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Shopify vs WooCommerce Dropshipping Comparison

Woocommerce vs Shopify-Two Ecommerce Platforms Compared

Dropshipping can make you a lot of money if done correctly. The best part is that it requires next to nothing to start. 

You don’t need any inventory, warehouse, capital, or expertise to start. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

But, don’t get it twisted. As easy as it might look, dropshipping isn’t a walk in the park. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. 

The key to succeeding with dropshipping is finding the right dropshipping solution to use. Choosing the right dropshipping platform not only makes your life easy but also increases your chances of success. 

The problem, however, is that there are a ton of dropshipping solutions available on the market. SaleHoo, Shopify, WooCommerce, Modalyst, and Dropified are a few of them. 

But which is the best among them? Or put in another context, which will suit your business best?

Read on to find the answer.


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How to Choose the Right Dropshipping Platform in 2022

Woocommerce vs Shopify-Two Ecommerce Platforms Compared

How do you tell when you’ve found the right dropshipping solution for your business? 

The simplest and most reliable way to tell is by taking certain factors into consideration. 

And what are those factors?

  • Price
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Design
  • Customer support

Let’s now go over these factors in detail.

Price 

The reason you get into business is to make profits. Not to blow up your limited capital and revenue on operational costs, maintenance fees, etc.

For this reason, you need a platform that doesn’t cost much, but yet delivers maximum results. This is why putting pricing into consideration is very important.

Ease of use

If you’ve never designed and hosted a website before, the thought of setting up your online storefront can make you fidgety. 

That said, choosing a dropping platform that is easy to understand and use is very important. 

Thankfully, most dropshipping solutions out there are easy to use and don’t require you to know a lick about coding.

Features

What features should you look out for when choosing a dropshipping solution?

Some of them are order tracking, inventory management, real-time analytics, easy integration with AliExpress, and product customization.

Sure, those are not the only features to check for. But are basic enough to start with. 

Additionally, you need to check the marketing features of the platform you have your eyes on. 

Is it SEO-friendly? Does it allow you to promote your products on social media without hassles? Can you create coupons and discounts with it?

Design

If your website has a terrible look and is difficult to navigate, you might end up driving your visitors away. 

That isn’t good for business. 

Therefore, your website’s interface and user experience should be terrific.  

Now, unless you are an expert web designer/developer – or willing to hire one for thousands of dollars – the surest way to give your website a good design is by using a good theme.  

So, before picking a platform, check to see if it comes with good themes to help you set up your storefront. 

Customer Support

Dropshipping can be a roller coaster experience filled with many ups and downs. Finding support and assistance when you need it can make the whole journey smoother. 

Consequently, be sure to check if the dropshipping platform you would like to work with offers good customer support. 

It would help if you didn’t have any trouble getting support via live chat, email, or phone support.

Shopify vs WooCommerce Dropshipping

Now that you’ve known what to look for when choosing a dropshipping solution, it’s about time we turned our attention to the two most popular eCommerce solutions for dropshipping: Shopify and WooCommerce. 

Shopify 

Shopify is a household name when it comes to eCommerce. Since 2006 when it was founded, Shopify has helped thousands of entrepreneurs sell online with a lot of ease. 

Shopify is no wimp when it comes to dropshipping. It’s one of the most powerful dropshipping solutions you will find on the internet, thanks to Oberlo, an in-built dropshipping app. 

Oberlo Dashboard

Oberlo makes it easy to find and import products from big suppliers such as AliExpress right into your store with a few clicks of the button. 

What’s more, with Oberlo, you can easily ship orders to your customers directly from the supplier without having to keep any inventory. 

On top of that, Oberlo allows you to notify your customers once their orders have been shipped. You could even track the shipment right from your Oberlo dashboard. 

But Oberlo isn’t the only dropshipping app Shopify has to offer. You will find dozens more on the Shopify App Store.

Shopify app store

To start dropshipping with Shopify, you have to subscribe to any of Shopify’s paid plans that start at $29/month. 

Shopify offers a 14-day trial period for entrepreneurs looking to test the waters first before committing. 

Is Shopify the right dropshipping platform for your business? Let’s find out.

Shopify: Pricing 

As earlier mentioned, Shopify’s basic plan starts at $29/month. This plan gives you access to 24/7 customer support, allows you to sell an unlimited number of products, supports discount codes, and a lot more. 

On the downside, you won’t get access to your store’s performance report unless you upgrade to the other higher plans. They are the Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans, and they cost $79 and $299 per month respectively.

Shopify Pricing

Another aspect of Shopify that costs money is apps. 

For example, the Oberlo dropshipping app has free and paid plans. The paid plan (Boss) costs $29/month. 

As you would expect, there’s very little you can do on the free plan. It’s only ideal for starters trying to get the hang of dropshipping with Oberlo.

Oberlo App Screenshot

When you add the cost of Shopify’s Basic plan ($29) and Oberlo’s Boss plan ($29), it comes out to a total of $58 per month. 

That tallies up to $696 a year. This excludes the cost of other Shopify apps you may need to run your business efficiently. 

Is that expensive? You judge!

Shopify: Ease of Use

Shopify is anything but complicated. It comes with a user-friendly interface, an easy navigation system, etc. 

But that’s not all. Since it’s a hosted e-commerce solution, literally everything is taken care of for you right out of the box. 

That means you don’t need to worry your head about securing a domain name, hosting your website, installing an SSL certificate, or regularly updating your apps. Shopify takes care of all that in the background without you getting involved. 

Even if you’ve never built a website before, you can get up and running with Shopify in a matter of hours or days, depending on how fast you learn and the amount of time you dedicate. 

