 eBay versus Shopify dropshipping. Which one's best, what are the differences and which one should you use? If you've been wanting to start dropshipping but don't know what platform is right for you, then this video is exactly what you need to make that decision. Now, with that being said, make sure you watch this video all the way through to get the most out of it and let's go ahead and get started. What's going on, everyone? Mario here with AutoDS bringing you another video on the dropshipping business. If you like informational videos in dropshipping and like to learn how to scale and grow your business, make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any future videos. Also, if you want more information on any of the topics that I'm gonna touch in this video, all you have to do is go ahead and check out the description down below. I'm gonna have a link to the relevant article down there. Okay, so before we start comparing apples and oranges, I mean, Shopify and eBay, there's one thing that we need to make sure that we understand. And that is what is dropshipping? So in the simplest way that I can put it, dropshipping is a fulfillment business model where you pretty much don't touch absolutely any inventory. All you have to do is reroute the orders that come in directly from your store to your supplier. Once your supplier receives those orders, they're gonna make sure that they pack and ship the items directly to your customer. Your customer is gonna be paying you $25 for this phone case, but you're gonna be paying your supplier about $10. So the extra 15 bucks, that's your profit, that's for you to keep. So eBay versus Shopify, let's start off with what exactly is the difference? So when we're talking about eBay, we're talking about a marketplace. Marketplaces are dedicated websites where people go and shop. They're pretty much like online malls. People go to that website, in this case eBay, with the specific intent to make a purchase. So it's pretty much like an online mall. Now, when we're talking about Shopify, that's a bit different. Instead of being a mall, it's pretty much just like a store. So it's gonna be your own store that you're gonna design the way that you want it to be. So eBay is a marketplace where you're gonna go ahead and sign up to and you're gonna become a seller. Then you're gonna be able to upload all of your products and make a few sales. Now with Shopify, you're gonna be opening up your own website. So you're gonna open up your own online store. You're gonna design it exactly how you want it to be and you're gonna add whatever products you want. Now diving a bit deeper into eBay, these are a few benefits that you can expect when you sign up to become a seller on eBay. For one, you have free organic traffic. As I mentioned before, people are going to eBay with the intent to make a purchase. So you don't have to worry about marketing and you don't have to worry about putting your products on Facebook ads or making content on, let's say, TikTok. People are going to eBay specifically looking for items to purchase. So as long as you're there, you're gonna be enjoying free organic traffic. Another major benefit is the fact that it's extremely low cost to start up or practically it's free. So you don't have to pay any monthly fees to be able to sell on eBay. You do have the option to upgrade your account to a paid account, which gives you a bunch of different benefits. But honestly, if you're just starting off, you don't need to do that. You can go ahead and use a free account and get started pretty much for 100% free. eBay also has a buyer seller protection program, which is absolutely fantastic. If there's ever any issues with one of your orders, so if you have a problem with a customer or if your customer has a problem with you, let's say they don't receive their orders, you can always reach out to eBay and they'll take care of you. Now, if you do want a little bit of an extra boost on your listings and have them shown to a wider audience, then you can opt in for eBay PPC or pay per click. These are pretty much advertisements for your products. So that way you can get in front of the eyes of new customers. If you want a little bit more information on that, then you can check out our cheat sheet. Now on that cheat sheet, I'm actually gonna have everything that I'm talking about in this video, including all of the different links and a couple of extra tips and tricks. If you want access to that, all you have to do is go ahead and comment down below eBay versus Shopify and let me know what your takeaway is from this video. What did you learn from this video? Once I see that you went ahead and commented, I'll go ahead and reply back with a link to the cheat sheet. Now, if you do decide to set up shop on eBay, then there's a few things that you should keep in mind. For one, there are selling limits, at least at the beginning. So eBay does have selling limits, but that's usually for newer accounts. Now, all that really is, is they put a cap on how many items you can sell each month. Now, you can easily get around this. All you have to do is either establish a selling history with eBay or you can simply reach out to them through customer service and request for your limits to be lifted or raised. Another thing is that on eBay, you have limited customizability. Since it is a marketplace, you're pretty much selling on their website. So the only thing that you can really customize is the description on your product pages. Now that was eBay, let's go ahead and dive in a little bit to Shopify. So for one, on Shopify, you can fully customize your website. You can make it look however you'd like and to make that a lot easier for you, Shopify offers a bunch of different themes. Some of these are free while others are paid, but ultimately, these really increase the aesthetic of your website. Also, when it comes to starting up on Shopify, it's actually not that complicated. So Shopify has made it super easy for you to be able to create and design your own website using its built-in templates. Once you go in to edit the template, arranging it however you'd like is super easy. For the most part, all you really have to do