Dropshipping is a popular eCommerce business model and it is expected to continue its rise in popularity as more brands continue to find success in the model.
For people looking to get into dropshipping, the hardest step is often finding the right supplier for their product. In fact, 84% of retailers cite this stage as the biggest obstacle to getting their business going.
If you want to get started with dropshipping but don’t want to waste time finding suppliers, there are many different product sourcing platforms available to you. One of such platforms is CJdropshipping.
In this guide, we will introduce you to CJ Dropshipping Shopify, its advantages and disadvantages, and how you can get started with it.
Let’s jump in.
Outline
- What is CJdropshipping?
- Features of CJdropshipping app
- Benefits of using CJdropshipping app for Shopify
- User experience with CJ Dropshipping app for Shopify
- CJdropshipping pricing and plans
- How to get started with CJdropshipping
- Conclusion
What is CJdropshipping?
CJdropshipping is an all-in-one dropshipping platform that connects suppliers with dropshippers.
It is more than just a product sourcing platform. CJdropshipping also offers tools for order management, warehousing, and fulfillment.
It is run by a team of over 1000 people. And as the team says, their main goal:
“.... is to provide the perfect one-stand service for dropshippers.”
CJdropshipping was founded in 2015, and as you can see from the screenshot below, its popularity has steadily increased on its way to becoming one of the most popular dropshipping solutions today.
Features of CJdropshipping app
One of the reasons why CJdropshipping is so popular is because of its robust dropshipping platform. It has one of the most feature packed dropshipping solutions on the market.
But what are some of the features that make it stand out? Let’s look at them below.
Product sourcing
CJdropshipping has about 215000 product listings on its platform. Compared to AliExpress which has over a billion listings, that seems very small. But there’s an important distinction.
AliExpress products are posted and maintained by the sellers, about 8.7 million of them. In contrast, CJdropshipping’s catalog is maintained by its team. This limited resources means that CJdropshipping staff is focused mostly on picking trending products (supported by its big data-powered system) and sourcing requests from users.
Still, with 215000 high potential products, it is almost impossible to run out of new things to sell. Especially when CJdropshipping adds new products to its categories on a daily basis.
On CJdropshipping’s home page, there are currently 13 categories:
- Phones & Accessories
- Men's Clothing
- Automobiles & Motorcycles
- Consumer Electronics
- Bags & Shoes
- Sports & Outdoors
- Computer & Office
- Home, Garden & Furniture
- Toys, Kids & Babies
- Health, Beauty & Hair
- Jewelry & Watches
- Home Improvement
- Women's Clothing
These categories have their own sub-categories that make finding products easier.
When you click on any product, you'll find all its images, product videos, and product details.
“What if the product I want isn’t available?” you might ask.
That’s a valid question. If the product you need is not available on CJdropshipping platform, you can send a sourcing request to CJ’s team so they can help you find the product.
The process of sending a sourcing request is a simple one.
- After you login, hover your cursor over Sourcing and click on Sourcing Request from the drop down menu.
- You will be taken to a new page. Click on Post Request and you’ll be able to send your request.
A member of CJdropshipping’s team will reach out to you. The representatives usually respond to sourcing requests within 24 hours.
Product quality
As a dropshipper, you are not just concerned about the availability of a product, right? You also care about whether the product is in good shape or not. If your product isn’t what you say it is, customers will quickly lose faith in your brand.
Cjdropshipping understands this and has openly stated that it has a documented process for ensuring the quality of products sold on its platform. The company’s team makes sure that every product is checked for defects. And every issue regarding the product is resolved before the product goes out.
Order fulfillment
CJdropshipping takes the pain out of fulfilling your customers’ orders. All you need to do is import products to your Shopify store.
The platform has already set up an automated end-to-end process that makes order management and product delivery easy.
Here’s a review on the efficiency of this system by a CJdropshipping customer.
Your orders comes with tracking numbers so you can stay on top of delivery and keep your customers happy.
