PrestaShop is one of the best open-source ecommerce platforms that’s made its mark in today’s digital landscape. It is developed on PHP with the support for the MySQL database management system.
It comes with many powerful features and a wide range of plugins that help you scale your ecommerce store with a minimum effort. At the time of writing this article, more than 250,000 online stores are using PrestaShop worldwide. The platform also supports 60 different languages allowing PrestaShop Dropshipping to gain significant traction in the ecommerce space today.
What is PrestaShop Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a popular supply chain management system where a retailing business doesn’t store inventory in stock. Instead, it transfers the orders along with its customer shipment details to either the manufacturer of the product, a wholesaler, or outsource from another retailer. The third-party directly dispatches the order to the customer. In the entire process, the product never runs through the hands of the retailer.
Why choose PrestaShop Dropshipping?
PrestaShop allows you to create an online retailing business and integrate the dropshipping model with ease. You can scale your online presence without worrying about inventory management. PrestaShop Dropshipping helps your online store take off swiftly so that you can scale it beyond expectations.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| You can start an online store at no cost | You must have an understanding of ecommerce before using PrestaShop. |
| A versatile easy-to-learn platform that lets you design and manages your online store conveniently. | Disabling third-party trackers is a cumbersome task. |
| You can integrate payment processors with ease. | The online speed of the shop has room for improvement. |
| The admin panel is user-friendly, making everything easy to operate. |
Why Choose PrestaShop Dropshipping with AliExpress?
One of the popular PrestaShop modules is AliExpress Dropshipping PRO Module. It allows you to conveniently import products from AliExpress on to your PrestaShop online store. Once your customer places an order, PrestaShop’s Order Automation process lets you place that order on AliExpress with a single click and relieves you from the worries of inventory management.
General Features
- Start an ecommerce store with little to no investment
- Import products with ease from AliExpress on your online store
- One-click Updating System for your products (description, pricing, images, features, and packaging details, etc)
P.S: AliExpress Product Importer (Chrome Browser Extension) is also available on its extension web store.
Price Related Features
- You can set custom prices for the newly imported products
- If the price of the product is in a specific range, then you can select either the minimum price or the maximum price and set it for your imported product
Product Import Features
- This PrestaShop dropshipping addon lets you import products from both AliExpress’ product and category page(s)
- You can sync your web store with AliExpress when you enable the “create product automatically” option. It helps you add products in your PrestaShop product catalog
- It displays the packaging details on the product page
- The shipping time on your product page will be the shipping time required to import the product from AliExpress
- You can decide on the parameters like the product’s name, price, images, features, descriptions, packaging details, etc. and fetch them directly from AliExpress
- When importing the products, you can use CURL or CRON to fetch product details
- You can define the category of the product
- You can also define the default tax rule and visibility options for the imported products
- You can decide the shipping carriers for the new products in your store
- While importing products from AliExpress, you can also remove the unnecessary images
Product Update Features
- You can update the product’s information when AliExpress updates it.
- You can select which product parameters to update.
- You can automatically update any imported product’s quantity or price by using the “Cron Task Manager” or the “Cron as per specific time interval” setting.
Order Automation Features
- You can place orders on AliExpress with a single click as soon as someone places an order on your online store.
- You can automate all the steps, from adding the product into the cart to entering the shipping information.
- You must enter the payment information and click “Confirm & Pay” to place an order on AliExpress.
- You can also keep a track of your orders that are already placed on AliExpress.
How to set up a PrestaShop Dropshipping Store on Cloudways?
Server & App Details
After signing up, you will be redirected to the Cloudway server creation page. Here, you need to input the server and app details first. So select your app (Prestashop in this case) and write down the details.
Select Cloud and Server size
Now, just select DigitalOcean Cloud service and select your server size.
Select Location
Select the best-suited location for your website. You can choose from any of the 8 locations to host your applications on DigitalOcean
Launch
Click the “Launch” button.
In just a few minutes, your fully functional, speedy, and optimized Managed Cloud Server with Prestashop will be ready in just a few minutes. However, always keep a check on the price that you will be paying as it is also important.
Installation of PrestaShop AliExpress Chrome Extension
PrestaShop AliExpress dropshipping is made easy with this one Chrome extension. To import the products from AliExpress, you must install its exclusive PrestaShop AliExpress extension “PrestaShop AliExpress Importer” for your chrome browser.
Once you have clicked “Add to Chrome”, refresh your Chrome browser to start using Prestashop AliExpress Importer. Now, whenever you navigate to any product page of AliExpress, you’ll find a blue icon that lets you import the products onto your PrestaShop Store from AliExpress.
