There once was a young man who sold cookies for a living.
His days went like this:
He started every morning by smashing an alarm clock, rolling out of bed, and dragging his feet to a car doubling as a delivery truck.
With coffee in one hand and cookie in the other, he made his way around the city selling sugary delights. He did this every day.
Alarm clock. Coffee. Delivery route.
Every... Day...
He didn’t mind the routine. It was good money, and he worked for no one but himself.
But one day, something changed. He read a book by Tim Ferris called The 4-Hour Workweek. Perusing the pages, he came across the term eCommerce.
That’s when it clicked.
He started selling his cookies online a few days later, and with the money that came in, he knew that he would never have to deliver cookies in person again. Everything was about to change…
One drop shipping store, a few years, and a few countries later, Drop Ship Lifestyle was born.
So, yeah. That cookie salesman was me. I learned a lot over the past decade. I learned how to scale an eCommerce business. I learned how to get suppliers that value me as a retailer. I learned how to make money anywhere with an internet connection.
And I learned how to be wary of eCommerce trends - VERY WARY of eCommerce trends
eCommerce trends, internet marketing, eCommerce marketing… If you’re interested in starting your own eCommerce drop shipping store, you’ve probably run across these terms.
eCommerce marketing is a hefty topic, so I’m going to keep this post simple. This blog covers 2 basic types of eCommerce trends you need to look out for.
Types of eCommerce Trends:
- eCommerce marketing trends
- eCommerce product trends
eCommerce trends come and go… it’s the nature of trends.
Sometimes trends do well and can benefit your eCommerce store. Other times… well, other times, they will leave you in the dark wondering what in the world is happening.
Today, I wanted to take time to walk through some of these eCommerce trends and give you my thoughts on them.
Good eCommerce trends, bad eCommerce trends, and just trends in general GREATLY AFFECT the way we do business. However, the trick to winning with your eCommerce store isn’t to jump on the latest fad. Sure, that sometimes works, and I’ll talk about that later...
But that’s not how you gain consistency.
The trick to having a sustainable business is to learn how to adapt. You must adapt to the situation at hand and know what trends to interact with and what trends to leave alone.
Many folks fail because they jump on eCommerce trends willy-nilly. They don’t think. They don’t strategize an eCommerce marketing plan.
I’m assuming that you’re using Shopify for your eCommerce drop shipping store. If you’re not, there’s no need to worry. Regardless of what platform you use to run your store, these trends affect all of us internet retailers. Whether you use a Shopify store, Wix store, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Square store, or whatever else, eCommerce trends apply to you.
If you’re getting into eCommerce, it’s important that you always stay on the lookout for eCommerce marketing trends. Keep reading, and I’ll give you my thoughts on how you can keep your store ahead of the competition.
Let’s get started.
About eCommerce Trends
The internet is kind of like the wild west.
Trends blow up.
Memes explode and then die a few weeks later.
Products get hot and then fall off the charts.
You know what I mean? (does the image below look familiar?)
This is the reality of the eCommerce world. When you sell things on the internet, you are held subject to spontaneous trends and unpredictable internet culture.
This brings us to our first eCommerce trend topic of the day…
eCommerce Trend #1: Product Trends
Spoiler alert: eCommerce product trends ARE NOT reliable.
Let’s start off with an example.
I'm going to tell you the story of how a store's product sales died overnight.
This store racked in over £100,000 in 1 and a half months, and now, barely anything is coming in. Even after launching ads, there wasn’t any luck with sales.
I think you know what’s happening here.
That’s right. This person caught an eCommerce product trend.
They caught a hot trend, they got a bunch of sales, and then 1 of two things happened:
1. Competition picked up
OR
2. The product trend died
That's why trending products have always existed. If that wasn’t the case, I’d still be rocking my frosted tips and my snazzy starter jacket… Yeah, I’m glad that’s over too.
Selling a trendy product is a way for stores to generate a large amount of revenue in a short amount of time.
But there are positives and negatives.
The Positives and Negatives of eCommerce Product Trends
Thus far, it may seem that my thoughts on eCommerce product trends are more negative… which is true.
My advice is to not RELY on get-rich-quick trends. Remember, we are creating a real business with real assets. Your drop shipping store is a legitimate business, and you should treat it like one. We want longevity and sustainability.
Product Trends - The Positives
1. If you’re one of the first Shopify stores to sell a trending product, you’ll get a ton of traffic and sales conversions.
2. If you get your ads set up when the market isn’t saturated, those ads will convert well. Your ads will be money well spent.
