If you are planning to start a business online, there are a ton of platforms out there to choose from. It can be good to have many different options available but can be bad at the same time because you don't know which one is the best for you. Then you're here.
You've probably read or heard a lot about one of the leading eCommerce platforms, ShopBase - but you're still wondering if it is the right option for you.
Well, we're here to help you make that decision easier. This ShopBase Review will walk you through the platform's advantages & disadvantages, pricing, selling features, and many other things that only those who tried it can tell you.
Bottom Line Upfront:Overall, ShopBase is among the best platforms for users who are particularly interested in dropshipping and print on demand. The platform has managed to keep all apps and integrations free to use, including the 2 best ones (abandoned cart recovery app & upselling app) that are proven to lead to a 10% increase in total profits of 90% of businesses on ShopBase. The best part is that you are totally able to test that platform for FREE in 14 days with its trial plan.
- What is ShopBase?
- ShopBase Advantages
- ShopBase Disadvantages
- Who is the Best Fit for ShopBase?
- ShopBase User Base
- ShopBase Pricing
- Which ShopBase Plan is the Best to Choose From?
- ShopBase Compared to Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce
- ShopBase Themes & Templates - How good are they?
- ShopBase Interface and Ease-of-Use
- ShopBase Apps & Third-party Integrations
- ShopBase Review 2021 Final Thoughts
Simply put, if you are looking for an eCommerce platform to build an online business, ShopBase is all that you need.
At first glance, it seems similar to Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, or other platforms that have enabled entrepreneurs to sell their products online. However, ShopBase stands apart from all of them because of its focus on 2 main business models: dropshipping and print on demand.
The platform is most praised for its comprehensive ecosystem, in which its sellers focus on building and selling products only and ShopBase takes care of the rest, from store setup & optimization to order fulfilment to payment gateway.
More importantly, the supporting apps and integrations that aim to help sellers earn more sales, as well as profits, are totally free of charge on ShopBase. As you might already know, however, Shopify sellers have to pay for using them.
ShopBase Advantages
- Easier and faster to set up stores and add products on ShopBase than on Shopify
- Cheaper than Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce ($19/month)
- No extra fees for using applications and integrations
- Superb upselling features (Boost Upsell) increasing average profit per order by 10%
- Proven abandoned cart recovery system with a high recovery rate
- Responsive customer support with localized supporting channels (China - WeChat; Vietnam - Zalo; US - WhatsApp; Japan - Line Chat)
- Technical support available for 24/7
- Pre-made shipping, return, and refund policy template
- Unlimited product listings
- Fast, accurate tracking tools. Track across all advertising platforms (Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Google, Facebook, TikTok)
- Easy, quick to change your domain into another, avoiding domain disabled by advertising platforms
- Auto link shortener tool in your store, avoiding advertising rejection and increasing brand awareness
- Auto-generated product feeds for advertising on Facebook and Google
- Modify a large number of products at one time with bulk update
- Easy to duplicate a whole store with data export feature
- All applications built-in stores (product reviews, social proof, upselling apps, abandoned cart recovery, etc)
ShopBase Disadvantages
- Strict requirements for ShopBase Payments
- A limited number of themes and templates
- No free plan (just free trial plan in 14 days)
- Transaction fees (0.5% - 2%)
- Unable to customize store language
- Limited themes
Simply put, ShopBase is designed to make it easier and cheaper for everyone, regardless of their educational background or experience level in the eCommerce field, to start selling online and make profits from it.
However, if we were to point out the kind of user who will get the most out of ShopBase, I'd say that it's someone who is on a tight budget, new to online selling, and not too tech-savvy.
- ShopBase paid plan starts at $19/month, a lot cheaper than Shopify ($29) or BigCommerce ($29.95). However, what matters more is that all supporting apps and integrations are free of charge on this platform while those on other platforms all come with a fee.
- ShopBase is extremely easy to use, allowing a beginner to set up a ready-to-sell store in no longer than 30 minutes. Especially, it can be used by users who have no technical knowledge in setting up or running a website.
Not so many online sellers know that ShopBase and share the same founder. If you haven't heard of Beeketing before, it is an automatic marketing app provider that acquired 1 million users in only 8 months, making it the most-used app provider among all other Shopify partners back in 2019.
So far, ShopBase has empowered around 100,000 online stores and has over 500 staff. According to the company, businesses using the platform have generated over $10bn in sales.
