Spocket tool group buy account - Search and choose products based on location

What is Spocket?

With the help of Machine Learning, Spocket is revolutionizing the dropshipping market and aiding online retailers competing with Amazon- by removing the need to hold inventory and erasing upfront costs for retailers. Spocket enables over 30,000 entrepreneurs across five continents to launch and scale their online stores with a focus on US and EU products. By carefully vetting suppliers, merchants and customers can be ensured of fast shipping, quality and consistent products, branded invoicing and a world-class customer support team. Be part of the revolutionary vision of Spocket to remove inventory from the online and physical retail by using the dropshipping model and fixing the $1.1 trillion issue called inventory distortion.

How Does Spocket Works?

If you’re familiar with Oberlo dropshipping then you should have an idea or what Spocket does. However, this time around, you don’t have to dropship with AliExpress and its long shipping time.

Instead, Spocket allows you to search and choose products based on where you want to ship products from and where the products are going.

That is, if your targeted customers are based in Canada, you’ll have the opportunity to source products from Canada based suppliers and have the products shipped to them as fast as possible.

This way, both you and your customers go home happily ever after.

In addition to this, you can easily search for products you want to import to your Shopify store based on keyword or the price filter.

Either way, the app is built to give you an automated business that requires little effort from your part.

The product fulfilment is completely automated whereby everything is done on your behalf, you can then focus on other important aspects of your dropshipping business while Spocket handles the rest.

SPOCKET'S FEATURES & SERVICES

FREE PLAN AVAILABLE

Spocket is free to use on their most basic plan, so you can add up to 25 products to your store, you can receive an unlimited number of orders on those products, and you’ll also get access to their other important features like real-time inventory updates, currency exchange, global pricing, shipment tracking numbers and email support. For more features, to add more products to your store and for additional support options, you’ll have to upgrade to one of their other plans which do have an upfront cost.

BRANDED INVOICING

As a dropshipping business, you want the shopping experience to be as authentic as possible for your customers and one way that Spocket prioritizes that is by enabling merchants to create custom branded invoices.

Depending on which Spocket pricing plan you’re signed up to, the features you’ll be able to customize on your invoices will differ. When using Spocket’s free plan, you can add your store’s URL, currency, and a personal note to your invoices in addition to each customer’s shipping and order information but when you use one of Spocket’s paid plans you have more customization options available. You’ll also be able to add your store’s logo, change the font, and structure of the invoice to make it personal and unique to your brand.

HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCTS

Spocket knows that dropshipping merchants are often frustrated by the lack of quality experienced in so many dropshipping products on the market, that’s why they so diligently focus on cultivating a marketplace of high-quality dropshipping products. It starts by vetting the suppliers they work with to ensure that they’re creating great products merchants can trust and by only working with reliable suppliers, they’ve built a marketplace of high-quality products merchants can be proud to sell to their customers.

GREAT DROPSHIPPING MARGINS

Spocket aims for merchants to have a 30%-60% profit margin window when typical dropshipping profit margins are usually around 15% – 45%. This means that you as the merchant have the opportunity to earn more with every sale that you make, which can help you grow your business and keep your cash flow in the positive.

ORDER SAMPLES

It should go without saying, but you should never sell a product on your online store without first ordering a sample. This goes for any kind of online business whether you’re dropshipping or not. To make this easy, you can order product samples right from your Spocket dashboard in just a few clicks just to do your own due diligence and make sure you’re adding exactly what you want to be selling to your online store.

AUTOMATED SELLING

The best part about running a dropshipping business is usually that you can automate the entire process! Spocket is no exception. Their goal is to connect suppliers and merchants together and automate everything in between so you can run you store day-to-day without being bogged down by manually sending orders to your supplier. Automation makes everything more efficient and means there are fewer possibilities for mistakes to be made, which leads to a better user experience overall.

FAST DELIVERY TIMES

60% of Spocket’s suppliers are located in the US and EU so delivery to your customers will be faster, easier, and more reliable than if you were to source from other popular dropshipping supplier locations around the world. This means that your store will offer a better purchasing experience for your customers, earning you better reviews, happier customers, and — most importantly — returning purchasers.

EXTENSIVE SUPPLIER VETTING

Spocket has a very thorough vetting process when it comes to allowing suppliers into their marketplace of products to choose from which, as a merchant, is good news for you because it means that you don’t have to do the hard work ensuring that you’re sourcing from a reputable supplier.

