Thinking of Going at Shopify Again - Thoughts?

Tools of the trade E-commerce
#1

Hi all,

For a little bit, I ran a small Shopify site, dropshipping rapper jewelry. I have experience in this industry, as I used to sell it on the street, and I’ve made good connections with foreign suppliers. I did everything solo, set up the site, and all was good. But I wasn’t creating traffic, sales, or maintaining the business, so shortly after, I closed down.

My friend, who I was working with at the time, saw me doing this, caught interest, and set up his own jewelry dropshipping site. It’s still up to this day, he’s maintaining it well, and he has a lot of money coming in.

Now when I search up “gold jewelry websites,” there are a ton of people mimicking this business plan, not only for Dropshipping but for local resale. But the money appears to be still there. My friend’s site is still up and prospering, in spite of the other hundred sites that have gone up to meet the market as well.

On Reddit, there is a forum where people speak from their entrepreneurial experiences. At least 3 times a week, there is a post about someone making $20k-50k a month from dropshipping some lame product(studded iPhone cases, socks, video game console skins, etc.).

A guy I currently work with used to have his own Shopify site. It was just a general store of goods. He was making decent money from this before he closed down and pursued other interests. He also tells me many stories of his friends doing the same thing and cashing out at good values.

'Nuff said: I’m thinking of opening up another Shopify to 'ship things around. I’m going to start with a smaller scale of inventory to ease myself into things this time.

Is anyone else Dropshipping right now? How is that going for you?

Based on the Reddit posts I’ve seen, niches seem to matter less and less - what really matters is your work ethic. Do you agree or disagree with this?

I used to be very research-and-preparation-heavy for niches, but considering the amount of lame products I’ve seen people selling, I don’t think that’s a huge factor anymore. People are clocking $50k a month with iPhone cases! That’s nuts! Do you think researching your niche is a big thing nowadays?

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#2

Sometimes I feel like the people claiming to make 50k a month are the people who also want to sell you courses…

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#3

That’s certainly a possibility.

However many of these Reddit posters are not pushing anything in their post or in the comments. They also show bank statements to confirm the money is there.

But additionally, I know people physically around me who are bankin with Shopify.

#4

Without being an expert at the field I do have massive faith in research. The more you know the better you can observe and adapt to trends

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#5

I also have a shopify store, will be ready in about 1-2 weeks (legal stuff is complicated in Germany), let’s keep eachother updated :wink:

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#6

Well, I will follow this thread closely since I am also very interested. Im in the process of starting up a shopify store with computer/gaming peripherals like keyboards, mouses (mice) etc. But am currently breaking my head over how to actually manage shipping and dealing with prices on the website.

Think we can discuss everything here or should we create some sort of app group?

Best,
Robbert

1 Like
#7

@StayStyled @robbertmarketing

If I had more time accessible, I would love to start a Discord group. As it currently stands, I have a full-time job + another business + another business. I’m trying to add another business on top of that now.

But don’t let me declining your propositions take away from the benefits of having a chat group like that. Discords can be really helpful for motivation and achieving a common goal, I know that from experience. If you guys start one, who knows, I might join one down the line, but for me, I have a shit ton of reading to do, questions to ask, and careers to determine(which is mostly happening irl), sorry guys.

This thread was really just a question thread - whether I should skip research. I’ll probably make another one if I even do end up launching and we can chat and collaborate then. At this stage, I’m gathering information and doing some cost-benefit analyses to see if this is what I really want to do.

@robbertmarketing - Look into
Dropshipping - Shopify - Oberlo
That’s what I’ll be using for my shop(if I start selling again).

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#8

What is the subreddit you mentioned?

#9

My partners looked into Oberlo and found that shipping would take ages and their prices were actually very high. Can you relate to that?

#10

You guys should definetly check out Gabriel St. Germain on Youtube, imo he’s actually sharing pure value, nothing like most gurus out there :smiley:

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#11

@Daenerys_Insta /r/entrepreneur - it’s honestly where I started with my Insta journey(found a short post on how to grow accounts loooong ago), the quality of the forum is probably substantially lower now, but there’s still some gold mines.

@robbertmarketing Yes I can relate,

Shipping fees or shipping times tend to take awhile. The best thing you can do when you run into issues with product or shipping is find new suppliers. Problem is, this can be time consuming, but if it works out, you can leverage it into better prices with your supplier, for their continued participation(and the promise to sell their product frequently). Try finding new people and ask for samples(order product first).

The landscape is always changing. My biggest supplier removed ePacket for a bunch of products. They had it before. Now that it’s gone, shipping now costs $60 USD instead of what it was previously, which was(iirc) under $10. So I either need to wait or start digging up new people for product.

@StayStyled I’ll look into him, I’ve been suggested some other guy’s videos first:

#12

Have you started this store? If yes, how have you been doing with it in the last couple of months?

#13

Physical stores sell $xxxx a week and they only have the city they are based in to promote their products to.

You have the whole world - so that is a great advantage to start…

#14

Just a tip for anyone reading this: Don’t do this. Build one business, optimize it, outsource most of it and then move on to the next. Don’t juggle 3-4 things at once…

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#15

Market is big but you also have whole world full of competition…

#16

As someone who has been burnt by doing this, you have my thanks for warning others.

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#17

Everything can work and nothing can work. It depends on you. Some people can handle doing multiple things at once and others can’t. There is no 1 objective law for work burn out.

For me, I’m fully capable of managing my businesses, and many of my friends who not only have multi side businesses but also high level jobs in the finance sectors are managing fine as well. I don’t have a reason to outsource anything and I’m always improving things. I have a well-balanced life and am happy.

That said, I have struggled with this before, and it can most definitely lead to heavy burnout. It just seemed to click this time.

#18

When you’re just starting out it is always better to focus on one thing at a time :slight_smile:

#19

you can no longer open a shopify store (or any online store) and make sales;

UNLESS:

You build brand credibility and traffic.

SEO, social media marketing and PPC is needed.

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#20

This is off topic. If you’d like to discuss work ethic, I’m sure there are a lot of other threads here. If not, you can create your own. Thanks. Let’s keep things related to the discussion, which has to do with Shopify and Instagram. :+1: