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Dropshipping opens the door wide open to anyone interested in entering the eCommerce industry to earn additional income. But it’s up to us to make the right moves toward a successful online business, and we’re here to help you reach milestones faster. This starts by choosing the right online selling platform.
Shopify and eBay are two of the most popular platforms to start an online selling business. However, we still need to understand the differences between eBay vs. Shopify dropshipping. Knowing this helps us make the right decisions to achieve our dropshipping business goals. So, let’s get to it!
What Is eBay Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a low-cost, low-risk business model that allows us to sell products without holding inventory. Instead of the traditional retail model, we work with suppliers who source and ship products directly to customers. Meanwhile, we sell and promote the products we source, and we only pay our suppliers after getting paid by our customers. With dropshipping, we never have to worry about surplus stocks and unsold items.
Now, eBay is an online selling platform and is considered one of the pioneers in eCommerce. As a marketplace, it connects buyers and sellers to a world of possibilities with bustling online traffic and millions of products on one website.
For dropshippers, it offers tons of organic traffic that we can leverage to access an already existing market of potential buyers. All that’s left for us to do is set up our store and list the products we want to sell.
The Secret eBay Drop Shipping System lets us easily set up our store, list products, and start making money.
What Is Shopify Dropshipping?
Shopify, like eBay, is a selling channel, but instead of being a marketplace, it is a customizable hosting platform. It acts as a SaaS, or Software as a Service tool and empowers us to showcase our products and our brand. We get to create, set up, and design a store website with elements that make us stand out from the competition.
Moreover, Shopify helps establish our online business storefront as an all-in-one platform. We can easily list products, process orders, manage payments, and handle several customers simultaneously. Therefore, by dropshipping on Shopify, we can establish a trade name while selling products without holding any inventory.
eBay Vs. Shopify Dropshipping: Pros & Cons
Now that we know what eBay and Shopify are, it’s time to get into the advantages and disadvantages of using each platform. Knowing this better guides us when choosing the right platform to launch our dropshipping business.
eBay Dropshipping Pros
Let’s look at some of the benefits of using eBay as our selling channel of choice:
- Free organic traffic
- Low-cost start-up
- eBay buyer/seller protection
- Easily spy on the competition
- Easy to get started on eBay
- Internal marketing methods to scale our store
- Dropshipping automation integration
As a marketplace, eBay’s organic traffic means we no longer have to worry about marketing our dropshipping store immediately. The platform gives us access to millions of buyers as soon as we set up shop. Not to mention how we don’t need a lot of capital to launch our store on eBay.
And, since eBay is a marketplace with multiple sellers, we can easily see which products are trending and what’s working for our competitors. We can observe the market and adapt to remain competitive and relevant to consumers. Plus, with eBay’s buyer/seller protection, each transaction is insured for us and our potential customers.
There are many ways for us to scale our business on eBay with internal marketing methods (e.g., eBay PPC) to target customers more effectively. eBay also integrates with automation tools like AutoDS to help optimize our dropshipping store. AutoDS helps with price monitoring, inventory management, order fulfillment, and more, so we have less to worry about while running our dropshipping business.
eBay Dropshipping Cons
Now, let’s break down the cons of eBay dropshipping:
- Selling limits
- Limited customization options
- Competition
eBay has selling limits, meaning we can only sell up to a certain number of products. However, there are ways to make eBay’s selling limits work for our business goals once we understand how to utilize them.
It’s even harder to stand out on the platform because it has limited customizability and intense competition. That’s why we should aim to scale by providing excellent customer service and optimizing our marketing strategies.
Tools like AutoDS’ Product Research Marketplace help us determine trending dropshipping products to maximize sales in no time. We can focus on offering our audience the most in-demand items to stay top-of-mind.
Shopify Dropshipping Pros
Shopify offers various benefits for our online business. Let’s look at the pros of dropshipping on Shopify:
- Lots of customizable themes
- Easy to start dropshipping on Shopify
- No selling limits
- Built-in blogging feature
- Shopify app store
- Dropshipping automation integration
Shopify offers a lot of customization options that help us stand out from our competitors and appeal to our target audience. It allows us to work on establishing our brand and solidifying our niche.