3. If you target the right people at the beginning of a trend (better than your competitors), your sales will go through the roof.
Maybe this sounds alright to you. Maybe you want to be the first person selling fidget spinners. You’re maybe thinking “$30,000 of revenue in 1 month sounds pretty good.”
I disagree. I think your Shopify store should be more than just a one hit wonder.
Let’s take a look at the drawbacks of eCommerce trends for products.
Product Trends - The Negatives
1. It’s almost impossible to keep up with inventory demand. If you’re selling a product that explodes out of nowhere, the demand will be crazy. You’ll be able to fulfill the first round of orders, but the factories producing these hot items aren’t going to be able to keep up with the needs of consumers.
Once these products take off, the best marketers in the world will find these products… The market share of these trending products will be taken by the best marketers, with the biggest budgets, with the most experience. You’ll be left out in the cold after a month or two.
2. eCommerce trends die off (See Google Trends chart below). People stop searching for these products, and even if better marketers don’t beat you to the sale, the low market demand for this trending product will kill your Shopify store.
3. My points above assume that you got in on an eCommerce trend early. If you didn’t… there’s no way you’ll be able to “jump in” profitably on a trend. Potential customers have moved on. They are done, and so are your store’s profits.
4. You won’t be able to sell your store. Like I’ve said a million times on my other blog posts, your store is a real asset. If your Shopify drop shipping store makes $1,000 a month on a consistent basis, that store can sell for $20,000.
If your store makes $3,000 a month on a consistent basis, that store is worth over $100,000. Your eCommerce trend driven store won’t be able to sell. No one wants to buy a Shopify drop shipping store that doesn’t make any money.
My Advice on Product eCommerce Trends
Don’t waste your time on them.
Don’t use Watchcount dot com or look at eBay or look at trending products on AliExpress - especially if these products are already trending.
Why spend hours building a Shopify store that sells a trending product for a couple of months? Why not put time into a drop shipping store that works? A store that is a sellable asset is worth MUCH MORE than a one nice paycheck.
eCommerce Trend #2: Marketing Trends
Spoiler alert: eCommerce marketing trends ARE definitely something to look into!
When I say eCommerce marketing trends, I’m talking about different ad types and different types of of apps and software that you use for your Shopify store.
Whether you’re running a Shopify store or using a different eCommerce platform, you’ll be researching marketing trends.
At Drop Ship Lifestyle, I teach my method of drop shipping. My courses focus on selling high-ticket, evergreen products on your own Shopify store.
If your Shopify store is selling a product that is evergreen, you’ll want to always investigate new and unique ways of advertising.
Our competitors are selling these products as well, so we want to advertise in different ways that are unique.
We want our advertising to pop out at potential customers. If we advertise how everyone else in the world is advertising, we will be at a disadvantage. This is why we want to be innovative.
The standard eCommerce marketing methods (includes links from experts!):
Neil Patel writes an intuitive article on Facebook advertising here!
You could also check out Drop Ship Lifestyle’s FB Warrior Course - a place to learn how to kill the game at profitable Facebook marketing campaigns.
Brian Horn wrote up these quick tips on Mixergy. You can also find a different set of tips here that Jennifer Shaheen wrote on The Self Employed.
Or get started using Google PLAs with our free checklist.
Influencer Marketing
ConvertKit covers influencer marketing and monetization in this article. It’s a great resource if you’re unfamiliar with the term influencer marketing.
Writing on Blogs
If you don’t know where to start, look at what Manta has to say about coming up with killer blog topics.
But there are always new opportunities and new ways to advertise. If you can plug these unique forms of advertising into your drop shipping business, you’ll be cutting edge. You will be ahead of other stores in your niche.
Two Reasons to Catch Marketing eCommerce Trends Early on:
There are loopholes to these forms of advertising. By loopholes, I mean that they're going to get shut down eventually. For instance, let’s say there’s a new app on the market that lets you post ads to Facebook in a certain way. This app pulls in a ton of customers, and you’re one of the first companies to use it. But sadly, Facebook changes their policies for this app, and it gets shut down. This is what I mean by loophole. It’s allowed for a bit, and then it isn’t.
It’s also good to catch marketing trends early because eventually, everyone's going to be using them! Using awesome ads and apps makes your Shopify store stand out from the rest… but not if everyone and their mom is using the same marketing tools. For instance, everyone has a Facebook account now. However, when Facebook first started, having a business profile on Facebook was a HUGE advantage. Now, everyone and everything has a Facebook profile. Simply having a Facebook page won’t get you noticed. You need to catch those early marketing trends.
