Hey friends, Andrew here. Hope you're all doing well! I wouldn't be where I am
today if it wasn't for 2 things. Number 1, building an e-commerce store and number 2,
learning digital marketing. And those two skills alone with the right timing allowed
me to grow from a zero to a six figure shopify store while working full-time and that's where
alone changed the trajectory of my professional career allowing me to quit my job and chase a few
dreams now i've been fortunate enough to pivot into a branded product and also partner up with
others on other e-commerce stores it has provided a steady stream of income and only takes about
now at this rate 10 hours a week to maintain and run so it gives me time in the day to spend on
other passions like this youtube channel for example but in this video let's play roleplay
and say i had nothing to my name and i were to start all over again what would i do to
build a successful shopify store and e-commerce business this video is going to help those of
you who want to start and grow an e-commerce business from scratch so let's get into it!
by the way if you're planning to build your ecommerce business i want you to leave a comment
down below and let me know what your plans are i love to hear them there's usually a few
parts you can take building your own online e-commerce store the most common paths you'll
see include number one the distributor model the private label model the bespoke model and of
course the drop shipping model now the distributor model this is where you build relationships with
manufacturers and sell their products to your customers a large-scale example of this is asos
an online fashion retailer they purchase products in bulk from manufacturers like
nike and tommy hilfiger and then so directly to the customer then you have the private label
product this is where you take an existing product that's being manufactured in bulk and you add your
logo to it or even make minor custom adjustments to the product asos is actually another example
of this with the in-house asos design branded clothing then of course you have bespoke products
when you work with a factory or factories to create a brand new product from scratch this is
by far the most difficult road to take but it can be extremely lucrative if you have
a winning product idea and then finally you have drop shipping working with widely available
suppliers to sell their products the difference is shipping storage and logistics of the product
is completely managed by the suppliers so only if a customer purchases a product from you do
you then pay wholesale for each item and it then gets shipped out from the factory by the supplier
directly to your customer when building any type of business though we usually have to consider
these three things capital time and expertise and so the place i would start as a beginner if i had
not much at all to my name i'd still pick a drop shipping store on shopify as a foundation model
and then i'll quickly pivot though and i'll tell you why i think it remains the best place to start
as a beginner drop shipping is what i personally started with years ago but there are some big
problems with it and actually let's address the elephant in the room first drop shipping has been
contorted to flaunt a get-rich-fast lifestyle to sell courses and it's made to be seen easier
than it actually is so we've seen a lot of people burnt by this unfortunately
specifically beginners who come in thinking it's far easier than it actually is expecting to make
a ridiculous sum of money within a few days and then you know they become jaded when they find
out it's not actually working for them and give up within a few weeks and although that's the
unfortunate side of drop shipping on the other hand what you have is a very smart business model
that allows beginners to maximize their time and capital to build an e-commerce store with very low
barriers to entry so when i personally started dropshipping i was only a few years out of uni
on a measly salary of 45 000 working pretty long hours in a global advertising agency
that's a pretty small salary for a graduate out of uni but that's not saying that i wasn't um
that i wasn't grateful for it it's just that it was very tight in terms of budget so you know
i didn't have that much time either expertise nor capital and i most definitely could not afford to
spend my salary building an e-commerce brand from scratch i was eating migorang as every second meal
if you know you know migo rank was the bomb but my monthly paycheck was going to rent groceries bills
and some savings i only had a few hundred left over so what mainly stopped me from going with say
the distributor model or private label products back then was a number of factors number one
money or lack of capital the other reason is i didn't have the risk appetite to take out a
big loan under my name to build a business sure i could have borrowed money but it's difficult
to qualify for a business loan in comparison to say a home loan and maxing out credit cards is
not a great idea either for most people if you want to build a bespoke product it's incredibly
expensive you need to invest into r d research and development hiring talent to build
that product out for you to build out your vision and you know let alone the product costs
itself even private labeling products you need to order in bulk and run you at least a few thousand
dollars for a test batch and once you brand your products they're yours and if you can't sell them
