Ecom Success Academy is a training program that teaches you how to build and scale a lucrative dropshipping business.
In our Ecom Success Academy review, we’ll tell you if it actually teaches you that or if it’s just another generic dropshipping course.
Dropshipping might have one of the lowest barriers to entry of any business model, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
You have to define your niche, build a storefront, find products, and figure out complicated ad campaign tools, and find other ways to stay profitable.
Then, you have to learn a new skillset when you want to scale your store.
Ecom Success Academy promises to teach you the entire process, from your first product sale to scaling your store and selling it for millions.
Here’s our full Ecom Success Academy review.
FAQ
1.) What is Ecom Success Academy? Ecom Success Academy is a training program that teaches you how to start, grow, and scale a successful dropshipping store. Ecom Success Academy’s main content is a series of 136 video lessons on how to start, grow, and scale a dropshipping business. There are 8 modules, but the lessons are split among the first 7. The first 7 modules cover Shopify, product sourcing, Facebook ads, email marketing, building a team, project management, and exit strategies. The 8th module is the bonus module.
2.) When was Ecom Success Academy created? The first version was released in 2016. The newest version is Ecom Success Academy 2019.
3.) Why are there multiple versions of the course? This course is re-released every year with updated information and new bonuses to stay relevant.
4.) Are there bonuses? Yes. There are actually two separate bonus areas. The first is the 8th module of the main content. This module offers 4 weeks of daily live coaching with Adrian, an in-depth look into Adrian’s email marketing strategies, further outsourcing tips, a cloud-based app that helps identify hot-selling products, and a case study of a $152k dropshipping store. The other bonuses include weekly “Profit Power Hour” webinar trainings with Adrian, a lifetime 10% Shopify discount, and a list of Shopify apps Adrian uses on his stores.
5.) What do the weekly Profit Power Hour webinars cover? In these, Adrian shares results and updates of his current campaigns, shares how he achieved those results, discusses current trends and topics in dropshipping, and answers Ecom Success Academy member questions.
6.) Why are there multiple yearly editions of Ecom Success Academy? Ecom Success Academy is a Shopify Education Partner. This program requires Adrian to update the course on a yearly basis. More on the Shopify Education Partner program in FAQ #17.
7.) Who is Adrian Morrison? Adrian Morrison is one of the planet’s top Facebook marketers. He consults on Facebook ads with multi-million dollar companies and top social media influences to drastically increase their traffic and revenue. And of course, he’s the founder of Ecom Success Academy.
8.) What is dropshipping? Dropshipping is an online business model where you sell products but hold no inventory. You build an online storefront and list products from suppliers like Aliexpress. When a customer places an order, you forward their order and shipping information to the supplier. The supplier ships the product directly to the customer.
9.) Why is dropshipping so popular? Many reasons. First, the low entry barrier. You don’t need inventory, so startup costs are minimal. Building a complete store on Shopify or a related platform takes only minutes. Also, location independence. You only need a laptop and a wifi connection to start a dropshipping business. A low entry barrier business model that you can work on from anywhere is very attractive.
10.) What is free + shipping? Free + shipping is a sales tactic that promises the customer a free product, but all they have to do is pay shipping. The idea is that customers are more likely to pay shipping on a free item than to buy an item with free shipping, even if the shipping price in the former is the same as the sale price in the latter. Works best with inexpensive products, as too high of shipping mitigates the whole effect. This tactic is emphasized in Ecom Success Academy. Many use their free + shipping product as a way to upsell customers on pricier items.
11.) Is dropshipping still a viable business model in 2019? Yes. What works in dropshipping changes quite fast, sometimes month-to-month. However, you can still succeed in dropshipping in 2019.
12.) Is dropshipping a good long-term business model? It can work long-term, but it’s not the best way.
13.) What’s the difference between dropshipping and Amazon’s Fulfillment By Amazon Program? Fulfillment By Amazon requires you to purchase the inventory up front. Amazon handles all the fulfillment. Dropshipping does not require you to purchase inventory.
