Spocket Shopify App. Select the “Add App” button and fill in the login information to add the application to your shop.

After that, you’ll be taken on a brief four-step tour of the Spocket dashboard. It starts right away and leads you through everything you need to get started. Enter a keyword to start looking for unique items. Scan by product category or venue, filter by price, pick a source or take a look at “Premium Products” to see different offerings.

If you find the product you want and decide to add it to your shop, you just hover your cursor over it, and a green bar will appear that says “Add to Import List.” Click the button, and the product will be added to the “Import List” tab. You can check each product later before finally adding them to your store.

After that, go to the Import List section and start customizing the product information (or leave them as they are) and position the product directly in your store with a simple click on the “Push To Store” button. After that, the product will be displayed in your store, and your customers will be able to shop!

Oberlo

Similar to Spocket, the first thing you need to do here is sign up with Shopify.

After that, you can go to the Shopify app store and search for the Oberlo app. Then install the app.

Once that is done, you can begin browsing the AliExpress products you want to import to your Shopify store. You can do this by going to the “Search Products” page in the Oberlo dashboard and looking for whatever you find potential.

Oberlo will then import any products you select onto your store with a single click. After that, you can begin customizing the product information and showcase them in your store.

Spocket vs. Oberlo: Sourcing Products

Spocket Sourcing Products

Spocket claims to have products of higher quality than its competition. According to the company, all suppliers are reviewed, each is interviewed, and then their product range is evaluated.

Spocket’s vendors are mostly based in the United States and Europe, making shipping quicker, if a little costlier. Some of the exclusive items that Spocket sells include such things as clothing and furniture. But that does not necessarily mean that all products are unique.

Spocket focuses on local suppliers and Etsy craftsmen. As mentioned above, rather than using AliExpress for all its products, Spocket relies on a network of providers across North America and Europe.

This ensures that you can count on the items you buy from Spocket to be of a higher quality than any of your competitor’s selection. Spocket uses a very comprehensive screening process before it enables suppliers to access its marketplace. This is excellent news for you as a retailer, because it frees you from the hard work of making sure that you’re buying from reliable suppliers. Here’s a brief overview of Spocket’s standards:

By-Application Only –

Suppliers need to apply in order to become part of the Spocket network. In addition, Spocket only allows these businesses to participate if they meet the needs of customers – if their goods are in demand, if they are willing to ship items using neutral packaging, and if they are able to offer Spocket users a 30-to-60 percent discount.

Investigative Interview –

After that, Spocket interviews each supplier before they are invited to enter the marketplace. This enables Spocket to learn about the supplier’s overall market and sales history. This helps the team to really dive into what and the supplier is doing and how they’re going to be a good match for the Spocket marketplace.

Product Testing –

Finally, the Spocket team also orders goods from these manufacturers to check the quality themselves. In this way, they will determine the consistency of the product, packaging, and delivery time it takes to obtain each product. Thanks to this, Spocket is able to focus on any concerns that could be problematic for merchants (long delivery times, low-quality goods, etc.) that might cause them problems down the road.

If the supplier has passed these three stress checks, Spocket outlines the additional minutiae needed for them to sell in the marketplace and guarantees that they comply with all the guidelines.

Spocket also tracks the performance of the supplier for the first two months to ensure that the onboarding does not cause problems and continues to meet the standards of the marketplace. If the supplier is unable to comply with Spocket ‘s requirements, they will be deactivated, and any merchants that have listed the supplier’s goods in their online store will be informed.

Oberlo Sourcing Products

Oberlo is basically an app that makes it seamless to dropship with AliExpress. AliExpress is a huge marketplace. The Chinese-based AliExpress is a giant corporation that offers access to thousands of vendors and sells millions of goods. Each of these vendors has a different level of operation, assistance, and shipping options.