Oberlo makes things even much easier. With a few clicks of the button, you can import products into your store, ship products to your customers, track your orders, etc. 

Shopify: Features

Shopify comes packed with dozens of features that make running a dropshipping business a delightful experience.  

Abandoned cart recovery is one of them. This feature allows you to automatically send cart recovery emails to customers who started their checkout process but abandoned it halfway. 

Another remarkable feature of Shopify is that it lets you add multiple sales channels such as Facebook and Google to your store.

Shopify Sales Channels

And then there is the shipping and delivery feature that does exactly as the name suggests. 

Other notable features include Discounts, Analytics, Email marketing campaigns. 

Now, these features are great, but they may not suit your dropshipping business. The reason is that they were designed for regular eCommerce businesses. 

On that account, your best bet is using dedicated dropshipping apps like Oberlo. Such apps allow you to import/ship products in bulk, track your shipment, find reliable suppliers, and lots more. 

Additional tools and features from Oberlo include the business name and slogan generator tool, traffic calculator, profit margin calculator, etc. 

Shopify: Design 

Shopify comes with a visual editor that allows you to design your website the way you want from scratch.

Shopify Theme

With this editor, you can add pages to your website and edit them however you please. 

But designing an e-commerce website from scratch isn’t practical as it is time-consuming. As such, you are better off using a theme because it makes the whole designing process easy and faster. 

Shopify has an impressive portfolio of over 70 free and premium themes. 

The problem, however, is that the premium themes can be pricey – some cost as much as $350. But the money is well worth it because these themes are mobile responsive, GDPR compliant, and, best of all, easy to edit. 

Shopify: Support 

Support should be at the top of your criteria for selecting a dropshipping platform. The reason is that dropshipping can be difficult, especially when starting. Hence, you are going to need lots of help. 

Shopify shines when it comes to customer support. It provides several support channels.

If you are the DIY kind of guy/gal, you will find Shopify’s help center, API documentation, and blog helpful. 

Otherwise, Shopify’s live chat and phone support will come in handy if you prefer personalized support.  

Further Reading: How to Migrate From Woo Commerce to Shopify

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free, open-source e-commerce solution that runs on WordPress.

Who doesn’t like free stuff? This explains why over 4 million websites run on WooCommerce.

Running your dropshipping business on WooCommerce has several perks.

To begin with, it gives you 100% ownership over your business. This isn’t the case with Shopify – you could get kicked out of the platform if you violated the terms and guidelines. 

Another benefit is scalability and flexibility. On Shopify, you would pay a monthly subscription fee even if you made no sales. With WooCommerce, you only pay for what you need. 

WooCommerce: Pricing

WooCommerce is free, and it is owned by Automattic, the original developers of WordPress. This means you can get started with WooCommerce without paying monthly subscription fees. 

Nevertheless, running a dropshipping business with WooCommerce on WordPress costs money. Hosting and a domain name will take a large share of that cost. 

On average, hosting and domain name cost between $70 and $200, and you only get to pay that fee a year. 

WooCommerce does not have a native dropshipping feature. For this reason, you have to add a dropshipping extension to it. Those extensions are not free as they cost about $79 a year. 

At the end of it all, you would be spending about $280 a year on WooCommerce. That’s way less than Shopify’s $696. 

WooCommerce: Ease of Use

WooCommerce has a steeper learning curve and requires some technical skills to set up. 

The reason is that, unlike Shopify where everything is taken care of for you, on WooCommerce, you handle everything by yourself. 

Finding a domain name, purchasing it, and getting a reliable host for your website is entirely your responsibility. 

After hosting your website, it’s still your job to install and configure WordPress on it. Installation and configuration of WooCommerce is another task that is exclusively your responsibility. 

WooCommerce Installation

All these can be overwhelming, especially if you are new to web development.

WooCommerce: Features

WooCommerce is no slacker when it comes to features. It allows you to add as many products as you wish to your online store, has an order tracking feature and an analytics tool from where you can monitor your sales, revenue, etc. 

As we earlier mentioned, WooCommerce doesn’t have a native dropshipping feature. Hence, you will need the help of an extension such as AliExpress Dropshipping for WooCommerce. 

AliExpress for WooCommerce

With this extension, you can import products from suppliers into your store and sell to your customers with ease.

WooCommerce: Design

One of the reasons we love WooCommerce is its massive number of free and premium themes. Shopify doesn’t come close.  

On Themeforest alone, there are over 1,300 premium themes dedicated to WooCommerce. 

Themeforest

Even better, page builder plugins like Divi and Elementor allow you to design your website however you want. They give you the option of building from scratch or starting with a theme.

WooCommerce: Support

Since WooCommerce is an open-source, free plugin, there is nobody, in particular, to turn to for help when you need it. 

You could request help from your hosting provider, though, but it might not be enough. Alternatively, you could hire a WooCommerce expert to help with troubleshooting, bug fixing, etc. 

Nonetheless, WooCommerce has robust documentation where you will find answers and solutions to every issue you might have. 

WooCommerce Pros

  • WooCommerce is cheaper than Shopify.
  • Offers better flexibility – you only pay what you need and when you want
  • Has more professional themes

WooCommerce Cons 

  • Insufficient personalized support
  • Steeper learning curve
  • Takes more time to set up

Shopify vs WooCommerce Dropshipping: Which is best for your business?

Hopefully, by now, you’ve known how Shopify differs from WooCommerce. This then begs the question: which is best for your business? 

When deciding which platform is best for you, here are factors to consider.