Here are the standards Spocket holds their suppliers to:

•    By-Application Only: Suppliers have to apply to become part of the Spocket marketplace, and Spocket only allows them to join only if the supplier’s products suit the needs of Spocket’s merchants, if the products are in demand by consumers, if the suppliers are willing to ship products in neutral packaging (to make for a seamless dropshipping experience), and if they’re able to offer their products at a 30%-60% discount for Spocket merchants.

•    Investigative Interview: Spocket also interviews each supplier before they invite them to their marketplace to learn more about the supplier’s business in depth and their history of sales. This is where the Spocket team is really able to get a grasp on what the supplier does and how they do it to ensure that they’re a good fit for the Spocket marketplace.

•    Product Testing: The Spocket team also orders products from the supplier’s store to test out their products first-hand and to evaluate the quality of the product, the packaging they use as well as the shipping time that it takes to receive the product. In this stage, Spocket is able to identify any factors that may be undesirable for merchants, like long shipping times or poor-quality products that may cause issues for them if they were to list the products from these suppliers on their own store.

Once a supplier passes these three tests, Spocket then confirms the other fine details required to sell on the marketplace to ensure that the suppliers agree to the return policy and shipping guidelines that all other Spocket suppliers adhere to.

Finally, when a supplier successfully becomes a part of the Spocket marketplace, Spocket monitors the supplier’s performance for the first two months to ensure that their on-boarding is smooth and that they continue to meet Spocket’s expectations. They do this to make sure that suppliers follow up with their end of the deal and to make sure that merchants are satisfied with their products, shipping, and service.

If, in the case that a supplier fails to perform to Spocket’s high standards, the supplier is deactivated and any merchants who list the supplier’s products on their own online store are notified.

CUSTOMIZED PRODUCT INFORMATION

When adding products from Spocket’s marketplace to your own store, you can either keep the product information as it is, or you can customize it to make it more on-brand for your store. You can virtually edit any part of the product listing, just like you would for any product you add to your online store. Change the title, tags, collection, product description, shipping cost, product price, images and more! It’s up to you how you list Spocket products on your store. Watch the above video for a quick tutorial on how to customize Spocket product information for your store.

PREMIUM PRODUCTS & DISCOUNTED PRODUCTS

Spocket’s suppliers range from local vendors to artisans to small manufacturers and mass suppliers so the product range in terms of price is well-rounded. There’s everything from premium products to discounted products included on their marketplace so no matter what audience you’re catering to there’s something for everyone.

•    Spocket’s Discounted Products: These products are discounted at a further rate on top of the original listed price. As a merchant, this means you can compete against others in the market based on price and be the obvious choice for consumers to pick.

•    Spocket’s Premium Products: These products are specifically curated products that are added into this category because they’re the best of the best that Spocket has to offer. As such, they’re only available to merchants on Spocket’s paid plans which makes them extra special and even more exclusive. Spocket’s premium products are best-sellers that lean closer towards the 60% side of the 30%-60% discount range, and they meet the fastest shipping and processing time requirements.

There are advantages to both types of products, depending on your business’ goals and audience, so search through Spocket’s marketplace to see what’s available in each category and decide for yourself what would be the best fit for your store.

RETURN & SHIPPING POLICIES

When it comes to dropshipping, two of the major disadvantages are usually the return policies (or lack thereof) and shipping costs, carriers, and times. This is generally because, as a merchant who doesn’t have full control over these aspects, they’re often non-negotiable and they often don’t work out in your best interest. Handling returns can often be confusing and awkward (do they go back to the supplier or does the merchant become responsible for them?) and shipping usually just is what is it (the merchant generally has very little say in the process).

Spocket recognizes these frustrations, so part of why they’re one of the best dropshipping marketplaces is because they maintain strict return policies and shipping guidelines that their suppliers must meet in order to be listed on their marketplace so everyone’s on the same page. This makes sourcing products from them much less confusing and more favorable for merchants, too.

•    Spocket’s Return Policy: All Spocket suppliers must offer one of these three return policies — either they offer no returns, 15-day returns or 30-day returns. It’s important to note that Spocket also holds the supplier’s funds for the period of the return policy so in the event that a return needs to be made, you’ll get the money back that you paid to the supplier for their product. For example, if the supplier offers a 15-day return policy, Spocket keeps the funds in their account for the 15 days until the return period has passed.

Spocket does also take some extra steps to make the return process easy and carefree for both customers and merchants. In the case of damaged products or if your customer receives the wrong product, you’ll be refunded immediately or sent a replacement product, whichever you choose. In addition to that, Spocket sometimes will not even require the product to be shipped back to accommodate the customer or Spocket will provide the return shipping label so the customer does not have to pay for the return out of pocket.

