Oberlo Review 2020 – Power Your eCommerce Store with Efficiency
- Mar-25-2020
- Ameer Rizvi
- 0 comments
eCommerce entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs usually get stuck when launching their first e-store business. Dropshipping can look pretty simple when experienced people are demonstrating in a YouTube video, so how do they do it?
Most eCommerce store owners utilize what we call automation platforms to accomplish various steps of the dropshipping process. Oberlo is one such automation platform which allows e-store owners to:
- Find, Research, and Add Products in one click
- Fulfill orders automatically
- Manage and Customize product details and other content
- Request tracking codes
- Receive automatic inventory & price updates
- Discover and change suppliers
Oberlo is highly compatible with Shopify and AliExpress, allowing e-store owners to easily import products using their brilliant Chrome browser extension. Oberlo is not a complete eCommerce platform though, it is in fact an eCommerce support platform. In the sections that follow we will overview the platform’s features
Oberlo Review – Core Features
Oberlo as an eCommerce support platform offers 4 core features with its subscription. These include:
- Importing products,
- Fulfilling orders,
- Product Customization, and
- Inventory & pricing management,
Apart from these secondary features include sales tracking, creating product wish lists, supplier management, and more. Now, let’s take a look at core features individually.
Import Products
The primary feature of Oberlo is the platforms superb product import extension. The extension is currently available on the Chrome app store is highly compatible with Google’s Chrome browser. The simple one click install extension is compatible with AliExpress and Shopify. The innovative Oberlo import & sync app is now available to install from the Chrome Web Store.
Once the app is installed in your Chrome browser you can just log onto AliExpress, browse through products, and add the ones required for your e-store.
Fulfill Orders Automatically
If you ask me, the most brilliant feature of Oberlo is not its awesome Chrome app. My pick among all Oberlo features is the platform’s excellent order fulfillment system. Completing orders can be very time consuming especially for solo entrepreneurs. Oberlo puts the entire process at the click of a button, sending out orders immediately for fulfillment to relevant suppliers.
Once an order has been fulfilled in Oberlo, the Oberlo platform derives the tracking number for delivery which can then be sent to the buyer. The great aspect here is that once an order has been completed on Oberlo’s platform, its status is automatically updated on your Shopify store.
There are 3 ways Oberlo provides fulfilling orders, these include:Although the same customization feature is available on Shopify I found it a bit confusing to do it on there. Oberlo however has a neater user interface. You can edit all product details from your Product import list
- Get Tracking Code (Oberlo Dashboard)
- Fulfill through Send Details, Sync This Page, or Sync All Orders options (AliExpress)
- Manual Fulfillment (Shopify Dashboard)
You can also learn how to fulfil orders using Oberlo in their official tutorial.
Product Customization
The fourth core feature of our Oberlo review are the detailed product page customization features. Although the same customization feature is available on Shopify I found it a bit confusing to do it on there. Oberlo however has a neater user interface. You can edit all product details from your Product import list.
Oberlo’s dashboard offers customizing everything from product names, descriptions, editing tags & product types, plus assign products to collections. The Variants section allows editing all variants of a product, in addition to removing variants if you do not wish to list them. You can also choose which images to display with your products & variants.
Word of advice here, when uploading images and customizing other product information wait as it will take time to update all the aspects of your Shopify e-store. The best aspect here, Oberlo allows to customize directly through Shopify with a button placed over ever product.
Oberlo also offers a brief tutorial on how to customize product information using the Oberlo dashboard.
Oberlo Inventory & Pricing Management
The last primary feature of Oberlo on my list is its brilliant inventory and price management feature. This can be a time consuming process, but with Oberlo’s advanced dropshipping tools it becomes fairly easy.
In addition to other awesome features, Oberlo’s real time monitor keeps track of product inventories and prices. Once a product goes out of stock the Oberlo dashboard will inform you automatically. You can then choose to remove the product from the Shopify store or stop tracking it.
Oberlo also keeps track of the product pricing, informing you if the cost goes above your selling price and hurts margins. You can then choose to add other products and remove the expensive item from the shop. The dashboard also offers setting pricing rules to maintain your margins, hence automating the entire pricing process.
Even More from Oberlo
Oberlo offers additional features automate the entire dropshipping process. Although I term them secondary features these are background processes that are crucial for smooth operation of an e-store. Let’s briefly overview these:
Changing Suppliers
Meant for products imported from AliExpress, Oberlo allows looking up all the suppliers for a given product. You can then source your product(s) from a better rated supplier, since all supplier reviews & ratings are available on AliExpress. This is very helpful in two cases:
- A supplier has run out of the product inventory
- Your buyer(s) complained about the quality of product or packaging
Real Time Sales Analytics
Oberlo’s Sales/Cost dashboard is another excellent feature available on the support platform. You can keep track of sales and costs incurred in real time, to keep track of profits. This feature immensely helps with being versatile with your strategies.Although the same feature is available in Shopify with an elaborate interface, it’s helpful to have it present when working solely with Oberlo.
Multiple User Accounts
You can always add other administrators to manage and operate your e-store. This is brilliant when your store is growing and requires additional assistance. You can invite users to access the Oberlo dashboard in a click, while managing their access level.
Filter Products by Delivery Costs
Additionally, Oberlo also offers this brilliant feature to filter products by their epacket delivery costs. You can either sort products by paid or free delivery, or choose the cheapest delivery possible.
Sell Your Own Products
Sellers who are manufacturing their own products or sourcing from local suppliers, can add products just as easily using Oberlo. You can easily import products like AliExpress items and list them with the rest of the catalogue.
Oberlo Pricing Plans
Oberlo offers 3 appealing pricing plans namely starter, basic, and pro. The starter plan is the most popular because it’s initially free, and is ideal for new e-stores. The basic plan costs a very attractive and costs $29.90 per month, the ideal plan for most growing e-stores. The pro plan has been designed for enterprises with massive earnings, and costs a posh $79.90 per month.
Here is a complete comparison of all Oberlo packages with detailed features:
Reviewer’s Verdict
I’ll be honest, I haven’t used the paid plans from Oberlo. I do however consider it a massive asset for fulfilling orders on Shopify. The product import tools score 5 out of 5 for me, while the order completion feature is my favorite of the lot.
I also found the order management tool very helpful for my store. It saved me so much time and I could spend time marketing my products and talking to influencers. For me Oberlo is a superb platform for new e-store owners who wish to start slowly and learn as they go. Since it also solves the inventory and price management issues, I highly recommend Oberlo to other new entrepreneurs starting off with their first e-stores.
DO remember to like and share my Oberlo review of 2018. If I missed something just remind me in the comments section below and I will get to it instantly. Feel free to bring up issues and areas where you have experienced hurdles with Oberlo, so we can address them directly to the developers.