Success in dropshipping is often based on more than just product selection or supplier relationships. It also depends heavily on where you choose to sell.
Your choice of platforms impacts everything from profit margins and scalability to how you engage with customers and handle fulfillment.
eBay and Shopify are major players in eCommerce and are two great options to choose from. The eBay marketplace has over 18.3 million sellers, and there are more than 8.8 million live Shopify stores on the eCommerce platform, highlighting their popularity.
However, each platform involves different approaches to selling online. Selling on eBay involves a marketplace, while having a Shopify website means having your own online store. Additionally, the platform that works well for one business model might restrict another.
In this guide, we’ll compare dropshipping on both eBay and Shopify, their pros and cons, and which platform is best suited to your business type and the products you sell.
eBay vs. Shopify: An Overview
When launching or scaling a dropshipping business, one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make early on is which platform you’ll sell on.
As mentioned above, two popular options for dropshippers are eBay and Shopify. However, these platforms operate differently in several ways.
Each platform has its strengths, limitations, and ideal use cases. To make an informed choice, it’s crucial to understand how each platform works, the audience it attracts, and what that means for your online business in the short and long term.
🛍️ eBay: The marketplace model
eBay is one of the largest and most established online marketplaces worldwide, with over 134 million active buyers.
When you list products on eBay, you’re tapping into an existing audience of high-intent shoppers who are actively searching for specific items.
As an eBay seller, you don’t have to worry about building your own website or generating traffic. Instead, your products are displayed alongside thousands of others in the eBay catalog.
💻 Shopify: The independent storefront model
On the other hand, Shopify isn’t a marketplace. It’s a website builder and eCommerce platform where you can build and create your own branded online store.
You have complete control over your store’s design, user experience, and branding. Additionally, you can set up product collections, customize checkout flows, and integrate with marketing tools via the Shopify App Store.
Shopify’s growth rate is around 20%, nearly three times the global eCommerce rate of around 8.4%. This highlights the platform's power as an industry leader.
However, building your own online store on Shopify doesn’t automatically bring traffic to your site. You’d need to generate it yourself by investing in marketing strategies like paid advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and even email marketing.
The Pros of Selling on eBay
eBay store owners benefit from several advantages. Let’s explore them in more detail:
✔️ Instant access to millions of shoppers
One of the key advantages of eBay is the volume of buyers already on the platform. As mentioned above, with millions of active users worldwide, eBay gives dropshippers immediate exposure to a huge audience.
This is especially valuable for dropshippers who are just starting out and don’t yet have a brand or marketing funnel.
✔️ Low barrier to entry
New sellers can get started quickly without needing to build a website, purchase a domain, or worry about working on a backend.
Creating an account is free, and you can list products immediately. There are no mandatory upfront costs beyond listing fees and a final value fee taken when an item sells. We’ll discuss these fees later in this article.
Even managing your store is simplified because eBay provides you with basic listing tools, streamlined shipping management, and an easy-to-use seller dashboard.
Overall, 94% of eBay sellers see a strong connection between the platform and their eCommerce success.
✔️ Ideal for certain niches and product types
eBay has a strong brand presence in specific product categories, making it a good choice for dropshippers in those niches. For example, eBay Motors is one of the most popular online marketplaces for aftermarket car parts, tools, and accessories.
Over 11 million unique buyers shop on eBay Motors each month. Buyers use eBay when looking for niche or hard-to-find components, making it an excellent platform for dropshippers in this vertical.
Beyond auto parts, eBay also performs well for used goods, collectibles, refurbished electronics, industrial tools, and clearance items.
✔️ Strong buyer trust
Buyers who shop on eBay trust the brand. Thanks to its buyer protection policies, including the eBay Money Back Guarantee, customers feel safe making purchases on the platform, even from unknown sellers.
This is important for dropshippers because building trust with customers can be very challenging, especially when you’ve only just launched your products.
The platform also handles all payment processing through the eBay Payments System, which supports various methods such as credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. For you, this means less admin and a frictionless experience for buyers.
✔️ Built-in SEO and listing visibility tools
Although eBay isn't a traditional search engine, its internal search algorithm works similarly to Google’s.
It ranks product listings based on relevance, quality, and performance. Sellers who optimize their product titles, use detailed descriptions, and provide clear product specifics typically get more visibility and traffic.
The product below has an optimized product title, provides plenty of detail in the description, and is clear about the specifications of the item:
This creates an opportunity for you to outperform your competition without relying on off-site marketing efforts.
✔️ Fast feedback and product validation
eBay offers an efficient way for you to test product ideas before committing to a full eCommerce business.
