An e-commerce operator with $300-400K monthly revenue explains why dropshipping no longer works: Shopify and payment processors tightened rules, competition exploded, and customers demand real products and fast shipping. Success now requires building brands with high customer lifetime value, not copying products and running cheap ads.
So everyone on their mom is telling you to start dropshipping in 2026. And I'm here to tell you why you shouldn't. And I'm saying this as someone who's been doing this for three years and the game has changed a lot and nobody's talking about it, no one's being honest about this. And as someone who has a brand that's doing, you know, over 300k a month, 400k, MRR. I know what I'm talking about. So the thing that is going to. It used to be you could just simply rip a product, throw up some garbage store, and it would print. Used to be you can just go on a website, you know, download a bunch of ads, upload, and it would print. And there are some people doing that nowadays, but it's not sustainable. And I've seen it. I've seen plenty of guys in this space, people I know who have ups and downs and they'll have a nice pump, but then they go back down and then it's not an actual way to consistently make money. And the truth of the matter is you need a real product, you need a real brand, and that is honestly what matters the most in this game. There are a lot of things that you see people all over the Internet doing and they're posting, oh, I made this from organic or I did this pump and dump that stuff, it fades and it's never going to be as income because what happens, you make a lot of money for one month and the next thing you know, these dudes are buying crazy cars, they're buying all these crazy things, this lifestyle inflation. And then they have to humble themselves because they don't know how to build something real. They know how to build something that lasts. And that's something that I've been able to learn this past year. And what I've started to notice is the product. Yes, it really matters. Obviously ads matter so much. But what matters the most is retention. And a lot of you guys don't even understand what retention means when it comes to e comm. Retention is how long you can keep a customer for. And over this past year, I've been learning the ups and downs and the ins and outs of actually having a subscription product and what you need to have, what you need to would actually do to make it feasible. And nowadays with Shopify getting stricter, payment processing getting stricter, there's a lot of things that are going against you. And so what really is going to be the move moving forward is that if you Have a legit product, you have fast shipping, you have something that actually solves a problem and that people can notice results from what is going to be what separates you from all these other brands. Because if you think about it, if you spend, if you go negative up front to acquire a customer, but they stay with you for six months, the amount that your cpa, your roas at the front, it doesn't really matter, does it? Because they're staying with you for six months and they're gonna buy more and more. You see this with brands everyday dose you see it with rise. Even the biggest brands in the world, even like Coca Cola, bro, what do you think the LTV is on a customer that buys a Coca Cola can probably $1,000 or more. It's crazy. So if you have to think about business in a completely different way because while all these people are focusing on offering profits and CPA and making money now and being profitable up front, all these other brands are just playing a completely different game. And it's a game that is a long term game that can help you make a business that will scale and make you money for years to come. And the money is really cool. And everyone starts E Commerce because they want to make more money. But more money doesn't actually make you fulfilled and happy. Working on something that you're actually proud of and working on something that actually does something is super sick. Creating something that you can take pride in, that is where you can find real fulfillment. So if you're still watching this, you're probably actually serious about starting E commerce at this point and you are just looking for anything you can to learn. And one piece of advice I want to give to you guys is look at the people who are consistently winning over a long period of time. Not the people who just have these meteor, not the people who just go super far up and then come back down. Not the people who are flexing, the people who don't really say much, don't show much, but deep down that they're making a good amount of money. Those are the ones you want to look after and those are the ones that you want to take inspiration from and understand why they do what they do. So all in all, dropshipping isn't dead. It's just that old way of drop shipping doesn't make sense anymore. You're just going to get out competed, you're going to get outbid. Because if I can afford, if I have an LTV, if my customer spends $100 with me or $150 with me over their lifetime. I can afford to spend $80 to get that customer, whereas a normal person would have to spend 20. So you have to understand the differences in the game and if you guys are wanting to learn more about this or you guys are interested in this type of E Comm, or you're already doing E Comm and want to implement this. I actually am starting my first coaching program and so I'm taking on 20 people at first. I've never done this before and I've always been pretty skeptical because of how many bad coaches there are out there and how many bad courses. Even though this isn't a course I'm going to be hands on, there are out there, but I really think I can help some of you guys out. I've learned so much over this past year. I'm going to be super hands on. I'm going to make sure everyone in there gets the best service that they possibly can. And I know that I have that integrity and I'm able to really make an impact. And so if you guys are interested in learning from me and learning with me, please go ahead and join the waitlist. I'll put the link down in the bio. That's basically it though. But thank you guys for watching and I.