This is one of the best return policies we’ve seen when it comes to dropshipping — which as a business model notoriously lacks any return policies at all, or at least ones that favor the customers and the merchant — so we commend Spocket on outlining such a well-thought-out policy that takes the stress off of merchants.

•    Spocket’s Shipping Policy: When it comes to Spocket’s shipping guidelines, they also make it as easy as possible for merchants to implement on their own store. All Spocket products are offered with flat rate domestic and international shipping, which you can take into account when you outline the shipping rates for your own store.

The other two common concerns merchants typically have when it comes to shipping include shipping carriers and shipping times. Like most dropshipping situations, merchants don’t have control over the shipping carriers that Spocket suppliers use. Spocket does outline, however, that their suppliers usually use DHL, USPS, ePacket, and FedEx to ship their products and that every supplier always chooses the most efficient company to ship their products.

When it comes to the shipping times for Spocket products, they’re variable depending on factors like the supplier’s location, the customer’s location, shipping carrier used, customs and duties processing times (which suppliers have no control over) and more. Every product on Spocket includes an overview of the expected shipping and processing times in their product description, so you do have access to that information before you list the product on your store.

REAL-TIME INVENTORY UPDATES

Spocket updates inventory availability automatically and in real-time so you’ll never sell and out of stock product. This is very important because as a dropshipping merchant you don’t have access to each supplier’s individual inventory levels and with other suppliers potentially listing and selling the same products as you, you don’t want to be caught out selling products when there aren’t any to sell. Luckily, you won’t ever have to worry about that because Spocket keeps all inventory up to date so there’s no confusion.

Spocket Review: Pros & Cons

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the Spocket App.

Pros of Spocket App

•    One-click Importation

This reduces the redundancy of adding products manually. With their one-click import button, you can simply have as many product imports directly to your store either on Shopify or WooCommerce.

•    Automated order-fulfilment

The same thing goes for order fulfilment. Whenever you have an order you can have it fulfiled automatically with just a hit of a button. All customer info will be pushed to the supplier and he or she will have the product fulfilled for you.

•    Fast shipping time

You can source for products in Canada and sell to customers in Canada. The same thing goes for the rest of the countries. Thus, increasing your shipping time compared to using AliExpress.

•    Suppliers are being added on a daily basis

New Supplier new products. Their product catalogues increase alongside supplier on a daily basis. And there is one thing to be sure of while using Spocket, it’s going to be their quality products.

•    Product discount up to 60%

You’ll also get to enjoy product discount up to 60% which is going to skyrocket your profit margin.

Cons of Spocket App

•    US & EU Supplier base

You can only have access to suppliers within the confine of the above countries and while shipping products outside US & EU will increase your shipping cost and as well as the shipping duration.

Spocket Pricing and Discount with Coupons Code

Here is where things truly diverge: Spocket has three plans, with the basic one being entirely free, the Professional Plan costing $39 and the Empire Plan costing $99.

Oberlo, on the other hand, has three plans ranging from free to $79. Though this sounds great, there is one obvious flaw.

While Oberlo does allow 500 products to be imported on the free plan, you are allowed only 50 orders: which boils down to one to two orders per day. Now these 50 orders need not be for Oberlo products to deserve a charge of $29.90. If you have 50 orders on your store, you are required to opt for the higher plan.

What is surprising is that you do not need 500 products to start your store, or have a successful store. Having tons of cheap products are not what bring a store sales. A cap on the number of orders you can make with a plan is quite constricting, on the other hand.

Spocket allows order tracking to all users, which I believe is important for customer satisfaction. Spocket also automatically syncs the tracking number to Shopify, while with Oberlo, you have to manually enter them through Oberlo to the Shopify interface.

One thing that Oberlo offers on its Pro Plan that Spocket does offer is multiple user accounts. The rest of the features are similar across the two apps.

One thing I like about Spocket is that it has a 7-day free trial that allows retailers to test out the monthly plans before they commit to it.

Final Thoughts

I am glad I found this dropshipping app, it’s easy to use, comes with lots of features that will help you run your store more efficiently and you can try it for free.

This app provides you with an excellent alternative to AliExpress dropshipping.

I am a big fan of AliExpress dropshipping but with all the trade issues the US is having with China and talks of higher tariffs always on the table along with the long delivery times, its good to have alternative options.

Spocket provides that alternative by giving you access to a huge range of suppliers from The EU and USA. These are suppliers that have been thoroughly vetted by Spocket so you can be confident going into business with them.

So, in conclusion, as you may have guessed from my review, I highly recommend this app, especially for those of you who want access to reliable dropshippers from the EU and USA.

Are you a dropshipper? Or thinking about starting a drop shipping business? Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts about this new dropshipping app.