Spocket is a dropshipping marketplace that enables merchants to search and connect directly with dropshipping suppliers located in the US and EU, helping merchants build an inventory of high-quality goods for their ecommerce store. It’s one of the Top 10 Best Shopify Dropshipping Apps and it’s easy to use: Simply install the Spocket app on your Shopify store, search through their catalog of products, select the products that you want to sell on your store, and quickly add them to your site.
Dropshipping as a business model, while advantageous in many ways, does have some downsides when it comes to profit margin potential, brandability, return policies and shipping guidelines which Spocket recognizes and has made a big effort to eliminate from their own dropshipping marketplace. They’ve taken these frustrations that dropshipping merchants will face when working with other dropshipping companies or marketplaces and have worked with their suppliers to create a marketplace where suppliers and merchants are on the same page and are operating under the same conditions so these disadvantages are no longer prevalent. This makes for a much more seamless dropshipping experience that benefits not only the merchants and suppliers but ultimately and most importantly, the customers.
Spocket Review: Who Spocket is For
Spocket is for ecommerce merchants looking to sell high-quality dropshipping products on their online store. All too often, dropshipping products can be low-quality and unimpressive, which usually isn’t the kind of reputation you as an ecommerce merchant want to have. When you sell low-quality products you might be able to convince customers to purchase from you once but when they receive the bad product they sure won’t be coming back to your store for more, which will obviously impact your sales over time as fewer and fewer customers return to your store. That’s why selling great products is so important, even when you’re dropshipping.
If you want to stick to the dropshipping business model but don’t want to compromise on quality, then Spocket is one of the best product marketplaces to check out. They pride themselves on sourcing high-quality products from reputable suppliers so you can do less of the leg-work to find suppliers of great products and more time stocking your online store shelves with the kinds of products you want to sell to your audience!
There’s a massive amount of products to choose from, and Spocket allows you to create a curated selection of these items that you neither have to make, fulfill, or ship yourself and yet you get to sell high-quality and in-demand products. This combination makes it more likely that your customers will be impressed with your brand which means they’ll be more likely to come back for more.
Spocket Review: How to Set Up Spocket on Shopify Stores
Spocket directly integrates with Shopify stores, so it’s easy to get started.
Spocket integrates directly with Shopify (and WooCommerce) stores, so if you don’t have a Shopify store, head over to Shopify and click on the “Start a Free Trial” button. Shopify will walk you through the steps to get your store started — it doesn’t take long.
Next, head over to the Shopify App Store and find the Spocket Shopify App. Click on the “Add App” button and complete the login information to connect the app with your store.
Once that’s done, your Shopify store is connected with the Spocket app and you can start browsing their products!
STEP 2: TAKE THE TOUR
A short 4-step tour of the Spocket dashboard will start immediately so you can get to grips with where to start. Enter a keyword to search for specific products, search by product category, filter by price, search by location, select a supplier or check off the “Premium Products” box to only see Spocket’s premium product offerings. Browse through the products to find something you want to add to your store or search directly by keywords and preferences to make things fast.
STEP 3: ADD PRODUCTS TO YOUR IMPORT LIST
When you see a product you want to add to your store, hover your cursor over it and a green bar saying “Add to Import List’ will pop up. Click on this button and that product will be saved to your “Import List” tab where you can review each product later before you add it to your store.
STEP 4: PUSH PRODUCTS TO YOUR STORE
Once you’ve added some products to your “Import List” tab, head over to that tab and see what’s there. From your “Import List” tab you can customize the product details (or you can leave them as they are) and add the product directly to your store with the “Push To Store” button. Once you click on that button the product will be published to your store and your customers will be able to shop it.
See how all of the product details are already live on your store? You didn’t have to add product photos, write a product description or come up with the product pricing — everything was already done for you in the Spocket marketplace.
STEP 5: YOU’RE UP & RUNNING!
