Here’s my reason for doing a Spocket review:
We are leveling up in 2019. This means setting higher standards in every area of life. I don’t know about you, but eCom is a huge part of my life now.
Enter Spocket.
What Is Spocket?
Spocket is an eCom app that lets you source products from the best suppliers in the US, Europe and Canada. Their dropshipping comes with faster shipping because most of the range includes US/European-made products. Month-long shopping times are not an issue when a product doesn’t come from halfway across the world!
Essentially, Spocket is Oberlo’s cooler cousin.
They put you in touch with reliable suppliers and provide wholesale pricing on dropshipping products. If that was too much technical lingo in one phrase:
When you order a large quantity of a product, you would pay a wholesale price. When you buy piece by piece (as is the case with drop shipping), the price is higher. Of course, since you are buying from the producer, it’s still fairly low. However, if you could get a wholesale discount, your profit margin would be even larger.
All the products on Spocket have at least a 30% discount.
For most, the price ranges around 50-60% lower than regular dropshipping. You can test the products yourself with sample orders. Orders come directly from the search page and let you try out the shipping speed and the quality.
That’s not necessary.
The suppliers on Spocket are far better than the ones on AliExpress. The whole premise behind the app is to provide you with higher quality products. That also includes better pictures, faster shipping times, and product descriptions that are actually relevant to the item.
Spocket also handles the inventory for all products and it fulfils orders automatically. Manual order fulfillment is one of the biggest time wasters in e-commerce—so that one is a major perk.
Why A Spocket Review?
From what you can see online, Spocket is a fairly reputable and professional app. Why the need for a Spocket review?
Well, most of the reviews I could find were:
- Coming from their own site/blog, which I hardly consider impartial
- From review sites like Trustpilot. Nothing against Trustpilot, but the opinions on there are not detailed enough to be of very high value
There are exceptions to this, of course. Some eCom-entrepreneurs have caught onto Spocket and written about the experience. For the most part, though, it doesn’t get the buzz that it needs.
Heck, I didn’t even know about the site until recently.
When you first start with dropshipping, there is a sense of one right way to do it.
- You sign up for Shopify.
- Design the store and come up with a cool branding strategy.
- Then you import products from AliExpress through Oberlo.You edit the product descriptions and pick out the best-looking photos.
- Then it’s time for marketing.
But dropshipping is so much more than the Shopify-Oberlo combo. I’ve talked about this before:
You create the store and market it + The Producer makes the product and ships it out = Dropshipping
It doesn’t matter if you use Shopify, WooCommerce, the telephone—orpigeon post.
As long as you follow this model, you are a “dropshipping entrepreneur”.
The whole cookie-cutter model is preventing people from finding real success.
Selling cheap Chinese products might work for some, but not all items can come from AliExpress. What if you want to sell essential oils? Beauty products? These are not exactly super safe when they come from China…but go ahead and risk it, that’s on you.
And that is just one example.
Spocket is a great alternative to the usual Chinese crap dropshippers sell. If you follow the, “Shopify and Oberlo is the only way” logic, you’re never going to get far. Entrepreneurs must think for themselves.
Is AliExpress Still Relevant?
All of this raises the question:
Can you even make it with Shopify dropshipping + AliExpress these days?
And the answer is:
Totally.
Listen, I do like Spocket better than AliExpress. Better quality and the (lower) shipping times to be great (as opposed to the month-long waits when stuff comes from China). But I would be lying if I said AliExpress dropshipping is completely dead.
The fact is, no niche is “over-saturated”.
When McDonald’s started selling burgers, they weren’t the first ones to do it. Their food was not (and still isn’t) objectively the best.
They still made it because nobody sells better than McDonald’s.
Marketing gurus will tell you that the product is completely irrelevant. For most businesses, that is not the case. If you sell crappy junk, it’ll be harder to convince people to buy it. Nobody owes you. But the advertising people still have one thing right:
A product is much more than the physical shell.
It is also the customer service that you provide, the marketing, and the lifestyle you sell with it. In other words, as long as you can convince people to buy the other stuff (read: bad service, slow shipping times, poor quality) that comes with the crappy Chinese item you’re selling, it doesn’t really matter that it comes from AliExpress.
In some niches, this is easier than others.
Besides, some products on AliExpress are higher quality than others.
As a whole, however, the stuff you will find on there is objectively worse than what US/Europe-based producers offer. This is both in terms of quality and shipping times.
So the question isn’t whether you can make it with AliExpress products or not.
The question is: Which product sets you up with better chances for success—especially in the longer term. Right now, I believe Spocket suppliers have won the race.
[thrive_link color=’red’ link=’https://thisistrouble.com/spocket’ target=’_self’ size=’large’ align=’aligncenter’]GET YOUR FREE SPOCKET ACCOUNT[/thrive_link]
Use Spocket If…
The app works great for all niches. That being said, some store-owners will benefit a lot more than others.