14.) What’s the difference between Shopify and Amazon? Shopify is an e-commerce platform, while Amazon is a marketplace. You can build your own store on Shopify, whereas you simply sell your products with no store on Amazon. However, Amazon made Shopify their preferred platform a few years ago, meaning you can list your Shopify store’s products on Amazon.
15.) What is Shopify? Shopify is one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, run by a Canadian company with the same name. This is the platform Adrian uses and teaches you how to use in Ecom Success Academy.
16.) Does Ecom Success Academy cover any other e-commerce platforms? No.
17.) Does Shopify offer a free trial? Yes. They offer a 14-day free trial. You don’t have to put a credit card down, so no need to worry about cancelling before being charged.
18.) Does my Ecom Success Academy purchase cover a Shopify subscription? No. However, you get a 10% lifetime discount.
19.) What is the Shopify Education Partners program? It’s a program Shopify developed to highlight the best e-commerce courses. Shopify carefully reviews the content for accuracy and quality before issuing a “Shopify Education Partner Approved Course” badge. The designation has strict requirements and Partners have to resubmit their course for review every year to ensure course content is updated. Currently, there are only 7 Shopify Partner courses.
20.) Which courses are Shopify Education Partners? Ecom Success Academy, Dropship Lifestyle, Dropship Academy 2.0, The Dropship Club, E-COM Launch, Ecomkers, and Start & Scale Your Online Store.
21.) How much does Ecom Success Academy cost? Ecom Success Academy costs $2,495.
22.) Does Ecom Success Academy have a free trial? No.
23.) What is Ecom Success Academy’s refund policy? Ecom Success Academy does not offer refunds.
24.) Are there any upsells? No.
25.) Does Ecom Success Academy have an affiliate program? Yes. You can earn 40% commissions, which is $998.80 per sale. There are also contests where you have a chance at more earnings.
26.) What is Ecom Success Academy’s BBB rating? F. They’ve had a lot of complaints in the past on there.
27.) Is Ecom Success Academy a scam? No. Aside from the massive amount of course content and bonuses, Shopify themselves approved this course as part of their Shopify Education Partner program.
28.) What complaints/criticisms have been made of Ecom Success Academy? Many criticize its price and no-refund policy. The price is fair given the content amount in my opinion. They don’t make you aware of the no-refund policy until the bottom of the checkout page. It’s there, but it could be more prominent.
29.) What makes Ecom Success Academy different than similar courses? Ecom Success Academy’s main selling point is the level of content. It is extremely thorough and always up-to-date, thanks to their Shopify Partner status.
30.) Comparable programs: Drop Ship Lifestyle, Dropship Academy 2.0, The Dropship Club, Zero Up
Ecom Success Academy Review – Overview
Ecom Success Academy is a training program that teaches you how to build and scale an online store to 6, 7, or even 8 figures. It was created by Adrian Morrison.
Adrian Morrison is one of the planet’s top Facebook experts. Tai Lopez even named Adrian as one of his mentors once.
Born in Madison, Mississippi, Adrian attended the University of Mississippi with plans to pursue law.
That dream would be short-lived when his father lost his multi-million dollar retirement in the WorldCom scandal of the early 2000’s.
He then abandoned his lawyer ambitions and pursued internet marketing.
Fast forward through years of learning, and he now runs multi-million dollar e-com and affiliate marketing businesses. In addition, he gives talks on these subjects and develops e-com and affiliate marketing software.
He also gives away cash on his public Facebook.
Adrian’s compiled everything he knows about e-commerce and Facebook ads into a course called Ecom Success Academy. It’s not just dropshipping, either. There’s also print-on-demand content inside.
Each year, Adrian rereleases the course with updated information and more bonuses as part of his Shopify Partners agreement.
Is Ecom Success Academy worth a buy?
Sounds like it so far, but read the rest of our Ecom Success Academy review for the full details.
