Shopify has revolutionized online selling, empowering countless entrepreneurs worldwide to exhibit and sell their products to a global audience. It's apt to describe Shopify as the 'Genie of E-commerce Platforms.'
Moreover, by integrating Shopify inventory management apps, businesses can streamline their inventory processes and enhance their operational efficiency.
Simply put, Shopify is the best e-commerce platform for sellers who want to display their goods beautifully to boost sales and turn potential buyers into loyal customers. Why should your business stay behind in this digital era where everything has been digitized?
Shopify offers great features that can be easily used by an entrepreneur even if he is not a tech-person. Anyone can easily design their store, display the products as they want, customize the checkout procedure, advertise their stores on Facebook and Google, select the payment method…want more?
Apart from helping you to design your store and display the products, Shopify is also kind enough to manage your inventory for you. Yes…say farewells to the hassle of managing and tracking your inventory. All you have to do is to use inventory management apps.
Yes…that’s it!
And do you know what the best part is? These inventory management apps are not only for retail businesses that keep their stock of products but also for dropshipping businesses.
Why Are Inventory Management Apps Important?
Inventory management is an imperative part of every seller, irrespective of the size and scale of the business. Managing the inventory effectively will help you understand the sales pattern and how often you should restock your products according to your store's needs.
Failure to manage the inventory effectively will not only result in understocking or overstocking, but it will also make it very difficult to observe inventory turnover.
When the business is small, managing inventory manually or by feeding the data into the computer is easy. However, when the business expands and there are many orders to process, managing inventory becomes next to impossible.
Why take the hassle of managing the inventory when Shopify Inventory Management Apps are there to help you?
Before we move on to the best inventory management apps, let's understand what benefits we can reap from using them.
Prevents Understocking
Products on your eCommerce stores are not simply a source of revenue for your business but also of reputation and brand image.
Not having the right amount of inventory in your store can damage your brand image.
Let us take an example here, imagine yourself in your customers’ shoes. You log on to an eCommerce store and find that your desired product is out of stock. What will you do? Will you wait for the store to restock your desired article? Or will you exit the eCommerce store and go to another one?
Your choice would be the latter. Not having enough stock means gifting your potential customers to your competitors.
Helps In Understanding Cash Flow
Having an inventory management app allows you to better understand how many resources you are allocating to your inventory.
With a proper inventory management system, an entrepreneur will be in a better position to make wise decisions about stocking products according to customers' demands.
Manages All Your Sales Channels With Ease
Shopify Inventory management apps allow entrepreneurs to easily manage and track their sales on all channels. They also ensure that there is enough inventory to meet customers' demands on different channels.
Furthermore, these apps also allow you to forecast sales which in turn helps you to forecast how much stock you will be needing during an entire year. It is the most useful feature as it allows the entrepreneur to understand the demands of different customers during different parts of the year.
Saves Time And Efforts
Let’s accept it…entrepreneurs have a lot on their plates and more areas of concern than to track and update the inventory record manually.
The inventory management system allows the seller to focus on expanding and growing his business rather than worrying about the stock.
Let’s have a look at some of the best inventory management apps to ease your dropshipping business:
Oberlo
Oberlo is the best inventory management app for a dropshipping business. It allows the seller to display goods on their store that are available on AliExpress or Oberlo Marketplace.
By using this inventory app, the seller gets access to a large variety of goods ranging from electronics to clothing or even stationary.
When a purchase is made on the online store, the order will be directly synced by the Oberlo system. After that, the supplier of the product will take care to pack the product and ship it to the delivery address of the customer.
The greatest advantage of using Oberlo is that the prices and stock are always updated, therefore, there is no chance of selling a product which is out of stock or pricier than your mentioned price.
Dropship Connector
This inventory management app is comparatively newer than Oberlo. However, it has gained a lot of popularity amongst Shopify sellers because of its amazing features.
The popular Oberlo charges $29 each month to its users in return for auto-fulfillment, order tracking, and variant mapping. On the other hand, the Dropship Connector provides the same features in $0 to its users. Yes, these features are free with Dropship Connector. Safe to say that the Dropship Connector can be used as an Oberlo alternative.
Wait…that’s not it. By using the Dropship Connector, you will benefit from the automatic update of tracking numbers into your PayPal account. This feature is not even available with Oberlo and other famous dropshipping apps.
Printful
If you are planning to start a business to sell goods by adding a twist of your creativity or to allow the customers to make it personalized, such as t-shirts, cushions, wallets, mugs, books, journals, mobile cases, etc., then give a warm welcome to Printful on your Shopify store.
