Are you’re looking to get into dropshipping or up your eCommerce game and questioning whether eCom Elites is the golden ticket, you’ve landed at the right place to find out.
If you’ve been researching online for best drop shipping course, you’re bound to have come across Franklin Hatchett’s eCom Elites. Firstly, he’s a ninja at marketing - more on that later. Secondly, there used to be an option to sign up as an affiliate marketer for the course, so you’ll see lots of sites promoting it.
IMPORTANT - I’m not an affiliate for Franklin or any dropshipping course meaning I can give you an eCom Elites Review without needing to influence you to buy it. Especially for a course as inundated as this with Affiliates, I’d highly advise you to check if the reviewer makes money when you sign up - if they do, remember there’s going to be biased opinions to get you to part with your money.
I’ll be completely upfront with you. If you’re absolutely certain that dropshipping is your calling and on a budget, I’ll explain whether eCom Elites is the answer. If you’re more interested in changing your financial future and on the fence, there are better options than dropshipping - read on and find out why even Franklin’s recommend other options instead, including my #1 recommendation, Local Lead Gen.
1. What is eCom Elites
eCom Elites is aimed at the newbie dropshipper, but it’s not one of those quick-fix programs if you’re looking to dabble.
In fact, you’ll find it’s super comprehensive, clocking at over 30 hours long.
What will you learn:
Yes, that’s a lot of info to digest.
You can certainly start getting some traction once you get into the Facebook section providing you’ve been taking action along the way by finding your products and setting up your Shopify store as per Franklin’s directions.
Providing you’ve been taking action along the way by finding your products and setting up your Shopify store as per Franklin’s directions.
The business section is geared toward New Zealand law, so most folk will have to research or consult a pro to find out the specifics for their particular circumstance.
At least Franklin will make you aware of what you need to figure out and get in place to avoid legal problems later on down the line, which is more than can be said for many courses.
2. Who is Franklin Hatchett
Franklin is one of the dropshipping OGs, bringing a ton of credibility to the table with his vast experience as an online entrepreneur.
Hailing from New Zealand (the place where Lord of the Rings was filmed), Franklin’s the Wizard of all things eCommerce and affiliate marketing.
Starting out by building micro niche websites and making a little bit of money when people clicked on ads he’d place on them.
That led him to affiliate marketing and using Facebook for paid ads.
While he hit the jackpot for raking in commission $$$ - the affiliate program shut down and he had to start all over again.
Landing on his feet by finding dropshipping and Shopify early, he was able to establish himself in the business in the early days when it was super-lucrative.
AKA before it became saturated and before paid ads became expensive.
Frank quickly scaled, adding more stores...and more profit rolled in.
He decided to make a YouTube video about dropshipping as a business strategy and it went viral.
As a result came the eCom Elites course and his Shopify Theme, eCom Turbo.
But get this, he still couldn’t stay away from his precious first love, the affiliate market.
And you'll see this being the backbone of almost everything he does in someway.
As popular as his dropshipping program is, Frank is well known for his highly popular Savage Affiliates course too.
You can find Franklin dropping wisdom on his YouTube channel with numerous ideas for generating money online.
And he has his Online Dimes website that is pitched as a ecom elites blog but it’s really more of a collection of affiliate links for Clickfunnels, Shopify, hosting, and other goodies.
I’m sure it helps funnel people into a his Facebook groups where there’s much the same content as his YouTube channel but it’s easier to pitch his courses with Facebook drawing much more traffic on a daily basis.
Still, you can take the man out of affiliate marketing but you can’t take Affiliate marketing out of the man…
In the end, the BIG question is will you choose to follow our ecom “Gandalf” through the Misty Mountains of dropshipping?
In case you’re wondering...
3. How Does Dropshipping work?
Instead of worrying about inventory and storage space, you act as middle-man selling items to customers that are held by a supplier.
For those who do better with pictures here a simple image created by eCom Elites:
Most dropshippers try to disguise the fact to their customers because it has such a poor reputation for being scammy and just selling cheap crap from China.
That’s not surprising considering many people get started by using AliExpress and all the challenges that come along with it.
