An Honest Review of Shopify
I decided to take a little more than a year off of the Corporate Grind and spend some time with my newborn son and beautiful daughter. During that time, we had some strict budgeting going on-which was OK but wasn’t necessarily fun. I rather not stress about money and be able to enjoy going out to events and buying goodies for the family. I did some research and decided that launching a clothing website using Shopify and the AliExpress drop shippers. There were so many great reviews-so why not try it?
The Platform
The platform was quite straight forward and easy to use. I designed a pretty good looking website in 3 days. Ok, so I stayed up late to finish-but with a newborn, I wasn’t sleeping anyway. I even got some fans emailing me asking how I made my website look so good!used the FREE TEMPLATES and photographs that the drop shippers provided.
Pricing an Item: Pricing was very easy as well. You could select a % percentage to mark up everything by or set your own specific price. If you did the percentage, the system would automatically change your prices depending on the drop shipping price. (Drop Shippers have sales too-so prices fluctuated quite a bit)
Meta Tags: Writing the description and entering the meta tags and descriptions was very easy-the box was set up at the end of the page for each item.
Descriptions: AliExpress is mostly China suppliers and the pre-made descriptions were quite horrendous and good for a laugh. I definitely had to spend some time creating some compelling descriptions that would make people actually want to buy the product instead of scratching their head wondering if this was for a toy mouse or a human child.
Traffic & Analytics: I was able to optimize my SEO and hired a freelancer to help with the harder aspects and setting up Google Shopping. In a few clicks, I set up Google Analytics and Facebook Pixels. The Shopify Analytics were fantastic as well as you can see from the screenshots below:
Customization
Customization of the free templates were pretty limited if you do not know how to edit coding. I attempted to customize the menu and toggle bars, however it ended up ruining the entire template. There are some paid versions out there-or you can just head to Fiverr.com or Freelancer.com and someone will be able to help you.
The Best Features
I loved that my customers could shop directly via my Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Pinterest. Pinterest ended up being the most profitable stream, with Instagram second. If you decide to go with Shopify, be sure to look at their Pinterest Option.
Discount codes were SUPER easy to use! You could create your own code, or have codes randomized for email remarketing.
With the Shopify packages, a SSL Certificate is included! This is a HUGE cost saver as they can run upwards of $200/year elsewhere.
Additional fun tools included a QR Code Generator, Slogan Maker (fun to play around with!), Logo maker, and Gift Certificate Template! Seriously, grab a glass of wine and play with the Slogan Maker. Maybe I was delirious from zero sleep, but whatever.
Some Problems
Other than the lack of customizations for newbies, the system did not always track if inventory went out of stock. Shopify, connected to Oberlo, connected to AliExpress were all supposed to talk to each other. This did not always happen. Luckily, I was able to find the exact product from a different supplier when this happened.
The quality of the drop shippers was my main issue. I did find one that I trusted, but the others were hit or miss. I did dispute a few items because the item was not as described, or was not delivered in over a month, and both times I lost the case. Finding a reliable and trusty worthy supplier is probably the hardest part. Would I use AliExpress again? No. Just because I don’t have the time or patience to sift through the B.S. (I truly do recommend SaleHoo for suppliers)
The cost I found was a little high-but the Shopify Lite plan at only $9 has everything you need to launch your own drop shipping website. Check out their pricing here.
Overall, I really enjoyed the Shopify Platform. I’m not familiar with coding or too much html-so the platform was easy to use. I loved all the extra features and the ability to add on extensions. If you are searching for an extra income stream, Drop Shipping is definitely one of the better options. If you decide to go with drop shipping, make sure you find a TRUSTED and QUALITY Drop Shipper. Check out my Drop Shipping 101 Post + Where to Find the best Drop Shippers.
