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You’ve probably heard people talking about building an eCommerce empire. All the gurus get lyrical over it.

So, is there a course to do just that?

I’m Ippei, and I’m here to give you the low-down on all things dropshipping related. I speak from experience and had my own 6 figure stores not too long ago.

PLEASE NOTE: there seems to be some confusion surrounding the course name. The official website is Ecom Empires Builder (https://ecommerceempirebuilders.com/), but the course is listed as being called: Ecommerce Empire Academy.

Ecommerce Empire Builders refer to the group as a whole, and includes Done-For-You Services and Self-Study Courses. 

Today, I'm focusing on Ecommerce Empire Academy.

The Ecommerce Empire Academy is an online training course, hosted on Teachable and created by Ecommerce consultant Peter Pru. 

Peter is also the founder of Untapped Focus, which is an all-natural supplement for entrepreneurs and high performers.

So, if you want to supplement your income (excuse the pun), perhaps this is the right course for you.

Let’s see if Peter Pru can help you build an Ecom Empire from scratch!

1. What is Ecommerce Empire Academy? 

According to Peter, you can have a successful online store within as little as 30 days. Even if you are starting with no business experience, product(s), website or tech experience.
 
Sounds amazing, right?

Peter says that Ecommerce Empire Academy is a proven, step-by-step system for starting or growing a successful online business using the massive power of eCommerce Subscription Funnels and getting you on the road to replacing your full time income.

With Peter’s 7 module course, you will have absolutely everything you will need to succeed, working at your own pace.

The secret behind Peter’s success is simple: this is not the everyday dropshipping business model. This masterclass teaches you how to start a successful dropshipping business using a sales funnel.

Once you join, you get full and immediate access to following Ecommerce Empire Academy modules:
Module 1: The Mindset shift
  - Reprogramming your mind for success
Module 2: Markets & offers
  - Picking your profitable niche and products
Module 3: Funnels & Continuity
  - Building a non-stop sales machine
Module 4: Email Marketing
  - Automating your business for 24/7 sales
Module 5: Influencer & Organic /Marketing
  - Getting initial sales with low cost traffic
Module 6: Facebook Advertising
  - Automating continuous sales with Facebook
Module 7: Scaling & Sales Channels
  - Growing your business past 6 – figures

In a nutshell: Ecommerce Empire Builders Academy will teach you how to earn via dropshipping, with the power of E-commerce sales funnels, using click funnels software tools.
Not only do you get access to the Ecommerce Empire Academy Training program, you also get:
• The 30-day business builder calendar.
• $10 000 per month product picker and/or product generator
• A one-on-one 1-hour strategy session
• A business build case study, done in real time
• The 7-figure library of funnel templates
• Get a weekly question-and-answer recording and access to archives
• Access to the Elite Mastermind group of like-minded individuals

2. Who is Peter Pru? 

At only 28 Peter Pru has established, evolved, and extended many online companies with 6-7 figures across multiple industries. When he was a freshman in college, Peter built himself a $50K a month Amazon business.
 
Crazy right?

Problem was, he did so well, the haters came out in full force. He was banned from Amazon and lost everything, including $40k of products lying in an Amazon warehouse.

But instead of it knocking him down & out, Peter got back up!

He studied e-commerce inside out and gained as much knowledge as possible and opened a startup selling fishing supplies.
Peter-Pru with ClickFunnel awards
With his proactive thinking and determined will, he was able to become exceptionally good with e-commerce, and now he is among the most successful entrepreneurs in the world.
 
On his website, he tells us about the process of building may stores with 6-figure profits. He decided to teach others how to start their online e-commerce businesses through his training courses. That was the start of eCommerce Empire Builders, better known as eCommerce Empire Academy
 
Peter also claims to have successfully built a $2,300,000 dropshipping business and he used that knowledge to create this course.

3. How Does Dropshipping Work?

Dropshipping is a type of business model which enables you to operate an online store without:
-  having ANY inventory, 
- owning a warehouse to store products,
- having to ship your products to your customers - you never have to touch your stock!
So, how does dropshipping work?

  • The customer places an order for a product on the retailer’s online store.
  • The retailer automatically or manually forwards the order and customer details to the dropship supplier.
  • The dropship supplier packages and ships the order directly to the customer in the retailer’s name.
  • The end. (Supposedly... More on that later.)

