3 Alternatives to Shopify for Dropshipping

Shopify is the largest eCommerce platform available to dropshippers. It works as SaaS to give customers hosting for their eCommerce store and help them to optimize SEO. It has 23% of the dropshipping market share in the US alone and has a presence in over 175 countries. The platform is easy to use, and therefore, it is no surprise that it has become synonymous with dropshipping.

Shopify is software to build and manage an online store. The platform can help you build a website, manage inventory, calculate shipping rates and sell across multiple channels. The platform has a lot going for it, and it may seem as it genuinely has no competitors due to the excellent product offering, such as over 6000 app to help you manage your store and customize the user experience; it comes pre-build with free and commercial themes and a POS system you can integrate with your physical store.

Reasons You May Need to Ditch Shopify

Clearly, Shopify has something great that may want to make you join or keep their services. However, there are a few things that may necessitate getting another plan or ditching the program altogether. Here are the most common:

 You are fed up with Shopify Payments

Choosing Shopify comes with a few burdens of its own such as the Shopify payment gateway. The Shopify payment is powered by stripe, and to discourage you from using alternative payment systems; there is a 2% fee for every transaction if you do not use their system, which can quickly add up over many sales. Additionally, you have to give up the feature to transact in multiple currencies. The payment platform comes with a fatal flaw that does not allow you to use it if you sell high-risk products such as vaporizers.

Control site SEO

One of the biggest draws to Shopify is the fact that all their sites are SEO optimized to let you handle what you do best. Shopify handles all SEO, and you do not have control over it. Different marketing needs and the reliance on organic search may prompt you to get another dropshipping software provider. After all, if it is your site, you should control what it can or can handle both technical and non-technical parts of the SEO.

Have an extensive and complex product offering

Shopify caps the SKU at 100 per product and options at three, making it frustrating when dealing with a product that has various flavors and options that needs to be displayed. The most obvious solution in such a case is to ditch Shopify and get a provider who can offer you the variety you need.

Just mad at some features or services they offer

Let's face it we are human and can be triggered by so many things. You can be annoyed by the design or just want to find another dropshipping store. A customer care support staff may have hit a nerve, or you have someone who has had a bad experience with Shopify, and you do not want to face the same issue.

Shopify Alternatives

Finding a Shopify alternative is a tall order nonetheless, there are a few dropshipping alternatives that have great features that meet the shortcomings of Shopify. Let's examine a handful you can get started with this year.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is an eCommerce platform that was founded in 2009 that helps dropshippers to create and scale their online store on the SaaS platform. Most merchants feel that Bigcommerce is the best place to get started in growing your business. The platform comes with robust out-of-the-box features that are included in every plan, with the more expensive features determined by sales volume rather than new features.

There is universal support for over 55 payment gateways at no additional transaction fees. It is easy to build your online store with drag and drop features and several themes that one doesn’t require knowledge in coding to get started. There is an in-app check-out for  Instagram with extensive SEO capabilities that are customizable.  Whatever your frustrations, there is a dedicated team of customers to handle all your issues round the clock every day of the year.

BigCommerce has a large ecosystem of agencies and technology partners. One major drawback is that it only has five free themes of the many available themes and a slight learning curve compared to Shopify.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce and Big commerce are the biggest platforms giving Shopify a run for its money. While Shopify and BigCommerce are platforms on their own, wooCommerce is a plugin that works on WordPress websites and blogs to turn them into eCommerce websites. The convenience means that those with an existing website can keep on with the core functions of the business while integrating with a WordPress website. It is easy to get started with WordPress sites being the most popular sites.

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that is free for use with any WordPress site that you can customize to your store code. There are also hundreds of free and paid extensions that work with WooCommerce. Though the plugin is free, you have to meet the costs of hosting the domain and SSL certificate. It is a bit hard, and you may require the help of dedicated developers and designers.

Magento

Magento is an eCommerce platform that uses open source technology for enterprises and small. Since the platform is open-source, you have access to the backend and can customize all aspects of your store. At least 260,000 developers are adding new functionalities to the platform. A lot of addons are available to add partner ecosystems.

Magento has the shortfall of being on-premise, so you have to host it yourself and make other expenses. You also have to keep an eye on upgrades and patches. You may have to employ a developer to manage the maintenance of the eCommerce platform.

Whatever the eCommerce platform you opt for, you need a dropshipping website to find high-quality dropshipping suppliers and products. Doba offers the highest quality goods in variety and at competitive prices that will get your dropshipping store running.