Starting a dropshipping business can seem overwhelming at first. Apart from sourcing products to sell, you also have to think about what goes into creating a virtual store to showcase them. 

There will be a lot of items in the list, but in this post, we’ll focus on 5 widely used dropshipping plugins that’ll make the work easier and more convenient for you. 

We’ll talk about:

• AliDropship
• Checkout Manager for WooCommerce
• Dropified
• Dropship.me
• Ezusy

In each plugin on the list, we’ll cover:

• What the plugin does
• How much it costs
• What features you’ll get
• How to install it

If your goal is to find a plugin that’ll help with dropshipping automation that suits your business needs, this post is for you. 

If you’re ready, let’s get started. 

Starting A Dropshipping Business

When you think of starting a dropshipping business, you’ll most likely already have an idea of what you want to sell. The next main concerns will be where to find suppliers and building your virtual store.

WordPress is arguably one of the prominent content management systems, if not the most, in the industry. If you’re considering this as your CMS, it’s best to know the difference, pros, and cons of WordPress before moving forward. 

WordPress works in almost all industries, but if you want to have a content management system specially designed for highly technical industries like law firms, you’ll find platforms that suit your needs better. 

Along with choosing what CMS to use comes choosing the right web hosting services and web security provider like Kaspersky and McAfee to ensure your dropshipping operations goes smoothly and safely. The last thing you want to happen is to expose sensitive information to hackers. 

The choosing game doesn’t end there. After setting up your WordPress account, building your dropshipping store now entails making more choices – choosing a theme, getting acquainted with the best product page best practices, choosing tools that automate processes, and later on workflow management software, and even analysis flow charts to address sales performance. 

If you’re unsure about everything you need to consider when starting a dropshipping business, you can take an online course on it. Two of the best options you have for online courses are Skillshare and Udemy.

And if you feel, working around WordPress is hard, you can choose to hire a developer to do the heavy lifting for you. 

Operating everything in your business manually, from sourcing suppliers to processing checkouts, down to inventory checking will fill up your day.

Shortly after you start your dropshipping operations, you’ll realize you need automation tools and project automation software to make way for other important things that need your attention. 

Here’s where dropshipping plugins come in. 

What Are Dropshipping Plugins?

Dropshipping plugins are tools that add a specific function to a CMS like WordPress. A plugin in the dropshipping space can either help you find products, track orders, fulfill orders, implement discounts, and a whole lot more. Any added system to WordPress that automates dropshipping processes is a plugin. 

As ecommerceCEO, an Amazon selling solution puts it, “competition in the eCommerce space is fierce”, you have to find products, fulfill orders, give discounts in the fastest time possible so your business can set an edge against the competition, and plugins offer great help. 

After doing in-depth research, we found out 5 of the most sought-out WordPress plugins dropshippers use. We’ll give you a closer look at each one of them so you can decide which one works best for your business. 

Let’s start with AliDropship. 

AliDropship

What It Does

The AliDropship plugin is a versatile tool that helps you import products from AliExpress in one click. 

Price

This plugin has a one-time payment of $89. With this, you get the standard plugin for WordPress and you also get a plugin for WooCommerce. 

Features

AliDropship features are categorized into 4 groups: automation, customization, marketing, and managing. 

Automation

• Search and Import – allows you to search products on AliExpress using integrated features then adds them to your site
• Auto-update – helps keep your website data consistent with the date from AliExpress
• Pricing Automation – a markup formula that applies pricing rules to store products
• Automatic Order Fulfilment – allows automatic order confirmation from AliExpress using the “order” button
• ePacket Shipping Filter – allows customers fast and free delivery 
• Auto Order Tracking – tracks order updates and automatically sends an email confirmation to customers

Customization

• Built-in Themes – already has professionally designed themes so you can set up your store faster
• Product Customization – allows you to add items, edit product titles, descriptions, images, variations, and pricing anytime
• Unlimited Products – allows you to sells as many products as you want in your store
• Product Variation – offers automatic variation setting for material, colors, sizes, and more
• WooCommerce Support – allows you to get access to Woo themes if you use the WooCommerce version of the plugin
• Built-in Image Editor – allows you to make changes in the product photos before adding them to your store

Marketing

• Discount Coupons – allows you to run promotions like a percentage off, dollars off, free shipping, and more
• Product Reviews – imports reviews of the product from AliExpress to your product page
• SEO Product Tags – optimizes your store’s product page to make the products appear on search engine results, in other words, applying ecommerce SEO to the equation
• Abandoned Cart – collects email addresses of visitors who didn’t make any purchase so you can re-engage to recover sales
• Email Lists – collects contact information of visitors who didn’t complete a purchase

While email marketing is a widely known method of re-engaging potential customers, since 81% of adults have a smartphone, SMS marketing is also a good strategy to venture into.  