You Own A Self-Care Centered Business
Self-care is a huge buzz word and a trend that is not going anywhere anytime soon. If you decided to tap into that, good for you, good thinking. Self-care centred e-commerce can include a bunch of different niches. For instance, you could be selling:
- Essential oil mists and lotions
- Natural skincare
- Crystals
- Healing jewellery (natural stone bracelets, amulet necklaces and such)
- Candles (especially soy candles)
Essentially (no pun intended), anything you would find in an Instagram influencer’s bathroom or bedroom.
Self-care is not about the exact product you sell. More so, it’s about the potential customer. If you are selling to those people, hopefully, you know them well enough. You would know how obsessed they are with product ingredients and where an item comes from.
Organic and fair trade are incredibly important to self-care product customers.
Use Spocket to ease their minds and provide a better overall experience. The stuff you find on Spocket is simply higher quality. When you’re selling stuff that people put in and on their bodies, it’s the right thing to do.
There Is A Lot Of Competition In Your Niche
If you’re in a larger niche, say choker necklaces the generic AliExpress stuff is overused. You would have to be competing against people with more experience and a loyal customer base. Instead, you could have the product set you apart. Once again, no niche is completely saturated. You just have to find a way to be better than your competition. In the case of large niches, Spocket products could give you that extra edge.
You Can’t Afford To Test Every Product
Spocket sellers might hate me for this one. But, contrary to what you might think, you don’t need to order samples for Spocket products.
It’s a totally different story for Chinese products. These often look nothing like the original picture. Just Google Aliexpress fails to see what I am talking about.
When you dropship with Spocket, the products come from a much more reliable place. They come with high-quality, realistic-looking photos. You can easily import them to your store as they are. I’d still recommend that you eventually try them out, but if it’s not in your initial budget, it’s fine that you don’t at first.
Spocket Is Not For You If…
Spocket has a free and a premium version. Compared to Oberlo, it is pricier.
You can use Spocket for free…
However, you do need a membership to enjoy the full functionality. The major con of the free version is you only get a limited number of products. With 25 items, you can easily start an e-commerce business. Heck, there are super-successful stores that never go above that—including my own, which sells all of 1 premium product.
Eventually, you might need to expand your product range. That’s when your Spocket account will have to become premium.
Bottom line: Don’t use Spocket if you are completely opposed to a membership-based e-commerce tool. Even if Spocket is very affordable, it won’t always be the zero-cost option some of you seem to want. It’s a bit of, “You get what you pay for”, if you ask me, but I’m not about to shove my opinion down your throat. If you want dirt cheap, Spocket is not for you.
Go back to hawking junk.
Don’t Take The Guru BS
This is my time to ramble on a bit. Feel free to skip it (at your own risk). What I’m about to say, not a lot of online entrepreneurs would admit.
Ever ask yourself: Why so many online courses?
A guy that seems to have it all teaches you how to have it all for a small fee? You could have all the cars, the house, the lavish lifestyle, and the bombshell girlfriend? If only you stuck to the script the guru wrote for you, your life could be as awesome as his life looks on the Internet.
Heck, that is kind of what I do, too. I have created a kickass life for myself and I want to show you how you can do it, too. But the one thing I would never try to sell is a get-rich-quick scheme.
It’s neither easy, nor fast.
Yes, the end result is pretty dope—and yes, I’m living and breathing proof—but there is a lot of hard work that goes into anything worth having. The online entrepreneur gurus don’t want to tell you that. They will say it but never actually mean it.
Many Gurus have only one business. That business is you.
Shopify and Oberlo are guilty of doing that. They would hire people that have been successful and try to make it seem as though success is only an arm’s reach away. Intuitively, we all know that can’t be true. Making it in e-commerce is not easy, it’s not quick, and it’s rarely zero-cost.
I am not saying that Shopify has been lying to you all this time. The fact is, though, that they make it seem much easier than it actually is. For the products, the marketing, the fulfilling of orders…
In entrepreneurship, you are sailing uncharted waters. You can learn from other people’s experience. But please, whatever you do, don’t lose your common sense.
When it comes to dropshipping, my common sense is saying:
People aren’t easily convinced to buy crap.
This is the only reason I recommend using Spocket. Sure, it’s also more customer-friendly and pleasant to work with. In the end, though, none of this would matter if their items weren’t less crappy than the other stuff.
[thrive_link color=’red’ link=’https://thisistrouble.com/spocket’ target=’_self’ size=’large’ align=’aligncenter’]GET YOUR FREE SPOCKET ACCOUNT[/thrive_link]
Promising Real-Life Reviews
Sure, there aren’t a lot of detailed Spocker review articles out there. Still, the app is well-established in the dropshipping community. Gurus are not talking about it—but real people are using it.
Right now, it’s the best-ranked app in it’s category on Shopify. There are some promising ratings on their website and on independent review platforms.
The poster child of Spocket is Marc Chapon, who quit his job in December of 2017 and is now making 60K worth of sales (read: revenue, not profit) daily. They boast him on the blog and even link to his article on the “check out a site that uses us” part of their Shopify description.
