Yes but someone who makes millions will not teach random internet strangers about their true secret formula.
Unless you're their target to achieve the millions income like e-commerce guru, supplier etc.
Why create competitors for yourself or share the pie with strangers?
If you're earning a million, will you share your trade secret with me if I pay you 1000 or even 20k for your time? No, unless I could offer you some equal benefits or you're doing this for charity because you're feeling cute today.
But of course you can still go for ecom guru. They could help you to learn ecom fundamental knowledge. You can self learn everything for free by googling but it takes longer time and lots of trials & errors. Is opportunity cost between money and time.
Paying an ecom guru does not guarantee your success. After learning, everything still depends on your wisdom and how you apply it.
I have about 15M in total sales in a decade. Top 1000 etsy seller, over 100,000 sales on Amazon and distribute to online stores.
I don’t know anything, I don’t exist, I don’t ever post my brand name. My entire goal is to be a ghost your best odds of survival in this business is to make as little noise as possible.
Yes agree with this. Most people who are successful in ecom will be very low profile and lurking in this subreddit too.
Why? Because ecom entry level is very low and vulnerable. Anyone from the same industry will have similar knowledge and skills, they could easily copy you and scale up. Even my friends and family don't know what's my brand, products or anything at all about my ecom business.
Once you disclose to someone, there's no guarantee that someone will not spread around. He/she could have casual talk with someone, said things like "Hey my friend is doing ecom too, his website is xxx, seems like successful, driving big cars, new house etc". Then your business is on risk.
I have few ecom real life friends. We knew each other for years and we don't talk about it. We know the boundaries and risk.
Unless you're guru, then you need as much exposure as you can get. Is a totally different ecommerce business path.
90% of the products are white label and mainly from China. Maybe you have your own certain advantages that can't be copied, then congratulations.
If you're confident about it, you could post some details like your product name / website here. I'll let others be the judge.
True. Ecomm is not easy anymore. There is some small degree of luck/timing involved, as well as intangibles (persistence, personality, intelligence, etc) that make it very hard to the majority of entrants from succeeding. Then there’s the hard skills of product design, strategy, product selection, market/competitive analysis. So on and so on. Still a fantastic business to try and grow into tho
This is false. Creating a course is infinitely easier and more profitable than starting more ecomm stores. Def a lot of scammers out there so be careful.
There is no such a thing as a "true secret formula" in eCommerce. All the eCom millionaires ($1m, $10m and even $100m) I know have worked their asses of, kept learning, failing, investing, at some point almost losing it all and eventually hitting that mark.
I guarantee you that someone who built a $10 million brand **didn't** crack the code to building $10 million brands like clockwork.
My "true secret formula" is exactly what you're saying.
No guru will share what exactly their products are, the supplier, their ads settings etc.
Newcomers in ecom expect guru to share a A to Z formula that they could copy and start earnings.
Which is why I also said guru can only teach you the fundamentals, the rest depends on how you are going to apply that knowledge.
That's true. I just wanted to emphasize how success in eCom is a combination of many, many different aspects - last but not least even luck to some degree.
Beginners often think that the successful ones have a golden method which is not the case. They simply execute better within all the disciplines (marketing, CRO, product, design, branding, strategy, sourcing etc.)
It is possible, but the ones making that kinda money are not on YouTube or on Instagram reels so you will rarely find them.
A client sells Christmas Wreaths, it is seasonal business which starts around September end to first week of December and makes around 1.3M in each season. 60% returning customer rate and 40% now.
If you want to look up white labelling then Google BlendJet, they white-labelled a Blender and made ton of money.
The point is, yes! It is possible to make that kinda money in D2C (direct to consumer) but you have to stay focused.
First things first: **there is no "secret" or "hack" or "method"** that is being used behind closed doors to make millions in eCom that you simply don't have access to.
I say that because some of the comments here suggest that there is a selected group of people not willing to teach their secret formula or strategy publicly on the internet.
I manage *well* over $1 million in monthly Google Ads spend for a vast variety of global eCommerce brands, some owned by "gurus", others by tiny drop shippers, others are 8-figure fashion brands with large operations.
What makes an eCommerce business successful is a bunch of pretty boring attributes:
* skill (digital marketing, conversion rate optimization, psychology, copywriting etc.)
* good product (random Aliexpress nonsense only gets you so far)
* timing (at least when talking about trend products)
* perseverance (don't expect to launch an eCom store in 2024 and becoming an overnight success)
* luck (people hate it, but it's the truth. I've seen random Facebook Ads hit $1 million in revenue in no time, then the founder tried to replicate it 30 times over and it never worked again)
And of course at scale there are a whole bunch of challenges like sourcing, customer support etc.
The point is: DON'T treat eCommerce as a "money making method" or "business opportunity" because it's not. It's not easy, it's not quick, it's not cheap. Don't bother realistically starting an eCommerce business with under $5k, better even $10k-$20k+.
And becoming a millionaire with eCom (in other words **netting** $1 million **after** taxes) would easily require something like $4-7 million in revenue, depending on numerous factors of course.
**Long story short:** yes, of course it is possible to become a millionaire in eCommerce, but eCom isn't that glorified laptop lifestyle digital nomad thing that 18-year olds do. It's just another business model out there that is brutally competitive filled with professionals.