In order to deal with the disparities, Oberlo has divided its suppliers into three groups:

AliExpress Suppliers. These companies have warehouses in China and/or other nearby countries, and, as a result, they often provide free shipping, BUT SLOW. It can also be difficult to decide exactly how long an order is going to take from an AliExpress supplier. Fulfilling and delivery will take up to 30 days.
Oberlo Suppliers. The companies have been vetted by Oberlo. Oberlo has analyzed the company’s operation, warehouse, records, shipping operations, and support. In general, these vendors have a higher degree of reliability than the AliExpress Suppliers group.
Oberlo Verified Suppliers. These sellers are rated as having at least 95 percent of orders shipped and delivered on schedule, as well as a conflict rate of less than two percent. These are the most trustworthy ones.

Spocket vs. Oberlo: Features

Spocket Features

Two-to-Five Day Shipping –

This is perhaps one of the greatest features of Spocket, which allows you to select the items you want to sell depending on the location of your customer. Obviously, this will also differ on the basis of the items and your specific subscription plan with Spocket, but you still have the option to check that before you import the product to your store.

One-click Import Button –

Oberlo and Spocket both have this feature, but it makes a lot of sense. It helps you to import goods to your store without going through a series of monotonous steps. All you need to do is press the easy “import” button, and everything is on your import list.

This is a great step towards automating your entire drop shipping business. It helps to reduce a lot of time and money that is otherwise spent on downloading photos and uploading items to your online store.

Automated Order Fulfilment –

Basically, this allows you to set up a semi-automated business with your suppliers. If the customer pays for the product in your shop, you simply send the order to your supplier with a single click.

When your orders have been received, you will receive an immediate notification, and the supplier will begin to ship your goods to their final destination. The track order button will also appear on the dashboard, allowing you to check the details and location of all the items you’ve ordered.

Price Mark-Up –

Automate the entire pricing process for your online dropshipping shop! With this feature, you can avoid the tedious task of setting the price for every single product you import to your store. The options available include a price multiplier, a percentage, or a fixed price for the whole store or product.

So, if you use a multiplier markup, you can set a 1.5-fold markup. The $10 product would then be changed to $15. You could supplement this by adding a cent roundup feature to all your products. Set the roundup to 30 cents, and your product will be $15.30, for instance.

Product Customization –

This feature allows you to change the title of the product, add SEO tags, and make other changes as you see fit. You can edit the image of the product by adding “alt” text to the images, which will be beneficial when search engines are indexing your site.

Through the product customization process, you can also check out the versions of products that you have imported, but you do not want to sell. You can also modify all product descriptions as you see fit, whether to suit the theme of your page or to improve its SEO performance.

Unique Products –

Spocket aims to deliver higher quality and more exclusive items. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the goods will be costlier. Spocket, after all, also integrates very handily with Etsy, giving you access to a world of exclusive and fascinating items or designs.

Oberlo Features

Automated Order Fulfilment –

If a customer makes a purchase from your store, you don’t need to wonder if each and every detail has been properly filled out by the customer. All they need to do is hit the “Order Product” button, and all the rest is handled by Oberlo.

In addition, Oberlo has a great integrated order monitoring system. This means that you know exactly where your order is at any given time. This is especially helpful when ordering goods from China.

ePacket Filter –

In the old days, goods imported from places like China were gathered together and transported abroad by sea. It was a cost-effective and reliable way to ship products, but it took time – as long as two months, and sometimes more.

In the modern era of fast gratification and same-day delivery to Amazon, this handicapped many eCommerce shops. That was before the arrival of the ePacket came around. This is an arrangement between the US Postal Service and the Hong Kong Post, which aims to improve the productivity of shipping from producers and suppliers in China and Hong Kong.

The ePacket filter lets you find goods with shorter delivery times. This is done rather than the usual free shipping methods, which can take from 1 to 30 days. This function can also minimize the delivery time by as much as ten days.

Auto Price Mark-Ups –

This feature lets you automate your entire pricing scheme. This is perfect when you cross a certain amount of goods sold and don’t want to bother manually setting the price of products. Instead, using the auto markup price will see prices set automatically and instantly after they have been imported from AliExpress.