Product
Ecom Success Academy’s main content is a series of 136 video lessons split among 7 modules: 40 lessons on Shopify,12 lessons on Sourcing Products , 63 lessons on Facebook, 8 lessons on Email Marketing, 7 lessons on Building Your A-Team, 4 lessons on Project Management, and 2 lessons on Long-Term Exit Plans. For more organization, there are submodules within each module that group related lessons together.
The 8th module is the bonus section of the main content. These bonuses include 30 days of daily live coaching with Adrian, an in-depth look at Adrian’s email marketing strategies, more tips on outsourcing, an app that identifies best-selling products, and case studies of one of Adrian’s most successful product campaigns.
However, there are even more bonuses separate from the bonus module: weekly “Power Hour” webinar trainings with Adrian, a lifetime 10% Shopify discount, a list of several apps Adrian uses on his stores, and training on how to find and license art for print-on-demand products.
Module 1 is general Shopify training.
You’ll learn everything from store set up, to listing your products, to brand building and more in Shopify’s 40 lessons.
Then you learn a lot about product sourcing in Module 2.
In addition to learning content about dropshipping product sourcing and print-on-demand products, Adrian divulges his secrets for finding the best products and how he negotiates with his suppliers for great prices.
Adrian is one of the most prolific Facebook marketers in the world, and he shows it with Module 3.
At 63 lessons, this module alone makes up almost half the course. Everything you need to know about Facebook ads can be found in these lessons.
It is one of the most comprehensive Facebook ads trainings I’ve seen in a course that isn’t focused solely on Facebook ads. Everything from ad types to retargeting to split testing is covered in Module 3.
Module 4 teaches email marketing basics.
Adrian covers email setup, multiple types of email promotions, and other tips for increasing conversions with email. He included some email templates you can use for your own Shopify promotions.
By the end of Module 4, you’ve learned everything about running your store as a one-man operation.
At some point, you’ll need to offload work onto someone else, which is what Module 5 teaches.
In Module 5, you’ll learn how to build a successful team that allows you to scale your store with as little headache as possible. This is a critical step to scaling, as your hiring decisions could be the difference between successful scaling and running your store into the ground.
Adrian covers how to hire someone for product research, customer service, social media management, and overall project management. He also gives you places to find these people, such as Upwork.
You could apply these lessons to any business, really.
Then, there’s project management in Module 6.
As you grow your team and your store, you’ll shift away from “on-the-ground” tasks and towards the big picture. Management skills are essential to scale your store smoothly. In here, you’ll learn how to manage your team in order to get the most out of them.
He covers apps like Slack and Asana, both great project management tools.
Again, these lessons can be applied to business models other than dropshipping.
At the end sits Module 7.
Most dropshippers eventually want to exit the market, and they naturally want to reap the maximum profit from their store. Adrian has 2 lessons teaching you how to do so in this module.
One lesson shows you how to make a Profit & Loss statement, a critical component of demonstrating your store’s value. The other lesson teaches you about ways to add value to your store before you sell it.
I’m glad Adrian did well with Modules 5-8. Once your store hits a certain income level, it’s nearly impossible to grow your store without scaling. Most dropshippers quickly grasp the basics of running a Shopify store, but the hard part is building a team and “formalizing” your business with project management procedures.
Many dropshipping courses unfortunately don’t teach that stuff very well, but I think Ecom Success Academy did a pretty good job of it.
When you’re done with Modules 1-7, there’s the bonus module containing your coaching calls, email marketing and outsourcing tips, app list, and case study.
Unfortunately, the 4 weeks of live coaching already happened. Adrian did it for the first 30 days that the course was out, but you can access the recordings if you buy the course.
Then there’s the quick email marketing bonus.
There are a few short lessons about product launches and solo ads in this bonus.
As for the outsourcing bonus, Adrian covers the soft skills you’ll need as the boss of your business.
Things like how to hire VAs, how to structure your team, and how to create a business culture that leads to success are all covered.
Adrian dubbed his product-seeking app the Sizzle Product Sniper.