Shopify is best:

  • If you don’t have any technical skills and need a platform that will make your life easy
  • You prefer personalized support to read through documentation and user guides endlessly. 
  • If you don’t have a lot of time on your plate and want to launch your store as quickly as possible. 

WooCommerce is best:

  • If you want to own your store wholly, and don’t want interference from anyone.
  • You are big on design and themes
  • If you want to have greater control over your business
  • You have some web development skills under your belt

Ready to get started?

Shopify or WooCommerce, which is it going to be? We hope you’ve decided that already by now. 

The next thing you will want to do is to get additional tools that will help make your dropshipping business easier. 

One such dropshipping platform is Sell The Trend. 

Sell The Trend allows you to automate product research and order fulfillment

Best of all, you can use Sell The Trend on Shopify or WooCommerce, as it integrates well with both platforms. 

Ready to take Sell The Trend for a spin? Start your free trial today


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Conclusion

Shopify and WooCommerce are two popular e-commerce solutions for dropshipping. Each has its pros and cons.

The essence of this comparison guide is to help you determine which is best for your business. 

If you found this guide helpful, kindly share.

 

Home » Page 44

Winning Product Fridays Episode 132

NeckMassage Smart Posture TrainerWelcome to another episode of winning product Fridays. Today we have another winning product that is doing good on Facebook and Instagram the last few weeks. The product is not over-saturated in the market and still has enough potential to sell in 2022.

This Smart Posture corrector is a perfect opportunity for dropshippers to either start a one-product Shopify store or list it on their health niche store.

Why This Product?

First, health is a profitable niche and with the right product, you can expect to sell dozens of health products a day. Some more reasons why this posture corrector can be a permanent listing on your store are:

Unique Make

While most posture correctors come with uneasy bands around the main device, this smart posture corrector is a stand-alone massager. The unique design and make is noticeable and easily redirects your audience from Facebook to your website. That’s a step closer to making them click on the “Check Out” button.

The posture corrector starts vibrating whenever you’re in a hunched position. Moreover, the sensitivity, angle, and vibration intensity are customizable.

Good Stats

It has over 3200 orders and $149,000+ in sales. The average product cost is $21 and dropshippers are selling it for more than $45. That’s an $18+ profit margin.

Smart Posture Corrector STT Stats

We’ve been tracking 4 Shopify stores selling this product and they have over 400 orders in the last 30 days. This figure is drastically increasing.

Orders Trend

Sell The Trend found this product 7 months ago, but it was last added to a store only yesterday. Yes, dropshippers are still finding it good enough to sell in 2022.

Stores Trend

There are 2 suppliers available on AliExpress and they’re reliable, ship on time, and do not have any packaging issues too. Now add this product to your Shopify store and order from the same suppliers with our 1-Click Push-To-Store feature.

Facebook Ads

Curious if this product will do any good on Facebook and Instagram? Well, our Store Intelligence feature let’s you spy on your competitors’ ads and be a step ahead in your social media marketing campaigns.

Click on the “See Ads” link and you’ll be redirected to their Facebook Ads.

Store Intelligence

Moreover, many reputable brands are already promoting this product on Facebook and the engagement is enormous.

Ad Library

Use our Facebook Audience Builder to define your targeted audience to spend less Ad revenue and generate more leads.

Find More Winners in the Members Area

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Home » Page 44

How to Conduct an Ecommerce Competitor Analysis: Dropshipping Edition

Over the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has thrust eCommerce into the spotlight and made it an absolute necessity for many brands, corporations, retail stores, and even small businesses. Many sub-industries such as dropshipping now look almost unrecognizable from what they looked like before the pandemic.

ecom competitor analysis

Because of the relatively low barriers of entry, dropshipping has attracted a huge number of people, which therefore means more and stiffer competition. This isn’t a bad thing, not nearly as much. The potential eCommerce market is huge and if you pick the right products to focus on, you can make a neat profit.

Therefore, running an eCommerce competitor analysis is crucial at any stage of your dropshipping business. You will need to occasionally snoop in on what your competition is doing to establish what they are doing right, what they are not doing right, and the potential market opportunities you can target to differentiate yourself.

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Here are some more reasons why an eCommerce competitor analysis can set your dropshipping business on a path of success:

  1. Your competition will reveal what’s possible

Your biggest competitors will usually have been around for a longer period and achieved more than your business. But this also means that at some point, they were in the exact same position. Instead of regarding your biggest competitors with trepidation and anxiety, look at them as living proof that you too can achieve the same amount of success if not more.

  1. Proof that markets exist

You should be wary of markets that don’t have any form of competition. While it may feel grand to want to be the first one to serve a particular market, it’s statistically unlikely that you will blaze new trails. After all, you are selling products that already exist and there are probably other suppliers trying to fulfill existing demand.

Your competition, and particularly their success, is proof that a market exists and that there’s a sizable chunk of demand for the products. A market with good competition also means that it’s huge enough to support several businesses over the years. The pie is big enough to sustain several people and you absolutely can and must stake a claim.

  1. You can learn different pricing and business models

If you are just launching your eCommerce store, you can pick valuable insights from your competition. They have already done all the experiments over the years and found what works for them. Use their experiences as the foundation for your own pricing and business models.

What is a Competitor Analysis?

While market research helps you find potential customers for your business venture, a competitor analysis helps your business to find ways in which it can build a competitive advantage within an existing market by analyzing other businesses already competing for your potential customers.

It’s virtually impossible for you to differentiate your dropshipping business, for instance, without first analyzing and uncovering your competition’s strategic activities. A competitive analysis isn’t just a quick peek at your competitors’ websites and their social media activities. It’s about gathering the necessary intelligence that will inform your strategic plan on how you can capitalize on their weaknesses and market gaps. 

