Yes, people do actually make money online with Shopify. I hear it all the time…
Is ecommerce dead?
Is Shopify dead?
Is dropshipping dead?
… no, it's not dead.
In this article we interview West Shepard who absolutely crushing it on Shopify. Enjoy
What got you into the Shopify method?
I was working a 9-5 for an ecommerce company in the cannabis space. I wasn’t loving live.
I was doing consulting work on the side in the social media space, but none of it was scalable. I was trading unruly hours for not that many dollars.
I heard of dropshipping through some videos online, and saw that it was super scalable. All I had to do was learn and get started.
The reason I got into it was because it took so little money upfront and was scalable. Just hours of work and effort were required.
After I got started in January 2019, it took me a few months of struggle to figure everything out.. Then in March I made about $20K profit. April I made $30K profit, and May 2019 I made about $35K profit. Here’s a screenshot to prove it. That was my $230K revenue month. Pretty good money.
Most people won’t show you their OrderMetrics BTW. Here’s mine:
How much money did you spend on ads and what was your ROAS?
In May 2019 alone I spent about $45,000 on Facebooks. Simple math tells you I was getting a 5X Return on my ad spend (ROAS). By the way, that’s a really good ROAS.
Here’s a little hack for beginners out there. If you’re getting started and you have little money, start an LLC or corporation. It costs about $500 through Legalzoom. I’m not an accountant or an attorney, but I have accountants and attorneys that work for me. Setup up your LLC to be taxed as an S corp to avoid self employment tax. Then, using your new company, get a line of credit to use for your ad spend. DON’T DO THIS BEFORE YOU’VE SEEN RESULTS BECAUSE YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN PAY THE MONEY BACK.
This is how I spent $45,000 on Facebook ads. It was all on credit. American Express Gold to be exact.
Make sure you consult an attorney and accountant before taking next steps.
How long did it take for the ads to return a positive ROI?
My ads were ROI positive from the very first day. Shopify dropshipping isn’t like a lot of online marketing where you pay for leads up front and they convert in a few weeks.
No. You should see results right away from your Facebook ads and you should be ROI positive from the very beginning. That’s how you know you can scale properly.
Can you talk to us about the product and how you found it? Were other people selling it?
I was the first person to sell it in the dropshipping community which might sound crazy because most people just copy what other people are selling. But the product took off and got me crazy ROI because there was no competition.
It was awesome.
Was it a video that made the majority of the sales on Facebook? How did you make your video?
Yes. My team made the video for me.
In the beginning when I got started dropshipping, I was having a hard time creating videos.
My videos I made myself sucked, and freelancers weren’t any good either because they weren’t dropshippers themselves.
So I created a company called DropshipVidsFast.com that creates dropshipping video ads for Facebook and Instagram in 1-3 days delivery.
My company created the video ad that did all of the $230,000 in revenue.
I use my company to create all of my videos and now hundreds of other dropshippers every month use DropshipVidsFast.com too. People love it. It’s pretty cool.
If you’re reading this blog, Loox has partnered with us at DropshipVidsFast.com to offer you a 25% discount on your first purchase. Click here to get your 25% discount, or click here to visit our website.
What Shopify apps are you using?
I use Loox for video reviews. It’s awesome because you can automatically import reviews from AliExpress which saves a ton of time. I’ve only ever used Loox and only ever will use Loox.
I use SMSBump for abandoned cart texts. These convert extremely well! I made $25K in revenue alone from SMSBump in May.
I use Klaviyo for abandoned cart emails.
And I use Booster Theme which is a paid premium theme for Shopify. This makes everything easy and actually saves you money over time because they have a lot of apps included.
I use OrderLookup.
And I use MassFulfill for my Virtual Assistants to fulfill orders for me.
Here’s a big tip: track your profit yourself. Use Quickbooks to do your own bookkeeping and go over your profits at least once a week. I do mine every day. The profit is the only thing that matters at the end of the day so you want to make sure you have a handle on it. Otherwise, you can really get yourself into trouble not knowing where your money is going.
Did you have a large number of products in the store?
I do have a large number of products on my store so that it looks legitimate. But I only run ads for one of the products.
Did the ads link to the home page or product page?
My ads always link to product pages. That has proved to be the most profitable.
Are the products copyrighted or illegal to sell?
No. All products are legal and brandless.
They are products that solve a problem for the customer, so no matter what brand it is, they want to buy it to solve their problem. If you’re hungry but you’ve never heard of a restaurant, you’ll still eat there most of the time.
Are you still getting consistent sales or have they slowed down?
I’m still getting consistent sales. Roughly $2-3K per day. The profit has decreased to about 10% profit. I’ve moved on to other products and stores at this point but that is still bringing me money with little to no effort.
What would be your best advice for someone entering the Shopify dropshipping game?
Here’s my best advice. Act like a professional.
Shopify dropshipping is filled with people who get into it to make money, but they don’t treat it like a proper business. They don’t hire people. They don’t outsource tasks. They don’t spend money on ads consistently. They don’t apply basic marketing knowledge that anyone can learn to use in their advertising. They don’t act like a professional.
Here’s a piece of advice: it’s very very easy to set yourself apart in the dropshipping game. Because most people don’t go all in. They act like amateurs and so they get amateur numbers.
Act like a professional. How would you act if you knew your business would be successful? You would outsource tasks. You’d create professional videos. You’d hire consultants to advice you on important revenue generating activities like advertising.
And if you’re super new to business, this is how businesses work.
Here are a few things you can do to set yourself apart in dropshipping and make a lot of money:
- Join a community like Noah Brewer’s FB Ads Mastermind
- Get a Facebook ads coach like Noah Brewer
- Read books on advertising. Cashvertising is a great one. Then apply what you learn in your copywriting on your product page. It’s that simple.
- Outsource your video ads to my team of professionals at DropshipVidsFast.com. You’ll save time and money.
- Outsource all mundane tasks to a virtual assistant you can find on onlinejobs.ph and pay $3/hr. It’s what everyone does.
- Keep trying. It took me 2 months of struggling late hours to get my first glimpse of real success. But it’s a proven method to make you some money and change your life with no money down. Just commit.
- The product, the video, and the Facebook ads are all that matter in the end. Put time and money into making these three things good and you’ll win.