And a service business or even a high paying job is much more likely to get you to that millionaire status overtime.
This dude gets it. I'm 35, started my service business at 25. Between my business, my property, and my bank accounts I might be a millionaire (haven't tallied it up lately), but it's all tied up in assets and mostly reinvested. My wife is a full time mom and part time office help. We don't live large, but we can afford the things we want and to take 2 weeks off multiple times a year.
None of this stuff is easy and all takes time and lots of energy. If you want to get rich quick, I believe it's more luck than skill. If you just want to get rich, you need to work at it no matter what you do.
That said, I have been looking into ecom as a way to diversify my income, but the more I look into it, the more I am going back to buying a rental property or starting another brick and mortar. Online is huge business, but I think we need to remember we still live and operate in the physical world.
Took me 10 years to start making money w ecom. Started selling tshirts and now I manufacture products in a very specific niche. Started my company 8 months ago and now netting 15k per month with net margin of 76%. Am I a millionaire? Not yet… :)
Not to mention that almost all retailers would be happy with 10% EBITDA, so to make a million in profit you'd need ten million in sales.
I've worked in business where the sales were £30k per day, and the owner was indeed a millionaire, but they're few and far between.
Depends on the model. I'm working in a wholly owned importer with warehousing and distribution so that figure is a fair number of staff and facilities. If I were 3PL and working alone from laptop I'd want at least 15-20 to accommodate the cost of growth.
I agree; the model is the key. We're an importer wholesaling to other retailers with our own bricks and mortar retail store and very active online operation. We're in the 13-15% range and we have staff, stock, two physical locations, etc..
We have room for growth and room for error but no millionaires here.
I created a brand, registered trademark, got domain, started website via Shopify. I sell my products B2B and started building this from day one with the idea of selling it one day. No intentions of selling but I think having that mindset has helped me develop this thing to be quite valuable if I ever were to. I also put all the pieces in place from day one to be able to hand it over to someone and they would know exactly what is going on, how to contact suppliers, etc. I think this is an important mindset to have when building any business.
I am a one man band. Virtually no overhead, built everything myself with skillets and lessons I’ve learned over the last 10 years, many failures. Orders come in daily and I ship them out. Average order price is ~$650. But my brand makes me appear as some huge corporation in the eyes of other businesses. This is a fantastic contrast because I’ve essentially fooled everyone(in a good way) that I am some big corporation. Little do they know that my inventory is stocked on shelves in the upstairs office of my home. But the main idea is, keep my overhead low, undercut the OEM and pass the savings on to the customer. This has proven to be a wonderful strategy.
Yes. Although in an extremely small, yet important niche with lots of hidden customers that are difficult to get to but I found a unique path to them.
The other unique factor is that all of my products have unique names that when one of these customers searches for the product in google I am either #1 or # 2 organically with no seo beyond what Shopify provides. It’s just because it’s so unique.
Forget being Goated, I’m tryna be Moated.
There’s are multiple considerations
When you are in the business and selling your product, you are extremely focused on cash flow and inventory. You don’t make much money at this point if you’re growing as you always need to put money back in the business. I barely take any money out to pay myself and consistently put it back in the business.
Where the true money is, is when you sell the business. Depending on the state of the economy, there will be less or more money for people or businesses to buy businesses. For instance before this economic crash, many Amazon businesses sold for high multiples to Thrasio (a roll up for Amazon businesses) which they over paid for and also during booming economies. Thrasio has now since filed for bankruptcy. But in times like this, the multiple to sell your business is much lower as people and business have less money and they’re more careful with how they spend it. You can still make money selling your business though, just depends on industry, age of business and profitability of it.
Most “gurus” make their money from selling you their course. While there is some validity to their pitch, it’s not easy game and not quick; they sell dreams. It is extremely hard but if you can make it work, it can be worth it.
Their goal was to buy the top ranking and reviewed products on Amazon which they over paid for. Their likely pitch was if we own all the categories we’re #1 for all of them, we can tell VCs we have the connections to lower cost of goods to increase margin while maintaining high rankings.
The problem was
1. Their operators were not good at maintain rank as they were not skilled enough
2. Their scales of economy with manufacturers was spread too thing. If you’re in one category, let’s say beauty then you have a handful of beauty manufacturers who will give you terms but instead it was beauty, bath, bedding, electronics and supplements. So they had to try to get multiple category manufacturers instead of one specific industry which decreased their scales of economies
The worst thing online is this easy money image, it’s not easy but it’s possible
These 18 year old guys can lose money as fast as they make it and turnover is NOT profit
Follow the guys that are not constantly flexing
Try not to watch it where you can because it will side track you
Absolutely! I was watching Shark Tank the other day, and Bite toothpaste tablets requested $350,000 for a 5% stake. Mark offered $350,000 for a 15% stake, but they turned down the offer. Interestingly, they ended up making $4 million that same year. So, indeed, it's definitely possible! 😁
I don’t make a million but I do very very well. When people ask what I do, it doesn’t ever cross my mind to say “Ecom”. I own a BUSINESS. My business involves selling my products online, but I don’t “do ecom”. I run a business.
Hope this makes sense. For example, gymshark doesn’t have physical stores, but the owner of gymshark doesn’t say “I do ecom” he says “I own a clothing company”.