Harvard Professor Michael Porter presented five key forces that can provide an overview of a market and help businesses assess potential areas they can develop competitive advantages:

5 key forces

Therefore, a competitor analysis can also help you establish any unique or improved aspects of your own eCommerce business, which you then can play up to attract your target customers within an existing market. 

Of course, this is a lot of work, particularly if you are just starting out or you are wondering how you can take your eCommerce business to the next level. Read on to learn a simple approach to conducting an effective eCommerce competitor analysis, and a tool you can use to get the best results and save you a great deal of valuable time.

How to Conduct an Ecommerce Competitor Analysis

You may have come across this famous Isaac Newton quote: “If I have seen further than others, it by standing on the shoulders of giants.” This is precisely what an eCommerce competitor analysis entails; developing winning strategies for your business on the foundation of what other businesses have already achieved. 

At the risk of sounding too simplistic, we are going to go ahead and state that an eCommerce competitor analysis could be whittled down to a case of who, what, where, and how. Here are four steps you can take to do an eCommerce competitor analysis that would give you a solid foundation for ideas on how to outdo your competition :

Step 1: Determine your competitors

dropshipping competitor analysis

The first, and perhaps the most crucial step, is to establish who you are competing against. Only then can you gather useful information and insights that you can use to compare your business. At this stage, you are seeking to answer the fundamental question: if your potential customers didn’t buy from you but still bought the same products, where would they turn? 

There are several ways to do this, and they include searching from your product categories on Google and exploring the results. Keep this list short, ideally less than 10 competitors. Depending on the results, you may have to split this list into categories: 

  1. Direct competitors – stores that sell similar products and target the same audience.
  2. Indirect competitors – stores that sell different products (alternatives, substitutes, etc. that serve the same need) in the same category but target the same audience.

 

Once you have created your list, gather more information about them to get a clear picture of who they are and keep them on your radar. Monitoring your competition can eat up a lot of your time that would otherwise be spent on other aspects of growing your business. Therefore, it’s more prudent to monitor your biggest competitors rather than all the businesses that offer similar products.

Step 2: Determine your competitors’ product offerings

All businesses are built around one or more products and services. Analyze your competitor’s product lines, pricing, and any kind of offers or discounts they give to their customers. Establish how they differentiate themselves in terms of pricing, shipping, product features, or any other product offering strategy in use. Find out the various benefits, functions, value-adds, and key features they focus on.

You can also glean valuable information from their customer’s feedback. Check out customer reviews to establish the most appealing aspects of their products and the various aspects upon which they heap praises. Take note of their pain points as well and areas of weaknesses, particularly the recurring ones. 

dropshipping competitor analysis

Single out customers that have provided less than 5 stars feedback and look out for any consistent complaints or themes. For instance, they may express a similar concern (such as long shipping periods, packaging, or pricing) using different words. Map out any consistent themes.

Step 3: Establish where your competitors are selling

The next step is to find out where all the businesses on your list are selling. The simplest way to do this is to perform a Google search and take note of the marketplaces, platforms, websites, and other places they list their products. 

Learning where your competitors sell their products will provide valuable insights on where you should list your own products. You may even discover that there are a bunch of different places you hadn’t considered, or better yet some new opportunities you may want to explore. 

Therefore, an eCommerce competitor analysis can be a powerful and enlightening activity, particularly if you are just setting up. You may not even have to do anything new in those first few stages when are trying to get a footing.

Step 4: Establish how your competitors are selling

The final major step is to determine the strategies that all the eCommerce stores on your list are using. Markets and product categories differ and it’s not always just about offering a particular range of products but how they are offered or presented to the market.

Some will have an enormous amount of competition while others will low competition and it’s incredibly important that you establish how your competition offers its products to market. For instance, you want to establish the following:

  • What kind of shipping options do your competitors provide (expedited shipping, one-day shipping, free shipping, standard shipping, cost of shipping, etc.)
  • What are their selling policies? (return policies, warranties, etc.)
  • What kind of customer service communication options do they give their buyers? (live chat, phone, email, etc.)

Gather as much information as you can about how they present their products, look for commonalities as well as gaps and try to establish creative ways you can fix the gaps or add more value without having to spend too much money. 

Be careful not to reinvent the wheel here. Your competitors may already have tried and tested approaches that have gained considerable traction with your kind of audience. In this case, you may be better off, at least in the meantime, be better off building upon these approaches.

Ready to get started?

As you can already imagine, conducting a proper, accurate, and actionable eCommerce analysis isn’t easy. But the good news is that tools such as Sell The Trend can take the legwork out of the process.

dropshipping competitor analysis

With powerful and unique features such as store intelligence, Sell The Trend can instantly transform into your own personalized spy network. Using A.I. powered algorithms, Store Intelligence will instantly provide unmatched insights on your competition as well as detailed data on orders, pricing, revenue, traffic, and so much more so you can smart marketing decisions to take your dropshipping business to the next level.

Despite the complex A.I. algorithms that power it, the Store Intelligence feature has an easy-to-use interface. It works by simply entering a store’s URL and instantly getting a comprehensive and detailed report on all the crucial business metrics you need to make the right marketing decisions and leapfrog your competition.

Sell The Trend also has a ton of other features and tools that can power your dropshipping store to the next level. It comes preloaded with tools to help you pick winning products and easily push them to your dropshipping store, find and connect to the right suppliers, simplify the management of your store’s operations, and a wide range of marketing and social media tools to promote and grow your eCommerce store. 

Conclusion

Analyzing and understanding your competition will give you a vantage point from which you can build a successful dropshipping business. It can be as simple as building on your competitors’ successes and at the same time, avoiding their failures. 

