Why Your Dropshipping Store Isn't Working (Episode 37)

Get your copy of Lewis’ new book - The Home-Turf Advantage ➡️ http://htabook.com?el=podcast 

🗣 ​​Hosts Lewis Smith and James Eardley tackle the perplexing question: "Why isn't my dropshipping store working?" If you've invested time and effort into your online store but the results are falling short of your expectations, this episode is a must-listen.

Lewis and James dive into the common pitfalls that can plague dropshipping entrepreneurs and provide valuable insights to get your store back on track.

👉 Prefer to watch this on Youtube? Check it out here  ➡️ https://youtu.be/bQRv6zAjhVU?si=iGkFhrWYntddEAvB

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Topics Discussed:

★ The importance of thorough groundwork before venturing into dropshipping.

★ The valuable lessons that can be gleaned from making mistakes and how they can shape an entrepreneur's journey.

★ Practical steps to reverse the damage and set a dropshipping store on the right path.

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Links and Resources Mentioned:

For Aspiring Business Owners or Side Hustle Seekers Based In the UK…

New Book Reveals How To Launch A Low-Maintenance High-Profit E-Commerce Business Using The UK "Home-Turf Advantage”…

While also enjoying more time with your family, being free to travel, and setting the hours you work.

Click here to get your copy >>> http://htabook.com?el=podcast 

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Links and Resources Mentioned:

Get Shopify for £1 a month for 3 months: https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/shopify 

Get a free trial with a professional phone line: https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/circle 

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Key Takeaways:

★ The Perils of Hasty Ventures: Rushing into dropshipping without thorough groundwork can lead to disappointment. Just as you wouldn't expect a smartphone to function without setup, a dropshipping store requires careful planning and strategy.

★ Common Mistakes: Discover the most frequent blunders that cause dropshipping stores to falter, including selecting the wrong products, relying on lengthy international shipping, and partnering with subpar suppliers.

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FOLLOW:

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• Website: https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/

Thank you for listening to the Dropship Unlocked Podcast! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform.

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Watch Our Free Training ➽ https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/training?el=podcast 

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★★★Dropship Unlocked - Lewis Smith★★★

How to Launch a UK Dropshipping Business Offering Next-Day Delivery...

...Even If You Don't Yet Know Which Products To Sell

🌏Watch Our Free Training ➽ https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/traini

Transcript

Lewis Smith: 0:00

You know, making sales because you can have an amazing store, great customer service, great website, great ads even. And you're like, why am I not making sales and learn

James Eardley: 0:08

all this before you go and build a drop shipping store, and then you prevent all of those mistakes happening and you prevent the banging your head on the wall feeling when your dropshipping store isn't working.

Lewis Smith: 0:17

We need to change tactics because whatever we've been doing that's got us to this point clearly isn't working. And we

James Eardley: 0:23

learn so much more from mistakes than we do from success. That's how your business can grow.

Lewis Smith: 0:28

What got you to the point your art might not be the thing that will get you to the point of profitability, you might need to adapt and pivot but that's okay. You don't need to be hard on yourself for making that mistake. That's just part of the journey.

James Eardley: 0:40

When you try and figure out on your own, it ends up being a lot more costly and time consuming before working out.

Lewis Smith: 0:47

A real hack with this one that allows us to save years of our own mistakes and time and effort and 1000s of pounds of our own money on things that we'll probably waste on testing those those mistakes again and again and trying to learn from them. Is you just Well, welcome to the dropship unlocked podcast your key to unlocking the secrets of high ticket dropshipping. I'm Louis Smith, founder of dropship unlocked and with me is our Client Success Coach James Early. Now when we're not recording podcast episodes, we're running our own e commerce businesses and helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own high ticket drop shipping businesses. So if you're ready to learn how to build your own six, or even seven figure business, pick up a copy of my book, the home turf advantage, whether you're looking to replace your income, or launch a side hustle. I wrote this book as a roadmap to help you launch a low maintenance, high profit ecommerce business that gives you the freedom to spend more time with your family, travel the world and work on your own terms, ready to join us visit HT a book.com To get your copy today. Now sit back, relax and let's unlock your potential with a dropship unlocked podcast.