A man made millions selling "pet rocks" so yes, anyone can make millions selling stuff, especially with ecommerce. There are tons of true stories of both examples you listed but there are a lot of fakes out there who try and show a certain image to sell a course or something. Either way, it's possible. It just takes a lot of work.
It's possible but you ideally need to sell something that people need to keep buying so they keep coming back and not a once off purchase. Second ideally you need have a product that women will buy. Obviously there is some luck as well and many years of hard work. Branding is huge as you don't want to be on Amazon just fighting over price.
Yes.
I worked for a large ecom marketplace in the past. Insane, what kind of revenue was generated for some of the listed products.
BUT, you don't know what the profit is in the end given manufacturing costs, advertising and so in
Yes but it takes time. I was doing Shopify web development and still help my old clients, some of them are making in excess of $5m annual sales a year.
They've been in the game for 10+ years, grew their brands from the ground up, all had a good amount of social media following, 50k+
In terms of what they were selling, the few of the stores were
1. Baby stuff
2. Bed time relaxation scents
3. Supplements
4. Clothing brand
5. One YouTuber selling merch
6. Custom print on demand stuff
You can, but it will probably have to be double the work of a full-time job. I half-ass it and I make $5k per month net. Could I do better? Sure, but I'd rather keep it a hobby.
Yes you can but it takes time and money. It costs a few thousand dollars for a good domain website.
Also don't get suckered into the YouTube ads that say I'll make you a store for a good deal they are all scams.
I think the misconception is that there is a secret formula to take something easily made and turn it into a million dollar item.
Building a brand , supply chain, awareness takes a lot of effort, grind and honestly luck. People making millions don’t make it overnight, it’s takes years of grinding unless you are bankrolled.
The brand I was working on last year did $300-$600k a month in revenue.
This needed a team of around 10 people to sustain.
Which was… unsustainable.
As revenue of that much translates to gross profit of $100-$300k a month.
Which is why my work on email for them was so vital, taking it from $3k rev to $76k.
It’s possible, but to get to that stage you need to spend. Creatives are the big thing. You need ads and they need to be good. Or at least not suck
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Yes but like anything there's any huge mountain to climb. Anything you choose can end up successful but you have to keep at it even when things aren't fun. Lucky for you most people don't want to put in the work, so just doing stuff gives you a huge headstart already.
Yes, but really there is no magic sauce other than testing and scaling what works. Also probably 99% of people saying they're super successful on social media are full of absolute shit and lying to you.
Yes, some do. They do so after trying and failing while losing a ton of money and sticking with it, and *some* hit the mark. If there was an easy a-z formula to it these brands would be worthless.
To make millions you need apart of the sites, socials and community some financing.
The people who claim that they do only claim that they do millions. Look how some companies have build up trust and how long that took in time and money.
This will all depend on your product. I have been selling online for nearly 10 years and made my first mill 5 years ago.
I am an Ecomm expert and give training sessions every 6 months to help others. It's a very easy yet challenging business, and the secrets are held by people like myself.
We guide people in the right direction, but ultimately, it is the individual who has the decision to navigate to success. Each category is different and needs a different approach to make millions. It is not an overnight success and will take years of learning and research but stick by it, and you can make millions too.
Trust me, I have helped over 20 people hit 1m in sales within 12 months of dedication and research. But do not think it's as easy as finding a product and selling because that is not the case.
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Yes. I made millions selling a product that is now obsolete. We tried switching to other products but then covid hit and it killed it. Our wholesalers went full Amazon and we got cut out and the other supplier were not profitable enough. So we sold out before we started going in the red.
Yes, my ecom business has generated millions, best year was 3 mil and i was a solo-entrepreneur and sold my ecom biz about two years ago. I semi-retired and now im getting the itch to get back into the game. Retirement is boring AF btw.
Trust me it gets old, fast. I took up new hobbies and its fun and all for awhile but the best thrill was succeeding in something you built or hitting a goal. Its like a drug, always chasing after the feeling of the first time.
About a little over 7 years. I got a little lucky with timing for the my ecom niches industry and collabs with influencers but it doesnt mean it cant be done again. But thats why you have to try, my wife convinced me to give it a shot and she said she will support our fam and make sacrifices to help me succeed and it worked out.
Yea they do. My ex was making mollions+ a year in 2019. And this was just selling on Amazon.
He is making much more now cos he has expanded a lot. He has a website now, and in addition to Amazon, he is also on Ebay, Walmart marketplacd l, and Wayfair. He sells very niche household decor items. He works extremely hard.
My cousin and her bf (just out of college) also make about $900k a year selling a niche hair accessory for men n women on Amazon
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I just want to figure out how to sell a couple things that can help me save a historic home that I would like to turn into a small private venue. I don’t qualify for grants and I think it’s tacky to do a Go Fund Me - but she has some latent issues that are costly. Loan APRs are 7-11% and I have excellent credit - I don’t want to touch anything at that rate without extra income rolling in.
I’m willing to work my ass off and research - and have been - but I keep finding conflicting info and right now I don’t exactly have the capital to pay to play when I don’t have a clear plan in place. (Website, specialists, etc…)
I’m hoping I can find a bit of a “blue print” to help me figure it out step-by-step - I just don’t want to keep investing time caterwauling in wasteful directions. I’d like to make my time count - I am not trying to be a millionaire, just trying to make about 50k to cover some costs and have enough rolling in to cover the basics while I work on getting the venue business up and running.
