Zero Up is a package of software and educational materials that helps e-commerce entrepreneurs start, grow, and scale an e-commerce store.
In our Zero Up review, I’ll let you know whether it’s useful or just a pricy scam.
Dropshipping has become a hot business model in recent years, and it’s easy to see why.
In case you haven’t heard of dropshipping before, it’s a retail fulfillment method that can also stand alone as a complete e-commerce business model.
The key difference that separates dropshipping from a model like Amazon’s Fulfillment By Amazon program is that you don’t hold inventory in dropshipping.
But like any other e-commerce business, you set up an online store, find suppliers, list your products, drive traffic to your store, and convert that traffic into sales.
When a customer places an order, you order the product from the supplier and give that supplier the customer’s order and shipping information. The supplier then packs the product and ships it directly to the customer.
It’s basically online retail without the inventory.
Because of dropshipping’s explosion in popularity, e-commerce veterans have tapped into the growing market of dropshipping entrepreneurs by creating courses that teach dropshipping and software that makes online store-building easy.
Fred Lam, a serial entrepreneur, created his own product called Zero Up with the aim of helping dropshipping novices build their own stores so they can earn financial freedom fast.
He claims you don’t even need experience. If you use Zero Up’s tools and apply the knowledge within, you can start your own e-commerce store with just a few clicks using his software and generate tons of sales using his methods.
That sounds like “get rich quick” talk. A lot of people like to roll out dropshipping courses and promise effortless profits, when in reality those same course creators actually make all their money from courses without making any in dropshipping.
But I think Fred’s actually legit.
Read our full Zero Up review below to see why.
FAQ
1.) What is Zero Up? Zero Up is an e-commerce training and automation package that simplifies e-commerce store setup and teaches entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses fast.
2.) What is iPro Academy? Fred Lam’s e-learning platform. Zero Up is one of iPro Academy’s main products.
3.) Who is Fred Lam? Fred Lam is an e-commerce and software entrepreneur with a rags-to-riches story. He worked as a dishwasher while building his businesses. Fred worked his way into the media buying field and eventually became the youngest marketing manager for BMW Canada. Since then, he’s generated $40 million+ through his business ventures. He also wrote an online advertising book called The Traffic Trilogy.
4.) What are Fred Lam’s other businesses? iPro Academy, of which Zero Up is a product and Water Liberty, an e-commerce business that sells environmentally-friendly products. Water Liberty partnered with two charities called charity:water and Trees For The Future to provide clean water access and plant trees in developing countries.
5.) What is dropshipping? Dropshipping is an e-commerce business model in which the retailer does not hold inventory. Instead, they pass along customer order and shipping information to their supplier. The supplier ships the product directly to the customer. Dropshipping is also used as a fulfillment method by companies that aren’t specifically dropshipping stores.
6.) Pros and cons of dropshipping? The biggest advantage is no inventory, meaning you don’t need as much capital nor do you need to deal with other inventory headaches. However, that means you have less control over inventory stock and delivery times.
7.) What is inventory arbitrage? Inventory arbitrage, sometimes called retail arbitrage, is a business model where you find products online, advertise them on your own store, then buy and ship the product to a customer. Dropshipping is a form of inventory arbitrage, but so is FBA.
7.) What is Shopify? Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce platform. It is one of the most popular platforms for dropshipping entrepreneurs.
8.) Where do dropshippers source their products from? Typically from inexpensive online marketplaces like Aliexpress, although you can source dropshipping products from any supplier.
9.) What is media buying? Seeking out and buying advertising space to put your ads in front of the correct audience. Fred Lam is an accomplished media buyer.
10.) Do you need to download or install anything to use Zero Up? No. It’s all in the cloud, so you just need a laptop and an internet connection to access Zero Up.
11.) Which email autoresponders are integrated with Zero Up? Aweber, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, Drip, GetResponse, Infusionsoft, Mad Mimi, MailChimp, Sendgrid, Sendlane, and Send Reach. If your email marketing software isn’t on this list, you can contact their support and they’ll see what they can do.
