Dropshipping ecommerce – what, how, why? fraud?

I guess you have heard about dropshipping or even about dropsurfing and how easy it is to open your own ecommerce business from your laptop without having to invest in an inventory of products, ops, technology, warehouse or anything really, just by creating a beautiful Shoppify front store, connecting it to Oberloo or any other similar app, invest in advertisement and start “selling” whatever you chose to sell you can have your own e-commerce live.

For those of you who have been living under a rock (joking) and don’t know what im talking about Dropshipping ecommerce works by :

1. You designing and creating the front store of an online shop about the products you like. (most people use Shopify)
2. Using an app like Oberloo to select products that are already being produced and sold on diferent chinesse shops like Alibaba (Aliexpress) and it crawls (pulls) the photos and descriptions of the product to your front store. You just have to increase the price according to the margin you want to have and the average price of the product in the region you are aiming to sell .
3. “Pimping” the images, description and details so it is attractive to your market of choice. (US, Canada, Europe etc)
4. Creating some FB & google ads to bring buyers to your website
5. and start selling!! XD sounds simple and easy right? …

What this structure does is: once your first client buys a product from your front store the product is actually bought on the Chinese ecomm and it pulls your clients address so the chinese ecomm is the one sending the product directly to your client in US.

Sound easy and simple right? Well it kind of is, and that’s why there are so many doing it already.

But there is not enough information shared on the real fulltime job you would have to do to learn, design and invest in a marketing strategy for your store to be able to sell anything at all.

So I thought this would be perfect for me to try since I have tons if experience in real ecomms and deep experience in digital marketing.
And so, I did try it ! XD and built a ecomm of computer and worksetup accessories that looked really nice, and I was very proud of. I felt it was a beautiful ecommerce where people would love to purchase from just beacuse of the branding, and curated selection of beautifully designed useful desk setup products.
But I forgot about 1 little detail.. I am not passionate about making people “buy stuff” and spend their money in things that they might not really need, plus the footprint of shipping products from the other side of the world made no sense to my principles.
Every chance I get I am advising my friends and family to stop or reduce their level of consumption in every area of their life, save more invest and spend it on traveling but not on “things”. Also to try to “buy local” and value hand made products. But here I was trying to make money by selling people “unnecessary things”. By the end of the first week of my online store I didnt even understand how I had gotten there and why was I doing that, investing my time, energy and creativity in something I didn’t love or believed in. (big facepalm moment)

And on top of that the most common mistake is that (Just like me) the person behind the shopify “american looking store” has never seen, touched or used any of the chinese products they are selling and advertising at their store.
So 99% of the time, the products will be like all the memes we have seen making fun of “expectations vs reality” everytime someone buys a cheap product on Wish or Aliexpress.

Laugh with me at this two examples XD

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Thanks god, I learn and move fast, so I opened and closed my dropshipping ecommerce in less than 2 weeks. And decided to refocus my energy to something I would truly love and believed in.
Instead of looking out for “easy fast money” doing something I disliked and didn’t even believed in.

That is how I came up with my consulting company and workshops where I truly help businesses and people develop the right strategies for their businesses to grow and thrive.
Where I know that their money is being invested in something that at will bring them real development, growth and actually more money (real abundance) not just spent in random stuff but actually invested in something constructive.

My learning confirmation is:

If you are exploring ways of creating a business and making money;
Look for something that :

• You love to do
• You are good at
• Adds value
• The market needs

And work hard, I mean REALLY REALLY HARD, commit to it for long term, keep working hard and with time you Will SUCCEED.

Quick key advice: if your first motivation to do something is because it sounds “easy and fast” most likely you will fail .