is drag and drop. Also, there are no selling limits. Since it is your own website and it's your own store, you're playing by your own rules. So there really is no selling limits. You can do whatever you want and you can sell whatever you'd like. But just take that with a grain of salt because there are a few types of items that you really don't want to drop ship. And to help you get a little bit more traffic to your site, Shopify also has a built-in blog editor. So you can start your own blog directly from Shopify. And best part is that it's totally free. Shopify also has a super useful app store. In an app store, Shopify has tons of different apps that can either help you facilitate certain parts of your dropshipping business or even automate them. Ultimately, these apps, when used the correct way, can help you grow and scale your business. Now, unfortunately, when it comes to Shopify, there's no organic traffic. So it's gonna be up to you to bring in all of your different customers. So you're gonna have to do things like run Facebook ads, make organic content on, let's say, TikTok or just social media and promote your products however you see fit. And you can even use Shopify's built-in blog editor to start making content on there. Whatever it is that you need to do to bring in customers to your website, that's what you gotta do. Now to start selling on Shopify, you can start for free. Shopify always has a free trial that you can use to be able to test out how you like it. But after that, you are gonna have to pay either a monthly or a yearly fee. Now for the basic plan, Shopify starts at about $39 per month. That's when you pay monthly. Now, if you decide to pay yearly, you're gonna be looking at either $29 per month or about $348 per year paid in one go. Now, which one is better, eBay or Shopify and which one should you use? Well, honestly, that's all dependent on you. One platform isn't necessarily better than the other. It is, but for certain people, Shopify could be better for some people than eBay while eBay could be better for others. It's really dependent on you and your needs. Personally, I'm an eBay type of guy. I prefer selling on a marketplace rather than selling on my own website. I just find it easier. And honestly, that's personal preference. You have to test out both and see which one works best for you. You might like one, but find out that the other is actually better for you. Really, you have to figure out whether you're okay with marketing your own products or marketing your own website or if you prefer the organic traffic. Again, I prefer organic traffic. Whether you choose eBay or Shopify, ultimately, if you choose the right products, you're gonna be making a profit and you're gonna be getting sales. On both platforms, it is also possible to be able to start your own brand. So you can start your own brand using your own website or you can start your own brand using a marketplace like eBay. What you have to do is just be consistent with the types of products and with your branding. Now, one thing that both selling channels can benefit from is automation. When you use automation, you're pretty much streamlining your entire business. You can pretty much just end up being hands-off and just create a passive form of income. Now, the easiest way to be able to automate your store is by signing up for a platform like AutoDS. If you are interested in this, you can start up for just $1 right now for the free trial period. Now, what exactly is automation and how can it help? Well, for one, let's talk about product importing. Now, when it comes to importing your products, you can either go ahead and manually import your products, which means you're gonna have to go to your supplier's website, copy over all of the descriptions, the titles, the variations, save all of the images and then upload that to either eBay or Shopify or you can have a platform like AutoDS just do the whole thing for you. It really does save tons of time. Check this out. So here we are at one of my suppliers, Aliexpress and I'm gonna import one of these or two of these different types of products. So for one, I want these polarized sunglasses. So I'm gonna open it in a different tab and I'm gonna also do this fishing line. So for one, I'm gonna go to my sunglasses and I'm gonna just simply copy the URL. Then I'm gonna run over it back to my dashboard over at autoDS.com and I'm gonna click on add products. From here, since I'm gonna be uploading two different products at once, I'm gonna select the multiple products. Then here, I'm simply gonna just go ahead and paste the first URL, press enter, get the second URL and paste it as well. Then all I have to do is click on add as draft and it's gonna be added to my store. From there, I can make any necessary adjustments before making a goal live on my website or my eBay store. That's just one thing that you can automate. Another really handy feature that can be automated is the ordering process. So when somebody places an order for a particular item on either your eBay or your Shopify store, autoDS is gonna go ahead and take that order and automatically redirect it to your supplier. So you really don't have to do anything. Then once that supplier receives the order and ships it out and provides autoDS or provides you with a tracking number, autoDS is gonna go ahead and take that tracking number and update your customer with it. So that's pretty much all there is to it. It's totally hands off. You just have to do a little bit of work at the beginning, get things set up and then from there, it's smooth sailing. Now remember that I do have a cheat sheet that's gonna include everything that I mentioned in this video. And if you want access to that, all you have to do is comment down below Shopify versus eBay and let me know what your takeaway was from this video. Aside from that, there's also gonna be a relevant article in the description down below. So if you want some more information, just go ahead and click on that as well. Huge thank you to everyone for watching today. Once again, my name is Mario with AutoDS wishing you all nothing but success in your dropshipping business and I'll catch you all next time.