4. Is Dropshipping Legit or a Scam?

If you are still worried whether dropshipping is a legitimate business model, consider that Amazon (the world’s largest retailer) was one of the first successful dropshipping companies.
Due to Amazon's huge level of success, the model has been copied and adapted to what dropshipping is today. With so much money to be made, it’s an industry that continues to grow year by year.
 
But, unfortunately, there is a shady side to dropshipping.
 
You get scam sites that advertise products but never deliver on the products. You also get shady suppliers can take/steal payments without sending customers your products. It does happen, and it gives the biz model a bad name.

However, the biz model itself is completely legit.

5. How much does Peter Pru’s Ecommerce Empires Course Cost? Any Specials?

Peter Pru is a sales master. His ClickFunnels awards prove this, which is why you shouldn't pay too much attention to the following figures... If you buy Ecom Empires Academy, you get the following:

  • The Complete Ecommerce Empire Academy Program (worth $ 2997.00)
  • Access to the Elite Mastermind (worth $1997.00)
  • Weekly Q & A Recordings (worth $4997.00)
  • My Private 7-Figure Funnel Template Library (worth $15 000.00)
And you're getting all of that for the special low price of...

Don't get fooled by the clever sales pitch or the attempt to create urgency.

The course is $1,997, and has been since launch.

Pros of Ecommerce Empires Academy

6. Positive Course Feedback

Think about it. With so many positive reviews on different platforms on Peter and the Ecommerce Empire Builders, you cannot go wrong. The reviews point to the fact that the support structure is in place and working.

7. Course content

You can have zero tech skills, business experience, products or website and the course will tick all the boxes for someone starting out in dropshipping. Peter's approach is 100% practical  easy to understand - making it great for beginners. He also offers valuable strategy and marketing content for the more experienced dropshipper.

It seems that this 7 module course has everything you need to get started.

8. Community

The Ecommerce Empire Builders community is an active one and genuinely sets out to help members. The also host Live Q&A Sessions where students can get their own questions answered by a panel of pros who have been there and done that. 

Then there's also exclusive access to the Mastermind Program AND a Live Streaming Channel.

9. Sales Funnels

This is a topic that does NOT get covered by dropshipping courses. Yet, it's something so easy to implement if you know how to do it, and generates TONS of money.

Peter is a 2-Comma Award Winner; an award given by Clickfunnels for users that have processed over 1 million dollars ($1,000,000) with just a single funnel.

Proof that Peter is a marketing pro - So, this training is from one of the best!
Peter-Pru-with 2 Comma ClickFunnel award

Cons of Ecommerce Empires Academy

10. Expensive

At $1,997, it is not the cheapest dropshipping course out there. Yes, it covers a whole new angle of dropshipping by focusing on FUNNELS, but there are some issues I have with using sales funnels. 

Take the Sales Funnels Training away and it is still a good course for beginner dropshippers, but not at that price... 

11. Sales Funnels

Using a sales funnel (or email marketing) as a marketing method can be expensive. You need to have an account on ClickFunnels, which costs from $97 to $297 to $2,497 per month. It's another skill set you will have to master...

12. Course Content

As great a course as this is, there are some areas that were lacking. For $1,997, you would expect to have Google ads and other social platforms, chatbots, SEO and other marketing issues covered. 

13. Course Content 2.0

Deja vu? Nope.

This also pertains to the existing course content. Many topics are skimmed over, instead of discussed in more detail. YES, it's easier for beginners to understand, but I would expect more substance, across the board, from an expensive course like this. 

14. Do Peter Pru's Students Actually Make Money?

Peter has en entire page dedicated to testimonials. Click below to see for yourself:
There are also some on YouTube (such as the video below), suggesting that his students are making money. 

15. Who's a Good Fit for Ecommerce Empires Academy

This course is a good fit for people that don’t mind working a little extra on their online stores.

You don’t need to have all the experience in the world to sign up for Peter Pru's course. There are other students to chat with, there are pros you can ask for help, and even a private group for more detailed interacting and learning the tricks of the trade.

This course is excellent for beginners - they will benefit the most from the course content.

16. What alternatives are there to Peter Pru's Ecommerce Empires Academy?

If you're expressly looking to learn about Sales Funnels and dropshipping, then there aren't many alternatives I can recommend. 