Speed of delivery
CJdropshipping might have an efficient process for order management but what about product delivery?
In the eCommerce business, speed is a competitive advantage. The faster you can get your products to your customers ahead of your competitors, the more likely they are to become repeat customers and bring you more sales.
When you use CJdropshipping, you have access to a variety of shipping methods. These offers differ based on their delivery speed, delivery cost, and service quality.
The processing time for orders is between 1-2 days. And while we all want same day delivery, it will often take 1-4 weeks for your product to arrive at its destination. Of course, the specifics depend on which shipping plan you opt for to fulfill your order.
Custom packaging
Packaging is an additional service offered by CJdropshipping but it has become a very popular feature among CJdropshipping users.
You can design your custom package on the platform and use it to send out your products. To do so on the platform, go to Custom Packaging and choose whether you want a pre-designed package or a custom package.
Pick the package you want and then start the design. This design shows CJdropshipping what your package should look like when they recreate it. Once you finish with your design, connect it to the product you want to sell and purchase the packaging.
CJdropshipping will get to work and send the package to their warehouse. Now, you can start receiving your dropshipping orders.
CJdropshipping design offerings include plastic bags, cartons, boxes, and you can also choose to include etching or a custom logo on the products.
Benefits of using CJdropshipping app for Shopify
These are some of the benefits of using CJdropshipping for your Shopify dropshipping store.
Cost savings
The robustness of CJdropshipping platform means it can provide many ways through which its users can save costs on the platform.
For instance, you do not need any upfront costs to get started with CJ Dropshipping. The app is free to install on your Shopify store, unlike plenty of other product sourcing and order management platforms that charge a monthly subscription fee.
You can access the products for free. There is no minimum order quantity or set up fee. And you do not have to worry about shipping fees until you receive payment from your customer. If you operate your business on a shoestring budget, CJdropshipping offers you the best chance to grow your store healthily
But it is not just about free access to products though. CJdropshipping also makes sure that the products you are getting access to are also sold at their factory price. So whenever you add a product to your Shopify store, you can be sure that you’re getting a good deal.
Competitive shipping rates is another way CJdropshipping helps its users cut down the cost of running their business.
The platform offers different shipping options so that you can choose which one works best for your business.
CJPacket is its shipping method, just like AliExpress Standard Shipping is for AliExpress. Other than CJPacket however, CJdropshipping also offers DHL and PostNL.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of factors involved in calculating your shipping fee. Parameters such as size, weight, locations, and strength have to be considered before the final fee is computed, CJdropshipping makes it easy to calculate how much it’ll cost you to ship your product with its shipping cost calculator.
You can take a look for yourself here.
Quality assurance
As mentioned earlier, your product’s quality is an important component of building a successful dropshipping brand. Since you never see the products physically, it is important that your dropshipping partner have a thorough quality control process.
CJdropshipping does. Here’s what it looks like:
- Ensuring the inventory of the corresponding products and picking them out;
- Inspecting the products;
- Packing the products and measuring the gross weight;
- Sorting;
- Labeling and sending the parcels to the waiting area for carriers’ fetching.
User experience with CJ Dropshipping app for Shopify
Running a dropshipping business can get very emotional quickly. In a business where you have to deal with frustrated customers, slow delivery, and language barriers, it is important that your business partners are easy to work with.
We took CJdropshipping for a ride and here’s what we thought of it.
Exceptional customer service
We mentioned earlier that CJdropshipping is known for the robustness of its features. But that’s not all. The platform also provides exceptional customer service that wins customers over. They offer 24/7 customer service on whatsapp, Messenger, and via mail too.
We were particularly impressed by the platform’s chatbot feature. First, it covers an extensive set of questions that brings the website visitor up to speed on how to get the best out of CJdropshipping. But that’s not all.
The AI-powered chatbot also provides shortcuts that help you find answers to questions you might have about your shipment, product, or aftersale service.
CJdropshipping customers also have good things to say about the platform’s customer service.
