Online eCommerce is growing at an amazing pace with annual sales expected to reach $4.5 trillion in 2021according to eCommerce statistics. Businesses all around the world are fighting to get online presence and offer their goods and services online. Yesterday’s B2B companies, limited by the absence of retail infrastructure, can finally enter a B2C market and offer their products to a broad audience directly through eBay, Amazon, Shopify and hundreds of other platforms.
Everyone from small production businesses and up to manufacturing giants are building an online presence and searching for ways to sell their products online. This is where companies like Modalyst enter the scene. Essentially, Modalyst is dropshipping software for eCommerce businesses. It automates your dropshipping business and connects you to the best dropship suppliers and Modalystproducts to sell online. Continue reading this Modalyst review to find out if you should give Modalyst a try.
Modalyst Reviews
Modalyst was founded in 2013 by Jill Sherman and Alain Miguel. Jill Sherman has worked in luxury fashion and retail technology for over 18 years and Alain Miguel has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30. Both have MBA’s from MIT and created Modalyst to make it easier for people to start an eCommerce business without having to deal with inventory management, warehousing and fulfilment.
I have already reviewed a couple of similar apps like Spocket and Oberlo, both apps are very impressive in what they can do and how they help online retailers run their business more efficiently. Modalyst comes with many of the same features as Spocket and Oberlo plus some additional features that are unique to the app.
Modalyst is a classic drop shipping service that connects you to the verified product suppliers and allows you to directly sell their inventory to your customers. The main advantage of this approach is that you do not have to invest in building your own warehouses and stock products. Therefore, both risk and entry barrier is reduced to such extent, that any person can try out this business model for less than $100.
If you decide to give it a shot you should know that your role is to learn how to market and sell suppliers’ products online and the supplier’s role is to ship product to your client as soon as you receive an order from your customer. Modalyst’s role is to automatically route the order to its platform and notify the supplier about the order. Modalyst also facilitates all communication between you and the supplier while automating as much of the ordering process as possible.
How much profit you can make is entirely dependent on your online selling skills. Ability to correctly market the product, set up profitable social ad campaigns and optimize for conversions is the only way of making money with drop shipping.
Modalyst Features
I really like the Modalyst user interface, it’s well-designed, easy to navigate and you can literally control your dropshipping business from within the platform. So, the main feature of Modalyst is that it gives small online retailers access to a wide variety of high-quality Modalyst products from suppliers who are based in the EU and USA.
Modalyst gives you 3 inventory types to source Modalyst products from, they are;
- Independent Brands
Get access to high-quality niche related products that are hard to find anywhere else from small independent brands. There are products from 650+ suppliers and you get direct access to them which will allow you to communicate with them about products, prices and anything else that you may have questions about.
These suppliers have been thoroughly vetted by Modalyst so that they meet their high standards. Price, shipping and returns policy are also ironed out during the vetting process so that both merchant and supplier benefit from each other’s business.
- Cool Affordable Modalyst Products
Most of these products are from the SHEIN marketplace, SHEIN as many of you may know. mainly focuses on women’s fashion. There are over 100k products to choose from and they ship to over 80 countries and have distribution centres all around the world for faster shipping. Women’s apparel is the top niche for dropshipping and with direct access to the SHIEN marketplace you get an advantage over your competitors.
- Low-Cost Goods
Choose from a wide selection of low-cost goods in over 40+ categories, from cool drones to trendy fashion wear, the basement prices for many of these products means that you can set high-profit margins.
All products are sourced from the WISH marketplace and shipping times range between 5-8 days. WISH has some tremendous Modalyst products for sale at really low prices, you can easily raise your profit margins if you decide to source products from here.
- Premium Brands
This option is only available in their Pro and Business plans, it gives you access to well-known brands and gives more options as to the kind of products you can drop ship through Modalyst.
You can search for Modalyst products through keyword research and filter by your chosen category, price, shipping times and supplier. Products from independent brands will have their own page with unique description, images, pricing and shipping times.
All Modalyst products have a brief description along with their wholesale price, shipping costs, the number of countries you can ship to and the total stock count. If you like the product, you can easily import them into your import list and from there you can bulk import products into your store.
- Order Management
Managing orders from multiple suppliers can be a hassle, however, with the Modalyst order management system, everything is simplified, and you can process orders through the simple click of a button.
Your suppliers will process your orders after they have received payment and will notify you when the product has been dispatched. You will also get tracking details for the package which you can forward to your customers so that they know when their delivery will be arriving.
Another cool feature of Modalyst that really impressed me and one that I have not yet seen from its competitors is that you can communicate with your suppliers directly within the app. This will allow you to sort out any issues, build a closer relationship and may even negotiate some additional discounts for high volume products.