A cheaper alternative I found that also dealt with both dropshipping and sales funnels, was Project Verum. 

Presented by John Yoon, it might be a good fit for you if budget is a problem.

Feel free to check out my review of Project Verum for more info. 

Peter's course however, is not as comprehensive as I would like and many topics are rushed through or completely omitted. 

The best bang for buck course in terms of content, is still Franklin Hatchett's Ecom Elites. You'll be hard pressed to find another course with this much content at such a price. It's a steal!
logo for franklin hatchett ecom elites

How Does Dropshipping Stand up to Others? Like Lead Generation?

Not every business model suits every person, so you need to do your own homework and find what fits.

Each biz model has its pros and cons.

Luckily, I found MJ DeMarco's book, The Millionare Fastlane. It taught me how to decide which biz model was best for me.

MJ offers a serious dose of millionaire mentoring and should be on your must-read list. He shares his secrets in evaluating potential businesses so that you can pick the winners and avoid the duds.

He created the C.E.N.T.S. model to make it simple to pick a winning biz model. C.E.N.T.S stands for:
MJ DeMarco's CENTS model

A successful business must have all of these present, and sadly, dropshipping falls short. 

Here's Control & Entry as examples:

17. Control:

One of the selling points of the dropshipping model is that you don’t have to carry inventory.

That's right. You never handle your stock! Imagine the time, effort and money you save by selling products you don't ever have to touch...

Only problem is you end up having no control over your product

Getting the right supplier is a mission! Can you trust them to:
- ship your product on time?
- ship the correct product?
- ship quality products?
- have enough products in stock?
dropship supplier issues
With dropshipping, a LOT of your business is completely OUT OF YOUR CONTROL, which makes it a terrible biz model in my book.

18. Entry:

LEVEL OF ENTRY.

Ever heard of those three words? It refersto the difficulty of someone entering a business market. 

With dropshipping, the barrier to entry is extremely low.

This means that any tween and their grandmother can open an ecommerce store within a few hours.  

Why is this a bad thing? Because anyone can do it, which leads to
- over-saturated markets &
- low profit margins.
Oh, and just about EVERY dropshipper uses AliExpress. 

This means you will be competing with millions of other dropshippers using the SAME SUPPLIERS, selling the SAME PRODUCTS... 

Think about it...

CONCLUSION

Ecommerce Empire Builders by Peter Pru is a great community and offers a diverse range of services and study material.


Ecommerce Empire Academy though, is a very short course. It offers only seven modules and comes in at under 20 hours in total. At $1,997 it is VERY expensive for what you get. 


At this price point, you would expect a lot more content to do with dropshipping, and a lot less about sales funnels. If pushed, I would even go so far as to say this is a course about sales funnels.


BUT, Peter Pru is a two comma club ClickFunnels award winner, so he knows his stuff.


Marketed as a dropshipping course, I would have liked to see more detailed info on dropshipping and other marketing methods.

PARTING THOUGHTS ON DROPSHIPPING

19. Peter's Course works, but Generating Leads is Better, Here's Why:


Let's look at some of the cons of dropshipping:

Dropshipping is not the best because:
• Marketing is expensive.
• You need to constantly do product research and stay on top of trends.
• Need to find reliable suppliers
• After sales – you are responsible for all returns, and refunds. This means dealing with customer complaints ANS liaising with your supplier. In China...
• Profits for dropshipping are notoriously low between 5% and 20%. All that work for so little money in your pocket? No thanks!

Lead Generation is a better fit for me than Dropshipping because of these reasons:
• It is a business model that produces consistent results long-term.
You own the assets – with lead gen, website and number is yours. No one can take it away from you!
• Because it's such low maintenance, you basically create a recurring PASSIVE income that sends money your way EVERY month.

• For me, it also ticks all the biz boxes as proposed by MJ DeMarco. (Ps: Read the book!) 

MARKET SATURATION

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.

LOW BARRIER OF ENTRY & PLAGARISM

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.

HIGH RISK

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).

LOW PROFIT MARGINS

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.

NO LONG-TERM ASSETS

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.

HIGH MAINTENANCE

Ads must be developed and then monitored - and failing to do so could mean unprofitable ads or, even worse, ad account suspension.

RELIANT ON TRENDS

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.

CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

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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