Consequently, there is a fine line to walk between earning customer trust and navigating the challenges of traditional dropshipping.
As a result, there’s more of a trend these days toward developing a premium brand feel and even investing in real inventory that can be shipped quickly.
4. Is Dropshipping Legit or a Scam?
Indeed, dropshipping itself is totally legit.
Ever heard of Wayfair.com?
They are a billion-dollar company built on the dropshipping model.
While the business model is very much legit - being a middle-man and connecting buyers with sellers - it’s the people involved who have given dropshipping it’s bad reputation.
Therefore you can expect to find:
- Dropshippers with misleading info on their stores about delivery times or quality of goods
- Suppliers who send fake knock-off products
- Criminals using stolen credit card information to pay for goods
- Customers denying that items were delivered and inisisting on refunds
- Goods being damaged in the shipping process
- Merchants refusing to work with you because dropshipping is considered high-risk
Additionally, we haven’t even mentioned crazy customers who are demanding and can ding your reputation with Shopify and your merchant accounts - that carries serious consequences and they can ruin your cashflow.
And then we have all the so-called gurus selling dropshipping courses.
Some, Franklin, are more credible but there are people peddling courses that no one should buy if they’re in their right minds.
However you choose to look at it, getting into dropshipping is like getting into battle with Sauron - there’s going to be trouble on the horizon.
Okay, so let’s say you do trust Hatchett...
5. How Much Does eCom Elites Cost? Any Discounts?
Obviously, this course is top-notch when comparing price with the depth and quality of content.
There are 2 package options:
The starter package:
On the contrary, going for the big treasure:
There are some deals around at times if you get lucky with your timing.
Last Black Friday, Franklin was offering his courses with a $100 off.
Yes, the basic course here for just $97.
6. eCom Elites Standard vs. Ultimate Package
So, what’s the difference between the eCom Elites Standard vs Ulimate Package?
With standard package, you get access to:
Other than the $100 difference in cost, the Ultimate has some extras in addition to everything in the standard package.
If your money is funny and you decide to go with the cheaper package, Franklin will usually allows students to pay the difference and upgrade at a later time.
That’s pretty cool...he’s not trying to use FOMO to trick people into spending more than they need to.
Pros of eCom Elites
7. Price point
Hands-down, you can’t beat eCom Elites for the combo of price versus content.
(unless you’re now looking at those free courses on YouTube for comparison).
IMO Franklin over-delivers here with what he charges for the course. It’s no wonder that eCom Elites is considered one of the most popular systems on the market.
Keep in mind that you’ll need more beyond just what you outlay for the program if you’re following Franklin’s Process.
For example, I’d already spent an additional $153 by the time I’d got to the end of module 3.
Domain - $14
Turbo Template - $97
3 x Plugins - $42 ($14 each)
You’ll can get a free trial from Shopify for 14 days but there’s a monthly subscription cost to factor in after that.
Additionally, you’ll need to factor in at least $500 for ad testing - with no guarantee to see any return on that investment. $500 is being very modest and a minimum if you expect to see success - you likely need a few thousand to see real traction.
Knowing how gung-ho Hatchett is for affiliate marketing, it reasonable to suggest he intentionally prices his courses low for a specific reason.
Knowing he can capture a more significant market share of students.
Student’s who’ll then be in a position to use his affiliate links as he recommends them.
He probably stands to make more money this way in the bigger picture than charging top dollar for his course.
Here’s an example of Franklin’s earnings via his affiliate deal with Shopify.
$84,000 a year isn't bad for just one affiliate program of many.
Whenever someone new signs up for a Shopify account, he receives a commission.
Shopify pays it’s affiliates an average of $58 per sign up.
Still, if someone brings genuine value, there’s nothing wrong with making a buck or 2 as an affiliate.
Although, the BIGGER question is whether these services are being pushed because they’re in your best interests or because they have the highest affiliate payouts.
Shopify is the go-to platform for eCommerce stores, and there’s no shortage of affiliate partners.
It’s worth doing your own research for some of the other things like plugins and templates to compare value and results.