James Eardley: 2:06

Do you feel like you've poured time, money and effort into building a drop shipping store. But the results you're getting just aren't adding up? Perhaps you started by researching online, how to make money online, you discovered drop shipping, you built your first store. But the results they're just not what you expected or what you were told. Well, today Louis and I are going to be diving deep into the world of drop shipping so he can answer that nagging question. Why isn't my store working? Stay with us until the end of this episode as we unravel the mysteries behind the success not being there that you want to see, so that by the end of this episode, you will potentially be able to transform your dropshipping journey. So Louis, let's start at the beginning. Who do we think this episode is especially relevant for what

Lewis Smith: 2:51

we've created this episode today for those who've hopped onto the dropshipping bandwagon as it were, without potentially having done the sufficient level of groundwork that might be needed to sometimes these are things that don't emerge as problems until we're already in the business model, we realize, ah, maybe I didn't have the answers that I thought I would need by this point. You know, it's like when you get a new phone, you know, go and pick up the new iPhone or a new Samsung phone or whatever, and you open it up and you have the phone, ie the model. But perhaps they say oh, you have to log into your account before you can use it or you know, the battery's flat, you know, you need to do a software update. There's like a kind of an unexpected problem that stops us from being able to get the full use out of the model. So it's it's kind of the equivalent thing with business models is easy to be swayed by every new trend that you see out there on the internet. So today's episode is designed to try to help focus those that are already maybe a couple of steps into their journey already and try and help them figure out maybe why it's not quite the way that they anticipated and how potentially they could course correct to get to the point where you're up and running profitable. And you run a nice, simple, easy business. I was in Greece a few weeks ago. And I was going out for a run each morning kind of along this road to the runs parallel with the beach. And it's a nice like Sandy path. It was really early this like the sun's rising over the mountains, it was really scenic, nicer, nice place to run in the morning. And as I was running down, there was like a row of really nice villas, and there was this kind of big house with a gate. And every morning as I'd run past it, the same dog would hear me coming and would bark and would come to the gate and like the fence of the villa and would chase me from one side of it all the way up to the other obviously couldn't get out of the house that would do that for me. And then I'd see other people walk past later would do the same thing. And it just reminds me it's like, we get so excited like the dog in the villa when we see a shiny new thing or a new personal there's a new YouTube video about a cool new business model and AI and like, you know, all these new apps just been released for Shopify and that that'll become my business model. And it's really easy to become the Excel It is a barking dog that chases people from one side to the other. But sometimes we get exhausted and we don't actually get anywhere with it. And we see the video about the flashy new business model, we chase it, we jump in, and we realize that maybe once we're there, and once we have the bare bones of that business model up and running, we realize our the advice that they gave doesn't quite pan out. Or maybe it? I don't know, there's just a few questions. But obviously, it was just a YouTube video. So I can't ask them the answers to those things, you know, or perhaps it's just, oh, this works. But I don't see how this would work in the UK market where business is a little bit different to run. And the way businesses operate, is slightly different, you know, the laws, the the taxes, things like that. So, yeah, it's just ensuring that if you find yourself chasing these business models, today's episode, hopefully should try and focus the mind and say, the model of dropshipping works. But there are different variations of it. And so we can try to data to help you course correct if you're finding that you've run into problems down the line with it. And then

James Eardley: 6:01

the level of depth that I think you need to get to whatever business model you go into, to get the success you want. You can't just do the surface level research and the service level attempts, you've really got to go deep. And hopefully, we'll be able to achieve that with today's episode. And also, I know we make these episodes with our past selves in mind. So I was definitely in that shoes a couple of years ago, where I jumped into a dropshipping store. And it wasn't working. And I needed content like this to be able to pick myself up from that initial failure, learn what I was doing wrong, and then get to the success that I've seen today. So hopefully, we're gonna catch people at that exact time. And Louis, I know you've now coached hundreds of people in the dropship unlock masterclass. So I'm sure you've seen similar mistakes happening, potentially when people before they joined the program, or if they're in the program. So you'll start to see patterns as to why people with stores may not be working. So I'm hoping we can pick up on that and really get into the most common reasons today. So with that in mind, there is what would you say are the most common reasons why a dropshipping store isn't working for people? Sure.

