There are dozens of dropshipping software that claim to simplify dropshipping from Aliexpress. Oberlo and Dsers rank right at the top of the list in this regard.
But when it comes to selecting the better of the two, it’s a question that leaves new dropshippers bewildered because there are so many similarities in these two. That’s why we decided to do a one-on-one comparison of these two services to help you understand the difference and eventually decide which of these two is more suitable for you.
Let’s dive in.
Oberlo Overview
Oberlo is a dropshipping software for Shopify that makes it easy for dropshipping entrepreneurs to source products from Aliexpress, which is hands down the largest marketplace for Chinese products.
However, that does not make the site easy to navigate or figure out. Anyone who’s ever used Aliexpress will vouch for the frustrating experience of trying to navigate through hundreds of thousands of products and hundreds of pages to find what you wanted.
That’s where Oberlo comes into the picture. From searching and finding products within the dashboard to a chrome extension that offers one-click imports, Oberlo certainly simplifies Aliexpress to a large extent.
But it is not without its flaws.
Pros:
Easy Product Imports – As we mentioned, you never have to leave the dashboard to import products. Moreover, you also get the option of importing relevant products directly from Aliexpress using Oberlo’s chrome extension. All you need to do is hover over a product on the site and click the Oberlo icon. The product will be added to your import list.
Multiple filters – Oberlo allows you to filter products according to your needs. You can sort and filter by price, ratings, sales count, bestsellers, trending products and shipping time, to name a few. The shipping time filter in particular, is a great time saver because it allows you to exclude products that take a long time to get delivered.
Oberlo Verified Suppliers – Aliexpress is a massive marketplace with thousands of dropshipping suppliers vying for your attention. But it goes without saying that not all sellers are cut from the same cloth. Oberlo has worked towards simplifying this process by verifying Aliexpress sellers based on their trustworthiness, success rate and customer service. They are called Oberlo’s verified suppliers, and are hand-picked and vetted by Oberlo.
Automation rules – Any ecommerce entrepreneur will agree that time is money, and you can only earn so much if you are spending most of your day on mundane tasks. For this, Oberlo has come up with some powerful automation rules that allow you to set rules and create a workflow that takes little manual intervention. These rules can be triggered based on a number of factors.
Bulk Edits – Manually editing each and every product that you wish to import is the last thing you want to do as a dropshipper. With Oberlo, you can edit products in one go and apply changes across hundreds of them in your import list.
Cons:
Competition – One of the biggest gripes that entrepreneurs have with Oberlo is that it shares data about a product’s sales performance with other clients. So, if you work hard to find an exclusive winning product that’s doing great, then Oberlo will give away your secret to success by sharing performance data with other users. This will increase competition straight away.
Shopify Only – Another major drawback of Oberlo is that it is only compatible with Shopify. This can be a huge deal-breaker for entrepreneurs who use other ecommerce platforms.
Aliexpress Only – Just like it is a Shopify exclusive, Oberlo is also an Aliexpress exclusive. If you wish to explore products in other marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, you cannot do it with Oberlo. While there’s no shortage of options in Aliexpress, it limits your ability to source and ship products from marketplaces in USA and UK.
Related Reading:
DSers Overview
Dsers is the top-rated app on the Shopify store and the reason for this popularity is how easy it makes it to import products from Aliexpress. In fact, if you visit the Aliexpress website, you will notice that Dsers is mentioned as their official partner app.
That’s because it’s a huge time saver. From importing products in bulk to placing bulk orders, DSers is even faster than Oberlo in automating Aliexpress sourcing.
In fact, according to Dsers, an average dropshipping entrepreneur can save up to 90% of their time spent on Aliexpress sourcing, if they were to use Dsers for the task.
Pros:
No Cap on orders – Aliexpress generally places a cap on the number of orders that dropshippers can place at a time. Dsers eliminates this and allows you to place bulk orders. When your ecommerce store is generating more than 50-100 sales a day, you definitely do not want to spend time manually placing 20-30 orders every time.
Free for up to 3000 products – Almost every ecommerce software out there boasts of a free plan. But it’s rarely free forever, or there’s almost a catch every single time. With Dsers, the app is completely free as long as you are researching and importing up to 3000 products only. That’s ample for entrepreneurs who are just starting off.
Supplier Management – As we mentioned earlier, Aliexpress is the wild west of the ecommerce industry. It is vital that any ecommerce software you choose has a module that simplifies supplier management. DSers does exactly that. It lets you find suppliers who stock inventory in warehouses close to your target market, which lets you offer faster shipping. It also allows you to find a substitute supplier, in case the primary supplier runs out of inventory.
One Click Imports and Mapping – Dsers has one of the most efficient product import and mapping systems. After you narrow down on a product using the plethora of filters that the software offers, you can import all details with a single click. You can also split the variants between different suppliers and map it accurately so that the orders are sent to the relevant suppliers only.
Multi Store Environment – The Dsers dashboard lets you run multiple stores on different ecommerce software, while sourcing from Aliexpress itself. This process is generally tricky. But Dsers makes it easy.
Cons:
Can be pricey – If you are a large ecommerce brand than some of the higher pricing tiers on Dsers are expensive. We know that this is subjective. But when compared with other similar services, Dsers is not exactly pocket-friendly.