12.) Will Zero Up make me rich? No. Although Zero Up’s software and educational features drastically reduce the time it takes to set up a dropshipping store and get your first customers, it still takes hard work and time to make good money dropshipping.
13.) How much does Zero Up cost? Either $1,497 upfront or 3 monthly payments of $597. As usual, you can see the “original” prices of $2,495 upfront or 3 monthly payments of $997 are crossed out and replaced with $1,497 and $597 for marketing purposes.
14.) Is there a free trial? Not exactly. There’s a program called Zero Up Lite that contains 10 training videos on the basics of c-commerce and traffic generation, but it doesn’t go very deep. Plus, you don’t get access to the software in Zero Up Lite. You can access it from his iPro Academy website.
15.) What is Zero Up’s refund policy? They claim that they don’t offer refunds because they incur Zero Up-related costs after a few days, but they offer a 3-day cancellation period in which they’ll refund your money if you aren’t satisfied.
16.) Are there any upsells? No. He has courses on iPro Academy, but none are directly upsold in Zero Up.
17.) Does Zero Up have an affiliate program? Yes. You earn 50% per sale, which equates to $750. Fred provides you 3 funnel options, each containing a different lead magnet, to make selling Zero Up as easy as possible. If you choose option 1, he gives you Zero Up Lite to share with your audience. If you use option 2, he gives you his book Starting From Zero. If you use option 3, he gives you a webinar to convert your audience.
18.) What is iPro Academy’s BBB Rating? Unfortunately, none of Fred Lam’s companies seem to have BBB ratings.
19.) Is Zero Up a Scam? No. Dropshipping is a legit business model, but many courses overpromise and underdeliver. However, Fred delivers a ton of useful content and automation software.
20.) Comparable Programs: Start Dropshipping Stuff, Dropship Lifestyle, eCom Hacks, eCom Success Academy
Zero Up Review – Overview
Zero Up is an e-commerce training and software package that makes it easy for entrepreneurs of any experience level to start and grow a profitable e-commerce store. Zero Up’s founder, serial entrepreneur Fred Lam, is an expert in all things media buying.
I first saw this guy in a YouTube ad. He was talking about he made enough money at such a young age to buy the bright yellow Porsche 911 he was driving in the ad.
But he wasn’t always making millions in e-commerce and similar businesses.
In fact, he is a rags-to-riches e-commerce story.
Fred moved from Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada while quite young. His family struggled to meet ends meet during his childhood.
He landed his first job as a dishwasher over a decade ago while in school, but he understandably got sick of that pretty quickly.
When he discovered online business, there was no going back. After multiple failures, he and a business partner created a store that generated almost $5 million in 4 months.
That business eventually collapsed, so he applied the marketing skills he learned by creating an ad agency. Fred landed BMW Group Canada as a client, becoming their youngest ever marketing manager.
His agency expanded so much that he regained the confidence he lost from his first online business collapsing and created another successful business.
Fred’s seen even more success with other ventures like Water Liberty, a sustainability-focused e-commerce store that aims to spread access to clean drinking water and iPro Academy, a global e-learning community of which Zero Up is a product.
So should you buy Zero Up?
Keep reading our Zero Up review for the details.
Product
Zero Up consists of the Zero Up Lab, Zero Up Master’s Program, a Product Vault, Traffic Genius: Blueprint To Attracting Buyers, the Concierge Personal Coaching program, and the Zero Up Network.
There’s a program called Zero Up Lite, but it’s not exactly a free trial of Zero Up. It has 10 videos covering some e-commerce basics, but there’s no free trial of the automation software.
But let’s get back to Zero Up.
Zero Up Lab is the cloud-based e-commerce automation tool suite, and it has a tool for almost every stage of building your store.