Lewis Smith: 7:05

So the we'll go through some of the common problems. But I guess something important to mention is we see these problems happen time and time again, or have happened previously, when people do join us. And so what we've tried to do with the masterclasses curate kind of answers and get ahead of those problems becoming problems by just the guidance that we provide throughout the program. So each of these things that I'm about to mention is more commonly seen as an issue that someone's facing prior to joining. Because when they then go through the model, you'll see how each of these problems almost gets just dismantled and isn't a problem anymore because of the process that we go through. So that kind of come to life, as I explained the examples a bit more. And but the first one is choosing the wrong products. And it's funny when I was in on holiday, a couple years ago, I was in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and we're on the beach and there was this guy who was like lugging this huge chest of something down the beach like this Pujol almost like a polystyrene white container on a trolley. And I think of what was going on, we seem to have like a crowd of people swarming around him. And I realized he had these huge chests of ice. And in the ice he had like water, cold beers, coconuts, like all the stuff that clearly exhausted or dehydrated, hot, you know, sweaty and dehydrated people on the beach are going to want right. So he knew his market very, very clearly imagine he'd been going down there and instead of ice scenario had a load of like woolly hats and scarves and gloves and stuff. Clearly he he has more product, he would have products that might be popular in other parts of the world. But right there, that is not what that demographic would have wanted. So I think that's the thing. It's just making sure that you know that you have demand for what you're selling, which as I mentioned at the beginning, that's something that we would check with data as a criteria before you went into any products. But it's easy. When people first joined us, they sometimes might think that they have a product in mind, but they haven't done that research ahead of time. And by doing that, it will save you later on wondering why you're not making sales because you can have an amazing store great customer service, great website, great ads even you know, like why am I not making sales and it's because there wasn't demand there. It's much easier to serve existing demand that's already there than it is to try to drum up interest in generate new demand from scratch. You know, if the guy is going down the beach trying to convince people why like you definitely in the winter will want a pair of gloves or hat or whatever it is just not yet. It's gonna be much more of an uphill struggle for him, isn't it? So the other thing is heavily relying on shipping from abroad. That's the one that we see time and time again, leading to longer delivery times. And ultimately the secondary cost of that is usually the dissatisfaction that customers experience because of the longer shipping times which then leads to poor reviews, and it tarnishes the reputation of your brand in the long term. It's, you know, we live in a world now of instant gratification. And it's so frustrating, isn't it when we need to wait, I was sitting with my, my two sons one and two years old. So you can imagine what it's like. Sometimes I just need to put movie on a tray and like calm things down in the house sometimes. And they were watching the Pixar movie cars. They're the down Disney plus. And so we're sitting there watching that. And halfway through the movie, the internet cuts out absolute carnage. Like they did not know what's happened to that, obviously, it's my fault. So they're like dad fix it, or why is the internet or not work, I was not not saying those words. But like, Dad, fix it, put it back on. And I'm like, I don't know what's happened like the internet's just gone down. And it's, it's an insight into the mind of the next generation, because they're wanting to now but one day, there'll be adults. And if that's baked in from such an early age that like in the world of internet, instant streaming, instant gratification, it's going to be really difficult for people to be patient in the future, I think. And so, you know, without Amazon now if I need something like new ink cartridges for the printer or something, I'll go on order them. And they'll usually be here the same evening with same day delivery, right. And so it's the same thing with our own customers without ecommerce stores, they might wait for 30 days, but how they're going to feel when the product arrives. 30 days later, from China to America, it's even like, you know, 15 days or seven days, yeah, you hear some people say, Oh, you can get it much faster than that now, but it's still not a great experience is it? So that's the other thing, making sure that you're working with suppliers that can offer fast delivery. But delivery is just one part of it. The quality of the suppliers also matters hugely as well to the long term, longevity of your brand. So working with poor quality suppliers, you can have everything else right, you know, that we said about this in the last example, but you could have your business website looking spot on your ads are looking great, everything's working. But if the supplier that then sends the product out is of poor quality, it's going to be a really disappointing experience. I quite enjoy going to the cinema and watching movies and I don't know if you know the the chain everyman cinema, they're kind of dotted around these like high end luxury cinemas, we've got one local to where I live. And I've been to a few times, and you know, I appreciate good movie experience. And the interesting thing that I find when I go there is that the food is good, right? So it's like they bring the food to your seat. It's like restaurant quality food. It's amazing, the drinks are nice, they're popcorns, real, like posh popcorn, it's really nice. But then the screen itself, which is kind of the only thing that you really care about in the cinema, is tiny. And unlike what I don't know, it leaves me not having the same experience that I could have had if I had gone to the IMax cinema, and not had the fancy food or the fancy popcorn or the recliner chair or whatever. And I would probably prefer that because the quality of the product, the actual film, the thing that I was going there to watch would have been better. So I think that that that is the same with our examples. Nowadays, we could have great ads, we could have a great site, we can have great customer service, but then if they get let down by the final product, ie the film on the screen isn't up to scratch, then that's what they'll remember that will be their lasting experience of our brand. And they'll tell other people about that. And that's what affects our reputation. And it's easy

