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$500,000+ revenue on Shopify!

cants

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Thanks for this post. Very inspiring! Was wondering though, how much do you pay for the credit card service on Shopify? Thanks
 
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Sanj Modha

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When you drop ship, do you focus on products that don't have a strong brand? For example, you wouldn't want to drop ship cameras because it'd be hard to find a distributor or manufacturer that would drop ship canon or nikon cameras. Another example will be TVs (LG, Sony, Samsung...etc).

Are these good examples for a drop ship businesses?

-Stage/Performance Lighting and Accessories
- Toilets and Counters
- Commercial Bathroom Mirrors

I've ran a drop ship business selling Silk Flowers but decided to sell it off due to major headache with suppliers.

I dropship products to passionate audiences. Not everything will sell so do some research. But most of the time I can hit it out of the park. I sell 4 products to 4 different audiences that I know well. I know the buyers, ages, what they like/dislike etc.

I'd personally start a generic store and throw some ideas out there. If they sell volume build a niche store off it. This is exactly what I did.
 

Sanj Modha

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Do you have a specific selling price criteria when it comes to dropshipping?

I sell it for as much as possible but try to aim for at least 40%-50% profit margin. Not everything will sell for $2/sale off FB traffic. You need some leeway.
 
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Yussef

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I got bored of shirts and it's hyper competitive now on FB. I found untapped products/niches with next to nothing competition and moved over to Shopify. It's the best decision I've ever made.

I know I have no competition because some of my niches sell for less than $2 CPM. That's major moolah in the bank.


That's Genius and should be the main objective of anyone in E-commerce. So are you drop shipping or keeping inventory and what criteria do you use selecting what get's tested?
 

Yussef

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That's Genius and should be the main objective of anyone in E-commerce. So are you drop shipping or keeping inventory and what criteria do you use selecting what get's tested?

Disregard. You have already answered this in great detail.
 

Yussef

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Yussef

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I am happy share two big nuggets:

1) I learnt the art of building processes which helped me to automate my business and scale up faster. You can do the same by reading up Kaizen, Kanban, Six Sigma methodology. I personally like the Kanban approach using Trello. I know that if I'm not around my VA can work autonomously.

2) I know it's cheesy but it's never about the products you sell. It's about the knowledge you acquire. That means research your audience before selling products or building a business. What do they like? How old are they etc? My mentor sells t-shirts in the most competitive niches. It doesn't stop him from making millions.

The biggest mistake I see with IM is people find/create products then try to sell it. This is wrong.

Find the audience first and build the business around them. This is the path to least resistance. In my business, I research the audience, demographics, income levels before picking a product. I then look at my competitor sites and see how much it sells for. Most of that $500,000+ came from 4 products only. The rest were email upsells.

Don't cut corners.

Haha based on your reading list I think I know who your mentor is. But I will not say it here. I am guessing he has lived in Atlanta and Miami. I could be wrong.
 

Castillo

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When trying to decide what's considered a "strong" market or "weak" market, how many searches/month would you consider something that's strong?
 

Sanj Modha

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When trying to decide what's considered a "strong" market or "weak" market, how many searches/month would you consider something that's strong?

Look at Google Trends. That will tell you if products/services are hot.

I also see what others are selling on eBay/Amazon too and look at the demand.
 
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Castillo

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Look at Google Trends. That will tell you if products/services are hot.

I also see what others are selling on eBay/Amazon too and look at the demand.

Would you suggest starting with 100's of products, or simply a few when opening and advertising?
 

Sanj Modha

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Would you suggest starting with 100's of products, or simply a few when opening and advertising?

There is no magic number. I started with around 20-30 products but sent traffic to only 4.
 

samgrooms

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What's the interface between you and your dropshipper? I ask, because most dropshippers now interface directly with whatever platform you're using to sell your products. However, if you're approaching a vendor who doesn't currently dropship, like in your case, I'm wondering if there's additional cost for them to set this up, and how much that would be. Or are you sending your orders to them some other way?
 
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Sanj Modha

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What's the interface between you and your dropshipper? I ask, because most dropshippers now interface directly with whatever platform you're using to sell your products. However, if you're approaching a vendor who doesn't currently dropship, like in your case, I'm wondering if there's additional cost for them to set this up, and how much that would be. Or are you sending your orders to them some other way?

I can usually convert wholesalers into dropshipper with a few easy steps. They have the product and infrastructure in place so I sweeten the deal by sending a bunch of sales via purchase orders. I handle the leads, customer service and anything else. They ship the items. It's a win/win.

My VA handles the POs now. It's very easy.
 

welshmin

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I'm not on shopify, but interested in FB advertising,

What is your experience with the way facebook "optimises" ads over time. E.g. you may start with a high CPC but over a few days / week or two the CPC drops? Do you have any ways to help speed that up / make it more efficient?

Similarly, what kind of re-targeting methods do you use?
 

Sanj Modha

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I believe he did off of freelancer websites like fiverr

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I found my VA on Upwork.com - she's the best thing about my business. Simply outstanding at her job.
 

Sanj Modha

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I'm not on shopify, but interested in FB advertising,

What is your experience with the way facebook "optimises" ads over time. E.g. you may start with a high CPC but over a few days / week or two the CPC drops? Do you have any ways to help speed that up / make it more efficient?