New options for templates, software, plugins, and extensions are popping up every week, creating innovative solutions.
8. eCom Elite's Bonuses
There’s a host of cool tips and hacks here to boost traffic and increase conversions.
Some of the best ones are:
- Offering extended warranties to increase the credibility
- How to use review websites effectively
- Facebook Ninja Spying tactics
- Benefiting from email lists and fan pages
- Secret Youtube niches
- Sneaky coupon hacks
Facebook fan pages have been one of my favorite methods to drive traffic to my eCommerce store.
It takes some work to get them up and running with quality content and consistently finding ways to engage with your audience.
As you can see from these examples, they’ve created an enormous following.
Imagine if you even get 1% of those users landing at your store because they saw some cool product on your feed and wanted one too.
The coupon hack is another go-to for a lot of dropshippers that creates higher conversion rates. In my experience, it’s all about the timing of the pop-up.
It’s also a great strategy to capture those ever-so-valuable email addresses for free traffic later on.
Franklin knows how to cast a spell or two with years of experience to leverage every trick in the (magic) book.
- In-depth Facebook Ads Training & Additional Marketing Strategies
These days you can find great Facebook Ads training on a few courses or even Youtube videos if you know where to look. Still, when eCom Elites was first released, Franklin had the most in-depth training.
There’s still plenty to work with here and it’s the kind of training that teaches you the why and the how - not just a paint-by-numbers solution that might not work next week.
The Facebook Training encompasses:
- Advertising structure
- Facebook advertising account overview
- Type of ads
- How Facebook ads work
- Facebook pixel training
- Creating a Facebook page
- Understanding Facebook placements
- Setting up a Facebook business account
- Ad strategies
Franklin goes into additional advertising channels that you can layer to get even more exposure for your stores if that’s not enough.
- Instagram Influencers & Ads
- Using Chatbots effectively
- Google Ads
- Organic Google traffic (SEO)
It could get overwhelming to try to learn everything at once. I’d recommend focusing one at a time and adding as you go.
9. Teaches You How to Do Product Research
What Franklin gets it right here by teaching multiple ways to find products and checking to see if they are worthwhile for your store.
IMO this is better than most of the experts who teach you one method, going step by step.
What’s the saying about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish?
I appreciate Hatchett’s approach to educate his students.
There are the usual spy apps but you’ll also learn how to reach out and communicate with sellers.
I’ve found that developing those relationships were vital because they will go the extra mile for you in the long run.
What you’ll cover here:
- Product research
- Using apps like Wanelo and wish.com
- Product sales volume
- Sourcing products
- Finding suppliers & building relationships
- Facebook product research
- How to price your products
- Mind mapping for ideas
- The lazy way
- His 6 figure product
On one hand, it can be reassuring to be handed a process but on the other hand, with eCom Elites, you’ll have all the tools to create your own strategy and not just copy everyone else.
You’ll likely have to do a bit more thinking for yourself here but you’ll be better equipped in the long run than just following a cookie-cutter process without any way to adapt to changes.
Cons of eCom Elites
11. Facebook strategies are a bit too conservative
Maybe Franklin is being mindful of his audience here. After all, if someone is only comfortable spending a couple of hundred on a course, the idea of dropping thousands on ads right away might not be up their alley.
I can’t fault the amount of education here (see the Pros) and I’m sure the smart cookies can figure out how to go faster with their ad scaling.
For anyone coming into this course blind and thinking Franklin’s spending strategies are going to produce those tasty sales numbers seen on so many social media posts, they’re likely to feel disillusioned.
12. It’s sort of updated
I can see why this poses a challenge. After you’ve spent a lot of time and money creating videos and going through each step, that takes a lot of work to keep those videos updated. As I’m sure you can imagine, with the speed at which technology and platforms are updated, keeping those videos updated is an almost impossible task.
Franklin’s solution here is to have a separate module where he records updates and new videos.
While I applaud the effort and it’s certainly better than many of the competitors. It’s still really clunky when you are following along the video, and it doesn’t line up with what you see on your screen when you’re doing it.
