you've heard about drop shipping you've
read about it and you think you have
what it takes to build a business and
run it from a beach in Thailand but you
have doubts
you've never started a business before
and you can't tell if this is too good
to be true
you've never run a Facebook ad and you
have no idea how much money you should
expect to spend on them
you've never even bought a domain before
and you're not sure why anyone would
come to your domain and not Amazon's if
you've had thoughts like these then this
video is for you in this video we're
going to cover every fear worried
question and insecurity that you have
about getting started with drop shipping
and we're taking them straight from the
comments that you've left under our
videos a word of warning before we get
started some of you just want a
convenient excuse not to start your
online business after all the prospect
of failure is really really frightening
it's more comfortable to write off drop
shipping as a scam or claim that it's
saturated and to go back to your
nine-to-five job nobody in your
fluorescent-lit office will blame you
after all misery loves company but if
you're the black sheep in the herd and
you just want to get some answers before
you get started then let's get cracking
the first fear that I want to touch on
is that drop shipping is a scam drop
shipping is actually just a ecommerce
business model and a quick recap of that
for you so in the drop shipping business
model you create a store you import
products from suppliers invest your own
money in marketing those products and
then you sell those products to the
customers only when you get orders in
other words you go to the supplier one
at a time and place the orders that the
customers have already placed with you
the supplier then ships those products
direct to your customers now this is a
business model that a lot of other
retailers use even big-box retailers
like Walmart use this business model to
make sure that they're only buying as
much supply as they need to meet
customer demand for products the
difference between you and Walmart is
well you're an individual and you're
getting your products from Aliexpress
which is an e-commerce website that
other people can shop on that's what
leads some people to think that draw
shipping is a scam one of our viewers
asked what stops people from going to
Aliexpress and purchasing products
themselves that viewer even raised the
issue that family and friends might
think that they're being scammed well
drop shippers add value to the customer
experience that they don't get when they
go directly to Aliexpress remember
Aliexpress is not easy to navigate
there's lots of suppliers selling the
same products and their descriptions are
in English on top of that there are
endless shipping options which can feel
really foreign to people shopping on
Aliexpress but even if you don't take
the customer experience into account
drop shipping still isn't a scam and
that's because entrepreneurs are not
obligated to sell products to customers
at the lowest possible price
they're only obligated to sell the
products they say they're selling so if
you sell dog costumes for a three times
markup and somebody buys that costume
from your store you didn't scam them you
offered them a product and the customer
determined that it was worth twenty five
dollars to buy that dog costume from a
trustworthy store right then and there
the customer validated your
trustworthiness with their wallets by
the way I expect this video to unleash a
firestorm of comments and I welcome them
leave your thoughts below we're not
trying to hide anything about this
business model we've seen it work for
hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs
so the more we can start a conversation
about what dropshipping actually is the
better the other thing we hear a lot
about dropshipping is that it's a
get-rich-quick scheme if you've gotten
this impression from our videos please
let me know because we've tried to
portray dropshipping as something anyone
can succeed in as long as they work hard
and persevere in the face of setbacks in
fact here on YouTube we only work with
affiliates who do the same our affiliate
agreement states the following one of
the most important parts of the partner
program agreement is that as a Shopify
affiliate you aren't permitted to make
deceptive or misleading claims guarantee
earnings or promise prospective
merchants success
so if you see youtubers promising that
you'll make seven figures in a week
after you take their course know this
they are not our affiliates we don't
believe it's true that you can make a
certain amount of money in a set amount
of time and we don't want you to think
that's true either when we do talk to
dropship
is about making six figures in a year
we're not talking about their first
store we're usually talking about their
fifth or even 50th store the thing is
once these dropshippers fail and learn
they develop the courage and the
know-how to do things right and scaling
a successful store can happen fast after
you've had all of those learnings some
things are easy about drop shipping for
example importing products is easy but
getting customers to actually buy those
products is hard and it takes practice a
good analogy here is watching people
play soccer or football anyone can kick
around a ball but to be a professional
you really need to practice and hone
your skills on the topic of dropshipping
youtubers I also want to address this
question if dropshipping works why do so
many people sell courses you might think
dropshipping actually doesn't work
because of all the dropshipping
youtubers selling courses but many of
these dropshippers sell courses because
drop shipping is hard and they know that
they can make money on the side by
teaching others how to be as successful
as they've been the other thing you have
to remember is that these dropshippers
are hustlers they love finding new
income streams some of them are fine
running multiple dropshipping stores but
others prefer to run a single drop
shipping store and then sell their
expertise I've interviewed Chris Wayne
these two become Scott Hill C and others
who sell courses and I can tell you from
experience they are doing just fine with
their drop shipping stores here's
something I hear a lot it's 20 20 drop
shipping is saturated oh boy
I have been excited to address this
claim I don't want to get all nerdy and
explain market saturation but you leave
me no choice
market saturation arises when the volume
of a product in a given market place has
been maximized at that point of
saturation an entrepreneur can only grow
their business with new products by
taking market share from competitors or
from a rise in customer demand drop
shipping is not saturated it can't be
because it's neither a product nor a
market it's just an ecommerce business
model remember back in the 70s the
founder of Nike was buying sneakers
individually from Japan and selling them
as he got orders in the US drop shipping
has been a
around four decades but it's taken shape
in different mediums as the times and
technology has progressed so that covers
weather dropshipping is saturated it
can't be it's impossible but I know what
you're thinking there are still so many
products out there to dropship and those
products are all saturated here's the
thing a product can only be saturated in
a given market
so these scrubbing gloves for example
they cannot in themselves be saturated
they can only be saturated in for
example the US or Florida and only then
if they've been marketed and sold to
everyone who could possibly want these