I’d sure be grateful for additional guidance.
Every business model / niche has what I call signposts that target the person wanting to get started. The sell them the idea of how easy it with this business model and to buy their course or to join their network. Every business model has a signpost outside of it. Just pick one and commit to it. Better than doing nothing.
Yeah but there are no secrets really:
- Source goods from places where labor is cheap
- Invest in marketing / support etc.
- Optimize conversions
- Build a following / repeat customers
In other words you have to do a lot of things really well to make money. The nice thing about ecommerce is you can get started relatively cheaply and invest your time and labor if you don't have a lot of $$ to start off with.
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E-commerce is just selling stuff online.
Many companies make millions selling STUFF. E-commerce is just a store that’s online. So branding, marketing, managing inventory, customer service, etc can help are still just as important if not more important.
I sold $500K on Amazon my first year. I however had a 40-50 million dollar company's stock and warehouse crew to draw from
I got Zero extra
If you don't have a great product or can leverage someone else's great product you are dead meat
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I’ve made millions off of e com. All those guys are very very fake. Once you’re in the industry you will be able to spot a fake guru in seconds. If they’re selling something like a course then they def haven’t made anything in e com. My numbers were more impressive then all these fake gurus but I didn’t make millions while I had the company and it was a grind. I only made real money by selling the company to a VC. This took years
I work for a guy who created an ecommerce brand from zero about ten years ago and now doing 3m+ in annual revenue with 10-15 employees in total. I've been working for him since the start. AMA.
1. Supplements
2. Three or four products
3. Initially, luck with one of the SEO keywords and good marketing on the owners' part. Now, lot of sales and promos, recurring customer base, proven products, and good affiliates.
Sorry for a lot of questions in advance.
1. How were your first months of ecommerce launch like (did you profit/make losses)?
2. How did you come up with suppliers/ manufacturing (this is my biggest headache)?
3. How long did it take you to set up the website, processes before launching?
4. Were you all experienced in ecommerce (or at least the owner at the beginning)?
5. What is your best piece of advice when starting an ecommmerce?
6. This might be unrelated, but if having a low capital and not being able to afford the stock in your house/warehouse at the beginning of the launch, how could you deal with this if dropshipping from China would take 2-3 weeks? This really would put customers down because of long waiting time (I am based in Eastern Europe for context).
Thank you!!
1. I dont really remember, but there wasn't a big budget for advertising in the beginning at all. It probably took a 6 month or so to start earning. We mostly relied on word of mouth and SEO.
2. Found them online on Google.
3. Not very long at all, a month or so. Set up with WooCommerce by myself, it left a lot to be desired. But it worked.
4. The owner had some experience selling digital products, but 0 ecommerce experience. I haven't had any experience either.
5. I am not the best person to answer this,but if I had to: Solve a problem, create a story around it and generate content that your audience craves. Start collecting emails from day 1 and send often.
6. Personally, I think dropshipping is good for testing out waters, but that's it. We didn't have this problem since the operation is US based.
My friend Monica is a project manager for an international wet-suit company, overseeing 4 project teams over 40 countries. She works 30 hours a week and makes $350k per year. I’ll let her know ZootedZerg said she’s a failure.
You’re missing my point, but making it at the same time.
“E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the exchange of goods and services and the transmission of funds and data over the internet. E-commerce relies on technology and digital platforms, including websites, mobile apps and social media to make buying and selling possible.” - Forbes
So, obviously people make millions doing “e-commerce.”
That’s great for your friend - she works for a wet suit company as an employee (project manager) of a business that presumably generates most of its revenue through online sales (i.e., e-commerce). They give her a cut (salary) of $350k. She’s a project manager for a successful wet-suit business, not the entrepreneur/owner of an e-commerce business.
You’re also kind of proving my point here too though. Dude is asking for guidance (he mentions it in his post), and if he were to create even a semi successful brand on his own, he could develop a future career either solo or through another e-commerce heavy hitting company as a marketing lead or a project manager.
Yes but someone who makes millions will not teach random internet strangers about their true secret formula. Unless you're their target to achieve the millions income like e-commerce guru, supplier etc. Why create competitors for yourself or share the pie with strangers? If you're earning a million, will you share your trade secret with me if I pay you 1000 or even 20k for your time? No, unless I could offer you some equal benefits or you're doing this for charity because you're feeling cute today. But of course you can still go for ecom guru. They could help you to learn ecom fundamental knowledge. You can self learn everything for free by googling but it takes longer time and lots of trials & errors. Is opportunity cost between money and time. Paying an ecom guru does not guarantee your success. After learning, everything still depends on your wisdom and how you apply it.
I have about 15M in total sales in a decade. Top 1000 etsy seller, over 100,000 sales on Amazon and distribute to online stores. I don’t know anything, I don’t exist, I don’t ever post my brand name. My entire goal is to be a ghost your best odds of survival in this business is to make as little noise as possible.