No USA based products – As of now, the only way in which you can source products in the USA while using Dsers is to look for suppliers who stock products in warehouses in the US. This might be very limited in number. There are no sellers listed with Dsers who have dedicated US based fulfillment centers and inventory stock.
Related Reading: DSers Review
Oberlo vs Dsers: Key Features Comparsion
Now, let’s dive down into the granular details and compare these two services on the basis of their primary features, advantages and drawbacks.
1. Supported eCommerce platforms
The ability to use any ecommerce platform, or shift to a different one, is a huge plus for dropshipping entrepreneurs. That’s because not all platforms are designed for growth. After a while, you might notice that your store’s performance begins to stagnate.
Oberlo caters to entrepreneurs who use Shopify only. Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce software out there. But it’s not the be-all, end-all. So, Oberlo limits your options greatly.
Dsers on the other hand gives you a little more leeway. It is compatible with Shopify, Woocommerce and Wix. So, there’s clearly more liberty with Dsers. You can switch from any one of these platforms to the other seamlessly without interrupting the workflow. The absence of Magento is glaring though.
If ecommerce software compatibility is your primary concern, Dsers will get you more flexibility.
2. Product sourcing
Both Oberlo and Dsers allow you to source from Aliexpress only. While you are sourcing from the same marketplace, it is the ease and the automation that differs.
Dsers has a better search algorithm and an interface that is more user-friendly. It allows you to filter products according to more granular criteria than Oberlo. For instance, you can filter products based on the ones that have inventory in warehouses in UK, Australia and EU. This is not possible on Oberlo. So, this is one aspect where Dsers leaves its competitor in the dust.
You can also split a product and map different variants to different suppliers, something that can be achieved with Oberlo, but not without using some workaround.
We also like the fact that Dsers allows you to select a substitute supplier upfront. Anyone worth their salt in dropshipping will agree that suppliers running out of inventory is inevitable. It’s frustrating to lose sales because you can’t fulfill orders. Dsers allows you to work around this by selecting a substitute vendor who can chime in when you want it the most.
Oberlo offers a similar feature where it allows you to seamlessly switch suppliers without editing the product data.
3. Product management
Both Oberlo and Dsers offer some robust features to make product management a breeze. There’s an intermediate interface which is called ‘My Products’ on Dsers and ‘Import List’ in Oberlo, which is like a list of products that you have selected for import, but not pushed into your ecommerce store yet.
You can use this interface for bulk editing image data, such as changing the description, title, price, category, setting variants or even the image before publishing it live into the store. This intermediate interface is important because the default interface for image edits on Shopify and other ecommerce platforms is not exactly user friendly.
Once you import products, Dsers allows you to use tags to further simplify filtering and for easy tracking. Oberlo also allows tags as well as setting price rules. For instance, the pricing tab not only lets you set the selling price, it also displays the potential profit that you generate with it.
We already spoke about how both these ecommerce platforms work for supplier management. So, it’s pretty even-steven when it comes to product management.
4. Fulfilling products
Both these ecommerce software practically automate the entire fulfillment workflow. Oberlo syncs orders automatically with Aliexpress once in a day. So once a customer pays for an order, it will automatically sync with the Aliexpress supplier. All you need to do is select the bulk orders and pay for them directly on Aliexpress.
Yeah, this is the only manual step in the entire process. Once you pay, the fulfillment is entirely automated. Dsers also works similarly with Oberlo, but it syncs with Aliexpress more frequently. In addition to that, you do not need to log on to the Aliexpress website to pay for the orders.
You can set up automatic payment with your card from within the Dsers interface. So, if you seek complete automation, Dsers has the edge. Once fulfillment is completed, both software will automatically sync tracking details and email notifications to the customer.
5. Pricing
Price can be a determining factor, especially if you are just starting off with dropshipping. Dsers, as we said, has an excellent free plan for up to 3000 products. This is limited to 500 products with Oberlo.
Other than this, Oberlo only has a Boss plan priced at $29/mo, whereas Dsers has 3 plans priced at $19, $49.9 and $499.9/mo. As you can see, the prices increase exponentially as you go higher in the pricing tiers.
That said, with the automation and the ease that it brings to the business, many top ecommerce brands will happily pay that amount.
FAQ
1. Is DSers better than Oberlo?
2. What is the difference between DSers and Oberlo?
3. Is DSers owned by Aliexpress?
Oberlo vs Dsers: Conclusion
After scrutinizing both this software on the basis of key features, ease of use, ease of fulfillment and automation, here’s what we feel.
Use Oberlo when you are just starting off and generating less than 100 sales a month. It is easy to use, you can practically start dropshipping for free and even when you start to generate more than 100 sales a month, the Pro plan is very affordable. The caveat is that you can only use it with Shopify and it is not 100% automated.
Use Dsers when you are looking to scale and grow with minimal manual inputs. The workflow is 100% automatic, you can place bulk orders with no caps, you can optimize suppliers, set a substitute supplier and even look for suppliers with inventory in international warehouses.
However, if you are looking to import more than 1000 products, you will have to sign up for their higher priced tiers.
If you are looking for a more personalized sourcing solution with better pricing, one-on-one attention and completely automated fulfillment, Sourcingbro’s a great choice. We are a small team of passionate individuals who bring accountability into dropshipping.