James Eardley: 13:15

to get carried away and forgetting about the fundamentals of your business. And I think what's a common thing that that I see and that I do myself is focusing on perfection, there's that that amount of time that you spend perfecting your store, or perfecting the product page. And what you're doing is lovely and amazing. You're optimizing the photos, which might get you some 1% gains here and there for your conversion rate. But the real difference that will be made to the long term business health is the quality of the products that you're selling. The delivery time is really the macro things that you've mentioned here there is in the first the first things that you bring up as the most common mistakes. And we're talking about real fundamentals. And I think often what we're alluding to is that prevention is better than cure. And that's the way that you approach the masterclass, don't allow people to go down the route where you put all this effort into a store that ultimately you need to overhaul. Instead, learn all this before you go and build a drop shipping store. And then you prevent all of those mistakes happening and you prevent the banging your head on the wall feeling when your dropshipping store isn't working. I love that approach that you've got. And it's very clear in the massive crash that you teach. But mistakes are inevitable. And also there's a lot of value in learning from those mistakes. So yeah, would you agree with that? Do you think that the mistakes that we make a made for a reason?

Lewis Smith: 14:32

Yeah, absolutely. Our mistakes are our best teachers from from the outset of our journey. They're like the the gym session for entrepreneurs. It's where we go, you know, no pain, no gain, as they say that's how we are going to grow. In fact, you know with them, you can tell that I've got kids movies on the mind at the moment, you know, at the end of like these animated movies like Toy Story, things like that. At the end, they'll often show a blooper reel, right which is supposed to be the mistakes In like previously recorded movies, they would be the times where the actors fluffed their lines and there were bloopers. But they're actually making these now from scratch, because obviously, an animated film is not going to have bloopers and baking them into the content. So it's almost like they're celebrating their mistakes, because the mistakes are the funny thing that brings it to life that makes it a fun journey for everybody to watch in it, it brings the story to life. And so I think we need to embrace our failures. As part of our story. Imagine we're watching our life back as an entrepreneurial journey back as a movie, you don't want it to just be completely smooth sailing, because you'd always fear like, what happens when something goes wrong, if you can embrace into that, oh, yeah, that failed that flopped, I, here's what I learned from it, you're going to be so much better equipped later on, to understand. And also be aware of the things that, you know, like, for example, if a customer receives the wrong product on your store, is probably going to happen, right? At some point in your journey, something's gonna go wrong in your process, the VA might follow the wrong order, or your email system might cut out or maybe just the supplier gets it wrong. And like you had a SKU code and product code, like typo on your store. So it happens, right? We're human. But if you can call this you realize it's happened, right? You call the supplier is their equal the customer. It's a Mr. Customer, or Mrs. Customer, I'm really sorry about this, it is totally my bad. I'm the business owner, let me rectify this for you, you know, we'll we'll arrange the product to be replaced for the one that you did want. And maybe we'll even throw in a free gift for you to say sorry, they will often be happier than had everything just gone smoothly. But what it then does for you as well, because they felt such like a level of concierge service, you know, where it was, like, personalized from the business owner. But also what that does is it allows you to then figure out okay, what happened here and analyze that post mortem, the the issue that that occurred and figure out what went wrong? And how do we put a step into the process to ensure it doesn't go wrong in future. So we put in a sense check, maybe every time a product comes through, we double check it against our price list, is the SKU the same is the price the same to the supplier have it Okay, great before it goes out, please give us you know, the chance to say yeah, approved and then it goes out, then it doesn't happen again. Now, so we had one temporarily unhappy customer in that example. But if that means that we can then iron out the problem from ever occurring again, for all of the 1000s of customers, we can in future. The real problem there is actually probably if we don't get that mistake in the first place, or if we don't learn from it. If that happens, and then we're like, Okay, well, hopefully it won't happen again. And it just keeps happening. That's that's on us as entrepreneurs, that's the issue. It's so true, we

James Eardley: 17:37

learn so much more from mistakes than we do from success. That's how your business can grow is when you identify mistake, if there's no mistakes, yeah, you'd have some success, but you'd never have the deep understanding of why you're succeeding. So actually, the mistakes we made a very valuable. It's just being able to accept the mistakes you're making, and then accept help, and try and work out how you can improve and looking at it in the right way, I

