The e-commerce industry in the US alone is worth 469 Billion Dollars and it is predicted to grow by 400% by 2025.

So there are plenty of riches to be made even if you are planning to start now.

And if you are reading this Alidropship vs Shopify Comparision…

(Congratulations! You have just one step away from your Ecom Empire)

Maybe you just want to know whether you should start with alidropship or Shopify?

I know that feeling of confusion when you search online for – ‘How to start an eCommerce store.’.

There are 100s if not thousands of solutions to start an eCommerce website.

And if you will dig deeper there are two dominant players in this industry.

1. Shopify
2. WordPress (Woocommerce)

But wait if these two are the most dominant players- what in the world is Alidropship?

You came here to learn about Alidropship and its differences with Shopify. RIGHT?

Let me tell you this- there are so many things that must be cleared before you jump into any of these solutions to make your eCommerce empire. (i don’t want you to make a wrong decision and have regrets) 

And if you will read this article till the end, you will get answers to which of these solutions is best suited for YOU.

Let’s get started.

Alidropship vs Shopify Fact#1- What is Shopify?

If you want to sell physical products online today.

You basically have 2 business model

1. Pure e-commerce (Amazon, eBay, BestBuy)
2. Dropshipping (wish and others)

Shopify is a complete solution for running and managing your pure eCommerce store natively.

This means you get all the amenities (hosting, apps, etc) required to run a website in one place.

It was founded in 2004 by Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake and it is easily the most popular option right now to start your eCommerce venture and there is no surprise that it is being used all around the world by merchants and businesses having product inventory.

This solution is very efficient for big players of eCommerce who are familiar with terms like-

• Inventory management
• Shipping and tracking
• Customer support etc

So if you lie in this category and you already have an established offline business and you want to start tap into online customers as well then Shopify can be your no-brainer solution.

Because it makes it simple to manage your business from one place.

But if you are a normal guy or gal just like me who has no prior business experience or does not have any product inventory to start with.

But want a piece of this ginormous eCommerce industry

Keep reading 

Because there is a way for people like us to get started and the method is called DROPSHIPPING (you already know this, right?)

Alidropship vs Shopify Fact#2- What is Alidropship?

I will assume that you are well aware of what is a dropshipping model is for eCommerce and its tedious process to upload products and fulfill orders manually. ( yes, that one by one for 100s of products)

If not you can read this article later >> what is dropshipping

And what if I tell you that there is a way to 

• Import product from 1000s of suppliers in few clicks to your store
• Keep a record of supplier’s stock and update it dynamically
• Automate the process of order fulfillment
• And get ideas for products to sell in your store

This is what Alidropship can do for your dropshipping business.it is a solution made to automate and scale your dropshipping website.

But what exactly alidropship is?

Is it a tool? Saas? Or an app?

Let’s understand this…

If you are not from the wood you must know about wordpress.

It is the most popular CMS out there, it is powering almost 75% of the websites on the internet (I mean it is as popular as Dwayne johnson among websites developers and enthusiasts)

It is also Compatible with woocommerce (wordpress plugin for eCommerce) and all of its themes and 1000s of plugins.

that means when you are making your dropshipping website with wordpress and alidropship and want to have more features.

The sky is the limit with wordpress and 1000s of compatible plugins.

Now that you know what is the core difference between Shopify and alidropship.

Let us see how we can get started with either of these programs and which one of these is worth your time and money. 

Alidropship vs Shopify Fact#3 – How to use the alidropship plugin?

As I already said alidropship is a wordpress plugin so there are a couple of mandatory requirements to get started with the alidropship plugin.

First, You must have a domain name (which you can buy from services like GoDaddy and Namecheap)

Then you must have a Webhosting from a reputed company (Support matters)

I would recommend you start with Bluehost as it is beginner-friendly and easy to set up wordpress.

Once you will have these two things, you can move on to make a simple wordpress website by installing wordpress on that domain name

You can check the video below to learn how to do that

https://youtu.be/d9SvNP44sZ8

Once you will have these things in place you can install alidropship and start your dropshipping website.

And if you want to bypass all these steps and want a ready-to-go alidropship website.