Are you ready to outgun your competition? Get a free, no-commitment 7-day trial of Sell The Trend and get the full experience of an all-in-one dropshipping platform.

Home » Page 44

How to Conduct an Ecommerce Competitor Analysis: Dropshipping Edition

Over the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has thrust eCommerce into the spotlight and made it an absolute necessity for many brands, corporations, retail stores, and even small businesses. Many sub-industries such as dropshipping now look almost unrecognizable from what they looked like before the pandemic.

IMAGE

Because of the relatively low barriers of entry, dropshipping has attracted a huge number of people, which therefore means more and stiffer competition. This isn’t a bad thing, not nearly as much. The potential eCommerce market is huge and if you pick the right products to focus on, you can make a neat profit.

Therefore, running an eCommerce competitor analysis is crucial at any stage of your dropshipping business. You will need to occasionally snoop in on what your competition is doing to establish what they are doing right, what they are not doing right, and the potential market opportunities you can target to differentiate yourself.

Here are some more reasons why an eCommerce competitor analysis can set your dropshipping business on a path of success:

  1. Your competition will reveal what’s possible

Your biggest competitors will usually have been around for a longer period and achieved more than your business. But this also means that at some point, they were in the exact same position. Instead of regarding your biggest competitors with trepidation and anxiety, look at them as living proof that you too can achieve the same amount of success if not more.

  1. Proof that markets exist

You should be wary of markets that don’t have any form of competition. While it may feel grand to want to be the first one to serve a particular market, it’s statistically unlikely that you will blaze new trails. After all, you are selling products that already exist and there are probably other suppliers trying to fulfill existing demand.

Your competition, and particularly their success, is proof that a market exists and that there’s a sizable chunk of demand for the products. A market with good competition also means that it’s huge enough to support several businesses over the years. The pie is big enough to sustain several people and you absolutely can and must stake a claim.

  1. You can learn different pricing and business models

If you are just launching your eCommerce store, you can pick valuable insights from your competition. They have already done all the experiments over the years and found what works for them. Use their experiences as the foundation for your own pricing and business models.

 

What is a Competitor Analysis?

While market research helps you find potential customers for your business venture, a competitor analysis helps your business to find ways in which it can build a competitive advantage within an existing market by analyzing other businesses already competing for your potential customers.

It’s virtually impossible for you to differentiate your dropshipping business, for instance, without first analyzing and uncovering your competition’s strategic activities. A competitive analysis isn’t just a quick peek at your competitors’ websites and their social media activities. It’s about gathering the necessary intelligence that will inform your strategic plan on how you can capitalize on their weaknesses and market gaps. 

Harvard Professor Michael Porter presented five key forces that can provide an overview of a market and help businesses assess potential areas they can develop competitive advantages:

IMAGE

Therefore, a competitor analysis can also help you establish any unique or improved aspects of your own eCommerce business, which you then can play up to attract your target customers within an existing market. 

Of course, this is a lot of work, particularly if you are just starting out or you are wondering how you can take your eCommerce business to the next level. Read on to learn a simple approach to conducting an effective eCommerce competitor analysis, and a tool you can use to get the best results and save you a great deal of valuable time.

How to Conduct an Ecommerce Competitor Analysis

You may have come across this famous Isaac Newton quote: “If I have seen further than others, it by standing on the shoulders of giants.” This is precisely what an eCommerce competitor analysis entails; developing winning strategies for your business on the foundation of what other businesses have already achieved. 

At the risk of sounding too simplistic, we are going to go ahead and state that an eCommerce competitor analysis could be whittled down to a case of who, what, where, and how. Here are four steps you can take to do an eCommerce competitor analysis that would give you a solid foundation for ideas on how to outdo your competition :

Step 1: Determine your competitors

Image

The first, and perhaps the most crucial step, is to establish who you are competing against. Only then can you gather useful information and insights that you can use to compare your business. At this stage, you are seeking to answer the fundamental question: if your potential customers didn’t buy from you but still bought the same products, where would they turn? 

There are several ways to do this, and they include searching from your product categories on Google and exploring the results. Keep this list short, ideally less than 10 competitors. Depending on the results, you may have to split this list into categories: 

  1. Direct competitors – stores that sell similar products and target the same audience.
  2. Indirect competitors – stores that sell different products (alternatives, substitutes, etc. that serve the same need) in the same category but target the same audience. 

Once you have created your list, gather more information about them to get a clear picture of who they are and keep them on your radar. Monitoring your competition can eat up a lot of your time that would otherwise be spent on other aspects of growing your business. Therefore, it’s more prudent to monitor your biggest competitors rather than all the businesses that offer similar products.

Step 2: Determine your competitors’ product offerings

All businesses are built around one or more products and services. Analyze your competitor’s product lines, pricing, and any kind of offers or discounts they give to their customers. Establish how they differentiate themselves in terms of pricing, shipping, product features, or any other product offering strategy in use. Find out the various benefits, functions, value-adds, and key features they focus on.

You can also glean valuable information from their customer’s feedback. Check out customer reviews to establish the most appealing aspects of their products and the various aspects upon which they heap praises. Take note of their pain points as well and areas of weaknesses, particularly the recurring ones. 

IMAGE

Single out customers that have provided less than 5 stars feedback and look out for any consistent complaints or themes. For instance, they may express a similar concern (such as long shipping periods, packaging, or pricing) using different words. Map out any consistent themes.

Step 3: Establish where your competitors are selling

The next step is to find out where all the businesses on your list are selling. The simplest way to do this is to perform a Google search and take note of the marketplaces, platforms, websites, and other places they list their products. 