Lewis Smith: 17:58

think is the key. Exactly. Yes, they shape our entrepreneurial journey, they are the things that help us refine our strategies. And so they're our biggest advantage. You know, it'd be boring if the whole thing was just smooth sailing. So we have to accept from the outset, there will be bumps in the road, it will be a bumpy ride at times. But that's okay, we're up for the journey. You know, imagine even huge companies like Microsoft with Windows or Apple or Google with Android, they're always releasing software updates, right? And why do you think that is, is because they've learned from their mistakes, they found the bugs, they fix them, they've found that there's ways of optimizing the speed of increasing, making features better that maybe they made mistakes with before, they're always evolving and improving the software that they've released. So if they're still doing it, and evolving constantly, then of course, we would want to be doing it as well, we can do the same thing. Along our E commerce journeys as well, we find the mistakes, we put the patches in place, you know, the equivalent to the software updates or update processes, like we've talked about to prevent those things happening again. But the important thing is we learn from them, and we keep moving ahead. So if that's tracking your numbers, because maybe you had an order that wasn't profitable, okay, well, that won't happen again. Because now we'll do a price check. We'll go through make sure we've got our correct profit margin assigned, you know, or if it's a customer support query, maybe your virtual assistants said the wrong thing. Okay, perfect. That's a training step we need to implement in their journey now so that they understand the way to respond to that type of request in future or, like we talked about the order fulfillment example, if the customer hasn't received the order, or they got the wrong order, then that's another thing that we can optimize and improve in future. I think, a real hat with this one that allows us to save years of our own mistakes and time and effort and 1000s of pounds of our own money on things that we'll probably wasted on testing those those mistakes again and again and trying to learn from them, is you just learn from other people's mistakes instead of follow a step by step process. If you can get inside a community of other people. have made hundreds of mistakes already. And learn from those, instead of just diving in and hoping that I'll figure it all out alone, because you might, but it might take you years and be very expensive. And

James Eardley: 20:10

we can say from experience, when you try and figure it out on your own, it ends up being a lot more costly and time consuming before working out. So if you can get yourself into a community, it's such a head start, and a shortcut to success. And you sort of realize that people are making mistakes all the time, and you realize that that's just inevitable path to get to the success that you want. There is some sources out there online that try and paint dropshipping as being an easy route or a fast way to make a lot of money. It's not the case, there are going to be mistakes along the way, you're gonna have to learn as you go. And hopefully, I know, Louis, you're very clear with portraying that all the time that we're just going to be constantly improving, or follow a program that we trust. And then inevitably, you'll get to the success, as long as you view the mistakes in the right way, and you learn from them and continually improve. And that's how you really make the big gains, I believe over the long term of a business. So for people that are listening, and perhaps they have had the the mistakes, and the store isn't working like they're expecting it to, how would you suggest that they can correct course, from this position?

Lewis Smith: 21:12

Well, you might need to switch your business model. You know, imagine your halftime in a football match. And you're one kneel down at halftime, right? But it's only halftime. That doesn't mean that you've lost, right? You come in for the halftime team talk, you speak to the manager, they sit you down and they say right, we need to change tactics. Because whatever we've been doing that's got us to this point, clearly isn't working. We've all seen teams who have that inspirational, uplifting, halftime team talk come out, and then dominate in the second half, because they changed their model, they changed the tactics and the strategies, and they end up winning the match three world or for what? Right. So that's something that you have to be open to that what got you to the point your art might not be the thing that will get you to the point of profitability, you might need to adapt and pivot. But that's okay. You don't need to be hard on yourself for making that mistake. That's just part of the journey. We all do it I definitely made those mistakes when I first started. But if I could speak to my former self, I'd say Don't be too proud to adapt, Don't be too stubborn to learn. There's no pride in just continuing to get it wrong, because you want to be proven that you are right the first time there really is no benefit to that. The other thing is just focusing on UK suppliers and quality UK suppliers at that the benefit of a quality supplier really can make the world of difference to you to your business, to your enjoyment to your customers enjoyment and therefore, to the brand reputation to your reviews to your profitability to the amount like there's this positive feedback flywheel that just happens when you do the thing that is provide the IMAX screen in the cinema for the experience, like we talked about, you know, people come to your store for the product. Yes, the service, the site, the ads is great, but really is the product. If that's the bit that lets us down, we're missing a huge trick, you know, I've traveled to the supermarket. So my tip where I've lived over the years for the right coffee, you know, because I like my coffee in the morning. And so I've bought all the different pods out there, or the different blends of different ground coffee, or the machines I've bought, I've tried them. But nothing compares to going into a really good coffee shop with a professional barista, and having them make you an amazing coffee. I just in my experience, it's at that point that I realized why a premium supplier makes the difference. Because I was just splitting hairs with the other stuff, I was just trying to find, you know, a workaround that was cheaper, that was faster. But actually it changes the whole experience, I would go there and pay quadruple the price to just sit in there and have that nice experience where the product I know every time will be amazing. And it's the same for the customers on our store when we switch from these low quality wholesalers or low quality products drop shipped in from China like everyone else is doing. And customers are just so used to getting this terrible experience. Suddenly, we switch to using UK suppliers and they get the products within a couple of days. It's night and day, there's so much happier and so much more fulfilled and positive with the experience that they got. Finally, it's about reevaluating your product choices. So you might have already chosen products that are in demand that meet all of the different criteria that we talked about in the home turf advantage model. But you might be in a position where you're like, actually, am I heading down the beach in Rio currently with a chest full of woolly scarves and hats, you know, do the things that I'm wanting to sell at the moment? Are they in demand? Definitely. The is a difficult question to answer because sometimes we're so passionate or wedded to the products that we think will sell and they might be great products. But if there's not adequate demand from people raising their hand saying that they want to buy them already, you could make your life so much easier by simply switching the type of products that you're selling to avoid that disappointment and do that research that demand upfront and that's something that we do obviously inside the home save advantage model to avoid that disappointment down