ShopBase Pricing
The platform offers a 14-day free trial to new users, unlocking all the features so they can test thoroughly before committing to any of the paid plans. If the testing takes longer than 14 days, it's totally fine to request a trial extension.
You can sign up for a 14-day free trial here.[CTA]
After the trial ends, there are 3 paid plans to upgrade, with the following monthly costs:
A couple of quick things to note here:
- No extra fee required for using all ShopBase apps and integrations.
- All Beeketing apps are free of charge on ShopBase, some of which are displayed as features (no app installment needed)
- If you pay upfront, you can avail of a discount - 10% if you pay for 1 year
Which ShopBase Plan is Best to Choose from?
It totally depends on your needs. If you just start to sell online and you're doing it alone, you should probably start at the cheapest plan - Basic Plan ($19/month).
Basically, this plan grants you access to the same features and apps as 2 other paid plans. However, the higher you pay, the more staff accounts and domains you can connect to your store. With the Basic Plan, you can connect 2 domains to each store and grant permission for 5 staff to manage your store.
ShopBase provides 12 free website templates, more than Shopify (9 templates) but less than SquareSpace and Wix.
However, it can be said that this platform stays on top of offering free, premium-quality, and in-demand templates for ecommerce sellers, in which each one is already proven to bring the highest conversion rate possible and designed for a specific product niche exclusively.
On other platforms, let's say Shopify, you will have to pay from $100 to $180 for each high-converting, responsive website template like below.
An example of ShopBase template for women clothes niche:
An example of ShopBase template for sports niche in its mobile-friendly version:
In contrast with its diverse template collection, the number of themes available on ShopBase is quite limited (4 themes). There, all its users are able to customize every element of the current themes according to their preferences while waiting for new themes to be released.
The good news is that with the Preview feature, its users can preview all the changes they make to their website before publishing it.
Preview feature:
ShopBase Interface and Ease-of-Use
ShopBase dashboard comes with a simple, clean, and intuitive interface, with a menu on the left allowing users to access main features and content on the right to customize or edit.
ShopBase allows you to create up to 250 variants of a single product, a lot more than Shopify (only 100 variants).
ShopBase Apps & Third-party Integrations
When using ShopBase, you don't need to pay for any third-party applications or integrations as they are already integrated with your store. In fact, more than 80% of Shopify users have to use paid third-party apps, which leads to a big increase in the cost of running their businesses.
In the ShopBase app store, you can find more than 200 free apps, now displayed as features, which can help you make a huge push in your business's revenue.
The most worth-mentioning apps include the Boost Upsell and Abandoned Cart Recovery, which were proven to lead to a 10% increase in sales of more than 90% of ShopBase users.
The Boost Upsell app performs a wide range of marketing tactics, including smart product suggestions, smart discount show-ups, etc. They all serve the same purpose, which is making each of every customer that ever lands on your website will spend more than he/she was supposed to. According to a ShopBase user, his AOV (Average Order Value) increased by 80% after he activated the Boost Upsell app in his store.
In fact, the Boost Upsell app works really well with the people who are willing to pay. However, there is also a considerable amount of customers who just flow in then out from your website without making any sales.
This is called cart abandonment and according to , 69.23% is the cart abandonment rate for the average online store. That's a huge loss in revenue.
With the Abandoned Cart Recovery app of ShopBase, its users can increase their recovery rate by 18%, leading to a 10% increase in the total revenue of each store.
The app performs a wide range of activities, including sending messages to customers' phones or mailboxes, showing exit-intent pop-ups, etc, to encourage customers to pay. There's still a lot of activities that the app performs, you can explore it more with this free trial of ShopBase.
You can sign up for a 14-day free trial here.[CTA]
Overall, if you are looking for my personal advice, I still think that you should give ShopBase a chance, especially if you are looking to run a dropshipping business.
As mentioned earlier, it is one of the best platforms for users who are particularly interested in dropshipping and print on demand.
The platform has managed to keep the entry barrier low by maintaining a very low monthly cost, keeping all apps and integrations free to use, including the 2 best ones (abandoned cart recovery app & upselling app) that are proven to boost the total profits of 90% of ShopBase-based businesses by around 10%. The best part is that you are totally able to test that platform for FREE in 14 days with its trial plan.
After reading our ShopBase review, do you have any questions about the platform, or whether it's the right option for you? Leave a comment below! We read all comments and aim to answer all questions.