Even though it comes from a biased source, though, I am inclined to believe Chapon’s story for the following reasons:
- He is not an entrepreneurship guru, he’s not selling anything, he’s not even interested in the free promotion of his website through a popular blog post (doesn’t say the store name on the article). There is no ulterior motive for Marc to share his story.
- The stuff that he’s describing is actually realistic. In one part of his article, Mark says: “Now, a lot of supposed ‘ecommerce gurus’ will tell you that you can start a successful business with a zero dollar investment—but any rational entrepreneur will be able to tell that you need funds to start any business.” I totally agree.
- The growth of his store is realistic. He did not become a millionaire overnight. Instead, though some smart investing and building, success came to him. It was an exponential growth, not a get-rich-quick scheme.
Spocket Review: The Perks
There are a few major perks to working with Spocket.
Of course, the main one is that you are not selling crap.
Better quality products, faster shipping times, careful handling, and shipping. Overall, the quality of the suppliers on the app is much better and that is the main reason I like it.
However, there are still some additional perks you can take advantage of:
- They handle the inventory and order fulfilment automatically. It saves a ton of time (that you can spend on fine-tuning your ad strategy, improving your website, or just enjoying life)
- You get the best discounts and wholesale prices from the suppliers, guaranteed.
- Real-time order tracking is available and easily accessible.
- They have a large and very responsive customer support team. You can get help 24/7 – emails are a quick way and for premium users, there is also a chat function available.
- All plans (including the free one) offer unlimited orders. If you want to be super frugal about it, Spocket can be free even for large stores (of course, the limited product range is an issue there)
Finally, there are some niches where I would plain and simply not trust an overseas supplier.
Yes, beauty and cosmetics, I am talking about you. You can talk to me all you want about that super high-quality supplement you got on the internet. But if you don’t know the source, isn’t really smart to take it?
Heck, even for superficial things like makeup, all sorts of nasty ingredients have been found in the Chinese-made stuff. You do not want to be selling harmful things to your customers.
Cons Of Using Spocket
While I do enjoy Spocket, there are some definite cons to using it:
- The products are more expensive than AliExpress. They are still the cheapest you can find at that quality level. If you’re just looking at the number, though, the items sourced on Spocket will be pricier.
- Unlimited products are only available to premium members.
- Not a lot of people know about Spocket. The ones that do tend to be more professional and much more successful than the average Oberlo user. The con here is that it’s harder to find unbiased opinions, troubleshooting tips, and general advice
All of these cons are kind of pros in disguise… Still, Spocket will not be the perfect fit for everyone. Consider if it’s right for you, or you would rather try your luck with cheaper but much lower quality stuff from China.
Spocket Review: FAQ
Finally, here are some things people always ask me about drop shipping. Some of them are specific to Spocket, others are more general. It’s just a section I think is useful and lacking in a lot of drop shipping resources.
What is dropshipping?
In simple words, it’s selling a product without holding inventory. The producer makes it, stores it, and ships it out on your behalf. Your job is to convince the end consumer to buy it and get a profit from organizing the whole thing.
This is why drop shipping is much more a marketing/online entrepreneurship thing than owning a physical store. There are different qualities you need in order to ‘make it’ in drop shipping.
How much is Spocket?
Spocket has a forever free package, as well as a Pro and Empire membership options. You can use the basic functions for free. Pro members pay $29 per month – billed annually at $348. Empire membership is $79 per month – also billed annually at $948.
Which is the best membership option?
In my opinion, the Pro offers the best price to functionality ratio. Of course, it’s not easy to beat free but you can quickly outgrow the free membership. Here is how they compare:
- Free members get all the basic functions: Unlimited Orders, Automated Order Processing, Shipment Tracking, Sample Orders, Real-time Inventory Updates, Global Pricing Rules, Email support, Currency Exchange
- Pro members receive all that, plus: Up to 250 Unique Products (free membership only gets you 25), Chat & email support, Branded Invoicing, Premium Products (these are not available to free members)
Finally, the Empire membership comes with an unlimited number of products.
This is the only real difference between Pro and Empire and I don’t think that it’s worth it for the average entrepreneur.
There are not a lot of stores that have a catalog of over 250 products. In time, you might grow to be one but at first it’s highly unlikely that you need the Empire package.
Get a Pro membership and use the rest of the money for Facebook ads. Those will actually make you some cash in return!
Are they all American/European products?
No, some of the products still come from Asia. However, in my experience, these are still higher quality items than the ones on AliExpress (because they’re vetted by Spocket).
Most of the products are made in the US, with Europe being a close second.
Spocket Review: Final Thoughts
If you take just one thing from this Spocket review, let it be:
People are not easily convinced to buy crap.
All other things aside, this is enough for me to use Spocket. Don’t go for the run-of-the-mill Make 1,000,000$ with 0$ investment scam. Do things right, sell great products, work hard on branding – that is the actual secret to online entrepreneurship!
[thrive_link color=’red’ link=’https://thisistrouble.com/spocket’ target=’_self’ size=’big’ align=’aligncenter’]GET YOUR FREE SPOCKET ACCOUNT[/thrive_link]