Sellers can list a small number of products, monitor buyer behavior, assess demand, and make adjustments without investing heavily in things like branding, web development, or advertising.
Due to eBay's high traffic levels and fast turnover, product validation becomes quick. This is especially useful for dropshippers trying out new suppliers, experimenting with product variations, or exploring new niches.
The Cons of Selling on eBay
While eBay offers a great entry point for dropshipping, it’s not without its challenges. Let’s take a closer look at some of the hurdles eBay dropshippers face:
❌ Strict policies and performance requirements
eBay has very strict seller standards designed to protect the buyer experience. While this helps build trust with customers, it also puts a lot of pressure on sellers, especially dropshippers who often depend on third-party suppliers to fulfill orders.
To maintain high performance on eBay, you must meet certain requirements for handling time, tracking uploads, customer communication, and case resolution.
Even minor delays or a few negative reviews can damage your eBay account health, and falling below the platform’s performance requirements can lead to lower search visibility, restrictions on your selling, or even account suspension.
❌ Limited branding opportunities
Unlike Shopify, eBay limits how you can present your business online. While eBay Store subscribers can do some basic customization, like using a custom banner, the platform still dictates the core layout and structure of your listings.
As you can see below, this eBay seller has an eBay Store subscription as they have a custom banner on their profile:
This means there’s little room for branding, storytelling, or personalization. You can’t build a full email list, launch custom upsells, or integrate loyalty programs.
❌ Price competition
eBay shoppers are highly price sensitive and often browse multiple listings before making a purchase.
The platform encourages comparison shopping, and eBay search results often highlight the lowest-priced listings first.
This means there’s a lot of competition for dropshippers, particularly those with products in popular categories. It can also make it difficult to remain profitable because there are at least 1.7 billion active listings to compete with.
Since you don’t typically hold inventory or buy in bulk, your margins are already tight. Competing with larger sellers or wholesale vendors becomes much more difficult.
❌ Fees that can impact margins
As mentioned earlier, eBay doesn’t charge upfront subscription fees for casual sellers. However, the platform does take a cut of every sale you make.
This includes final value fees, which are usually around 13% of the total sale, and potentially insertion fees if you exceed your monthly free listing quota. Optional extras like Promoted Listings or Store subscriptions add further costs.
This eBay seller is using the Promoted Listings feature, which would cost them more than just paying for listings above their quota:
❌ Difficult to scale a long-term brand
For dropshippers who want to grow beyond a small online business and develop a scalable brand, eBay poses some limitations.
The lack of branding, data ownership, and customer retention tools makes it difficult to scale as you can on an owned platform like Shopify.
Ultimately, you’re building your business on a platform that isn’t your own, one that can change its rules, raise fees, or restrict categories at any time.
If you’re an entrepreneur wanting to build a long-lasting eCommerce brand, these issues can become a constraint on your business.
eBay Dropshipping: Best Suited Business Types
eBay is ideal for dropshippers who want immediate exposure without building a brand from scratch. Here are the types of businesses that are well-suited to eBay:
➡️ Aftermarket and niche parts
eBay Motors is great for selling automotive parts and accessories. Dropshippers selling replacement or aftermarket parts for cars, motorcycles, or ATVs benefit from eBay’s built-in fitment tools and buyer trust in this category.
It’s difficult to match this infrastructure on Shopify without custom development.
➡️ Refurbished and discontinued products
eBay’s user base actively seeks out refurbished, overstocked, or discontinued items. If you work with liquidation suppliers or source products that don’t fit into the brand-new or branded category, eBay gives you a buyer audience ready to purchase your items without concern.
➡️ Low-cost, competitive goods
For common consumer products, like phone cases, kitchen gadgets, or small electronics, eBay is well-suited if you can compete on price and delivery terms. In fact, 16.4% of eBay sales are in its Electronics and Accessories category, making it the most popular on the platform.
Branding matters less here. Instead, your listing quality, keywords, and seller reputation drive sales.
➡️ Beginners and low-risk testers
As mentioned earlier, new drop shippers can start on eBay to validate product demand and earn revenue without needing to drive their own traffic. Over 68% of sellers say that eBay helped them start their businesses.
It’s an easy entry point if you don’t have a brand or marketing experience, though it does limit long-term customer ownership and branding potential.
The Pros of Selling on Shopify
When building your own scalable and branded dropshipping business, Shopify stands out as one of the best platforms available. Here’s why:
✔️ Total control over your store and brand
One of Shopify's biggest advantages is the full autonomy it offers you over your storefront. When you build a Shopify store, you’re not constrained by marketplace templates or seller policies.
If you have the technical expertise, you can design your site exactly as you want it using professionally designed themes, drag-and-drop page builders, or custom code.