First, you’ll need to create a Shopify account and link it to Zero Up. When you’ve done that, Zero Up’s first feature offers you 10 pre-designed themes spanning multiple styles.
In addition, Zero Up offers you 180 pre-built stores so you can get started in any niche right away. Zero Up will actually add the hottest products in the niche you chose to your store, making the process even more hands-free. If you don’t want one of those products in your store, you can delete it from your offerings.
No need to worry about creating stuff like About pages, either. After choosing your theme and niche, you’re taken to a page where you enter your store’s details, including which pages you want to be created.
Another feature is the product engine, which is linked directly to Aliexpress. The product engine comes with advanced search features so you can locate the perfect products for your store. When you’ve found your products, the product engine links them to your store with the click of a button.
There’s also an order fulfillment automation tool, which is nice since order fulfillment in dropshipping is repetitive. It’ll track orders for you, making it easy to resolve any ordering issues. This feature frees up more time to focus on higher-ROI activities like marketing.
Speaking of marketing, Zero Up Lab lets you integrate your email marketing software into Zero Up. Within this feature, there are tools for list segmentation so you have the right emails going to the right customers.
Zero Up’s email marketing features currently support Aweber, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, Drip, GetResponse, Infusionsoft, Mad Mimi, MailChimp, Sendgrid, Sendlane, and Send Reach.
Other Zero Up Lab features include drag-and-drop sales funnel and landing pages builders and a “profit multiplier” tool that lets you beef up your sales funnel with coupons, pictures, videos, and more.
That’s it for the software features. Fred wasn’t lying when he said you can build a fully-functioning store with only a few clicks.
The Zero Up Master’s Program contains the bulk of the educational material.
In it, there are 75 training videos divided among 7 modules.
None of the modules waste time or have fluff. Each lesson gets right to the point and focuses on a specific part of e-commerce.
Module 1 has 12 lessons teaching you about niche selection, store creation, and other “getting started” details.
Then you learn about inventory arbitrage in Module 2, which is basically another word for dropshipping.
Module 3 covers email autoresponders, as well as e-commerce apps that increase automation and help you make sales. Some of these apps such as Hurrify use false urgency or scarcity. Consumers are catching on to these tactics and frankly getting annoyed with them, so try to avoid using urgency or scarcity unless it’s real.
Module 4 walks you through sales funnel construction and introduces you to copywriting.
Module 5 contains 21 lessons that teach you everything about advertising your store.
Module 6 is all about managing your store and looking for ways to improve once you’ve established consistent revenue.
Fred closes out the Masters Program with scaling lessons in Module 7.
If you’re stuck looking for a hot product to sell, the Product Vault bonus has you covered.
Fred assembled high-converting products in every niche in case your Aliexpress search turns up nothing interesting.
Also inside the Product Vault is information on how to sell jewelry in almost any niche. Using Zero Up Jewels, you can actually print your own jewelry on demand and sell it in your store.
The Traffic Genius bonus contains Fred’s area of expertise.
Fred reveals his strategies for scaling his store for less using targeted traffic from Google, Facebook, Bing, and other sources. He’ll walk you step-by-step through every traffic source he uses.
These 3 bonuses alone teach you everything you need to know to make it in dropshipping, but it’s not always enough to have a course in front of you.
Fred knows failure can be especially frustrating if you’ve studied all the material, so he made himself available via his Starting From Zero Bootcamp.
His Bootcamp consists of weekly live Q&A with Fred, but he’ll also review your business and make sure you’re on the path to dropshipping success.
And like any good online course, there’s a private Facebook group where you can network with other aspiring e-commerce entrepreneurs.
But if you’ve done all the modules, asked the right questions, followed Fred’s teachings to a T, and your store is still failing, he and his team will personally review your entire store in the Concierge coaching program.
The Concierge program sounds like a generous offer, but he only offers you this if you fail to make a single sale within 60 days of launching your business.