Managing

• Live Statistics – allows you to connect the plugin to Google Analytics to get traffic data
• Payment Gateway Integration – allows support for 2CO, Stripe, Paypal, PayU, and others.
• Inventory Management – closely tracks inventory of products so you can pause selling those that ran out. One good example of this is 3Wishes where options for variations are automatically disabled when the size is unable for purchase. 

• All-in-one Dashboard – allows you to view and control traffic, orders, sales on one page
• Cashback System – gets you an 8% bonus commission from the main sales revenue of each sold product
• Free Updates and Support – provide you updates and after-sales support

How To Install

1. Purchase the plugin and get a domain name.
2. Connect to a high-performance hosting provider. Or any hosting provider that supports PHP 7.1 or higher and has ionCube Loader activated on the server.
3. Install WordPress to your cPanel.
4. Install AliDropship Plugin to WordPress. Go to the Plugins tab, click add new, then upload plugin then click install now.

5. Activate the chosen theme and enter the license key – the code you get when you complete a purchase.

Keep in mind that one license key is valid for one domain name or website. But you can also deactivate the license in your store if you choose to use it for another store. 

Once done with all the steps, you can now start using the plugin.

Checkout Manager For WooCommerce

A short background on WooCommerce, it’s an open-source plugin on WordPress. It’s a plugin that lets you build an eCommerce store inside WordPress. 

What It Does

Checkout Manager for WooCommerce is a plugin designed to work with the general WooCommerce plugin. The Checkout Manager helps add, delete, and reorder billing fields on the checkout page.

Price

There’s a free version to start with. To get more features, you can choose any of the 3 pricing packages: 

• Personal for $19 
• Agency for $39
• Developer for $79

Source: Checkout Manager for WooCommerce

Features

Checkout Field Customization

Lets you add or remove billing and shipping field sections. It also allows you to add more fields to the checkout form.

Add New Checkout Fees

Let’s you add percentage and fixed fees to the checkout both for single option and multiple options fields. 

Edit Core Fields

Allow you to provide new values for core fields like type, names, class, a placeholder in the shipping and billing sections.

Source: Checkout Manager for WooCommerce

Conditional Fields

To improve user experience, parent field types are detected and allow you to choose values based on the options given. 

Source: Checkout Manager for WooCommerce

Checkout Field Removal

Allows you to reduce the checkout form by removing or disabling unnecessary fields. 

If you want to know what fields are necessary and unnecessary, a great example to look at is Aura’s opt-in page form. It just requires your name, email, password, and password confirmation, then you’re good to go. 

Source: Aura

Close, a predictive dialer CRM is more efficient, they only require 3 things: email, password, and phone number, or some that only require your first name, middle name, and surname, no other sensitive information. 

Upload Files

Allows the shop manager to manage user-uploaded files on the admin order dashboard and also allows users to manage personally uploaded files on the “My Account” page.

Show Customs In Order

Allows users to see the details previously entered on the order form after confirming the order. 

Email Notifications

Filters the fields in the order form to be included on the email sent to customers after a purchase to make the purchase confirmation more personal. 

How To Install

1. Download the woocommerce-checkout-manager-pro.zip file.
2. Access the WordPress admin panel through mysite.com/wp-admin/.
3. Go to the Plugins tab, click add new, then upload plugin.
4. Click choose file and browse for the woocommerce-checkout-manager-pro.zip file.
5. Activate plugin.

Dropified

What It Does

Dropified is another tool that automates the WooCommerce plugin. It makes it easier to import products and update prices to your store. 

Source: Dropified

It also allows you to change product information while still keeping an original version in case you need it again for copywriting references if you want to master the skill. 

You can also take a business English class to upskill your business vocabulary or read copywriting study materials. One of the best study resource platforms you can find free study materials in is StuDocu. 

Price

Dropified has two pricing plans: 

• Build Plan for $228/year
• Grow Plan for $564/year

Features

Quickly Adds Products

Allows fast product upload from Alibaba, eBay, and AliExpress.

Automatic Order Placement

Has an AliExtractor Research tool that makes it easier to find profitable products.

Import Product Review

Easily imports product reviews from AliExpress to your store.

If you want to make the most out of reviews, one good way to help visitors convert is to add a feature rating to give them a quick overview of the product without reading through long testimonials. 