This freedom enables you to create a cohesive brand identity, including your logo, color scheme, product pages, checkout experience, and even your domain name.
✔️ Built-in payments with Shopify Payments
Handling payments is one of the most important parts of any eCommerce operation, and Shopify makes it easy with its integrated Shopify Payments system.
With Shopify Payments, you can accept credit cards and other payment methods directly through your store without setting up third-party gateways like PayPal or Stripe.
Shopify Payments also makes it easier to manage refunds and payouts, all from within your dashboard.
✔️ Access to a huge app store for customization
The massive Shopify App Store offers thousands of free and paid options for extending your store’s functionality.
There's an app for everything: adding product reviews, running advanced email marketing campaigns, launching loyalty programs, implementing upsells and cross-sells, or integrating with your dropshipping supplier.
✔️ Built for selling online at scale
Shopify is designed to help eCommerce businesses sell online easily and efficiently. Its infrastructure is fast, secure, and reliable, even during periods of high traffic like Black Friday or major product launches.
In fact, during Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024, Shopify sellers generated over $11.5 billion in sales, peaking at $4.6 million per minute, all processed smoothly by the platform’s infrastructure. This means that Shopify can handle massive traffic spikes and transaction volumes reliably, even during peak shopping events.
Shopify also takes care of server hosting, security patches, and site speed optimization so you can focus on growing your business. This is important because fast sites are three times more likely to convert than slower ones.
This reliability makes Shopify a great fit for dropshippers who want to scale quickly because the platform’s backend is built to handle growth.
Additionally, customer retention rates for Shopify stores range from 70% to 80%, which shows just how great this option is for dropshippers.
✔️ Transparent and predictable fee structure
Compared to marketplaces like eBay, Shopify offers a more transparent and predictable cost structure. You pay a flat monthly subscription fee based on the plan you chose, and you retain full control over your margins and pricing.
While transaction fees do apply, especially if you’re using third-party payment gateways, the fees are straightforward. This predictable pricing makes it easier for you to forecast your business costs and optimize your profitability.
✔️ Ownership of customer data and marketing channels
Unlike eBay, where the platform owns the customer relationship, Shopify store owners have full control over customer data.
You can collect email addresses, phone numbers, and purchase histories, allowing you to build robust marketing automations and remarketing campaigns.
This ownership enables you to grow a subscriber list, retarget past visitors with Facebook and Google Ads, and increase customer lifetime value (CLV) through email sequences and loyalty programs.
The Cons of Selling on Shopify
Shopify may sound like a great solution for dropshippers, but it’s not without its drawbacks.
❌ No built-in traffic
Although 675 million buyers will purchase through a Shopify store, when you launch one, you don’t benefit from any built-in traffic. Unlike eBay, which has millions of monthly shoppers browsing and buying, Shopify doesn’t bring shoppers to your website.
This means you’re entirely responsible for generating your own traffic through sales channels like SEO, social media, influencer partnerships, paid advertising, and email marketing.
For new store owners without pre-existing audiences or marketing strategies, this can be a significant challenge.
This is because traffic generation takes time, effort, and money. Facebook and Google Ads, TikTok marketing, and SEO all come with learning curves and ongoing management.
❌ Monthly costs and app expenses can add up
While Shopify’s core pricing is relatively affordable, and the average store makes $5,583 per month, the actual costs of running an online store often exceed that.
Many of the features you’ll want, like email marketing, product reviews, and upsell tools, are only available via third-party apps from the Shopify App Store. Although 87% of Shopify sellers use these apps, they often come with their own monthly fees.
It’s not uncommon for even small Shopify stores to pay for five to 10 apps, which can quickly increase monthly expenses.
As your online sales scale, these fees can become significant compared to platforms like eBay, where you pay per transaction but don’t incur any recurring monthly charges.
❌ More complex setup and technical learning curve
Although Shopify offers user-friendliness, launching a store still requires a lot of work, especially for first-time users.
You’d need to choose and customize a theme, write product descriptions, configure shipping zones and tax settings, connect your domain, and ensure payment processing is set up correctly.
Although no coding is required for most tasks, some customizations involve editing theme code.
Unlike eBay, which provides a relatively standardized eBay seller hub, using the Shopify platform means you have to set up, design, and configure your store yourself.
❌ Ongoing store management demands
Using Shopify means you’re responsible for almost everything, so there’s more day-to-day management involved.
You’ll need to constantly monitor ad performance, respond to support inquiries, update product listings, test new offers, and keep tabs on your analytics. If you’re dropshipping, this workload can grow even more as you scale.