It’s also beginner-friendly, so getting started on the platform is easy. Shopify even has a built-in blogging feature that we can use to attract customers to our page. Plus, it has no selling limits. This allows us to showcase as many products as possible, potentially increasing profits.
Like eBay, Shopify also has dropshipping automation integration, which means we can use AutoDS to automate our selling and optimize our online business for dropshipping. This makes it significantly easier for us to set up and manage our shop for maximum profit.
Shopify Dropshipping Cons
We’ve gotten to know the pros, now let’s run through some Shopify dropshipping cons:
- No organic traffic
- Transaction fees
Since we are establishing our own site, that means we’re also the ones responsible for generating traffic on it. There’s no existing customer pool already on the platform that we can leverage. Thus, we must invest in effective marketing to attract customers and create traction for our online store.
Shopify also has transaction fees that cover maintenance and the cost of having third-party payment providers for our customers. Each selling channel has fees – it’s inevitable. But we can easily ensure we still earn a good profit margin by using AutoDS’ price optimization tool.
Ease of use
Both eBay and Shopify are great for beginners. With Shopify, we can use existing templates and easily drag and drop elements, create product pages, etc., according to how we see fit. eBay is even simpler and easier to use because all we need to do is list products in the marketplace.
Platform fees
Both platforms have varying subscription fees depending on our needs. Let’s go over eBay’s five subscription options first:
(Source: https://export.ebay.com/en/marketing/ebay-store/subscriptions-and-fees/)
- Starter Store – $7.95 per month or $4.95/month billed yearly
- Basic Store– $27.95 per month or $21.95/month billed yearly
- Premium Store– $74.95 per month or $59.95/month billed yearly
- Anchor Store– $349.95 per month or $299.95/month billed yearly
- Enterprise Store– $2999.95 yearly
With eBay’s Starter Store plan, we can have up to 250 product listings (auction or fixed-price), ideal if we only have a handful of products up for selling. The Basic plan could be good if we’re just starting but looking to grow further. For $27.95 per month, we can have up to 1,000 fixed-price product listings up on our store.
Now, eBay’s Premium plan comes with more zero insertion fee listings of up to 10,000 fixed-price products. Insertion fees are what sellers pay to list a product on eBay. Depending on our plan, we can have more listings with zero insertion fees.
The Anchor plan is for high-volume sellers with up to 25,000 fixed-price product listings. Lastly, eBay’s Enterprise Store plan includes 100,000 fixed-price product listings priced at $2999.95 yearly. Both plans cater to businesses with an extensive product catalog and feature dedicated customer support to help us manage customers.
On the other hand, Shopify has the following subscription levels for us to choose from:
(Source: https://www.shopify.com/pricing)
- Shopify Starter – $5 per month
- Shopify Basic – $25 per month or $19/month billed yearly
- Shopify – $65 per month or $49/month billed yearly
- Shopify Advanced – $399 per month or $299/month billed yearly
- Shopify Plus – starts at $2000 per month
Shopify’s Starter plan only costs $5 per month and is geared towards selling products through social media and messaging apps. It’s a no-code setup where all we need is an image and a short product description to start selling through socials such as Instagram, Whatsapp, and more.
The Basic plan already has everything you need to create your store, ship products, and process payments. It comes with unlimited product listings, basic reports, and up to two staff accounts with a 2.0% transaction fee. The Standard plan includes professional reporting, up to five staff accounts, and only a 1.0% transaction fee.
The Shopify Advanced plan has more features, up to 15 staff accounts, and the lowest transaction fee at only 0.5%. Shopify Plus is the most expensive plan on the platform and is ideal for large-scale businesses, boasting high conversion rates with faster and easier checkouts. Except for the Starter Plan, all Shopify plans support dropshipping automation. So, we can use tools like AutoDS to optimize and scale our online dropshipping business.
