Experienced Internet Marketer diving into Ecom - Pt. 2

[waterlion]

In the previous thread, I mentioned I will try the exact same niche, but using Shopify.

The previous attempt with Alidropship was at a loss of $630 USD after about 40 days.

I think Alidropship is a sweet plugin, and it's really well built.

But I feel Alidropship is still a few months away, with various bugs and missing conversion features.

Also, the development cycle was a bit slow (1 month in between major releases).

Perhaps Alidropship is better as a standalone plugin with Woo-commerce, just as Oberlo is a standalone for Shopify.

Anyways, let's try the SAME niche, but with a different platform.

If this fails, then obviously I suck at marketing, and my niche sucks at converting

So for now:

- buy new domain (same name, different Top-level-domain).
- sign up to shopify
- get shopifybooster
- get oberlo
- learn the system and start importing shit

Let's see how this goes in a month from now.

 

[Fernand]

Following!

 

[ferreira2u]

wating for news

 

[waterlion]

The Boring Part

I bought the necessary theme, and the $30/mo shopify package.

Then quickly learned oberlo, and set up the theme, and shopify. This took a few hours to figure out for the first time.

Oberlo is pretty cool because:
- it upload the product to the oberlo servers first
- you can split the product into multiple products (great for distinct variations)
- it's quite simple, and easy to learn

Oberlo sucks because:
- their customer support makes bullshit excuses about not being able to import reviews (probably a T&C no-no with shopify).

Importing the actual products is the boring part.
- some products are easy and quick to import, and fit well with shopify
- others, such as clothes, need a custom shopify sizing table
- different variations of the same product need to be re-labeled so they make sense (item blue instead of 'item 1bc, 2bc, 7bc, etc).

Right now I'm simply importing different products, and copying the descriptions from my old site.

I'm also considering diving into a new niche, and joining forces with a friend of mine who's had several 1k/days with ecom in the past.

That's it for now.

 

[Fernand]

The Boring Part

I bought the necessary theme, and the $30/mo shopify package.

Then quickly learned oberlo, and set up the theme, and shopify. This took a few hours to figure out for the first time.

Oberlo is pretty cool because:
- it upload the product to the oberlo servers first
- you can split the product into multiple products (great for distinct variations)
- it's quite simple, and easy to learn

Oberlo sucks because:
- their customer support makes bullshit excuses about not being able to import reviews (probably a T&C no-no with shopify).

Importing the actual products is the boring part.
- some products are easy and quick to import, and fit well with shopify
- others, such as clothes, need a custom shopify sizing table
- different variations of the same product need to be re-labeled so they make sense (item blue instead of 'item 1bc, 2bc, 7bc, etc).

Right now I'm simply importing different products, and copying the descriptions from my old site.

I'm also considering diving into a new niche, and joining forces with a friend of mine who's had several 1k/days with ecom in the past.

That's it for now.

The Boring Part

I bought the necessary theme, and the $30/mo shopify package.

Then quickly learned oberlo, and set up the theme, and shopify. This took a few hours to figure out for the first time.

Oberlo is pretty cool because:
- it upload the product to the oberlo servers first
- you can split the product into multiple products (great for distinct variations)
- it's quite simple, and easy to learn

Oberlo sucks because:
- their customer support makes bullshit excuses about not being able to import reviews (probably a T&C no-no with shopify).

Importing the actual products is the boring part.
- some products are easy and quick to import, and fit well with shopify
- others, such as clothes, need a custom shopify sizing table
- different variations of the same product need to be re-labeled so they make sense (item blue instead of 'item 1bc, 2bc, 7bc, etc).

Right now I'm simply importing different products, and copying the descriptions from my old site.

I'm also considering diving into a new niche, and joining forces with a friend of mine who's had several 1k/days with ecom in the past.

That's it for now.

Great to hear about your friend. Does he use Alidropship or Shopify?

 

[waterlion]

Great to hear about your friend. Does he use Alidropship or Shopify?

Shopify. But he stopped because his account got suspended when drop shipping.

Too many customers complained about delivery times, thus his account was suspended. This is another drawback with shopify.

He decided not to join forces.

 

[The Dropper]

Good luck in your journey . I don't think it's a good idea to open a thread about Shopify in a forum of another tool ! hhh anyways that's just an "observation" .
may i ask you what type of niche you are in ? is it a "Fans - niche " ? do you have some others successful stores right now ?
thx .

 

[waterlion]

Good luck in your journey . I don't think it's a good idea to open a thread about Shopify in a forum of another tool ! hhh anyways that's just an "observation" .
may i ask you what type of niche you are in ? is it a "Fans - niche " ? do you have some others successful stores right now ?
thx .

1. I figured the same. If the admins want to delete this thread, and the other thread, then by all means. I simply want to test whether it's my niche that sucks, or it's the theme itself.

2. It is a fans niche.

 

[Yaros]

We are not going to delete the thread, because this forum is created for learning dropshipping business model. And I am interested myself in hearing about the experience from people working with other solutions!

 

[waterlion]

So the more I implement shopify, the more it really sucks.

Alidropship is still under development but will eventually have all features possible...

Shopify limits the user from SOO many features, unless you invest into buying/paying monthly for additional plugins.

Also, the payment page for shopify... you cannot have multiple currencies on it... which absolutely sucks if you want to run a global business.

 

[Fernand]

So the more I implement shopify, the more it really sucks.

Alidropship is still under development but will eventually have all features possible...

Shopify limits the user from SOO many features, unless you invest into buying/paying monthly for additional plugins.

Also, the payment page for shopify... you cannot have multiple currencies on it... which absolutely sucks if you want to run a global business.

