Shopify When shippers are caught off guard Shopify has announced that it will be shutting down the popular dropshipping app for April 2022. Shopify also recommends that all former Oberlo users transfer their products and orders to their new official dropshipping partner , DS users . So, this begs the question, what's the difference between DSers and Oberlo?
Can you still find and import products from AliExpress? Does it still work with the Shopify ecommerce platform and offer features like Chrome extensions, free plans, and bulk orders?
These are valid questions, since Shopify actually has countless AliExpress dropshipping apps to choose from, so we wonder why Shopify decided to vouch for the rest of the DSers. To that end, we did extensive testing and research on the Shopify app for DSers and compared it to all the features Oberlo has offered in the past. This way, you can decide for yourself which dropshipping tools you should add to your Shopify store and find out how close DSers and Oberlo are in terms of functionality.
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Oberlo vs DSers
This guide is for beginner dropshipping games, as well as advanced Oberlo users who want to get as close to the exact functionality of DSers as they expect from Oberlo.
We will review:
Features of DSers vs Oberlo
Pricing for DSers and Oberlo
Interface between DSers and Oberlo
DSers and Oberlo Customer Support
let's start.
Feature Comparison: DSers vs Oberlo
The above are all DS users and Oberlo provides a ton of features, both of which are designed to make dropshipping convenient for merchants. You pick a product from AliExpress (and a few other sources), link the product details to your Shopify story, and the order is automatically sent to the supplier for fulfillment. They both also ensure that merchants don't have to email list mess with inventory updates or shipping, see how the supplier does all of that for you.
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Oberlo eCommerce Integration
One interesting thing about Oberlo is that it only integrates with one ecommerce platform: Shopify.
DSers eCommerce Integration
On the other hand, DSers integrate a lot:
Shopify
WooCommerce
Wix
PayPal (not exactly an e-commerce platform, but you can use PayPal to sell on other platforms)
So, DSers actually offer store owners more flexibility when it comes to platform integration. Partnering with Oberlo means your entire operation has to continue with Shopify. If you move to DSers, you probably don't have any plans to move to Wix or WooCommerce, but there is at least an option in case your circumstances change.
Oberlo Procurement Integration
As for purchasing and other integrations, Oberlo only provides a direct link to AliExpress. This technically gives you access to thousands of suppliers, mainly in China and India.
DSers Procurement Integration
The same goes for DSers, so you can link your DSers account and Shopify website to AliExpress to connect with the same suppliers you found through Oberlo.
Order Fulfillment and Automation
Oberlo order fulfillment
In Oberlo, most elements of order fulfillment are automated. All products are constantly synced with your Shopify store to ensure the most accurate information. You can also automate some pricing to achieve a certain profit in your store.
As for fulfillment, the order comes in and you can choose to automate that order, so it goes directly to the supplier for them to fulfill and send to your customer. Inventory automation is also possible, keeping your inventory counts accurate at all times and ensuring you don't sell items that are no longer in stock.
DSers order fulfillment
Automation comes in many forms for DS users . First, you can set up variant mappings, product bundles, and bulk orders based on specific rules. There's also a Supplier Optimizer that automatically filters your supplier search to those that match your criteria.
DSers also has an automatic synchronization tool for order status and tracking numbers, giving you the option to send all order tracking numbers to your store and PayPal. This also applies to inventory management, shipping and order updates. The order goes through, it goes to the supplier, they complete it and ship the order to your customer; so it's fully automated from start to finish.
The same goes for pricing and inventory. When you add products on DSers, all details are constantly synced between AliExpress and your store. That way, if prices change, inventory drops, or even product descriptions change, all those adjustments will be reflected in your store without having to manually update them yourself.