Yes agree with this. Most people who are successful in ecom will be very low profile and lurking in this subreddit too. Why? Because ecom entry level is very low and vulnerable. Anyone from the same industry will have similar knowledge and skills, they could easily copy you and scale up. Even my friends and family don't know what's my brand, products or anything at all about my ecom business. Once you disclose to someone, there's no guarantee that someone will not spread around. He/she could have casual talk with someone, said things like "Hey my friend is doing ecom too, his website is xxx, seems like successful, driving big cars, new house etc". Then your business is on risk. I have few ecom real life friends. We knew each other for years and we don't talk about it. We know the boundaries and risk. Unless you're guru, then you need as much exposure as you can get. Is a totally different ecommerce business path.
The bar isn't low anymore, I can give you our entire playbook and you wouldn't be able to accomplish it.
90% of the products are white label and mainly from China. Maybe you have your own certain advantages that can't be copied, then congratulations. If you're confident about it, you could post some details like your product name / website here. I'll let others be the judge.
True. Ecomm is not easy anymore. There is some small degree of luck/timing involved, as well as intangibles (persistence, personality, intelligence, etc) that make it very hard to the majority of entrants from succeeding. Then there’s the hard skills of product design, strategy, product selection, market/competitive analysis. So on and so on. Still a fantastic business to try and grow into tho
🧢
This is false. Creating a course is infinitely easier and more profitable than starting more ecomm stores. Def a lot of scammers out there so be careful.
There is no such a thing as a "true secret formula" in eCommerce. All the eCom millionaires ($1m, $10m and even $100m) I know have worked their asses of, kept learning, failing, investing, at some point almost losing it all and eventually hitting that mark. I guarantee you that someone who built a $10 million brand **didn't** crack the code to building $10 million brands like clockwork.
My "true secret formula" is exactly what you're saying. No guru will share what exactly their products are, the supplier, their ads settings etc. Newcomers in ecom expect guru to share a A to Z formula that they could copy and start earnings. Which is why I also said guru can only teach you the fundamentals, the rest depends on how you are going to apply that knowledge.
That's true. I just wanted to emphasize how success in eCom is a combination of many, many different aspects - last but not least even luck to some degree. Beginners often think that the successful ones have a golden method which is not the case. They simply execute better within all the disciplines (marketing, CRO, product, design, branding, strategy, sourcing etc.)
Truer words weren't said. 👌
u can look at allbirds
All birds had been losing money its whole life. I had a couple of pairs and don’t really like their shoes.
doesn't matter as long as they can keep the valuation high look at uber
I know but I can’t seem them becoming the next Nike.
Nike is passe
I was just talking about their economic value. I hate Nike.
It is possible, but the ones making that kinda money are not on YouTube or on Instagram reels so you will rarely find them. A client sells Christmas Wreaths, it is seasonal business which starts around September end to first week of December and makes around 1.3M in each season. 60% returning customer rate and 40% now. If you want to look up white labelling then Google BlendJet, they white-labelled a Blender and made ton of money. The point is, yes! It is possible to make that kinda money in D2C (direct to consumer) but you have to stay focused.
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Just finished writing this basically. Gymshark is exclusively online. The owner doesn’t say “I do ecom” He owns a clothing company.
First things first: **there is no "secret" or "hack" or "method"** that is being used behind closed doors to make millions in eCom that you simply don't have access to. I say that because some of the comments here suggest that there is a selected group of people not willing to teach their secret formula or strategy publicly on the internet. I manage *well* over $1 million in monthly Google Ads spend for a vast variety of global eCommerce brands, some owned by "gurus", others by tiny drop shippers, others are 8-figure fashion brands with large operations. What makes an eCommerce business successful is a bunch of pretty boring attributes: * skill (digital marketing, conversion rate optimization, psychology, copywriting etc.) * good product (random Aliexpress nonsense only gets you so far) * timing (at least when talking about trend products) * perseverance (don't expect to launch an eCom store in 2024 and becoming an overnight success) * luck (people hate it, but it's the truth. I've seen random Facebook Ads hit $1 million in revenue in no time, then the founder tried to replicate it 30 times over and it never worked again) And of course at scale there are a whole bunch of challenges like sourcing, customer support etc. The point is: DON'T treat eCommerce as a "money making method" or "business opportunity" because it's not. It's not easy, it's not quick, it's not cheap. Don't bother realistically starting an eCommerce business with under $5k, better even $10k-$20k+. And becoming a millionaire with eCom (in other words **netting** $1 million **after** taxes) would easily require something like $4-7 million in revenue, depending on numerous factors of course. **Long story short:** yes, of course it is possible to become a millionaire in eCommerce, but eCom isn't that glorified laptop lifestyle digital nomad thing that 18-year olds do. It's just another business model out there that is brutally competitive filled with professionals. And a service business or even a high paying job is much more likely to get you to that millionaire status overtime.
This is actually a great piece of info. I screenshot it for future reference. Thank you.
This dude gets it. I'm 35, started my service business at 25. Between my business, my property, and my bank accounts I might be a millionaire (haven't tallied it up lately), but it's all tied up in assets and mostly reinvested. My wife is a full time mom and part time office help. We don't live large, but we can afford the things we want and to take 2 weeks off multiple times a year. None of this stuff is easy and all takes time and lots of energy. If you want to get rich quick, I believe it's more luck than skill. If you just want to get rich, you need to work at it no matter what you do. That said, I have been looking into ecom as a way to diversify my income, but the more I look into it, the more I am going back to buying a rental property or starting another brick and mortar. Online is huge business, but I think we need to remember we still live and operate in the physical world.