I'd have to disagree. The payoff for investing in said plugins is huge. Take upsells and sales funnels for example. I've heard of instances where people make 60% of the revenue via upsells and simple sales funnels that AliDS simply doesn't have at the moment.

Another thing is urgency with a countdown on every listing that you can add to Shopify. Abandoned cart recovery optimization, and overall customization with themes.

Shopify has many good features.

 

[merten]

I have tried also shopify before but the easiness, automation and the team which is still on development makes this plugin so much better. Let's not forget that shopify and developers are already in the run for how many years? This plugin now 6 months and will be better by every update.

Lets just support them and make this plugin the best for all of us.

 

[The Dropper]

I'm looking too to give shopify a try while using alidropship , i have a question , is it possible to start selling using shopify 60 days trial ? as i already tried with the 14 days trial months ago but it put a password in my store & to unlock it i had to purchase shopify plan hhh , do u have any infos ? i'll appreciate ur help .

 

[Eric S.]

I'm glad you started this thread @waterlion and @Yaros is allowing it to run.

I likewise have used the slow period (from Christmas through CNY) to try a different niche using Shopify + Oberlo. I'll posting my findings here, but understand I still believe in ADS and where it is headed.

Shopify + Oberlo Positives

• Free trial period. I used a 45 day trial and I believe there is a 60 day one available too with a little Googling. This allows for testing a niche with no up front costs.
  • There are also many free trials for the plugins as well. So no need to invest until you know it will pay off.
• Built In Hosting + SSL. Another plus for getting up and running quickly. If you are using ADS hosting with the free SSL this is not much of a plus, but I'm using a different host and getting the SSL setup is a pain and more costly.
• Oberlo import and ordering synchronization is very nice.
  • Importing products is much quicker and editing is easier as well. As mentioned you can split variants into individual product very easily.
  • Prices and inventory can auto sync.
  • The Chrome plugin adds buttons inside AliExpress to update the order in Shopify (order id, and tracking)
  • Shipment notifications can be automatically sent.

Negatives

• No import of reviews
• Cannot use a affiliate link for orders like ADS
• Recurring expenses both for Shopify and plugins.
• Good themes are pricey. There are a number of free ones that are plain but relatively effective. The Shopify Story themes run $140 and most are $60 from other suppliers. Many more decent free themes for WooCommerce

In most other respects the two systems are quite similar. My opinion at the moment is each has their place. It is significantly quicker and less expensive to start with Shopify. Managing products and orders is currently better there too. However, long term profitability is better with ADS with the one-time costs and the affiliate link feature. Plus likely more sales with ADS as a result of the reviews import. A strategy I'm pondering is testing with Shopify + Oberlo and switching high-performing niches over to ADS+Woo. Have to find the high performing niche first though

@The Dropper - I am using a 45 day free trial and have been able to sell. You must select the plan to use, but you are not billed until after the trial period.

 

[The Dropper]

thanks for the informations Eric.S !

 

[waterlion]

I'm looking too to give shopify a try while using alidropship , i have a question , is it possible to start selling using shopify 60 days trial ? as i already tried with the 14 days trial months ago but it put a password in my store & to unlock it i had to purchase shopify plan hhh , do u have any infos ? i'll appreciate ur help .

I don't know. I also started the trial a while back,and it expired. Decided to just start paying, and invest 100% into it, with the assumption that shopify will be profitable. Go big or go home (in small steps).

So I don't know the answer to your question. Try making another account.

 

[waterlion]

I have tried also shopify before but the easiness, automation and the team which is still on development makes this plugin so much better. Let's not forget that shopify and developers are already in the run for how many years? This plugin now 6 months and will be better by every update.

Lets just support them and make this plugin the best for all of us.

I agree with your 200%. But right now, shopify has the necessary tools to upsell/downsell/etc. I completely believe that ADS will be the better platform in the long run, but that's 6 months to 1 year away, and at the moment I was losing too much money on marketing to a low-converting platform.

 

[waterlion]

Negatives

• No import of reviews
• Cannot use a affiliate link for orders like ADS
• Recurring expenses both for Shopify and plugins.
• Good themes are pricey. There are a number of free ones that are plain but relatively effective. The Shopify Story themes run $140 and most are $60 from other suppliers. Many more decent free themes for WooCommerce

In most other respects the two systems are quite similar. My opinion at the moment is each has their place. It is significantly quicker and less expensive to start with Shopify. Managing products and orders is currently better there too. However, long term profitability is better with ADS with the one-time costs and the affiliate link feature. Plus likely more sales with ADS as a result of the reviews import. A strategy I'm pondering is testing with Shopify + Oberlo and switching high-performing niches over to ADS+Woo. Have to find the high performing niche first though

I agree. To start up, ADS is more cost effective. But the question is conversion rate. I think you can greatly improve the shopify CVR with plugins.

 

[waterlion]

Update

In all honesty, I have been slacking hard.

Too much focus on traveling, and girls in the last few weeks.

That's it for now

 

[waterlion]

Facebook Sale

I forgot to mention, I ran a facebook campaign for a few days.



It a a Powerpoint video of a product, with 15 variations.

It was the 'free+shipping' method, and made 1 sale, and about 5-6 cart abandons.



The final CPC is most important. I think my ad relevance was about a 7/10.

The sale came from lithuania.

The good news, is my revenue was about $5 (after aliexpress fees).

The bad news... the product was ordered just before the Chinese Lunar new year... so it's been almost 8-10 days, and the product is still not shipped from the supplier.

Theme Issues

Also, Shopifybooster theme has a few bugs (1 major one), that haven't been fixed.

And every time there is a new update, you need to re-do all of your theme changes...

This is absolutely annoying (unlike a theme update in Wordpress, which keeps your settings).

Anyways

Anyways, still need to update all my products in the store, and wait for a theme update...