James Eardley: 24:56

the way to prevent instead of have to cure a bad situation down the line. It's so key to have it set up from the very start, I think and that's I'm so grateful for you to make sure I went down the right product niche from the very start as soon as I joined the dropship masterclass. But yeah, I think one of the main benefits of actually dropshipping is the flexibility that we have. So if you're in a position where your store isn't working, and is not working out how you expected, this is an amazing reason to be within the world of drop shipping, because we can switch so quickly. We haven't got 1000s of pounds tied up of stock in a warehouse somewhere, keeping us tied to that business, you can very quickly just switch. And as I went from selling cheap trending products from AliExpress, I swept overnight, I turned that store off, turn the ads off and I went down a different route. It doesn't need to be something you prolong make the most of the benefit of drop shipping and the flexibility. And it was amazing that I could do that switching in just the course of the day. So for people that are ready to gain a competitive edge, Louis or they're ready to make a switch. Have you got any resources that you guide them to immediately?

Lewis Smith: 26:03

Yeah, well, there's definitely an episode of the podcast that we did on this specific topic. So have a listen to episode 11, which is titled The full guide to start drop shipping in the UK, how we did it. So we dive in that episode really, really deep into understanding the UK specific dynamics that are out there. So yeah, if you're thinking about how would I do this model? How would I adapt? Maybe you're two steps into your journey. Maybe it's half time and you're one no doubt at the moment, you're thinking how do I make that switch? Dive into Episode 11 of the dropship unlocked podcast and you won't be disappointed?

James Eardley: 26:37

Perfect plug. Yeah, I'm glad I asked. That is a very popular episode, actually, as well. So definitely out there for anyone to watch after finishing this episode, of course, final words of advice for those people that are going through going through it at the moment having a bit of a difficult time.

Lewis Smith: 26:51

Yeah, don't be disheartened by it. Remember that the mistakes that you've made up to this point will feature in your bloopers reel at the end of your entrepreneurial movie, right, your journey. So it's all part of that journey, you've got to celebrate them can't Don't take yourself too seriously. At times, just think, Okay, I've made a few mistakes here and there. Don't be disheartened by them. Remember, the only way that they become catastrophic and stop us is if we fail to learn from them. And we decide to discontinue moving forward or just to stop in our tracks. Remember, even Apple and Google and Microsoft are still releasing software updates. So they are admitting that they're constantly patching up mistakes and improving things that they could have done previously. So if the big companies are doing it, we absolutely are okay to be doing it too. It's just part of that business evolution cycle, trying to stay updated, be flexible to new ideas, be open minded, you know, ecommerce is ever evolving. It's not the same as it was five years ago, even now. So if you're kind of staying rigid, and you're just like, No, this is the model that I want to see through to completion. It, you'll be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole as they say like it will become frustrating. And there's no pride and no benefit to remaining stubborn to see through an idea that might be flawed from the outset. So try and seek mentorship, try and engage in continuous learning, open up to new ideas, and try and get around a tribe of other people on your same path because the journey can be pretty lonely on your own. And it's certainly very costly if you're just going it alone and trying to figure it out by chance and stumble across the right solutions. And there's really no need to because those exist. Just a quick heads up. If you'd like to share your questions, stories, successes or challenges, you can email us directly at podcast at dropship unlocked.com. And you never know we might even feature you on the next podcast episode.

James Eardley: 28:41

Also, if you want access to today's show notes or any of the resources we've mentioned in the episode today, then head over to dropship unlocked.com forward slash podcast. We also have a small favor to ask if you if you enjoyed the show so far, you could take a minute to leave us a rating and review on your podcast platform of choice.

Lewis Smith: 28:57

You wouldn't believe how much your reviews help us grow the podcast. We'll even read out some of our favorites on the next episode. So if you want to be featured on the show, please do go ahead and leave us a review today. Thanks so much for your support. We really couldn't do it without you. And we absolutely love hearing what you think of the podcast.