Product Customization –

If you believe that the product description that comes from AliExpress is not up to your customers’ expectations, you can change it. Essentially, this feature helps you to make the goods more desirable, to comply with your SEO requirements, and to suit your overall brand before they are live on your website. You can edit photos to make sure they look like the ones on your site or add more photos if you want to.

Unique Products –

Spocket edges ahead of Oberlo in this division. But that’s by no means saying that Oberlo is a slouch when it comes to having unique goods. AliExpress, and by way of Oberlo, have a complete smorgasbord of providers, which means that you’re going to find whatever you’re looking for with Overlo.

Spocket vs. Oberlo: Product Delivery Times

Spocket Product Delivery Times

It is widely accepted that Spocket would have shorter delivery times due to the use of vendors located in the United States and Europe. Spocket does not have the same vast catalog as Oberlo, but customers will receive their orders sooner.

Oberlo Product Delivery Times

Oberlo has a history of having the user’s disdain because of its often long waits for delivery. Since goods are imported from overseas, consumers in the United States, Canada and Europe often have to wait a long time. Frankly, it’s inevitable if you want to save money on low shipping rates.

Spocket vs. Oberlo: Support

Both apps provide customer service 24/7. They also have in-app chat functionality to help you solve problems easily and efficiently. Spocket, in particular, has gained praise from users on the basis of its customer service activities.

Spocket vs. Oberlo: Pricing

Both Oberlo and Spocket offer different pricing and membership plans. Let’s take a look at each of their proposals and see which one is better.

Spocket Pricing

Spocket’s pricing comes in three different tiers.

The Basic (Free) Plan –

This plan is free forever but is very limited in functionality. It includes:

Unlimited product orders
Product inventory updates
25 product imports each month
Customer support through email only
Currency exchange

The Standard Plan –

This plan costs $39 per month after a seven-day free trial period. Here are its key features:

Unlimited orders
Premium products
Chat and email support
Branded invoicing
250 unique products imported

The Empire Plan –

This plan is $99 a month after a 7-day free trial. It includes everything offered in the other plans plus the option to import an unlimited number of products.

Oberlo Pricing

Similar to Spocket, Oberlo offer three pricing tiers:

Starter Plan — This is a free plan limited in features too. The Starter level only allows you to import up to 500 products and 50 orders per month. Despite this, you’ll get access to simple features such as Chrome extension, product syncing, and pricing automation.
The Basic Plan – This plan costs $29.90 a month. You will receive as many as 10,000 product imports and 500 order fulfillment per month. You will also get all of the above plus shipment tracking and order fulfillment monitoring.
The Pro Plan – This plan costs $79.00 a month. The Pro Plan allows you to sell 30,000 products with unlimited orders per month. The other features from above are also included. Notably, Oberlo does not offer a free trial of its higher pricing options.

Spocket vs. Oberlo: Final verdict

At the end of the day, both of these are excellent apps with a lot of strong features. Oberlo’s pricing model seems a little lower than Spocket’s, yet Spocket has more free trial choices. That probably means that it makes sense to play with Spocket for a week before making a decision.

After that, you should try the Oberlo Starter Plan to see how it works for you. Looking beyond just cost, Spocket makes it easier for consumers to ship goods faster. This makes them very attractive in the business of dropshipping.

In addition, their suppliers tend to be more reliable as they have all been checked by the company itself. This helps to alleviate a lot of the risk of dropshipping. Indeed, Spocket has effectively taken care of many of the pain points that online retailers have faced while running their drop shipping companies through Shopify. It has also succeeded in developing a seamless and user-friendly interface.

With drop shipping being an increasingly big industry, and with no sign of slowing down, we just cannot afford to waste time dealing with suppliers. We need our goods to get where they’re going fast, to be of good quality, and not to cause any other problems. That’s how we can guarantee that our customers keep coming back.

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Final words

That’s it! I hope this comprehensive review of Spocket vs. Oberlo has given you valuable information about both platforms. And by now, you probably are able to make an informed decision about which platform suits you best. Please feel free to leave comments below for a further discussion on this topic!