Learning where your competitors sell their products will provide valuable insights on where you should list your own products. You may even discover that there are a bunch of different places you hadn’t considered, or better yet some new opportunities you may want to explore. 

Therefore, an eCommerce competitor analysis can be a powerful and enlightening activity, particularly if you are just setting up. You may not even have to do anything new in those first few stages when are trying to get a footing.

Step 4: Establish how your competitors are selling

The final major step is to determine the strategies that all the eCommerce stores on your list are using. Markets and product categories differ and it’s not always just about offering a particular range of products but how they are offered or presented to the market.

Some will have an enormous amount of competition while others will low competition and it’s incredibly important that you establish how your competition offers its products to market. For instance, you want to establish the following:

  • What kind of shipping options do your competitors provide (expedited shipping, one-day shipping, free shipping, standard shipping, cost of shipping, etc.)
  • What are their selling policies? (return policies, warranties, etc.)
  • What kind of customer service communication options do they give their buyers? (live chat, phone, email, etc.)

Gather as much information as you can about how they present their products, look for commonalities as well as gaps and try to establish creative ways you can fix the gaps or add more value without having to spend too much money. 

Be careful not to reinvent the wheel here. Your competitors may already have tried and tested approaches that have gained considerable traction with your kind of audience. In this case, you may be better off, at least in the meantime, be better off building upon these approaches.

Ready to get started?

As you can already imagine, conducting a proper, accurate, and actionable eCommerce analysis isn’t easy. But the good news is that tools such as Sell The Trend can take the legwork out of the process.

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With powerful and unique features such as store intelligence, Sell The Trend can instantly transform into your own personalized spy network. Using A.I. powered algorithms, Store Intelligence will instantly provide unmatched insights on your competition as well as detailed data on orders, pricing, revenue, traffic, and so much more so you can smart marketing decisions to take your dropshipping business to the next level.

Despite the complex A.I. algorithms that power it, the Store Intelligence feature has an easy-to-use interface. It works by simply entering a store’s URL and instantly getting a comprehensive and detailed report on all the crucial business metrics you need to make the right marketing decisions and leapfrog your competition.

Sell The Trend also has a ton of other features and tools that can power your dropshipping store to the next level. It comes preloaded with tools to help you pick winning products and easily push them to your dropshipping store, find and connect to the right suppliers, simplify the management of your store’s operations, and a wide range of marketing and social media tools to promote and grow your eCommerce store. 

Conclusion

Analyzing and understanding your competition will give you a vantage point from which you can build a successful dropshipping business. It can be as simple as building on your competitors’ successes and at the same time, avoiding their failures. 

Are you ready to outgun your competition? Get a free, no-commitment 7-day trial of Sell The Trend and get the full experience of an all-in-one dropshipping platform.

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Winning Product Fridays Episode 131

Kids 4G Waterproof Smart WatchWelcome to another episode of Winning Product Fridays. Our Nexus Research Machine found another hot product that is trending on social media and bringing in a good number of orders for dropshippers.

This 4G Kids Smart Watch is not overly saturated in the market and is good enough to dropship in 2022.

If you own a tech or kids’ niche dropshipping store, this can be a permanent listing on your Shopify store. We expect that this waterproof smartwatch for kids will keep bringing in sales throughout 2022.

Why This Product?

Parents won’t hesitate to buy their children this cool smartwatch when they can also track their children with the built-in GPS tracker. It is best suited for children aged 7-12 years and comes at a good price. Some other reasons why this is a good product to dropship in 2022 are:

Google Trends

Smartwatches are trending these days. They now have a considerate market share in the watch industry and every major tech brand is manufacturing their smartwatch.

It has a stable trend, and you can list this smartwatch in your store for at least a year.

Google Trends

Product Stats

This 4G Kids Smart Watch has over 7000 orders and $580,000+ in sales. The product cost is $25 and dropshippers are selling it for more than $80 on average. That’s a $50+ profit margin.

Kids Smart Watch Statistics

Moreover, it has had over 250 orders in the last 30 days and this figure is constantly increasing:

Orders Trend

We found this product a few months ago and it was last added to a store only 3 weeks ago. Yes, dropshippers are still finding it good enough to do well in 2022.

Stores Trend

Unique Features

Kids these days are way ahead in tech as compared to the previous generation. They’ll love to own a cool smartwatch just like yourself.

Moreover, this kids smartwatch features GPS, Wifi, LBS positioning, video calling, 4 GB ROM, anti-static, waterproof, and dustproof. The GPS tracker works as a safety feature and parents can track their children’s location.

It also supports a nano sim-card just the same as your smartphone.

With all these features in this price range, your targeted audience won’t hesitate to click on the “Check Out”.

Facebook Ads

Curious if this product will do good on Facebook and Insta? Well, our Facebook/Instagram audience builder helps you define your targeted audience so your ad revenue is spent only on the interested party.

Moreover, our Store Intelligence Feature also lets you spy on your competitor’s Facebook ads:

Spy On Competitors Facebook Ads

Many tech brands are already promoting this watch on Facebook and the post engagements are enormous.

Facebook Ads

Overall, this 4G Smartwatch for Kids is a good start for novice dropshippers as well as those who already have a tech or kids-based Shopify store. The product is not over-saturated in the market and still has enough potential to sell in 2022.

Now add this product to your Shopify store with our 1-Click Add-To-Store feature.

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Winning Product Fridays Episode 130

Smart Sensing Interactive Cat Snake ToyWelcome to another episode of winning product Fridays. Today we have another hot product to start dropshipping in 2022.