It can get frustrating to keep checking the update section in the middle of a module, hoping to find the answers to why it’s not working.
To be honest, considering the eCom Elite’s price, we can’t expect Franklin to film new videos every six months to keep them updated.
13. Serious concerns about this business model for 2021
What is interesting is if you Google “is drop shipping dead,” the answers that pop up stating that drop shipping is alive and well and I must do side hustle for 2021, if you dig a little deeper, you will see that those answers are coming from the very same people selling courses on how to drop ship.
Do you think they are being 100% truthful and looking out for your best interest or do they need more people jumping and the bandwagon so they can sell more courses?
I think it’s very telling that looking at Franklin Hatchet’s YouTube channel, he has not created a drop shipping video since May 2020. It’s been over a year since he posted a video about getting into drop shipping has a great business model.
Franklin has gone big-time pushing affiliate marketing and he does have his Savage Affiliates (recently renamed Affiliate Atlas Blueprint) course so that makes sense.
Out of interest here are Franklin’s recommendations for the six best ways to make money online in 2021:
1 - Setting up or editing eCommerce Stores for others on Upwork or Fiverr
2 - Being an online business consultant & helping businesses get more customers (Local Lead gen)
3 - Funnel Building
4 - Building a YouTube channel (once you get 100k subs, you’ll see real traction).
5 - Creating an online course (Udemy or Skillshare / Teachables if you want to go premium)
6 - Publishing books on Amazon (admits he doesn’t know much himself but has seen examples of others)
7 - Affiliate Marketing
I find it really telling that even Franklin Hatchett isn’t suggesting going into Dropshipping for 2021. He’s got several other options he’d instead recommend - even if he has zero experience in them himself.
I’m going to level with you; I recently decided to get out of drop shipping and sold all my stores.
The juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze.
Especially when I had another business model that was much better at producing income without requiring as much time consistently.
With the low entry barrier for drop shipping, more drop shippers are entering the market and new stores are being added to Shopify at an alarming rate.
This may sound really cool and like, wow, I need to be on that too!
But hold your horses.
Stop and think about it for a moment.
If everyone is doing it, that should be a warning sign to do something different.
Concluding Thoughts
15. Do Franklin's Students Actually Make Money?
Great question!
What I like with Hatchett is it’s not just a graph and vanity metrics. You see the comments talking about how much the course has helped them.
From the student posts sharing sales metrics, it seems that some certainly do.
The bigger question is what % of students make money and how many are making enough to consider it a full-time income?
These stores run at 10-25% profit margins in the best-case scenarios, but many churn losses month after month.
I have yet to find a dropshipping course that reveals any details on the number of people registered and the average income per student.
16. Who's a Good Fit for eCom Elite?
Franklin pitches eCom Elites as the program to build a profitable store in 30 day.
That’s a bold claim.
Now, I’m not saying it’s impossible. Still, you’re going to have to be fully invested - and perhaps a bit lucky to pick a winning product and supplier right off the bat.
Here’s the deal, with the price point here for a couple of hundred bucks. This will be a low barrier entry for many folks interested in living that dropship lifestyle.
What does this mean for you if you are serious about building a real drop shipping business?
That you will be surrounded by a lot of people who go into this cautiously or half-hearted.
Personally, I found the Facebook group to be less committed to drop shipping and putting in the work required. There were a lot more complainers, compared with some of those requiring a higher investment to join.
When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. If you are willing to invest a few thousand and up of your own hard-earned dollars, going to be a lot more committed to the process and determined to make it work.
That said, if you’re on a budget and can figure this out on your own without the community support, nor are you the type that lets the negative Nancy affect you, Hatchet’s eCom Elites is a good starting point.
17. What alternatives are there to Franklin's eCom Elites?
There’s certainly no shortage of gurus claiming to have the key to unlock these dropshipping riches. For a full low down on the best programs around, check out my best dropshipping course review here.