You have access to a personal customer service agent when you register on CJdropshipping and start using it.
The personal customer service agent assists you with any questions or issues you might have and according to the website, they are available 24/7 on email, whatsApp and Live Chat.
Integration with Shopify
CJdropshipping has a very good integration with Shopify. Without technical assistance, you can easily connect your CJ app to your Shopify store.
We certainly found it very easy to connect our test Shopify store to the CJdropshipping app.
Within a few clicks, we went from our Shopify dashboard to installing CJdropshipping in our store.
To do this, click on Apps on the left side of your screen.
Then you click on Recommended Apps and scroll down till you find more apps in the Shopify Marketplace.
There are two other ways you can connect your Shopify store to CJdropshipping.
The first one is via the Shopify app marketplace. Search for CJdropshipping on the marketplace and click on Add App. You will be directed to a form that requires you to log into your Shopify store.
The other option is via the CJdropshipping website.
- Log into your CJdropshipping account and click on My CJ on the home page.
- On the left side of your screen, click on Store Authorization.
- Select Shopify from the drop down list and click on Add Store.
- You’d be directed to the CJdropshipping landing page on Shopify’s marketplace. There you can add the app to your store.
CJdropshipping pricing and plans
CJdropshipping is free to install on your store. There are no monthly fees or set up fees.
The cost of using the platform is based on the product price, shipping costs, and any other services offered by the platform.
You can click on any product and be directed to its product page to see its price. When it comes to shipping, there are two ways it can go.
If your product is already available in one of CJdropshipping warehouses, you might have to pay a warehouse fee. This fee however doesn’t need to be paid for the first 90 days.
On the other hand, if the product is not available in any of CJdropshipping warehouses and has to be shipped from the supplier, you will pay an additional shipping + processing fee to get the product to your customers.
Other services offered by CJ Dropshipping include cover labels and printing. They all come with their own charges. You can find out more about the prices of CJdropshipping services here.
How to get started with CJdropshipping
Now that you already know what CJdropshipping is all about, its features, benefits, and pricing, it is time to walk through how you can get started with the platform.
Create a CJdropshipping account
The first step is to create an account on CJdropshipping. To do this, visit the platform’s website and click on the Register button in the top right corner.
You will be asked to provide details such as email, password, name, and phone number. Once you provide these, you have to confirm your email address. Then your account is registered.
Integrate your online store
CJdropshipping supports integration with a host of platforms like Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, and Magento.
We recommend using Shopify as it is the most beginner-friendly platform, plus it already has a strong integration with CJdropshipping so you can easily import products.
We outlined the steps for connecting your CJdropshipping account to Shopify earlier. Here it is again:
- Log into your CJdropshipping account and click on My CJ on the home page.
- On the left side of your screen, click on Store Authorization.
- Select Shopify from the drop down list and click on Add Store.
- You’d be directed to the CJdropshipping landing page on Shopify’s marketplace. There you can add the app to your store.
Start sourcing products
Now it’s time to start adding products to your store. At this point, it’s safe to say that you already have a niche for your store.
If that’s not the case, we created an article that explains how to choose a niche for your Shopify store.
The easiest way to find a product is to choose your category on the homepage and start scrolling through the products that show. Once you find a product that interests you, go to the product page, scroll down and click on List.
You will be asked to provide details such as the store you want to list it on, what warehouse you want to ship from, the price you want to sell at, and many other things.
Once you finish providing those information, click List it now and the product will appear on your online store.
Fulfill your orders
When an order is placed in your store, it automatically shows up on your CJ dashboard.
To find it, go to the My CJ page and click on Orders, then Imported Orders. Make sure that you have money in your CJ wallet so you can save time and get your orders processed on time.
Conclusion
CJ Dropshipping Shopify has a 4.9 rating on Shopify marketplace with 3.5k five star reviews.
This means the platform is definitely doing something right. Here are some of the things its users say about it:
If you are looking for a platform to support your dropshipping journey, CJdropshipping is one of the best choices you can make.