Free Organic Traffic
eBay has existing organic traffic we can leverage for our business. Since Shopify is only a hosting platform, it does not offer the same traction for its users.
Branding & Design Flexibility
Shopify has more customization options for our store, which gives us better branding capabilities. eBay’s limited customizability for each seller drives to focus on other areas, such as customer service, marketing, etc., to attract loyal customers.
Tracking Customer Analytics
Both Shopify and eBay offer analytics that we can use to keep track of our business. With AutoDS integration, we can easily track sales, manage inventory, monitor pricing, etc., for greater insights and solutions.
Additional Apps
Shopify has an existing app store we can use, while eBay does not. Shopify’s app store offers an ecosystem of apps we can add to optimize our store, including AutoDS. This empowers us to improve, automate, and scale our business continually.
Which Is Best For Dropshipping – eBay Or Shopify?
eBay and Shopify are popular online selling platforms for a reason – they work! However, one might be better than the other, depending on dropshipping business needs. It all comes down to which platform better suits our goals.
eBay is more convenient for individuals who simply want to focus on selling products. It’s easy to use and low maintenance compared to having a whole website to upkeep. Conversely, Shopify is an excellent choice if we’re looking to grow our business long-term and cultivate a brand.
Either way, we can integrate dropshipping into our online shop–or shops–at any point. And with AutoDS, we can make it happen easily. We can seamlessly automate not just one but multiple stores on various selling channels while monitoring everything from one platform.
Integrate Your Dropshipping Business With AutoDS For Ultimate Success
Whether we choose eBay or Shopify, AutoDS is here to help us achieve ultimate success for our dropshipping business. Better yet, why not launch our business on both platforms?
Get started on one platform first, be it eBay or Shopify. Once we’ve got that down, what stops us from expanding and adapting another platform to maximize our reach and revenue? AutoDS makes this more than possible for us to achieve with easy inventory management and other automation tools to help us continue scaling.
Automation is key. With dropshipping automation tools like AutoDS, we can spend less time working on our business while earning more. Here are the features AutoDS offers:
- Product Imports
- Complete Order Fulfillment
- Advanced Winning Products Hub
- Price/Stock Monitoring
- Automatic Price Optimization
- Easy Inventory Management
- and more!
Search | ||
Features | eBay | Shopify |
Unique Factors | eBay Buyer/Seller Protection Internal Marketing Methods (e.g., eBay PPC) Free Organic Traffic | Built-in Blogging Tool Shopify App Store Customizable Themes |
Setup Fee | Free | Free (with trial) |
Pricing | Starter Store – $7.95/mo Basic Store – $27.95/mo Premium Store – $74.95/mo Anchor Store – $349.95/mo Enterprise Store – $2,999.95/yr | Shopify Starter – $5/mo Shopify Basic – $25/mo Shopify – $65/mo Shopify Advanced – $399/mo Shopify Plus – $2000/mo |
Monthly Costs | Yes | Yes |
Ease of Use | Beginner | Beginner-Advanced |
Features | eBay | Shopify |
Unique Factors | eBay Buyer/Seller Protection Internal Marketing Methods (e.g., eBay PPC) Free Organic Traffic | Built-in Blogging Tool Shopify App Store Customizable Themes |
Setup Fee | Free | Free (with trial) |
Pricing | Starter Store – $7.95/mo Basic Store – $27.95/mo Premium Store – $74.95/mo Anchor Store – $349.95/mo Enterprise Store – $2,999.95/yr | Shopify Starter – $5/mo Shopify Basic – $25/mo Shopify – $65/mo Shopify Advanced – $399/mo Shopify Plus – $2000/mo |
Monthly Costs | Yes | Yes |
Ease of Use | Beginner | Beginner-Advanced |
Frequently Asked Questions
eBay VS Shopify Dropshipping: What’s Better?
Is Dropshipping On eBay Allowed?
Is Shopify Dropshipping Worth It?