This Interactive Cat Toy can be a permanent listing on your pet and toys Dropshipping store. Our Nexus Research Machine found this 3 months ago and it is doing great for the 7 stores we’ve been tracking so far.

Why This Product?

First, cat owners won’t hesitate to buy their cats this Smart Sensing Interactive Toy. It is unique, eye-catching, and has that cool factor to make people “Check Out”.

Some more reasons why you should sell this product in 2022 are:

Good Stats

This Smart Sensing Cat Toy has over 2,700 orders and $90,000 in sales. The product cost is less than $5 and dropshippers are selling it for more than $30 on average. That’s a $25-30 profit margin. Moreover, it has an excellent Sell The Trend’s 5-star product insights rating.

Interactive Cat Toy Product Stats

It has had over 700 orders in the last 30 days and this number is rapidly increasing. We expect this product to do even better in the upcoming weeks.

Orders Trend

Sell The Trend found this product 3 months ago and it was last added to a store 2 weeks. Dropshippers are still finding it attractive and adding to their pet and toys stores.

Stores Trend

Emotional Attachment

If you’re a pet owner or ever had a pet, you’d probably know how cool and unique this interactive snake toy would be for a cat. It will be like giving something extraordinary to your loving cat.

The realistic plastic body texture, cobra style look, and segmented body make it a great gift for children and pets.

Just turn on the switch and the snake will start moving, when hit by any obstacles, it turns back and the eyes start flashing.

Facebook Ads

Curious if this product will do any good on Facebook? Well, we’ve also been tracking the same stores promoting this product on Facebook. And believe me, they’re doing extraordinary.

The Store Intelligence feature of Sell The Trend lets you spy on your competitor’s Facebook Ads and optimize your ad copies better than them.

Facebook Ads

Moreover, if you are unsure about your targeted audience, take help from Sell The Trend’s Facebook Targeting feature.    

Overall, this motion-sensing cat toy is a good opportunity to start selling at this time of the year. It is a great product for the novice as well as dropshippers having a pet/toy store.

Now add this product to your Shopify store with our 1-Click Push To Store feature.

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8 Marketing Tips for a Successful Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping might seem like the easiest business in the world. You can sell a wide variety of products with just an online portal, pay for the products you sell, and experience no issues with storage or shipping. But to be successful in dropshipping, you need a well-planned marketing strategy along with a diverse product line.

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Here are some marketing tips for your dropshipping business:

Post Customer Reviews and Ratings

Customers would like to be sure about the quality of the products being sold on your site. The best way to assure customers about the authenticity of your products is by adding customer reviews and testimonials on your website. Viewers can make confident decisions after reading the experiences of other customers. 

The website should also have a ‘Write a Review’ tab so that visitors can easily share their experiences. A video testimonial is always better than a static one, and you can make great videos with an ad maker.   You can add real customer reviews using a Shopify product review app

Online video editors let you make stunning video ads in minutes using a video ad-making tool. There are many templates on the site that you can use to make a professional-looking ad. 

Display Customized Ads on Facebook and TikTok

With almost 3 billion users on Facebook, you can easily reach out to your target audience on this platform. Facebook not only offers you visibility for your dropshipping business but also rich and diverse data about your users. It allows you to customize your ads based on your budget, goal, and audience. 

You can decide the format of your ads depending on the platform, be it Workplace, Messenger, Audience Network, or Instagram. Facebook ads help you analyze the impact of your spending. For a younger audience, TikTok is a better option. 

To run an effective ad campaign, you need to have quality content, target the right audience, and have patience. 

Use More Social Videos

Social videos are the most popular form of marketing, and you need more video content when promoting your dropshipping business. This will improve brand recall and awareness among your customers. 

How-to videos offer the highest customer engagement, and you can have a customer demonstrate how a product works through explainer videos. 

You can use any online video editors, those can be a great platform for making videos in minutes, even without any experience. You can choose from different templates, fonts, colours, and music to make stunning videos that help generate higher revenues. You can borrow ideas from existing marketing video creators with a big following. 

Retargeting Strategies

Most viewers will need more than one visit to your website to become a customer. To ensure this happens, you need to invest in retargeting to get the viewer to revisit your website and become a customer. 

Retargeting lets you share customized ads with your customers depending on their needs and preferences. These display ads can help you convert most of your viewers who could not be converted on their initial visit. 

To get the desired results, you need to focus on recency, audience segmentation, headlines or hooks, and retargeting channels.

Drive Organic Traffic Through Blogs

Blogs are considered a trustworthy source for information apart from social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook. You can reach your target audience through this low-cost marketing strategy. Blogs help in building an audience and generating higher traffic to your website. 

Blogs are an important search engine optimization (SEO) tool, and they ensure that visitors revisit your website. When you optimize content, you get more organic traffic. This leads to a higher ranking of your website on search engine result pages (SERPs) and helps more people find your dropshipping business. 

Blogging requires an understanding of the needs of your audience and writing informative content. It’s an extension of a post or product description on Facebook. 

Find the Preferred Platform of Your Target Audience

Your target audience could have a preferred platform, which could be blog communities or Facebook, where they spend most of their time. Find this platform or niche for your dropshipping business. When you are on the right platform, you get a sneak peek into the trending topics that your customers are discussing. 

You can promote your products on these platforms and be a subject matter expert vis-a-vis your products. Answer their questions, ask them to share their experiences, and post videos on the platform. 

You can highlight your store on your niche groups’ social media platform. You can use tools like lookbooks and ask the group to share the link on their platform.