well then that's a whole bunch of products in your basement and thousands of dollars down the drain
so based on my risk appetite at the time as a fresh graduate out of uni it's just
not something i wanted to take on when i don't even have proof of concept and i know
it's a risk that the majority of beginners do not want to take on unless you're extremely
entrepreneurial frankly the truth is the majority of us are simply not but that doesn't mean you
can't build a lucrative credible business at a slower pace so what did i do that's where drop
shipping came in for me drop shipping acted like a springboard for me minimizing risk while allowing
me to test different e-commerce products learn e-commerce in the first place and generate income
on the side while still working full-time so i essentially mitigated a lot of risks
so what i'm going to say is rather than telling you to build a drop shipping store to turn a
quick profit i implore you to look at it a little little differently and this advice i'm about to
give you could possibly be the difference between success and failure so the truth is most people
don't run a drop shipping store for more than a few years at tops it's very rare to do so but
that's because successful drop shipping stores are profitable gateways to building out your
e-commerce brand and here's what i mean by that when you build a dropshipping e-commerce store you
want to aim to get these three things right proof of concept for your product or niche data and
supplier relationships there's no other business model that allow you to validate your products
without much money like drop shipping because you don't need to commit thousands of dollars you can
very quickly test different products and niches until you find that one that works for you and you
gain that proof of concept whether that's a niche or a product and then the second point is data
you're building a store and brand which means day by day you're growing your customer email list
your store data and your digital marketing ads and so on so forth the data is extremely valuable
and once you pivot to say a custom branded product you already have all the data you can leverage to
sell to and then of course you have your supplier relations if you have a product in mind you want
to create and sell well you need a supplier and manufacturer to create that product for you right
but what many beginners don't realize is suppliers and manufacturers don't just work with anybody
if you approach them today with zero credentials asking them to build a let's say a new shoe
for you they're going to either laugh or ignore us remember they're investing too
they're investing into you by taking a chance by building this product for you they're using
their materials expenses and time and so they want to know your experience they want to work
with successful businesses and understandably so and that's why drop shipping works as that
perfect springboard to build that credibility and work with suppliers to build a relationship
so you have more contacts in the industry and you build up your entrepreneurial resume most of all
it's the most convenient way to learn e-commerce and digital marketing like i kind of touched on
if you fail and your store is a flop no problem it's such a low capital business model there's
hardly any risk or investment you've put into it minus of course your time and on
the flip side if you succeed it's an amazing business model to run on the site and automate
simply because half the business is being run by the supplier themselves all you need
to focus on is the marketing which then can be automated and the operations and customer service
which can also be automated or outsourced i ran my drop shipping store absolutely no problems
at all while working a pretty demanding job as a digital marketing manager thankfully though
that job was pretty relevant and i was able to learn during the day-to-day and apply it to my
store as well if you don't work a relevant job well you're learning a brand new skill
digital marketing and e-commerce both becoming increasingly more in demand and lucrative here are
the key lessons for you if you're new to business and e-commerce don't have a lot of upfront capital
and your time poor if you're any of these and you're looking to build an e-commerce business
i would start with drop shipping and pivot pretty quickly to expand it by building a brand branding
your products and scaling your business operations the decision to start and build it into something
bigger than yourself could change the trajectory of your life for the better like it has for me
all you have to do is make an informed decision and just start i've actually shared a free full
hour drop shipping course here on youtube so just about anyone can start building an e-commerce
store from scratch feel free to check it out i'll leave a link to it on screen somewhere here
and also down in the description box i hope you enjoyed this video and it's given you some sort
of perspective on starting an e-commerce business a rapidly growing business model that has just
skyrocketed in recent times but hey i might be biased but honestly i think it is a great
business model to start and learn right now today i'll leave on screen here other useful videos for
you to check out if this video has helped you out be sure to like it and subscribe it
i mean like it and subscribe to this channel it's always much appreciated
and feel free to follow me on instagram where i post up more ecommerce tidbits and other
random life things if you want to follow and as always thank you for watching