- Real-Time Inventory Updates
Get automatic notification of any changes to products you may be selling. If there are changes to the description, inventory level or pricing, you will be notified within the dashboard. This will give you time to make any necessary changes to your store so that it does not adversely affect your business.
- Shipping
All Modalyst products on ProductPro ship from the USA. This guarantees fast shipping times and helps retailers like yourself avoid issues with customs, lost packages, etc. Unfortunately, all of the products listed on Modalyst do not ship from the USA. Some are noted to ship from China, Italy, and other foreign countries. This can complicate your business with long shipping times.
How important is fast shipping? According to Bringg, 26% of US online shoppers abandoned their shopping carts due to shipping times being too long. Long shipping times can hurt your conversion rates and cost you potential customers.
- Pricing Automation
One of the cool features of this app is that you can automatically mark-up your prices as soon as you import your products into your store. This will save you a lot of time from having to manually price each item you import, there are two ways you can mark-up prices, they are:
Multiplied: Using the multiple mark-ups will automatically multiply the wholesale price by your requested amount.
Added: Same as before but this time the requested mark-up will be added on to the original price. There is an added feature within this tool that allows you to add your shipping rate to your overall cost so that you can offer your customers free shipping without it affecting your overall profit margins.
- KIT Integration
This is a relatively new feature that they recently added on, for anyone who is not familiar with KIT, it is a Shopify app that acts as your own virtual assistant. It can help with product recommendations, marketing and advertising. This is a powerful AI-powered app that comes with a lot of features that will help drive more sales to your store. Check out more information about this app here.
- eCommerce Integration
Modalyst currently is only compatible with Shopify and BigCommerce, reviews on both sites for Modalyst are very positive. Both Shopify and BigCommerce have similar pricing plans o it will not matter which one you choose, however, personally I would go with Shopify as they have a lot more apps that will help you extend the functionality of your site.
I do wish that it was available for WooCommerce as well because it is the largest eCommerce platform by market share and I do enjoy using the WordPress platform.
Modalyst Pricing
- Hobby ($0)
Modalyst offers a free lifetime option which will allow you to test out the app for free without any risks. However, you are limited to importing only 50 products and have a 5% transaction fee for every product you sell.
- Starter ($30 - $35 per month)
The starter plan increases your import limit to 250 but you still will not have access to premium products.
- Pro ($67 - $90 per month)
The Pro plan gives you access to all products including premium brands.
- Business ($480 yearly)
Access to all products, import an unlimited number of products and the transaction fee is reduced to 2%.
Modalyst Pros
- Standardized processes and systems
- High quality products and environment of success
- Handles return policies and commission rates with suppliers directly
- Higher profit earning potential
- US and EU suppliers
- Suppliers ship directly to your store or customers
- Information on shipping and tracking sent automatically
- Direct integration with Shopify and BigCommerce
- No upfront inventory costs
- No paperwork; handle each step on your Modalyst dashboard
- Sell products across multiple platforms or social channels
- One-click adding products to your store
- Inventory level notifications
- Data insights on products and profile
- Communicate with suppliers directly
- Free monthly plan
Modalyst Cons
- Limited brandability
- Order placing isn’t completely automated
- 5 percent transaction fee on free pricing plan and most premium plans
- Must upgrade to paid plans to access full supplier network
- Products sold only at manufacturer’s suggested retailing price (MSRP)
- 60 percent payment to brands on each product’s MSRP regardless of selling price
- Varying shipping times and costs
- App operates on annual contract paid upfront or in monthly installments
Now, we want to share with you about some reviews from dropshiper used Modalyst apps
- I’m a supplier on modalyst, it’s the only dropshipping platform we use. We have about 750 products on the platform - all women’s clothing made in the US at fair price points. We’ve been on the platform a month and have seen very little action about $1200 whole time we’ve been on there Not sure how much longer we’ll stay.
- I believe Modalyst is done. I signed up a couple of months ago and paid for a (expensive) year membership. NOW a few days ago I get an email from Modalyst that they lost their deal with brands distribution who supplies their name brand products for us to sell. Then today I hear Shein is not going to work with Modalyst.
- If you're hoping to avoid products made in or shipped from China, such as those on AliExpress, take a look at Modalyst. Modalyst works with suppliers around the globe, but has a particular focus on connecting merchants to suppliers in the US and EU with fast shipping options.
Conclusion
Modalyst is an established player in the dropshipping market. As a drop shipper, you should never rely only on one service. It is recommended to use multiple services simultaneously to exploit their pros to the full extent.
With many dropshipping services today, there is no control over delivery speed or product quality. Modalyst is challenging this hurdle through cooperation with branded and verified suppliers. Finding responsible product suppliers who will consistently provide high product quality is the biggest challenge in dropshipping. It is hard to make long term business with unreliable suppliers, with Modalyst finding reliable partners is much easier and cheaper than with other drop shipping services.