That’s all there is to it, now you’re selling Spocket products on your Shopify store! Note that you’ll have to upgrade to one of Spocket’s paid plans to access their premium products, so until you do that you’ll only be able to add non-premium products to your store. Also note that if you’ve just set up your Shopify store for the first time, there will be a little more set up required to get your store ready to sell to customers (like choosing and editing your theme, removing the password protection\
Spocket Review: 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 of Spocket
PROS
- Sell On the Top Ecommerce Platforms: Use Spocket on Shopify or WooCommerce
- Suppliers Located in the US & EU: 60% of Spocket’s suppliers are located in the US & EU which is ideal in terms of product quality and shipping times
- Available Worldwide: Spocket is available to use, ship, and sell to around the world
- Currency Configuration: Products listed in Spocket are in USD, however, when you add them to your own store the currency will automatically revert to your Shopify store’s base currency
- No Stock Issues: Spocket automatically updates inventory levels in real-time so you’re never caught out selling sold-out or discontinued products
- Massive Product Marketplace: Choose from a huge range of products to stock your online store shelves with
- Direct Integration: Import Spocket products directly to your Shopify store easily with just a few clicks
- Thorough Vetting Process: Spocket does the hard work to make sure the suppliers on their marketplace are reliable and high-quality
- New Suppliers Added Regularly: New suppliers are being added daily so you always have more products to add to your store
- Branding Options: Use branded invoicing to make each order more on-brand
- Free Plan: Get started with Spocket easily by signing up to their free plan!
- Ideal Profit Margins: Spocket works with suppliers to keep margins within 30%-60% which well exceed the typical 15%-45% dropshipping profit margins
- Order Samples: Test out Spocket suppliers’ product by ordering a sample right from your dashboard
- Automated Order Processing: Orders from your store get sent automatically to the appropriate Spocket supplier so you don’t have to do it manually
CONS
- Can’t Sell on Some Platforms: Spocket products can be sold on sales channels like Shopify stores, Facebook shops, Instagram, YouTube, blogs, personal websites, and Pinterest but cannot be sold on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Wish or Groupon
- Customs Duty & Taxes Not Included: As customs duty and taxes vary from place to place, they are not included in Spocket prices
- No Package Customization Available: At this time, customized tags, packaging or branding products is not available
- Cannot Contact Spocket Suppliers: It’s not possible to communicate directly with Spocket suppliers due to the fact that Spocket has thousands of merchants using their marketplace and it would be difficult for their suppliers to respond to all queries, but if you do ever have a question you can reach out to Spocket directly
Spocket Review: Spocket’s Pricing
The Spocket app is available in three pricing tiers:
- Basic Plan: Free
- Up to 25 Unique Products
- Unlimited Orders
- Email Support Only
- Real-Time Inventory Updates
- Currency Exchange
- Global Pricing Rules
- Shipment Tracking Number
- Standard Plan: $29/month — Billed Annually at $348
- Up to 250 Unique Products
- Unlimited Orders
- Premium Products
- Branded Invoicing
- Email & Chat support
- Real-Time Inventory Updates
- Currency Exchange
- Global Pricing Rules
- Shipment Tracking Number
- Professional Plan: $79/month — Billed Annually at $948
- Unlimited Products
- Unlimited Orders
- Premium Products
- Branded Invoicing
- Email & Chat support
- Real-Time Inventory Updates
- Currency Exchange
- Global Pricing Rules
- Shipment Tracking Number
Conclusion
If you’re looking for dropshipping products to sell online, you can’t go wrong with Spocket. They’re dedicated to helping merchants build high-quality dropshipping businesses by only working with reliable dropshipping suppliers and creating an environment on their marketplace where merchants and suppliers can thrive together. After all, regardless whichever business model you choose to sell your products by whether it’s dropshipping or otherwise, the customer experience comes first and with Spocket’s marketplace of great products and high-quality suppliers, merchants are able to provide that outstanding experience for their customers.