They do have this service called- alidropship custom store.

Where they will do all the technical stuff for you and you can work on more important tasks like sales and marketing of your store.

Check out their service here – alidropship custom store

 There are many features you get with this powerful plugin (mentioned below) and if you want to learn more you can check out my alidropship review.

Some Features of Alidropship

It has a FREE Chrome extension to import products to your store automatically.

This can be really useful to save you time and effort of manual product import to your store.

Simply install this chrome extension.

Then connect your store.

Go to aliexpress and start importing products you like.

Alidropship has a wide variety of themes to choose from for your eCommerce store.

And as it is compatible with woocommerce as well so you can also use the ever-growing theme library woocommerce.

Alidropship plugin also has some really powerful addons that you can use to supercharge your dropshipping website.

And one of them will blow your mind – Sezam [ this tool is used to dropship product from alibaba]

And don’t forget it is compatible with woocommerce so you are also open to using all the woocommerce plugins and add-ons as well.

Pros and Cons of getting started with alidropship plugin

No matter how good a tool is, it will not be the best solution for everyone.

Similarly, the alidropship plugin has its limitations as well let’s discuss some of the pros and then the cons of using the alidropship plugin.

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So these are few things that you must keep in your mind before you decide to start your dropshipping store with alidropship

Let’s now see what we need to get started with Shopify.

Alidropship vs Shopify Fact#4 – How to get started with Shopify?

Getting started with Shopify is the easiest way to start your eCommerce venture.

And maybe this is the reason for Shopify being a popular choice among beginners all around the world.

You just need to have a domain name and a Shopify account (they do have a 14-day free trial)

 The video below will show you how you can create a Shopify website

There is nothing else you need to learn or have to get started with Shopify.

And there are some cool features that you get out of the gate with Shopify.

Some features of Shopify

Shopify has a decent (not the best) library of paid and free themes that you can choose to start your eCommerce website in Shopify.

But many 3rd parties are actively into theme development for the Shopify community.

The only downside is the price of these themes is very high.

So there are no shortage of options for you to choose a theme of your choice

Then with Shopify, you get access to the app library as well where you have 100s if not thousands of add-ons to choose from.

Pros and Cons of using Shopify

In my eyes [ a WordPress expert] I will always hold a grudge against services like Shopify.

Because I know for a fact that everything they offer can be accomplished in wordpress at a fraction of their cost.  

But for someone who has not been introduced to wordpress and its usage, Shopify can be very easy to use and understand.

So here are some of the pros and cons of using Shopify as your eCommerce solution.

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Alidropship vs Shopify Fact#5 – the cost of using alidropship

On paper, the cost of having an alidropship website can be deceiving.

You may think it is just a simple one-time payment of $89.

But other costs are involved in running a website with an alidropship plugin.

You will have to pay for the hosting services and domain (yearly)

Here is a price breakdown of what you will need to pay for an alidropship website.

Alidropship vs Shopify Fact#6 – the cost of using Shopify

If I say $1 – its value is different all around the world, RIGHT?

So the pricing of Shopify may seem nothing for someone and may seem too much for others.

Depending on where you live.

So let’s see what Shopify will cost us for its services.

Alidropship vs Shopify Fact#7 – which one you should choose

Now that I have covered all the important parts you must know about these two tools

It’s time for a VERDICT of alidropship vs Shopify.,

what is my opinion and what do I feel is the best tool to start your dropshipping business?

If I will be blunt and totally honest with you I am an affiliate for both of these tools and let me tell you this I Shopify pays way more than alidropship ever could.

So if my greed will takeover I would say go with Shopify.

But I know when we are starting every dollar counts – and paying extra for unnecessary luxury is useless.

So if you are on a budget and you have any idea of what is wordpress- just trust me and go for the alidropship tool

But if you are a complete beginner to website world and have a budget and are not willing to spend time on wordpress just start with Shopify

If you want to use Shopify for your pure eCommerce store- it is fine.

But remember you will still have to use 3rd party app to automate the dropshipping process.

Now the million-dollar question is- Can’t we do dropshipping from Shopify.

Now that’s a tale for a new chapter

See you soon