gloves so before you leave a comment
telling me that a product is saturated
make sure you tell me where it's
saturated is it saturated in Canada the
UK Spain Denmark what about in the US
and if a product got 10,000 orders on
Aliexpress and there are 230 million
online shoppers in the US there are
probably a few buyers left to sell to in
the United States in fact there are
probably thousands and one more thing
people are lazy I say that because every
time we publish a new product
recommendations video we get comments
about how the products that we've now
recommended must be saturated no guys I
wish but we can track this stuff most
people watch our videos and do nothing
they don't start their stores they don't
start marketing they don't start making
mistakes and learning the few who do are
delighted to find that no these products
aren't saturated at least not in the 35e
packet countries that they can sell to
there are new products and new markets
and new trends to be sold to every day
ecommerce is booming and now is still
the perfect time to jump in ok so
hopefully now I've addressed some doubts
about the fact that drop shipping can
work but I know there are still some big
concerns before you get started and one
of them is that you're going to need a
huge budget people will give you
different advice as to how to budget for
your first drop shipping business some
people will say you need only $200 and
other people will say you need at least
$2,000 if you want our advice on what
budget to get started with check out
this video right here other than the
basic costs the biggest variable in your
budget will be
marketing marketing is what can change
your initial budget from $200 to $2,000
but that depends on the marketing
channel you choose to try for example
Instagram influencers will be cheaper
than Facebook Ads when you're just
getting started another variable in your
budget are apps
this might include apps that create
urgency is like countdown timers or apps
that help you change the language or
currency of your store the cost of these
apps vary and you can operate a store
without any apps at all or you can load
your store up on apps if you think they
are worth it by the way you can
definitely build a business without
spending a lot on advertising but you'll
need to pay with time you can start a
store with no marketing budget if you
take the time to grow an Instagram
community or a Facebook group beforehand
it's not easy and it's not fast but it
does work realistically you'll need
somewhere between $300 and $1,000 to
start drop shipping but do not spend the
last five hundred dollars in your bank
account to get started with this
business if this is your first business
you're going to make mistakes and you're
probably not going to see an immediate
return on that investment save up for
this venture cut back on your daily
lattes or lunches to save at least $5 a
day that you can put towards your
Facebook ads in the new year by the way
if you're looking for more help on
budgeting for your business make sure to
follow us on Instagram I'll leave a link
below but we're always publishing
content that lets you see really quickly
what you can do to spend your money
wisely on your new business
another big fear among new dropshippers
is that shipping products from China
takes months this isn't true this is an
outdated rumor and it's really solved by
e packet shipping eat packaged shipping
takes about two to three weeks and comes
with free tracking but best of all it's
really cheap if shipping from China
really did take months other drop
shippers would not be able to have
sustainable businesses some suppliers on
Aliexpress even have US or European
warehouses that let them ship to local
customers within five to seven days by
the way if you're interested in shipping
products from the US to American
customers click here for our list of
products that come from US warehouses I
also want to take the time to address
something a little
more sensitive than shipping times
us-china relations have been all over
the news and you may start seeing
headlines or have seen headlines that
make you worried that you won't be able
to start your business based on the
state of those relations there are no
definitive answers as to what is
happening yet so our advice now is not
to let these headlines scare you away
from starting your business when any
major changes occur we will be the first
to let you know another huge fear that
we've got to talk about is this
customers will just buy from Amazon
instead this is one of the biggest fears
new drop shippers have when they're
thinking about getting started yes
Amazon has one to two day prime shipping
available however that does not mean
that you can't run a successful business
because the majority of our purchases
are impulse buys your customers aren't
looking for those products yet and
therefore they're not going to Amazon to
look for them when customers see
something unique they're willing to wait
for that unique product whereas they're
a lot less likely to wait for say paper
towels customers go to Amazon when they
already know what they're looking for
but your goal is to grab the attention
of those customers before they know what
they want and show them what they want
hint its your products even if some
customers do go to Amazon that's okay
multi-million dollar businesses are
built on the back of a 2% conversion
rate meaning 98% of people who visit
these successful businesses bounce
that's okay that is still enough for you
to grow your business so don't worry too
much about the competition and focus on
maximizing the good numbers of your
business and a big roadblock for
beginners is the belief that they need
to be Facebook Ads
geniuses to succeed with dropshipping
nobody is born an expert in anything and
that includes Facebook Ads it takes time
and it takes money and it takes failure
to really learn how Facebook marketing
works keep this in mind when you're
spending money on Facebook ads
especially in the beginning you're
spending money on your e-commerce
education it's by spending money that
you learn what works and what doesn't
and it's by spending money that your
Facebook pixel learns what customers
like and what customers don't the more
you invest in Facebook advertising the
closer you'll get to finding your ideal
customer by the way if you're looking
for a complete
step-by-step hand-holding guide to
Facebook ads from start to sale checkout
over lo 101 if you're still scared about
Facebook ads no problem you can
advertise all over the internet Facebook
ads are just the most popular
advertising method because they're very
easy to scale once you get it right if
you don't have the budget for Facebook
ads consider hiring influencers on
Instagram or on other social media
platforms such as snapchat or tik-tok
you can also build a social media
following for free and then advertise to
that following if you can't find traffic
with money you'll need to pay for it
with time but that is completely within
your skill set if you need a little
inspiration check out our interview with
Mandy and Aubrey
they built a six-figure business without
spending a single cent on ads to watch
that video click right here ok and with
that we've covered your biggest doubts
fears and concerns about starting a drop
shipping business what did I leave off
this list what do you disagree with me
on we owe it to ourselves to have a
really good robust conversation about
this so leave your thoughts below and I
will jump in with my comments thanks for
watching and until next time learn off
in market better and sell more