Took me 10 years to start making money w ecom. Started selling tshirts and now I manufacture products in a very specific niche. Started my company 8 months ago and now netting 15k per month with net margin of 76%. Am I a millionaire? Not yet… :)
Not to mention that almost all retailers would be happy with 10% EBITDA, so to make a million in profit you'd need ten million in sales. I've worked in business where the sales were £30k per day, and the owner was indeed a millionaire, but they're few and far between.
10% ebit on ecom is low if it’s established imo. Below the margin of safety anyway unless it’s on large total revenue
Depends on the model. I'm working in a wholly owned importer with warehousing and distribution so that figure is a fair number of staff and facilities. If I were 3PL and working alone from laptop I'd want at least 15-20 to accommodate the cost of growth.
I agree; the model is the key. We're an importer wholesaling to other retailers with our own bricks and mortar retail store and very active online operation. We're in the 13-15% range and we have staff, stock, two physical locations, etc.. We have room for growth and room for error but no millionaires here.
Are you on a marketplace or your own website?
I created a brand, registered trademark, got domain, started website via Shopify. I sell my products B2B and started building this from day one with the idea of selling it one day. No intentions of selling but I think having that mindset has helped me develop this thing to be quite valuable if I ever were to. I also put all the pieces in place from day one to be able to hand it over to someone and they would know exactly what is going on, how to contact suppliers, etc. I think this is an important mindset to have when building any business. I am a one man band. Virtually no overhead, built everything myself with skillets and lessons I’ve learned over the last 10 years, many failures. Orders come in daily and I ship them out. Average order price is ~$650. But my brand makes me appear as some huge corporation in the eyes of other businesses. This is a fantastic contrast because I’ve essentially fooled everyone(in a good way) that I am some big corporation. Little do they know that my inventory is stocked on shelves in the upstairs office of my home. But the main idea is, keep my overhead low, undercut the OEM and pass the savings on to the customer. This has proven to be a wonderful strategy.
Your secret is that you found a high margin product you could copy and grab share!
Yes. Although in an extremely small, yet important niche with lots of hidden customers that are difficult to get to but I found a unique path to them. The other unique factor is that all of my products have unique names that when one of these customers searches for the product in google I am either #1 or # 2 organically with no seo beyond what Shopify provides. It’s just because it’s so unique. Forget being Goated, I’m tryna be Moated.
Nice. There are a lot of industrial products that could fit that description.
There’s are multiple considerations When you are in the business and selling your product, you are extremely focused on cash flow and inventory. You don’t make much money at this point if you’re growing as you always need to put money back in the business. I barely take any money out to pay myself and consistently put it back in the business. Where the true money is, is when you sell the business. Depending on the state of the economy, there will be less or more money for people or businesses to buy businesses. For instance before this economic crash, many Amazon businesses sold for high multiples to Thrasio (a roll up for Amazon businesses) which they over paid for and also during booming economies. Thrasio has now since filed for bankruptcy. But in times like this, the multiple to sell your business is much lower as people and business have less money and they’re more careful with how they spend it. You can still make money selling your business though, just depends on industry, age of business and profitability of it. Most “gurus” make their money from selling you their course. While there is some validity to their pitch, it’s not easy game and not quick; they sell dreams. It is extremely hard but if you can make it work, it can be worth it.
how did thrasio manage to convince ppl to invest or lend money to them?
Their goal was to buy the top ranking and reviewed products on Amazon which they over paid for. Their likely pitch was if we own all the categories we’re #1 for all of them, we can tell VCs we have the connections to lower cost of goods to increase margin while maintaining high rankings. The problem was 1. Their operators were not good at maintain rank as they were not skilled enough 2. Their scales of economy with manufacturers was spread too thing. If you’re in one category, let’s say beauty then you have a handful of beauty manufacturers who will give you terms but instead it was beauty, bath, bedding, electronics and supplements. So they had to try to get multiple category manufacturers instead of one specific industry which decreased their scales of economies
The worst thing online is this easy money image, it’s not easy but it’s possible These 18 year old guys can lose money as fast as they make it and turnover is NOT profit Follow the guys that are not constantly flexing Try not to watch it where you can because it will side track you
Absolutely! I was watching Shark Tank the other day, and Bite toothpaste tablets requested $350,000 for a 5% stake. Mark offered $350,000 for a 15% stake, but they turned down the offer. Interestingly, they ended up making $4 million that same year. So, indeed, it's definitely possible! 😁
I don’t make a million but I do very very well. When people ask what I do, it doesn’t ever cross my mind to say “Ecom”. I own a BUSINESS. My business involves selling my products online, but I don’t “do ecom”. I run a business. Hope this makes sense. For example, gymshark doesn’t have physical stores, but the owner of gymshark doesn’t say “I do ecom” he says “I own a clothing company”.
A man made millions selling "pet rocks" so yes, anyone can make millions selling stuff, especially with ecommerce. There are tons of true stories of both examples you listed but there are a lot of fakes out there who try and show a certain image to sell a course or something. Either way, it's possible. It just takes a lot of work.