Here are some more examples of eCommerce marketing trends:
Messenger Bots
I’m sure some of you are familiar with the application, Many Chat. It’s a fantastic way for your company to interact with your customers.
Many Chat lets you build a Facebook messenger list that you can market to. We started using Many Chat as soon as it came out. It works great, but over the years, tons of other companies picked it up.
Wheelio App
Something that was working really well a while back was an app called Wheelio. Now, it’s kind of gimmicky, but when it first came out, it was totally unique!
If Wheelio was on your Shopify store, it was extremely enticing for the customer. Now, it’s outdated. It has been used by every Shopify store out there.
If you got into eCommerce trends [like Many Chat and Wheelio] early, your Shopify store would stand out.
If you get on marketing eCommerce trends late, you’re just following everyone else. At best, your customers will be unimpressed. At worst, your potential customers will see your store as behind the curve and gimmicky.
When you're trying to capitalize on eCommerce trends. DON’T focus on products.
They aren’t long term! Sure, you’ll have some short-term wins, but you want to build a long-term business - not a short-term one.
Using eCommerce marketing trends along with your normal marketing activities (Facebook, Twitter, normal ad sources etc.) will help you make money in the long-term.
The trick to eCommerce marketing trends is to only spend 20% of your time on the trendy new stuff.
Spend 80% of your energy on the normal ads and marketing sources that YOU KNOW work. That way, if you catch onto a marketing trend and it stops working, you can still rely on your foundation.
Key eCommerce Trend Takeaways
- eCommerce product trends are risky.
- eCommerce marketing trends are worth investing in.
- The 80/20 Rule: 80% of your efforts should go toward normal ad and marketing protocol. 20% of your efforts should go to eCommerce marketing innovation.
- eCommerce trends are a part of life. Learn what to get excited for, and learn what to ignore.
That’s all for today folks. If you are curious about how to find reliable products to sell, read one of my other articles here.
As always, don’t hesitate to reach out! Drop Ship Lifestyle is here to help!
Feel free to leave some comments below. I’d love to hear from you. Tell me what your favorite marketing tools are and how they help your business!
Watched your webinar but one question I have was left out. Where to find suppliers that are willing to drop ship? Or do I just approach companies and convince them to drop ship? (which I’ve done before) So where?
Hi Michael,
The best way to source suppliers is to reverse engineer your “future competitors” and see which brands they sell for. From there, you can reach out to those brands directly for approval.
I give you my exact phone and email scripts that lead to a high approval rating in Module 4 of the Drop Ship Blueprint.
I hope that helps!
Love your stuff so far however I am from the UK. Any tips on sourcing dropshipping suppliers. I am JUST starting out.
Hi Gayle,
Part of our Drop Ship Blueprint training program is our “Doing Business Abroad Course”.
That will help you to get set up in UK, or do business in the states 🙂
If you’re a member of Drop Ship Lifestyle, you can access the course in your members area.
If you’re not a member yet, you can get enrolled here:
Get Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Thank you!
Anton
Hey Everyone,
As many of you already know I created Drop Ship Lifestyle after selling a network of eCommerce stores and then trying to find a community of other store owners to network with… What I found was a bunch of scammers who promised newbies they would get rich quick by following their push-button systems!
This led me to create a new community along with online training that shares how to build a REAL online business.
I’d love to hear what you think… it’s a 2.5 hour dropshipping webinar designed to help you drop ship profitably… all for free.
Be sure to click here to check it out and send me your feedback!
If you go through the How To Drop Ship Profitably webinar and still have questions just contact me and I will help you out.
– Anton
Great article Anton…
Do you give in Drop Ship Lifestyle’s course, all the keys to mastering drop shipping marketing… or it’s a personal path your customers have to overcome… ? 🙂
See you soon
J.B
Thanks J.B.!
Inside of the Drop Ship Blueprint (which is the core training program included inside of Drop Ship Lifestyle), you get premium training videos, worksheets, and tools that take you step-by-step through the process that I use every time I launch a new high ticket drop ship store.
Our members also get priority support and we’re here to help you throughout your journey should you ever get stuck.
My goal with the course is to give you all of the keys / secrets / systems that you need for success, but again, if you get stuck, we are here to help 🙂
Thanks!
Anton
Thanks Anton. This is really smart.
I tried to sell fidget spinners on ebay when they were trendy LOL.
Haha – you weren’t alone! That was one of the craziest trends I’ve seen in awhile. You couldn’t even walk through NYC without seeing someone selling them on every corner.