Conclusion
Well done! We’ve learned the differences and similarities, the pros and cons of eBay vs. Shopify dropshipping. Now, we can make a more informed decision on where to launch our online dropshipping business.
Join the AutoDS Live
Dropshipping Q&A
Expert tips and best practices for dropshipping
Need more help in making the right moves in your dropshipping journey? We’ve got you covered. We have a plethora of articles available for us to stay informed. We highly recommend the following to deepen your understanding of the business:
- Dropshipping Reviews: Pros & Cons Of Top Selling Channels
- The Best Dropshipping Platforms To Scale Your Business
- US Dropshipping In 2023: How To Cash In On The eCommerce Boom
eBay Vs. Shopify Dropshipping: Key Differences
So, what are the key differences between eBay Vs. Shopify Dropshipping and how do we know which one to use to launch our online business? Let’s compare.
12 Reasons why you should work with AutoDS eBay Dropshipping Platform
We have a lot of reasons to believe that AutoDS is the most complete eBay Dropshipping Tool in the market. Our beliefs are not only based on our confidence on its extremely useful and innovative features that we have added — and continue to add — but also because whoever tries it, can’t try something else after AutoDS.
What Does AutoDS Do?
If you’re looking for a complete software solution for your dropshipping needs, AutoDS is here for you. So, what is AutoDS? AutoDS is an all-in-one dropshipping platform that helps us streamline our everyday processes.
As a leading dropshipping tool, we can enjoy automation in all aspects of our dropshipping business. Plus, the platform connects suppliers to our selling channels, resulting in more efficient dropshipping tasks. All in all, AutoDS provides efficient automation tools to help us scale our business to new heights.
Have you tried it yet? If not, here are 12 reasons why you should use AutoDS today, and become a part of the fastest-growing dropshipping community out there.
1. Price Optimization
Prices are the most important factor, not only in a dropshipping business but in any kind of business. We have made sure that the prices that you set to your products, will continue to be profitable for your business, regardless of any price changes in the source site.
Here is how we do it:
- Dynamic Break even – This feature adapts the break-even according to the seller on Amazon (if the seller is Amazon, they usually charge extra tax during the checkout, while FBA sellers usually don’t)
- Automatic Price Raise/Drop – With this feature, you have the option to raise the price of a listing that sells well, but also drop the price of a listing that doesn’t.
- Price round up to .99 – Make your listings more attractive and get more sales by enabling this psychological feature, and round your selling prices to .99.
- Separate settings for each supplier: Each supplier can have its own settings, profit or break even settings, minimum profit, the round up to .99, etc.
2. Stock Optimization
The second most important factor for our eBay dropshipping business is our stock. Not only do we need to have items in stock, but also, we need fresh inventory. Here are two features that will help you with that.
- Profitability Monitor – Keeping items that don’t sell or don’t get any visibility in your inventory is not a good idea. Let the Profitability Monitor automatically end them for you.
- Dynamic Policy Creation – Adapt your shipping policy to the delivery times of the Amazon seller. This means less Out-of-Stock listings due to delivery times and more sales!
3. Active Listings Filter and Bulk Change system
- Filter your Active listings by any factor: Stock status, quantity, profit, break-even, upload date, not sold dates, tag (you have the option to add a tag to your listings to find them easier), and many more.
- Bulk Changes: Run changes for more than 1 listings at once, with our bulk change feature, and change any you want, profit, break-even, settings, template, policies, titles, etc.
4. Advanced Products Lister
In our Products Uploader, we have added anything a beginner or advanced eBay dropshipper could ask for.
You can list products from a variety of our supported suppliers (Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon IT, Amazon FR, Ali Express, Banggood, Walmart, Home Depot, Costco and Wayfair US/UK).
Full Item Specifics: With our advanced lister you can upload the items with all their item specifics, and we all know how important they are. A great time saver.
Unique UPC and EAN codes: You can avoid competition for your Amazon products with unique UPCs and EAN’s, we have bought specifically for you. With these
Make Collage: We have added the option to make a collage out of the grabbed pictures and create unique listing images.
