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!
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. eBay dropshipping lets us easily set up our store, list products, and start making money.
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.
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.
Let’s look at some of the benefits of using eBay as our selling channel of choice:
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.
Now, let’s break down the cons of eBay dropshipping:
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 offers various benefits for our online business. Let’s look at the pros of dropshipping on Shopify:
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.
We’ve gotten to know the pros, now let’s run through some Shopify dropshipping cons:
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.
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.
Features eBay Shopify
Unique Factors eBay Buyer/Seller Protection
Internal Marketing Methods (e.g., eBay PPC)
Free Organic TrafficBuilt-in Blogging Tool
Shopify App Store
Customizable Themes
Ease of Use Beginner Beginner-Advanced
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/yrShopify Starter - $5/mo
Shopify Basic - $25/mo
Shopify - $65/mo
Shopify Advanced - $399/mo
Shopify Plus - $2000/mo
Monthly Costs Yes Yes
Setup Fee Free Free (with trial)
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.
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/)
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’s Basic plan only costs $39 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. This plan 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.
At the time of writing, Shopify offers a free trial with the first 3 months for $1/month on select plans. Please note that Shopify promotions are subject to change.
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.
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.
Shopify’s new feature, available via store settings, lets users switch to a .store domain to improve their brand image. The first year is free, and future fees will be handled by a third-party service.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Both eBay and Shopify are good options for dropshipping, depending on your needs and preferences. eBay has a large customer base and user-friendly platform, while Shopify provides more flexibility and control over your online store. Ultimately, the best choice for dropshipping will depend on your specific business goals and requirements.
Yes, dropshipping on eBay is allowed as long as you adhere to eBay’s dropshipping policies. These policies include ensuring that items are delivered on time, meeting customer expectations, and providing accurate information about the item and the seller. It’s important to review and follow these policies to avoid any penalties or account suspensions.
Yes, Shopify dropshipping is definitely worth it. With the dropshipping business model in combination with Shopify as a selling channel, we can easily brand and scale our store to attain huge profits.
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.
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:
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