Anyone who has a Shopify store or has dealt with the topic of dropshipping has certainly heard of the free dropshipping app “Oberlo”.
If you wanted to start a dropshipping store, you probably thought of Shopify first, because Shopify made it possible for website owners with little previous knowledge to start their own online shop easily and without much previous knowledge.
So you could start your online shop in just a few steps, install the free dropshipping app called “Oberlo” and start importing products from Aliexpress and selling them on your shop.
Unfortunately, these times are over now and you have to look for an alternative to Shopify and Oberlo. Shopify has removed the app from their app store without replacing it.
It is not yet known why this step was taken.
The Oberlo app was bought by Shopify in 2017 for around $15 million from a Lithuanian company. The Oberlo Shopify app has over 100,000 active installs to date.
The Oberlo Shopify app will be completely delisted on May 12th, 2022. And so far there is no adequate replacement.
Even if you still have the app installed now, it will no longer work after the date mentioned above.
It seems like Shopify wants to pull out of the dropshipping business entirely.
How to make money with dropshipping now?
In my eyes, you now have to change the platform. Since there is no good dropshipping app on Shopify anymore, you can still use WordPress and WooCommerce to start or continue your dropshipping journey.
But let’s be honest, Shopify wasn’t the best dropshipping platform in the first place. Shopify is very expensive if you compare it with the WordPress platform. With WordPress, there isn’t a monthly fee you have to pay. And even WordPress has better dropshipping plugins.
Oberlo had a great disadvantage, in that you had to pay for each sale you made via dropshipping. With WordPress and WooCommerce, you buy the plugin once and never have to pay for the sales you made via dropshipping.
When you think that WordPress is too complicated, you’re not right. If you learn how to use WordPress and WooCommerce, it is getting easy for you!
WordPress also has the advantage over Shopify, in that you fully own the content. So that means, no one can ban you. There are no restrictions because you host the website on your own web space.
How to get started on WordPress?
To get started with WordPress and WooCommerce you have to register a domain name at a hosting company of your choice.
Most hosting companies offer one-click WordPress installations.
After that, you only have to install the WooCommerce extension and set up your new store.
If you want to get detailed instructions on how to install WordPress, you can read my article about how to install and set up WordPress and WooCommerce.
What is the best dropshipping plugin for WooCommerce?
I’ve already tested a few dropshipping plugins for WooCommerce and found a clear winner.
I am very satisfied with the plugin “Alidropship“. This plugin costs around $80 dollars, a one-time payment. After that, you don’t have to pay anything anymore, no matter how much you sell. You will also receive live updates for the plugin that you can install automatically.
When you install the plugin, all you have to do is install a Google Chrome extension and then you can connect your WooCommerce shop with the Google Chrome browser.
After that, you can easily import any product from Aliexpress.com to your store. You also have full control over pricing, product URLs, product descriptions, etc…
Would you like us to create a dropshipping store for you?
We develop many dropshipping stores in different niches and in different sizes for our customers. If you don’t have time to create a dropshipping store yourself or if you are not yet familiar with WordPress and WooCommerce, we can set up a store for you.
>> Check out our dropship store page <<