Supplier mistakes, delayed shipments, or stock shortages can reflect poorly on your brand, even though you don’t directly control them. Managing customer expectations can keep your business operations running smoothly, but it takes effort and time.
Shopify Dropshipping: Best Suited Business Types
Below are some of the best business types suited for having your own Shopify store:
➡️ Branded niche stores
If your goal is to build a recognizable brand around a certain niche, such as sustainable fashion, high-end pet accessories, or luxury wellness goods, Shopify is the best fit.
With your own Shopify store, you can control the look, messaging, and user experience, which is important for brand positioning.
➡️ Content-driven businesses
Shopify works well for sellers who plan to invest in content marketing, social media, influencer marketing, and paid ads. This is because you’re responsible for driving traffic to your own store.
➡️ High-margin or unique products
Products with strong margins or a unique selling proposition (USP) thrive on Shopify. Unlike eBay, where you compete on price, Shopify allows you to sell based on value, lifestyle appeal, or exclusivity.
This is especially useful if you offer bundles, custom options, or limited editions.
➡️ Long-term business builders
Dropshipping entrepreneurs who want to build equity in their business, rather than just move units, are better suited to Shopify.
You own your store, the customer data, and your brand. While the upfront work is greater, the long-term control and scalability make it worth it for dropshippers.
eBay Vs. Shopify: Platform Fees and Cost Structure Comparison
When choosing between eBay and Shopify for your dropshipping business, understanding the cost structure of each platform is essential. Below is an explanation of how the two compare:
💰 eBay: Transaction-based fees with variable costs
- Insertion fees: eBay allows most sellers up to 250 free listings per month. After that, you pay an insertion fee, which is typically around $0.35, for each additional listing.
- Final value fees: eBay charges a final value fee on the total sale amount, including he item price and shipping. Fees vary by category, but they typically range from 1.9% to 15%.
- PayPal and payment processing fees: Although eBay has transitioned to its own Managed Payments System, payment processing still comes with a fee, usually around 2.9% per transaction.
- Optional listing upgrades: If you want to stand out in eBay’s search results, features like bold fonts, subtitles, or premium placements cost extra.
- Store subscription plans: For higher-volume sellers, eBay offers store subscriptions that lower fees and provide branding tools. These range from $4.95 to $21.95 per month for a Basic Store to $299.95 to $2,999.95 per month for their Anchor and Enterprise plans.
💰 Shopify: Flat monthly fees with add-on costs
- Monthly subscription fees: There are three main Shopify pricing tiers: $19 per month for Basic, $49 per month for Grow, and $2299 per month for the Advanced package. The platform also has a Plus package for more complex businesses at $2,300 per month. Each tier gives you access to different features, like advanced reports, more staff accounts, and better shipping discounts.
- Shopify Payments and third-party processors: If you use Shopify Payments, you’ll pay 2.9% and $0.03 per online transaction on the Basic plan. If you choose a third-party provider like PayPal, you’ll pay an additional 1% to 2% in transaction fees on top of the processor’s fee.
- App Store costs: Shopify’s App Store has apps for marketing, dropshipping, SEO, and inventory management. While many apps have free plans, most charge a monthly fee, often $10 to $50 per app, with some advanced apps exceeding $100 per month.
- Themes and customization: While Shopify has over 230 themes to choose from, only a few are free, and premium themes cost a one-time fee of $180 to $350.
Can I Sell on Both Platforms?
You can sell on both eBay and Shopify, and many successful dropshipping businesses do this. Using both platforms allows you to diversify your revenue streams, tap into different customer bases, and reduce dependency on a single sales channel.
Many dropshippers use eBay as a low-risk entry point or secondary sales channel while focusing their main efforts on growing a Shopify store.
However, keep in mind that managing sales on both platforms requires coordination, especially when it comes to inventory syncing, order fulfillment, and customer service.
With the right systems in place, selling on both platforms can be a great strategy for maximizing exposure, increasing sales, and building a more resilient business.
Shopify vs. eBay: The Ultimate Tool for Dropshipping on Both Platforms
eBay offers instant access to millions of buyers, while your own Shopify store gives you full control over branding, customer experience, and long-term growth.
Each platform has its advantages, and even using both together allows you to expand your reach, diversify your income, and build a stronger business.
However, running a successful dropshipping operation can be time-consuming and complex, especially when it comes to syncing inventory, managing listings, and fulfilling orders.
With robust integrations for both eBay and Shopify, Spark Shipping automates and simplifies your entire dropshipping workflow.
Our tool eliminates manual tasks, freeing up your time to focus on marketing, growth, and customer satisfaction.
Book a Spark Shipping demo today to experience how effortless dropshipping on eBay or Shopify (or both) can be.