This is his personal software that identifies high-converting ads, locates the ads’ products on Aliexpress, and finds the best deals on those products so you can instantly add them to your store.
It’s useful both for swiping ad ideas and finding profitable products.
The case studies he included lets you see Adrian in action.
He shows you the products he sold, the ads he wrote, and the audiences he targeted that earned him a combined total of $1.2 million over 4 campaigns.
Time for more bonuses, starting with the “Profit Power Hour” trainings.
These are weekly, live webinars. In these Profit Power Hour webinars, Adrian covers e-com industry developments, answers member questions, and discusses his latest ad campaign results.
Power Hours happen every Tuesday at 9pm EST in his private Profit Power Hour Facebook group. If you miss one, they’re recorded and added to the member’s area in Ecom Success Academy.
This direct access to Adrian is one of the most valuable pieces of Ecom Success Academy, as you get to see his knowledge in action and ask for help on your own store.
Also, he posts an “after-party” video on his public Facebook after each Profit Power Hour. They’re only a few minutes long and he gives away a few hundred dollars cash during these videos, so they might be worth a look.
The next bonus is his list of Shopify apps.
Adrian uses every app on this list to enhance conversions, retarget ads, and recover “abandoned cart” customers.
One app you’d recognize is Mailchimp.
If you’ve ever dabbled in e-commerce, you’d also recognize Abandonment Protector, the app that helps recover sales from customers who added items to their cart then never checked out.
Then, there’re two Facebook ads app called Pixel Magic and Retargeting Made Easy. Pixel Magic lets you install your Facebook pixel onto your Shopify store, while Retargeting Made Easy helps you retarget your ads for more sale.
Better Shipping is also on there. It lets you customize everything related to your store’s shipping.
Teelaunch is another one of Adrian’s favorites. This app streamlines the print-on-demand process by letting you upload your design then choose from over 65 items to print it on.
Finally, Adrian uses the Conversion app to add a sense of urgency through the use of countdown timers. You know, the kinds you see on every online course’s sales page.
This increases conversions since people don’t want to “miss out”.
If you’re looking to try your hand at print-on-demand, he even has training on how to find and license art.
He gives you a few lessons on finding artists and using their art to create a profitable print-on-demand store without having to do a lick of design work.
Finally, the Shopify discount.
Thanks to his Shopify Partner status, Adrian is able to extend you a 10% lifetime discount on a Shopify subscription. More on Shopify here.
Ecom Success Academy has an endless amount of useful material inside the course. I have to say I’m impressed.
Upsells
Ecom Success Academy has no upsells. There isn’t much to upsell anyways, as this program has a ton in it.
That might change in future releases of Ecom Success Academy.
Pricing
Ecom Success Academy costs $2,495 up front, or you can opt for 3 monthly payments of $997.
That might be expensive, but considering the amount of content and support you get, that’s a decent price.
A basic Shopify subscription costs $29 per month. You’ll need to buy this separately, although you do get a 14-day free trial as well as Adrian’s discount.
Affiliate Program
Ecom Success Academy has an affiliate program. Affiliates can earn 40% commissions per sale, which equals $998.8 per sale. 3 sales per week would earn you almost $150,000 per year.
Not too bad.
Technically, Adrian calls it a joint venture program, but it operates largely the same as any other affiliate program.
However, you can also earn prizes as an affiliate.
There’s a Sales Contest, and Overall Leads Contest, and an “Everyone Wins” Leads Contest.
To sign up for their affiliate program, you have to go here and fill in your information.
Recap
Ecom Success Academy is not a scam. In fact, it’s the furthest thing from it. For $2,500, you’re getting an insane amount of content and weekly live updates from the course creator himself.
But if that wasn’t enough, you can’t really call this a scam if it’s 1 of only 7 dropshipping courses with the Shopify seal of approval.
Of course, Shopify’s been around forever and is starting to get some competition as other platforms move to take market share.
So does Shopify still work in 2019? I’ll tell you what I think here.
However, I’ll Paypal you $500 if you show me a better business to start than our method.