In the meantime, here’s a couple of quick eCom Elites alternatives:
Dropship Lifestyle
Anton Kraly’s Dropship Lifestyle is on the premier end of the spectrum regarding course options. Anton’s course is a popular choice for someone super serious about building a legit ecom business and ready to invest in it.
eCom Elites vs Dropship Lifestyle (DSL)
The most glaring difference is the price point. DSL is obviously aiming for the serious entrepreneur who is ready to make a serious commitment. While eCom Elites does cover high ticket products, Anton’s course focuses on only selling high-ticket items.
There’s much more of a mentoring and support feel. You can email the support channel to have your product/niche approved for the specific criteria given in the training.
The top tier package even includes a done-for-you store option.
The training is step-by-step and high quality.
You’ll also find it easier to network with serious dropshippers at the DSL yearly retreat.
Where you’ll spend half of the day exploring an exotic location and the other half learning how to grow your business.
Anton’s course has some very specific strategies and reverse-engineers dropshipping with the lifestyle component as the main target.
He get’s very specific with target audiences and evergreen products.
This isn’t your ‘run of the mill’ dropshipping methodology it’s more designing your lifestyle and using dropshipping as a method to support it.
eCommerce University
A little bit more pricey than eCom Elites at $997, but Beyond Six Figures’ Justin Woll is a young mover and shaker who’s taking the dropshipping world by storm.
The Facebook group is free to access if you request the opportunity to get a feel. Justin drops regular training in there that’s well worth checking out. Admittedly, a good amount of time is spent getting views to like and comment but he drops some real nuggets of wisdom.
eCom Elites vs eCommerce University
This is like the new school vs old school match-up.
Hatchett is a seasoned pro with a wealth of knowledge. His focus is on teaching you a well-rounded grasp of dropshipping. It’s not clear how much dropshipping Frank does anymore.
Justin Woll is making things happen! Both with his own stores and helping his students develop their own 6-figure stores.
His array of ad strategies are impressive and puts most other courses to shame. They come with cool names so everyone knows which strategy you’re talking about.
Many of the students hitting gold seem to already have some experience in ecom but couldn’t generate many sales or enough profit until they found Justin’s material.
There’s a bit of a price difference but if you want more interaction and to cut to the chase right away, eCommerce University could be the answer.
Parting Thoughts on eCom Elites
Overall, you can’t go wrong with eCom Elites for the amount of content at this price.
Franklin knows his stuff and provides so many avenues to get your products in front of potential buyers that it’s worth getting for the ad strategies alone.
I’ve followed him for years and he has always seemed to genuinely want to help people find ways to make money online.
Yes, sure...the best way to wealth is to help others get what they want BUT he does give plenty away for free.
The red flag here isn’t so much eCom Elites but whether dropshipping is even a smart move right now?
If the beacon around us aren’t screaming with numerous warning signs:
- So many countries lingering on the verge of economic recession
- The international shipping crisis with hikes in costs and lengthy wait times
- Escalating trade issues between China and the US (expect other nations to follow the US in support or fear)
- Apple’s IOS 14 privacy policy (keep reading to find how severe it will be)
The kicker is Franklin isn’t even recommending dropshipping anymore - he’s focusing on other business models in his marketing push for courses and content.
How Does Dropshipping Stand up to Others? Like Lead Generation?
Have you read M.J. DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane?
If you want to find the recipe for consistent passive income, it’s essential reading.
One of the gems in here is DeMarco’s criteria for evaluating business opportunities:
Let me show you how to put this into practice.
18. Control
There’s nothing more stressful than trying to sleep every night wondering if your sales are going to have ground to a halt while you were asleep.
One of the biggest problems with dropshipping is relying on the likes of Facebook, Google, and Instagram influencers for your income.
With the constantly changing algorithms and the looming threat of having your account disabled, there are a lot of risks that are completely out of your control.
Most dropshippers use Facebook ads but it’s notorious for problems with accounts being suspended or disabled.
The cost of advertising is sky rocketing every year and is squeezing any would be profit for most dropshippers.
As more people enter the market, demand increases so prices go up - trend we have seen forcing many small businesses and entrepreneurs out of business.
The next big problem on the horizon is Apple’s change on IOS 14 to alert users when their data is being tracked and collected.
Did you know that Facebook doesn’t just track what you do on their site?