I’m not sure how technical he gets with the “can’t make a single sale” thing, but it could mean that he won’t help you if you’ve made one sale and then failed to make more.
Not a huge deal, as it sounds like the Bootcamp but for those who are struggling to get their business off the ground.
Then there’s the Zero Up Network bonus for those entrepreneurs who want to make their store stand out.
This bonus lets you expand into print-on-demand products like shirts, bags, and coffee mugs. You can put your own logos on these, or you can choose from over 1,000 premade designs if you lack design skills.
Fred also gives you his list of manufacturers in the United States he personally uses for his custom products.
The Network is available to Platinum Members only, although none of Fred’s websites define what makes you a Platinum Member. I think it’s an old customer tier that he scrapped.
Upsells
Zero Up has no direct upsells. Fred Lam has many other courses on his iPro Academy website, but he doesn’t push any of them on you in Zero Up.
Pricing
Zero Up costs $1,497 upfront, but you can opt for 3 monthly payments of $597. Most dropshipping courses cost a few hundred dollars, making this one of the most expensive products in this niche.
But don’t forget that you’re also getting a bunch of automation tools.
As usual, the $2495 upfront or $997 per month prices are crossed out on his sales page and replaced by $1,497 and $597 to make it look like you’re getting a good deal.
Affiliate Program
Zero Up has an affiliate program that offers 50% commissions on all affiliate sales, meaning you can earn $750 per sale as an affiliate. To illustrate how much that is, 3 affiliate sales per week earns you a 6-figure income. That makes Zero Up’s program one of the most lucrative affiliate program’s I’ve seen.
Now, selling the program at $1,497 isn’t exactly easy. That’s why Fred actually built and tested 3 funnels for his affiliates to choose from.
The first funnel choice is a free video course giveaway. Fred gives you Zero Up Lite to share with your audience. The 10 lessons within Zero Up Lite should be enough to convert a few customers.
If you’d rather give your audience a free book, Fred’s 2nd funnel option is centered around his book Starting From Zero. A big selling point with this one is Robert Kiyosaki’s foreword. Starting From Zero is similar to Zero Up Lite, but in book form. There are 8 chapters covering the basics of dropshipping, from an overview in Chapter 1 to information about scaling in Chapter 8.
Fred’s last Zero Up affiliate funnel choice is a webinar. Instead of a 30-minute sales pitch, Fred says that his webinar has hours of free training with the pitch at the end. On his affiliate signup page, he also claims the webinar had a conversion of 12%. If you can maintain that conversion rate for your own audience, the webinar will earn you a hefty profit.
What’s great about being provided these funnels is the fact that Fred is already a master at traffic, meaning you barely have to do any creative work. Fred and his team have spent months or even years to perfect each funnel’s lead magnet, so all you have to do is present the funnel to your audience and let the free stuff work its magic.
Signing up to be a Zero Up affiliate isn’t as hard as you’d think. Just head over to his affiliate signup page and give him your name and email.
Recap
Fred Lam’s Zero Up course is by no means a scam. I think it’s well worth the price, especially since you get lifetime access to everything.
Dropshipping has been around for decades, but it’s recently become one of the world’s most accessible business models thanks to the internet. But since the business model is so alluring to aspiring entrepreneurs, dropshipping courses have flooded the market. Many of these promise to get you rich quickly with little effort, but fail to deliver.
But not Fred’s course. Zero Up goes beyond the typical dropshipping course and includes e-com store creation software alongside an immense amount of resources and training to ensure your dropshipping success. I mean, he even helps you if his methods aren’t working for you as intended. Not all course creators offer that level of support to their students, and I think that lends a lot of legitimacy to Zero Up.
Whether you’re looking to run your own location-independent business, you’re an experience dropshipper who’s hit a plateau, or you’re just interested in starting an easily-accessible side hustle, Fred Lam’s Zero Up software and learning material is a great resource to invest in.
However, I’ll Paypal you $500 if you show me a better business to start than our method.