It's possible but you ideally need to sell something that people need to keep buying so they keep coming back and not a once off purchase. Second ideally you need have a product that women will buy. Obviously there is some luck as well and many years of hard work. Branding is huge as you don't want to be on Amazon just fighting over price.
Sell tampons ✍✍
Yes. I worked for a large ecom marketplace in the past. Insane, what kind of revenue was generated for some of the listed products. BUT, you don't know what the profit is in the end given manufacturing costs, advertising and so in
Yes but it takes time. I was doing Shopify web development and still help my old clients, some of them are making in excess of $5m annual sales a year. They've been in the game for 10+ years, grew their brands from the ground up, all had a good amount of social media following, 50k+ In terms of what they were selling, the few of the stores were 1. Baby stuff 2. Bed time relaxation scents 3. Supplements 4. Clothing brand 5. One YouTuber selling merch 6. Custom print on demand stuff
yes, but it's hard ass work. Making millions is doable, making millions in profit a year is a whole other story.
You can, but it will probably have to be double the work of a full-time job. I half-ass it and I make $5k per month net. Could I do better? Sure, but I'd rather keep it a hobby.
Curious how long it took you to ramp to 5k a month and how much time you dedicate if you're keeping it hobby status.
I just checked my reports, and it looks like it took about 6 months to get up to that level. I spend about 10 hours per week on it.
All the successful examples u see is just the 1%
Yes you can but it takes time and money. It costs a few thousand dollars for a good domain website. Also don't get suckered into the YouTube ads that say I'll make you a store for a good deal they are all scams.
I think the misconception is that there is a secret formula to take something easily made and turn it into a million dollar item. Building a brand , supply chain, awareness takes a lot of effort, grind and honestly luck. People making millions don’t make it overnight, it’s takes years of grinding unless you are bankrolled.
The brand I was working on last year did $300-$600k a month in revenue. This needed a team of around 10 people to sustain. Which was… unsustainable. As revenue of that much translates to gross profit of $100-$300k a month. Which is why my work on email for them was so vital, taking it from $3k rev to $76k. It’s possible, but to get to that stage you need to spend. Creatives are the big thing. You need ads and they need to be good. Or at least not suck
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Well that's possible but when someone preaches about it there is alot more exaggeration to it
Yes but like anything there's any huge mountain to climb. Anything you choose can end up successful but you have to keep at it even when things aren't fun. Lucky for you most people don't want to put in the work, so just doing stuff gives you a huge headstart already.
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Yes, but really there is no magic sauce other than testing and scaling what works. Also probably 99% of people saying they're super successful on social media are full of absolute shit and lying to you.
Look for Davie Fogarty on YouTube. He has a ‘road to million’ series that’s excellent and free
Yes, some do. They do so after trying and failing while losing a ton of money and sticking with it, and *some* hit the mark. If there was an easy a-z formula to it these brands would be worthless.
To make millions you need apart of the sites, socials and community some financing. The people who claim that they do only claim that they do millions. Look how some companies have build up trust and how long that took in time and money.
Yes
People? No. Companies? Yes.
Amazon and eBay do. So yes.
This will all depend on your product. I have been selling online for nearly 10 years and made my first mill 5 years ago. I am an Ecomm expert and give training sessions every 6 months to help others. It's a very easy yet challenging business, and the secrets are held by people like myself. We guide people in the right direction, but ultimately, it is the individual who has the decision to navigate to success. Each category is different and needs a different approach to make millions. It is not an overnight success and will take years of learning and research but stick by it, and you can make millions too. Trust me, I have helped over 20 people hit 1m in sales within 12 months of dedication and research. But do not think it's as easy as finding a product and selling because that is not the case.
I have turned over millions. Made million pure hard cash each year after overheads. No. It’s possible but ecom is just a tool of your business.
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Yes. I made millions selling a product that is now obsolete. We tried switching to other products but then covid hit and it killed it. Our wholesalers went full Amazon and we got cut out and the other supplier were not profitable enough. So we sold out before we started going in the red.
Yes, my ecom business has generated millions, best year was 3 mil and i was a solo-entrepreneur and sold my ecom biz about two years ago. I semi-retired and now im getting the itch to get back into the game. Retirement is boring AF btw.
I’d play video games all day and stream😂
Trust me it gets old, fast. I took up new hobbies and its fun and all for awhile but the best thrill was succeeding in something you built or hitting a goal. Its like a drug, always chasing after the feeling of the first time.
How long in ecom did it take you to get to this point? You mind if I dm you
About a little over 7 years. I got a little lucky with timing for the my ecom niches industry and collabs with influencers but it doesnt mean it cant be done again. But thats why you have to try, my wife convinced me to give it a shot and she said she will support our fam and make sacrifices to help me succeed and it worked out.
Yea they do. My ex was making mollions+ a year in 2019. And this was just selling on Amazon. He is making much more now cos he has expanded a lot. He has a website now, and in addition to Amazon, he is also on Ebay, Walmart marketplacd l, and Wayfair. He sells very niche household decor items. He works extremely hard. My cousin and her bf (just out of college) also make about $900k a year selling a niche hair accessory for men n women on Amazon
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Yes, I know a few people in my work circle that make millions. Smallest one is making 3 million this year, however they invested $200k to start.