James Eardley: 29:11

So we've had a question in from a listener, which I'm going to ask to you now Louis on the podcast. So thank you to Chris M for commenting on one of our recent YouTube videos. And this question is perfect for the podcast. So I'm going to pose it to you now Louis. So Chris M has asked, is it not drying up out there when approaching dropshipping suppliers, ie our suppliers now inundated with drop shippers each week, so it becomes increasingly difficult to get anything going or to get any new suppliers signed up. Yeah,

Lewis Smith: 29:41

thanks for your question. Chris says funny I remember that exact type of question being posted on forum boards when I was first researching drop shipping back in like 2016 2017. So it's so funny like if I had read into the I guess, the common narrative out there that like oh no the markets now start strated dropshipping is dead, you know it all the suppliers are taken out, I wouldn't have earned 5 million pounds in sales over the last few years with my own drop shipping business and then millions of pounds for all of our clients and members businesses as well, because we would have all just bought into the myth the lie that yeah, no, it's done. Right. So the same themes are always reoccurring. But actually, the interesting thing is, there are probably more suppliers there today. I mean, there's definitely more suppliers there today available than There even were back then. So the opposite is actually true. It's the inverse. Because the more that the E commerce sector grows, the more suppliers will start up and come into business and start being out there. And obviously, that's not even mentioning that the demand itself for ecommerce product, especially after what happened a few years ago, where the whole world shut down. Like everybody's buying stuff online. Now though, it's not just a certain demographic, like everybody is now confident with it. So I'll try and address this by highlighting a few key points. The first to understand is that there's such a breadth and depth of suppliers might seem like these are real, like unicorns that you have to find. But there are 1000s upon 1000s of suppliers in so many hundreds and 1000s of different niches, you know, new ones are constantly emerging. And so many of them are yet to even be discovered by dropshippers. Because maybe they haven't even been approached by they haven't been asked about doing drop shipping, maybe that's just something they haven't been approached by, but they'd be totally open to it, because it's a new form of revenue for their business. So that's definitely something to consider. The other thing is that every retailer, so us as ecommerce sellers, were unique to our approach and our offering can be unique, you know, it's not just about us all selling a product and just being like, okay, that's, that's it, I'm just selling a product. Remember, we build value, we create value, what can we bring to the table? That's like a unique selling point for us? What's our, what sets us apart? In our branding? The customer experience the unique selling proposition? Is it something to do with being a family run business or being eco friendly? Or being, you know, supporting a certain charity? Like, what are the things that set us apart? Both in the eyes of suppliers who say, that sounds like a really nice retail? Yeah, I'm gonna partner with them. And I'm very confident they know this stuff, because they have the right script, the right, you know, marketing strategy. And they'll definitely generate me a lot more revenue. But also customers who land on your store and think, yeah, this is a retailer that I like I'd like to buy with, because I buy into their brand I buy into their ethos and their company story accom a, when that happens, and there's a situation of that resonance between retailer and customer. You'll be so surprised that customer doesn't look elsewhere. Even if the products cheaper. They've made up their mind. That's the one I've seen it 10 times now on retargeting ads I buy into this company, I trust them. I've seen the good reviews and buying it, even if it's 100 pounds cheaper on another site that has no reviews, and it has no backstory and ranks on page five of Google, right. So it's, I think it's just having that abundance mindset that there's sales out there for everybody, you just need to carve yourself a tiny slice of that pie. And you have a huge business that could do hundreds of 1000s in sales per year. So the thing that we've curated at dropship unlocked is this unique method, the home turf advantage. So it's not just your generic email blast technique. Instead, we're focusing on building relationships with genuine suppliers and showcasing that professionalism and that brand story. Now what that does is it makes you stand out from the sea of generic requests that the suppliers might be receiving, you know, from just like standard templates, many of our members have actually met their suppliers I know I certainly have James definitely has met their suppliers in person. So we give our members with phone scripts, the email scripts, to adapt even the Zoom script as well, to adapt and build that trust with suppliers because people buy from people and if they buy into you as a human, and they liked your story, they trust you. And they believe that you can help grow their brand and give good service to their customers. That's all that matters. You know, so the suppliers, behind the human or behind the business, there is a human but the remember the businesses are just there to there. They are the suppliers, our businesses, they're constantly seeking new opportunities to grow. And if that means partnering with new retailers to show their products to even more people, then a lot of these suppliers will have like their own targets set to them by their bosses where there'll be like I need to onboard a new retailer this month. And because I've got to reach my sales target, so you can show them that you are the person to do that and increase their sales. They'll be very, very interested. And another couple of points to add to this Chris, just in case you you're still feeling that there might be doubts there. Suppliers are in the market for serious partners, right? So if you approach them with a clear plan, and you showcase that there's actually a mutual benefit in you to working together, you'll find that many of them are not only open, but actually they're pretty eager to onboard new promising retailers like yourself. So yeah, I'd say in a nutshell Chris that while I can see how you might think On the surface that, you know, our dropshipping seems crowded or saying, Our there's a lot of websites out there, do you think there's really room for another website on the internet? Right? When you put it like that it starts to break down as an argument, doesn't it? Art? There's a lot of videos already on YouTube. Do you think there's room for another video on YouTube? Like the amount of millions of videos that are getting uploaded every month on to YouTube is crazy, right? So I think we have to look at it like that and see the internet as this expanding opportunity. There's always room for those who come prepared quick with the right strategies and have an understanding of the value that they can bring. It's it's really about the quality, not just the quantity that's out there. What can we do differently to set ourselves apart? So I hope that puts your mind at ease, Chris?