Use EMail Pop-Ups to Attract Viewers

You get only 15 seconds to grab the attention of the viewer. Otherwise, they leave your website. To convert the lead, you need to capture the name and email address of the viewer within this time. To grab their attention, you need a smart marketing strategy. 

One strategy that works well is an email pop-up form. You can share relevant email marketing content with the leads once you have their email id. This will improve the engagement rates with your dropshipping business and convert them into customers. 

Incentives could range from prizes to discount coupons to free products from your site. Pop-ups can sometimes become annoying, so try targeted header bars as an alternative. 

Cross-Sell and Upsell to Your Customers

With marketing concepts like upselling and cross-selling, you can get a greater wallet share of your customer. With upselling, you can introduce your customers to high-end products in their favourite category. 

Combo offers are the best examples of cross-selling marketing strategy. These are value bundles that help you sell additional items with no extra marketing effort. 

Final Thoughts

The marketing tips discussed here can take your dropshipping business to the next level. Plus, there are tools that can help make your videos look professional and grab the attention of your target audience in no time. Try our dropshipping video ads creator and start making amazing videos in under 5 minutes!

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Winning Product Fridays Episode 128

Multifunctional RFID Blocking Vintage Safe WalletWelcome to another episode of winning product Fridays. Our Nexus research machine came up with another hot product with over $100k in sales.

This RFID Safe Wallet is not over-saturated in the market and has only 7 stores selling. It can be your permanent listing and is perfect for dropshippers working tech and gadgets niche.

Why This Product?

It’s unique! You might have already noticed it on social media and may have come across Facebook and Insta ads selling RFID Safe Wallets. Some more reasons why you should sell this product are:

Good Stats

Sell The Trend Nexus Research Machine found this product 3 months ago and it only started trending within the last 4-5 weeks. The product cost is $4.09, and the average selling price is $19.97. That’s a $15 profit margin. We also found 6 reliable sellers selling this aesthetic safe wallet, so you won’t have any difficulty sourcing it.

RFID Blocking Wallet Stats

It has had 5,226 orders within the last 30 days and the numbers are rapidly increasing.

Orders Trend

Moreover, the product we found this product 3 months ago and it was last added to a reputable store only 2 days ago. So, dropshippers are still finding it good enough to sell in 2022.

Stores Trend

Eye-Catching Product

The wallet has a simple, aesthetic, and eye-catching design. It comes in retro color with a comfortable leather feel. It gives an aesthetic and minimalist feel and is selling like hotcakes.

The product is for the male group and is a perfect gift for a father, husband, colleague, or other male friends. It is multifunctional and has several partitions to keep cash, wallets, and more.

So, your audience won’t hesitate to buy it for their loved ones or themselves.

Trending On Facebook

RFID Blocking Safe Wallets are trending on Facebook. They’ve become the only wallets worth carrying for men. Here is an example:

Facebook Ads

This brand is promoting the same wallet for the last 2-3 weeks and the response to this ad is enormous.

You can also track your competitors Facebook Ads with our Store Intelligence Feature. Click on the “See Ads” link and you’ll be redirected to their Facebook Ads. Sell The Trends always keeps you a step ahead of your competitors.

Track Competitors

Overall Thoughts

In a nutshell, this safe wallet is an easy opportunity for tech and gadgets dropshippers and newbies to start their dropshipping career. It is unique, not over-saturated in the market, has good stats, and trending on social media.

Want to start today? Add this product to your Shopify store with our 1-Click Push-To-Store Button.  

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Winning Product Fridays Episode 127

Rublox Puzzle CubesWelcome to another episode of winning product Fridays. Our Nexus Research Machine found another product that is doing wonders on Facebook. This product has been picked by many toys and Christmas gifts Shopify stores and it was last added to a Shopify store only a few days ago.

These Rublox Puzzle Cubes can be a permanent listing to your toys niche Shopify store. It is a perfect gift for your kids and will work even after the Christmas holidays.

Why This Product?

Parents won’t hesitate to spend a few bucks to give their kids some fun puzzle cubes that also enhance their motor skills. Some other reasons why you should add this to your store include:

Good Stats

It has 4300+ orders and $109,749 in sales. The average cost is $2.99 and dropshippers are selling it for $20-25. That’s over $20 profit margin. 6 suppliers are selling this product so you won’t have any difficulty sourcing it to dropship.

Rublox Cubes STT Dashboard

The product has had over 600 orders within the last 30 days and this number is rapidly increasing – especially at this time of the year.

Orders Trend

We found this product 4 months ago but it was last added to a store only 10 days ago. Dropshippers are still picking this product to make enormous sales before New Year. Moreover, it is not over-saturated in the market. Only 5 stores are selling these Rublox Puzzle Cubes.

Stores Trend

Improves Development Skills

Cubes PatternsWith some cool kids, this puzzle gives children a big boost improving their development skills at an early age. It is suitable for 1-4 people to play and promotes motor skills development, pattern recognition, problem-solving.

Moreover, the cubes come with fun and cool patterns – making it a fun and entertaining game.

Facebook Ads

Many Shopify brands are promoting this on Facebook. So, if you’re curious if this product will do any good on Facebook, here’s an example of a new brand:

Facebook Ads Library

The engagement on this ad is enormous and they’re selling dozens of pcs every day. Sell The Trend’s Store Intelligence feature also lets you see Facebook Ads of Shopify stores selling the same product. We’ll always keep you a step ahead of your competition.

Store Intelligence Facebook Ads

Overall, these Rublox Puzzle Cubes are a good start for novice dropshippers and those who already have a toy or kids development store. It is not over-saturated in the market and still has a lot of potentials to sell in 2022.

Now add this product to your store with our 1-Click Push-To-Store feature.

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