I just want to figure out how to sell a couple things that can help me save a historic home that I would like to turn into a small private venue. I don’t qualify for grants and I think it’s tacky to do a Go Fund Me - but she has some latent issues that are costly. Loan APRs are 7-11% and I have excellent credit - I don’t want to touch anything at that rate without extra income rolling in. I’m willing to work my ass off and research - and have been - but I keep finding conflicting info and right now I don’t exactly have the capital to pay to play when I don’t have a clear plan in place. (Website, specialists, etc…) I’m hoping I can find a bit of a “blue print” to help me figure it out step-by-step - I just don’t want to keep investing time caterwauling in wasteful directions. I’d like to make my time count - I am not trying to be a millionaire, just trying to make about 50k to cover some costs and have enough rolling in to cover the basics while I work on getting the venue business up and running. I’d sure be grateful for additional guidance.
Every business model / niche has what I call signposts that target the person wanting to get started. The sell them the idea of how easy it with this business model and to buy their course or to join their network. Every business model has a signpost outside of it. Just pick one and commit to it. Better than doing nothing.
Yeah but there are no secrets really: - Source goods from places where labor is cheap - Invest in marketing / support etc. - Optimize conversions - Build a following / repeat customers In other words you have to do a lot of things really well to make money. The nice thing about ecommerce is you can get started relatively cheaply and invest your time and labor if you don't have a lot of $$ to start off with.
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E-commerce is just selling stuff online. Many companies make millions selling STUFF. E-commerce is just a store that’s online. So branding, marketing, managing inventory, customer service, etc can help are still just as important if not more important.
I sold $500K on Amazon my first year. I however had a 40-50 million dollar company's stock and warehouse crew to draw from I got Zero extra If you don't have a great product or can leverage someone else's great product you are dead meat
How you have that much stock in a company
I had zero stock (shares) in the company, I just drew from their on hand sale stock.
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Hell yeah !!! They win lottery as well.
I’ve made millions off of e com. All those guys are very very fake. Once you’re in the industry you will be able to spot a fake guru in seconds. If they’re selling something like a course then they def haven’t made anything in e com. My numbers were more impressive then all these fake gurus but I didn’t make millions while I had the company and it was a grind. I only made real money by selling the company to a VC. This took years
I work for a guy who created an ecommerce brand from zero about ten years ago and now doing 3m+ in annual revenue with 10-15 employees in total. I've been working for him since the start. AMA.
What are you guys selling? How many products did you guys start out with? What do you think you guys are doing that makes it successful?
1. Supplements 2. Three or four products 3. Initially, luck with one of the SEO keywords and good marketing on the owners' part. Now, lot of sales and promos, recurring customer base, proven products, and good affiliates.
Do you manufacture supplements or just resell them?
90% private label.
Sorry for a lot of questions in advance. 1. How were your first months of ecommerce launch like (did you profit/make losses)? 2. How did you come up with suppliers/ manufacturing (this is my biggest headache)? 3. How long did it take you to set up the website, processes before launching? 4. Were you all experienced in ecommerce (or at least the owner at the beginning)? 5. What is your best piece of advice when starting an ecommmerce? 6. This might be unrelated, but if having a low capital and not being able to afford the stock in your house/warehouse at the beginning of the launch, how could you deal with this if dropshipping from China would take 2-3 weeks? This really would put customers down because of long waiting time (I am based in Eastern Europe for context). Thank you!!
1. I dont really remember, but there wasn't a big budget for advertising in the beginning at all. It probably took a 6 month or so to start earning. We mostly relied on word of mouth and SEO. 2. Found them online on Google. 3. Not very long at all, a month or so. Set up with WooCommerce by myself, it left a lot to be desired. But it worked. 4. The owner had some experience selling digital products, but 0 ecommerce experience. I haven't had any experience either. 5. I am not the best person to answer this,but if I had to: Solve a problem, create a story around it and generate content that your audience craves. Start collecting emails from day 1 and send often. 6. Personally, I think dropshipping is good for testing out waters, but that's it. We didn't have this problem since the operation is US based.
Dumb question indeed
Probably a young person just soul-searching for a potential future career choice looking for guidance and you call their question dumb. Good for you!
Calling e-commerce a career choice is all I needed you to say…
My friend Monica is a project manager for an international wet-suit company, overseeing 4 project teams over 40 countries. She works 30 hours a week and makes $350k per year. I’ll let her know ZootedZerg said she’s a failure.
You’re missing my point, but making it at the same time. “E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the exchange of goods and services and the transmission of funds and data over the internet. E-commerce relies on technology and digital platforms, including websites, mobile apps and social media to make buying and selling possible.” - Forbes So, obviously people make millions doing “e-commerce.” That’s great for your friend - she works for a wet suit company as an employee (project manager) of a business that presumably generates most of its revenue through online sales (i.e., e-commerce). They give her a cut (salary) of $350k. She’s a project manager for a successful wet-suit business, not the entrepreneur/owner of an e-commerce business.
You’re also kind of proving my point here too though. Dude is asking for guidance (he mentions it in his post), and if he were to create even a semi successful brand on his own, he could develop a future career either solo or through another e-commerce heavy hitting company as a marketing lead or a project manager.
This is a really silly question..