How to set up AliExpress Dropshipping Pro on PrestaShop
PrestaShop offers an array of modules. You can conveniently alter your online store to ensure maximum efficiency at all times. Installing any module on your PrestaShop online store is no rocket-science. All you need is to follow the standard PrestaShop installation process.
- Go to Office > Modules > Add a new module
- The module will automatically install on your PrestaShop online store
After the installation is complete, you must configure it as per the needs of your online business. You can automatically generate the credentials. You can also regenerate the username and password if you want to, as it’s mandatory for syncing products for the first time from AliExpress.
New Product Settings
You must set the default settings of any product being imported from AliExpress.There are many factors to consider when you’re importing the product from AliExpress.
- Create a Product in PrestaShop Catalog – You can create the imported product in the PrestaShop catalog when syncing to AliExpress.
- Product Status – You can enable the product available for sale or not.
- Product Details – You can fetch the product details i.e. the features, description, packaging details, shipping details, etc.
- Packaging Details – The packaging details of any imported product will be displayed on the product page.
- Shipping Details – You can display AliExpress shipping time on your product page when imported.
- Associated Categories – You can choose from the default categories of products you wish to import.
- Default Category – You can select the default category with any new product.
- Condition of the Product – You can decide on the default condition of any imported product such as old, new or refurbished.
- Visibility Options – You can also decide on the default visibility option of your imported product. For instance, do you want it to be visible everywhere, in the catalog only, for searches only or nowhere?
- Supplier Options – You can choose default PrestaShop dropshipping suppliers for your newly imported products from AliExpress.
- Options – You can set the default options for any new product such as available for order or show price.
- Tax Rules – You can use the PrestaShop’s default tax rules for your products.
- Shipping Carriers – You can choose PrestaShop dropshipping carriers for your imported products.
CURL vs CRON
If you have enabled the “Fetch Product Information” option, the AliExpress dropshipping module will provide you with two options to fetch the details of the imported products. They are:
- CURL
- CRON
If you opt for the CURL option, you can fetch the product details as soon as you import the product from AliExpress. However, it may slow down the import process.
When it comes to the new AliExpress theme, you cannot import the products through CRON. You can only import products through the CRON option in the old AliExpress theme.
You can use the CRON option by using these two methods:
- By using the Cron Task Manager module.
- By setting Cron as per specific time interval.
How to Import products from AliExpress to PrestaShop?
Step 1: Visit the AliExpress website and search the Blue icon that is the product importer. Click it and import that product on to your PrestaShop dropshipping store.
Source: Webkul
Step 2: A pop-up will appear. Enter your online store’s URL, username, and Token. You can copy and paste it from the Module Configuration Extension Settings.
Step 3: As soon as you insert the credentials, click “Submit”. It will authenticate your online store and you’ll see a message “Authenticated Successfully“. Now you can import the product from AliExpress with the default product settings made in the module configuration.
In case you have regenerated your username and password from the extension settings, you will have to re-enter the details when importing the desired product. You can also update the product’s name or images during the import process.
P.S: You can import the products from AliExpress’ product page only, and not from the category page on the new AliExpress theme. On the contrary, you can import products from both product and category pages if you are using the old AliExpress theme.
Once you’re done with importing the products from AliExpress to your PrestaShop dropshipping store, you can view them in Dropshipping > Products tab. Click the ‘View’ tab to see the respective product page. You can also delete or change the status of any product from this tab.
Scale your PrestaShop Dropshipping Store with Cloudways
Cloudways specializes in PrestaShop hosting. The Cloudways Platform assists you in carrying out different server and application management task(s) with a single click.
The ThunderStack – powered by the combination of Apache-Nginx web servers, Memcached and Redis caches, and MariaDB and MySQL databases – delivers and ensures fast and powerful ecommerce hosting. You can monitor different metrics in graphs and remain aware of your server health at all times.
Cloudways offers a dedicated expert support team available 24/7 to assist you with your hosting and server management concerns. The cherry on top, Cloudways also offers one free website migration as a welcome gift.
Needless to forget that ecommerce websites are also subject to major security threats. Cloudways helps you reduce the risk with automated, off-site backups. It’s a powerful feature that reduces your workload and helps you save money.
You can host PrestaShop on Cloudways without any hassles. You’ll have your store up and running in no time. Follow the best ecommerce practices and scale your PrestaShop dropshipping store – by importing trending products from AliExpress – with Cloudways.
Reza Merchant
Reza Merchant is a Foodie by passion and a Digital Marketer by profession. He enjoys creating digital content for various platforms and aspires to be the change he wants to see in this world.