With Printful, all that you need to do is select the items that you want to display on your store and upload your designs and graphics to be printed on those items. That’s it. Your job is done.
Whenever somebody places an order in your store, Printful will take the hassle of printing and delivering the goods.
Spocket
Most inventory management apps display goods available on AliExpress or other Chinese suppliers. However, if you want products from a European or American supplier, Spocket allows you to do so.
By displaying goods from European and American suppliers, the shipment of goods is much faster than the shipment from China. Another feature offered by Spocket is that your store branding is attached to all the receipts and invoices that go to your customers.
You can add your logo and message to the invoice for the goods that you don’t manufacture or keep in stock. Isn’t that great?
SMAR7 Express
The best to define this inventory app is to say that it is the perfect blend of the good features from Oberlo and Spocket, with a generous sprinkle of its unique advantages.
This app offers excellent integration with AliExpress. With just one click you get to import not only the pictures of the products but also product descriptions and other variants. Also, you don’t have to spend much time on fulfilling the orders, just one click and the ordered goods will be shipped to your customer.
Modalyst
This app also works like the other apps mentioned in this list. But what distinguishes it from other apps is that it allows us to display the products of high-end brands such as Puma, CK, Timberland, etc.
Modalyst allows you to display men’s and women’s clothes, footwear, formal wear, kids’ clothes, home accessories, beauty items, etc., to name a few, to select from the thousands of products.
Gooten
Gooten is a perfect alternative to Printful. It enables its users to find and design custom graphics for printing on items such as bags, pillows, mugs, etc.
The collection of products and categories offered on Gooten are quite impressive and unique, and they aren’t found on any other inventory app. For instance, it allows users to sell baby comforters, bath towels, travel bags, etc., along with common printed items like mugs and books.
The shipping of products is faster in the US as the company is situated in New York City.
Dripshipper
This inventory app is perhaps the most unique one on this list. Dripshipper doesn’t deal with clothes, shoes, bags, or even printed items. You’ll be surprised to know that this app only deals with one product: coffee.
Dripshipper allows you to sell coffee under your brand name and with your store's logo. Isn’t it great?
It allows you to design your own coffee, including its packaging and other information. When a customer makes an order, Dripshipper takes care of the rest.
Printify
Another alternative of Printful. The customer selects the item and design to be printed on it, and Printify processes and delivers the order.
It provides its users with access to more than 200 products and connects them to a huge network of more than 90 print providers. It also allows you to integrate your products not only on the Shopify store but also on Etsy and WooCommerce.
Spreadr App
This app adds a pleasant twist to the idea of a dropshipping business. Instead of connecting you to suppliers, it connects you with Amazon. You display Amazon products as an affiliate.
The idea behind this app is to work as an Amazon associate rather than a trader. Whenever an order is made through your store, Amazon pays you a commission on the sales, which is typically 4%.
But, before using this app, make sure you have signed up with Amazon’s Affiliate Program to work as their affiliate.
Inventory Source
Another app that has gained popularity amongst Shopify sellers because of its flexible features is Inventory Source.
This app not only lets you display the goods on the Shopify Store but also on more than 20 different eCommerce platforms including Amazon and eBay.
It gives its users access to more than 180 suppliers, including the ones from the US. But, that’s not it. If the users want to add another supplier, they can do that too.
Pillow Profits Fulfillment
Pillow Profits Fulfillment is an inventory management app that deals with footwear and other accessories.
It deals with the dropshipping of shoes of different styles such as sneakers, flip-flops, heels, faux fur boots, etc. It also supplies socks, bedding, bags, etc. This app also allows you to add your own custom designs to be printed on the products.
Once your customer selects a product on your store, Pillow Profits Fulfillment takes the trouble of manufacturing, printing, packing, and delivering.
Teelaunch
It is another inventory app that allows you to customize the products for the customers. It has features like Gooten, Printify, Printful, etc. But what makes this app a lovable one is the fact that it puts less strain on the pocket of the seller.
Teelaunch is absolutely free to install with no monthly or annual fees. You just have to pay when a sale is made in your store.
This is a great option for all startups who are short on cash and don’t want to invest their limited cash in paying installation and monthly charges.
Conclusion
As we discussed earlier, installing any of these Shopify inventory management apps has its own set of benefits. By installing one for your dropshipping business on Shopify, you’ll be saved from the risk of overstocking and understocking products in your store.
Not having the optimum amount of inventory can easily divert your customers to shop from your competitors.
Also, an inventory management app for the dropshipping business saves you from the hassle of packaging and delivering goods to your customers.
Before installing any inventory app, make sure that you do your research and understand the needs and, most importantly, the budget of your business.