James Eardley: 35:45

Yeah, plenty there for Chris to consider. So thank you so much. It's a great question, Chris. I think I had the exact same question before I started three to the two or three years ago, I think people two or three years time will have the same question. Again, it's such a common question to be worried about the competition. I think for me, it came from a scarcity mindset of thinking, if a supplier had signed with one retailer and they weren't signed with another, then you realize that that's absolutely not the case. And there's an abundant world out there. Hundreds of niches 1000s of niches 1000s of suppliers within every niche, and you realize that there's so much opportunity for you to don't hold yourself back. Because it's such a common question, we've actually gone into real detail even more than Louis's answer there on an episode, which is episode number 32. Called is dropshipping too competitive. So if you haven't caught that one already, check that one out. And that should put that question to bed. So you'll be able to keep pushing on with your journey. So now we're also going to highlight a review that's coming from a listener of the podcast. So thank you very much, two forms. And he's left his review, or she's left their review on Apple podcasts. So thank you very much for your review. I'll share it with you now, Louis. So far, we've said, I'm impressed by these guys and love that they've really walked the walk and had the guts to go out and make mistakes, which now we get to learn from definitely recommended for me. Amazing. Well, thanks

Lewis Smith: 37:01

very much for your review forms. Yeah, we definitely have made the mistakes a lot of them and continue to do so as well as so I'm really glad to hear that you're finding value in us sharing those those stories and those journeys as well. Because if you can benefit from it, then it saves you hopefully making a few of those mistakes along the way too. If today's episode has resonated with you, or if any of our discussions have sparked a thought or two, would you leave a review. While it might seem like a simple act, that you might just do it a few seconds, and then think nothing more about for the rest of your day, it makes a significant difference for us, because each review helps us tailor our content better. And that ensures that we provide more value to you as our audience, but also the more feedback we receive. It's nice, it's nice to hear. And so the more we're then driven to elevate the quality of our content and continue doing what we're doing at an even higher level for you. Do let us know as well, what's working for you. What topics resonate? Are there any aha moments that you've had where you think that's it, the light bulb just went on? You can drop us a quick review on whichever platform you're tuning in from and we'd love to hear from you. And for our YouTube viewers, then please leave us a comment below this video. Your thoughts don't just fuel our purpose, but we might even spotlight your insights on an upcoming episode soon. And lastly, if our deep dive into the hurdles and solutions for dropshipping stores has helped you then consider sharing your knowledge pass this episode on to a friend or a loved one, because it could be the thing that changes the course of the rest of their lives. And they'd have you to thank

James Eardley: 38:30

thanks for joining us on this episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. We hope you found the discussion both inspiring and entertaining. If you're ready to begin your own high ticket dropshipping

Lewis Smith: 38:39

journey then here's what to do next. I've taken all of the years of my own experience both of running my E commerce businesses and teaching hundreds of others how to do the same and I've condensed it all into my book, the home turf advantage. It's your comprehensive guide designed to help you create your own ecommerce business and you can grab your copy today at H T A

James Eardley: 39:00

book.com. Stay connected by subscribing to the podcast. This way you'll never miss an episode packed with valuable insights. And if you enjoyed what you heard today, please leave us a review. Your feedback motivates us and we love sharing our favorite reviews on future episodes. And thank you for deciding to spend your time with us today. We

Lewis Smith: 39:16

really appreciate you and we look forward to sharing more high ticket dropshipping insights with you on our next episode of the dropship unlocked podcast.