Similarly, what kind of re-targeting methods do you use?

Don't focus on CPC. It really doesn't matter because FB charges you for CPM no matter how you slice the cake.

The way I look at FB - it's a big, dumb database. It needs information to crunch so that it can spit out leads, sales, conversions whatever you want to call it. That's down to you so whenever you launch campaigns, think about how you can help FB maximize your ad spend and ultimately makes sales.

I find that FB needs around 3 days to optimize before the ad settles down. Don't be alarmed by high CPM to begin with. Let FB do it's dance. That's generally for new products/ads/niches etc. For my best sellers - I can usually smash new ads out of the park because I know the product sells. I'm more brutal with chopping ads when I know the product is a success and I found more ways to scale up or out.
 
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RichyV

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Don't focus on CPC. It really doesn't matter because FB charges you for CPM no matter how you slice the cake.

The way I look at FB - it's a big, dumb database. It needs information to crunch so that it can spit out leads, sales, conversions whatever you want to call it. That's down to you so whenever you launch campaigns, think about how you can help FB maximize your ad spend and ultimately makes sales.

I find that FB needs around 3 days to optimize before the ad settles down. Don't be alarmed by high CPM to begin with. Let FB do it's dance. That's generally for new products/ads/niches etc. For my best sellers - I can usually smash new ads out of the park because I know the product sells. I'm more brutal with chopping ads when I know the product is a success and I found more ways to scale up or out.

There seems to be a lot of debate on running clicks to website first and then switching to oCPM for purchase conversions when the pixel has gained some data, vs running oCPM for purchase conversions right off the bat. What are your thoughts on this?
 

Sanj Modha

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There seems to be a lot of debate on running clicks to website first and then switching to oCPM for purchase conversions when the pixel has gained some data, vs running oCPM for purchase conversions right off the bat. What are your thoughts on this?

There's a big misconception about the FB Pixel and I was duped too. It doesn't store anything. It's a few lines of code that's triggered once the objective is achieved.

The pixel has only one job. That is to send conversion information back to FB. It doesn't "mature, optimize" or whatever people are saying about it. That's simply not true and I've had it confirmed by FB's developers.

It's FB that will use the information based on your parameters to optimize ads. Not the pixel. Most people have it the wrong way round.

To answer your question - I don't use oCPM. Haven't done so in years.
 

RichyV

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You've potentially just saved me a lot of money in testing, thanks.

I have been seeing far better results just using clicks to website vs optimising for purchase. But I wasn't sure if those were just isolated results on a new website and product.

So are you just using clicks to website mainly?
 
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Sanj Modha

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You've potentially just saved me a lot of money in testing, thanks.

I have been seeing far better results just using clicks to website vs optimising for purchase. But I wasn't sure if those were just isolated results on a new website and product.

So are you just using clicks to website mainly?

I optimize off whatever works. For some ads it's Add To Cart. For most it's Purchase. I don't bother with Page Views.
 

RichyV

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I optimize off whatever works. For some ads it's Add To Cart. For most it's Purchase. I don't bother with Page Views.

Test everything then I guess!

Thanks man.
 

Sanj Modha

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FreedomVibes

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Hi Sanj,

I have a question for you - do your products require any type of servicing after the sale? Or are they typically just sell and forget, with little follow up regarding the product after the sale (I guess non-electronics would fall into this category, which would require little help with installation/warranty issues)

Also, do you modify your products in any way to improve them?

Thank you very much.
 

Sanj Modha

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Hi Sanj,

I have a question for you - do your products require any type of servicing after the sale? Or are they typically just sell and forget, with little follow up regarding the product after the sale (I guess non-electronics would fall into this category, which would require little help with installation/warranty issues)

Also, do you modify your products in any way to improve them?

Thank you very much.

I like to sell products with the least moving parts and number of SKUs. So I tend to stay away from big electrical items and shoes. They're just a nightmare for me. I know a guy with a shoe store and although he's making millions - it's a big headache in terms of support/returns (women buy two of every pair and return one). I want an easy life.
 

eStan

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Hey Sanj, you're doing great! The magic million bucks is just around the corner. I'm getting into this space right now myself. I might be mistaken but I understand you're running this from outside US, right?

What payment method are you using? Shopify Payments? I know you can't really use it from outside USA.
 
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Sanj Modha

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Hey Sanj, you're doing great! The magic million bucks is just around the corner. I'm getting into this space right now myself. I might be mistaken but I understand you're running this from outside US, right?

What payment method are you using? Shopify Payments? I know you can't really use it from outside USA.

I use Stripe and Paypal. You can't use Shopify Payments outside of the US (right now) but I hear that's going to change soon. It's powered by Stripe but you get lower rates.

I like Stripe except for their disputes process. I lose more than I win. I never lose on Paypal.
 

eStan

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I use Stripe and Paypal. You can't use Shopify Payments outside of the US (right now) but I hear that's going to change soon. It's powered by Stripe but you get lower rates.

I like Stripe except for their disputes process. I lose more than I win. I never lose on Paypal.

Awesome! I think I'll just use Paypal for starters. Speaking about disputes, do you get that a lot? I assume it's mainly from people waiting too long for their products to ship.
 

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