Templates: You get to choose from a variety of built-in eBay listing templates, to create beautiful descriptions. But of course, you can also add your own.
Watermark: Upload your items using your branded watermark.
Variations: You can upload your items with all their variations.
But most importantly, here is how you can upload your items:
- Regular/ Single Item Upload: Upload your items one by one, right away.
- Scheduled regular upload: Schedule your items one by one to a future time or date.
- Bulk uploader: You can also upload many items all at once, right away.
- Scheduled bulk uploader: You can schedule your bulk upload and select how much time will pass in between the uploads
5. AutoDS Finder
AutoDS Finder is an advanced system that scans over 40K drop shippers every day and allows you to get the best-selling products from all the dropshippers, and not only from the few that other systems scan.
- Get items depending on their selling rate (sold 4/6/8 times during the past month)
- Upload them directly with all their variations to your eBay store.
- Upload them now or later. You can schedule them for a future time or date to be able to edit them before they upload.
6. Customer Support System
No need to open eBay to view and respond to your messages or your open cases. You can do everything in AutoDS.
- You can use premade template messages for your customers.
- Manage your open cases.
- Take care of your return cases.
- Handle your cancellations.
7. Automated Orders
The most important thing in your eBay dropshipping business is automation.
Here is what you get with AutoDS:
- Automatic Orders in a few minutes for Amazon and Ali Express
- Automatic tracking number update once it becomes available from the supplier.
- Auto-messages to your customers: Increase your communication and overall feedback by at least 60%, using our 3 automatic messages to your customers.
- Bluecare Express integration for AMZL trackings: Turn your AMZL tracking number to a valid and trackable number by eBay, and get your Top Rated badge, as well as win over “not received” cases. (Available for Amazon US and Amazon UK)
- Bluecare Express integration for ALL tracking numbers: Option to convert ALL tracking numbers to BlueCare Express both for Automatic and Manual orders
8. Simple / Full Item Edit – Item Replacement
You can edit your items, in full or simple mode. And you can change everything, either for only one listing or in bulk.
You can change factors like title, description, template, profit, break-even, policies, literally everything. Name it and we have it!
But also, you can also fully replace the item of the listing. What does that mean? If you have an item that has a very good history in sales or views but has either stopped selling for a while, or it’s out of stock in the supplier, you can change it with one click. Amazing, right?
9. Multiple Accounts Management/ Protection
Do you have more than one store? Not a problem. Through AutoDS, you can add all your eBay stores. And each one can have its own settings. What you can do?
- Have different settings for each store
- Manage them separately in terms of :
- Customer Service – you can view the messages and your open cases for each account separately
- Listings management – make sure to upload different items to them if you want and avoid duplicates
- Order management – View and manage the orders of each store and be able to calculate your profits individually.
10. The Best customer support, community and knowledge base
- Customer’s overall experience is one of the most important things for us in AutoDS. That’s why customer support is one of our strongest points. Being live almost the whole day, we try to answer all your questions and solve any problem, within a few minutes.
- We have a big number of communities including Facebook, What’s app groups, Telegram, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
- We run free live webinars and sessions, presented by Lior Pozin, AutoDS’ CEO, once a month, to make sure you improve your dropshipping skills and grow your eBay dropshipping business. You can find some of our past recordings directly on our YouTube channel.
11. A Chrome extension that does everything for you
Here is what you can do with our dropshipping chrome extension:
- Auto Copy your buyer’s address directly to the supplier’s site.
- Grab full lists of search results from our supported suppliers, and create a CSV file for direct bulk upload
12. The most automated manual dropshipping (non-API solution)
If you want to work manually with AutoDS, you can do it with our non-API solution, and in the most automated way. With the help of our manual dropshipping chrome extension, you can still have a price and stock monitoring for your stores’ listings and enjoy our automation features as well.
Your manual-store will now be perfectly monitored, every hour, just like an API store, even without the API connection