A great example of this is the review boxes in the Medical Alert Buyers Guide. 

Profit Tracking

Has a profit dashboard that monitors money coming in and out of your store.

How To Install

1. Install WooCommerce Plugin to WordPress. Simply click on the plugins tab, then click add new, then search plugins, type “WooCommerce”, then click install now. 
2. On the Dropified Stores pages click add store to connect WooCommerce to your Dropified account. 
3. Fill up store name and store URL then click add store. 
4. Log in to your WooCommerce account to approve the linking of both plugins.

Profit Tracking

Has a profit dashboard that monitors money coming in and out of your store.

How To Install

1. Install WooCommerce Plugin to WordPress. Simply click on the plugins tab, then click add new, then search plugins, type “WooCommerce”, then click install now. 
2. On the Dropified Stores pages click add store to connect WooCommerce to your Dropified account. 
3. Fill up store name and store URL then click add store. 
4. Log in to your WooCommerce account to approve the linking of both plugins.

Dropship.me

What It Does

Allows you to import 50,000 hand-picked retail experts and best-seller products to your store. It helps you become confident in the quality of the products you sell. 

Price

You can start with Dropship.me for free. As you plan to scale your dropshipping business, you can choose from three pricing plans that cater to the number of products you want to add to your store. 

• 50 products imports for free
• 100 product imports for $29
• 500 product imports for $119
• 1000 product imports for $199

Features

• Has a collection of expert-picked dropshipping items
• Ready to use product titles edited by professionals
• Fast product search
• 1-click import
• On-hand real customer reviews to use to your store
• No monthly recurring and hidden fees

How To Install

1. For the free version, email dropship.me/plugin/ to get a personal API key. For the premium version, go to the store to pick the package of choice and process the order to get the API key.
2. In WordPress, go to the plugins tab, click add new, type “dropshipme” on the search bar.

3. Once found, click install, then click activate. 
4. Enter API key.

Once you complete this process, you’ll immediately get the 50 product imports. 

Keep in mind that like AliDropship, the API key can only be activated in one domain but unlike AliDropship, Dropship.me’s API key cannot be transferred to another domain. Also, adding another API key to the same domain won’t add 50 products more. 

Ezusy

What It Does

Allows you to import AliExpress products to your WooCommerce store in just a few clicks. 

Price

Like Dropship.me, Ezusy has a free version and 3 paid pricing plans:

• Basic Plan for $118.8/year
• Pro Plan for $238.8/year
• Unlimited Plan for $358.8/year

Features

Import Variations

Allows you to upload product variations with its images quickly.

Pricing Rules

Allows a 2-step product price markup on the dashboard.

Product Customization

Allows you to customize products before pushing them to your stores in the dashboard.

Automatic Order Fulfillment

One-click and your order are already confirmed in AliExpress.

Auto Updates For Pricing And Inventory

Pushes AliExpress inventory and pricing updates direct to your store so you can pause selling products that are not in stock. 

If you’re in the food industry, you’ll need a more meticulous system to avoid repercussions like spoilage. iNecta is a leading option for food inventory management. 

Filter Products With EPacket

Like AliDropship, you can process fast and free delivery with Ezusy. They also made a Chrome plugin to keep you updated. 

How To Install

1. Purchase the Ezusy plan of your choice.
2. Upload the ezusy.zip file to the directory /wp-content/plugins/
3. Click the plugins tab, click add new, type “Ezusy” on the search bar.
4. Once found, click install, then click activate. 

Conclusion

WordPress dropshipping plugins are a necessity if you want fast and constantly updated inventory. It allows for a transaction flow that benefits not only you but your customers as well. 

With these plugins, you can automate the purchasing process efficiently and on the customer’s end, there will be a good user experience – an important element for increased conversions and revenue, minus the hassle brought by doing everything manually. 

In the end, if you decide to sell your dropshipping website, you need to know how to value your online business so you can make the most out of the sale. And then, you can move on to your next dropshipping venture and make use of the plugins that helped your business run smoothly. 

Whatever you decide to do with your dropshipping business: continue with it, sell it, or replicate it for another dropshipping niche, having the right automation plugins will help you run your business smoothly and more importantly, make the most money out of it. 

Decide what plugins work for you now, so you can start making your dropshipping processes faster and easier, making more time to do what you want – spending time with family and enjoying leisure time. 

Author’s Bio

Burkhard Berger is the founder of awesomex™. You can follow him on his journey from 0 to 100,000 monthly visitors on www.awesomex.com. His articles include some of the best growth hacking strategies and digital scaling tactics that he has learned from his own successes and failures.