No, they can track everything you search for and what you view.
They use this to create highly detailed data on your interests, struggles, activities and views.
This enables advertisers to create targeted audiences to market to.
For example, health conscious, affluent dog owner in a country or city.
The new IOS 14 changes has seen Facebook launch a campaign to create public outcry against Apple but has fallen on deaf ears.
On the other hand, with Local Lead Generation I use Google’s organic traffic.
Results are based on buyer intent search.
If some is looking for pool service in Pasadena - they’re going to see my site first.
I target niches that are easy to rank in and then reap the rewards month after month.
The best bit, it’s free forever.
No ad spend, no disabled accounts, no worrying about having to target buyer.
The buyers come to me.
Total control - even down to what clients I choose to work with.
19. Entry
It’s important to find a business with a high barrier to entry so you can charge a premium for your product or services.
Sadly, the good old days of dropshipping are long gone.
The market is flooded with stores and profit margins have been slashed as a result.
With over a million stores already out there, it going to be practically impossible to find a unique niche.
That leaves you competing on quality and price.
In my experience, there’s always someone will to undercut you for a sale.
Heck, I’ve even seen other dropshippers hijacking my ad campaigns by plastering damaging comments on my ad feed and providing a link to somewhere else to buy the same product but for a better price or some other fictitious reason.
When I found Local Lead Gen, it was like a breath of fresh air.
There’s a process to learn and it doesn’t happen overnight.
That rules out the majority of people because they don’t have the dedication.
You know what, that time I put in is paying off big time.
This lead gen stuff is just rinse and repeat.
Imagine having 50 or a 100 of these sites bringing in monthly revenue for you?
Conclusion
I hope you found this review of eCom Elites Shopify ecommerce course helpful.
Franklin certainly over-delivers here on content and it’s by far the best value course on the marketing from an someone with an established reputation for dropshipping.
You’ll learn more than just what to here. You’ll get the reasoning and a well-rounded understanding so you can hopefully adapt as dropshipping continues to change.
The Facebook training is thorough - an essential for any eCommerce program. You’ll also have plenty of additional methods to sky rocket traffic to your store.
I’m a big fan of Franklin’s and I think he’s a genius at marketing - including potentially leveraging his courses for affiliate income with a lower price point.
Alarmingly, even Frank is displaying concerns about the viability of dropshipping for 2021.
Instead, he’s shifting his education to a host of other revenue-generating options and relying more on his affiliate marketing knowledge.
Although I wouldn’t say I’m any smarter than most entrepreneurs or have a crystal ball to see the into the future, I could sense dropshipping getting tougher to generate decent profit and it was eating up so much of my time.
When I found Local Lead Generation, I decided to make the jump and I’ve never regretted.
I make more money in a month than many people do in a year - and it’s practically passive income too.
If you’ve read this far, you owe it to your future self to learn more.
Literally anyone can get into dropshipping with hardly any effort or upfront cash. Regardless of what you're selling, you'll likely be competing with millions of other sellers in an extremely saturated market.
Plagiarism is rampant in dropshipping. It's far too easy for your competitors to copy your ads, your sales funnels, and even your Shopify store. Be assured that if you find a successful product, you will be copied and then undercut by your competition.
Advertisements have no guarantee of being profitable - and one should expect to occasionally have campaigns that fall short of expectations (which can cost thousands of dollars).
Facebook's ad prices have doubled this last year. Successful dropshippers can expect to profit roughly 8-15%, which only really works if you're selling major volumes of product.
The key to long term wealth is in building and owning valuable assets, but with dropshipping, you own nothing. You're an enslaved middleman to Shopify, Facebook, and Google. Their ad and metrics systems are unreliable and ever changing - and account deactivations are a way of life in eCommerce.
Ads must be developed and then monitored - and failing to do so could mean unprofitable ads or, even worse, ad account suspension.
Trending items are most often the only products that have a profitable ROI. Many businesses meet their ends on the fall of whatever trend they were capitalizing on.
Shipping from China takes six weeks, so expect lots of customer complaints and chargebacks (which are deducted from your bank account).
Local Lead Generation
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