eCommerce Paradise Academy Review (Trevor Fenner Course)
eCommerce Paradise is a course by Trevor Fenner, and it’s available for $997. Today, we’ll take a look at the content it offers and whether or not it’s the course that will take you to eCom success. I’ll provide a detailed overview of the content provided in all modules, and I’ll give you my final verdict at the end of the article. The idea is to give you an outline of what you should do if you’re thinking about to buy this course.
This is a high ticket course, and it aims to give you the knowledge necessary to build and launch an online dropshipping store you can then scale after seeing success. As you read, the course focuses around high ticket items, so there are a few considerations.
Let me list them below before you dive in.
Course overview
eCommerce Paradise is a program aiming to teach you the in’s and out’s of high ticket dropshipping. You’ll learn how you can build and scale a successful store, selling high-price items with larger profit margins. The chosen platform here is Shopify.
It focuses on USA dropshipping with local suppliers, which is a disadvantage for students outside the US. The majority of suppliers will require a reselling ID, and you need a US-based venture to get one.
The course also recommends using credit cards, which some people outside the US or Canada might have trouble with. Entrepreneurship for US individuals tends to employ approach that don’t work for foreigners.
Outside of that, the actual content inside the course is impressive; there’s access to many modules and a remarkable amount of videos. People with a substantial budget can also opt to have the course team set up their store and team for them. There are other services like conversion optimization and Google and email marketing.
Who’s the author?
Trevor Fenner is what’s known as a digital nomad, and he’s currently living in SE Asia, after moving to establish himself as an eCommerce owner. Besides his ventures, he also has a blog under the same name as the course. He uses it for documenting his experiences in life and business.
I’ve been hearing about this blog from acquaintances for a while now, so he’s definitely not a newcomer. He claims his experience spans 10 years in eCommerce.
He started out with regular low priced items, but he then scaled to high ticket after finding the larger profit margins offered. He has a bit of a motto on this: find an expensive product that people want to buy and sell it for a lot more, and that’s his approach to high ticket dropshipping.
Trevor has both bought and sold several stores, claiming to have cultivated several stores into 6 and 7 figures as he did so. He also spends time on YouTube when he’s not working on his course, blogging, or working on his ventures. He has a fairly small number of subscribers, but he still delivers interesting content.
He has a personal blog as well, and it’s more varied in terms of content. There’s your usual entrepreneurship advice, but he also shares his traveling experience as a digital nomad, and there’s even skateboarding stuff here.
As for his main income stream, right now seems to be consulting and instruction for people looking to start a course. At least that’s what his Instagram shows.
About eCommerce Paradise
eCommerce Paradise is hosted on Teachables, and it’s available for purchase for $997. Besides the course itself, there are several upsells with it, including additional coaching and done-for-you stores and strategies.
For Europe or Australia based students, there’s a possible VAT on that price around 10% or 25%, which means at least nearly $100 extra for the course. If you haven’t registered for VAT or GST where you live, it can be an even more expensive course.
Right now, the course spans 220 different videos spread on 27 modules. While 3 of those modules are introductory content, it’s still an immense course, and it’s among the largest we’ve reviewed here.
The modules themselves are varied length-wise. Some have a few videos and are fairly short, but others can last for over an hour. Still, you won’t escape your mindset videos in this course.
Important considerations
The course has a money back guarantee for 30 days, but you have to show you actually applied the concepts taught and tried to start a business. This is a course for people striving to take action, so don’t expect to go through it and expect your money back if you decided it’s not what you wanted.
However, you can still get a full refund. Just note that accessing the bonuses will forbid you from getting one, so think twice before taking a look at the reports and templates if you aren’t finding success with it.
You also need a startup capital between $500 and $1,000 to apply the lessons, so remember to add that to the course’s starting price. Conveniently, Trevor does recommend you to have a stable income to pay for any costs that might arise unexpectedly and have a safety net.
International students and eCommerce Paradise
As already stated, this course has a significant handicap for international members since the local suppliers advised here won’t work with people overseas without the proper ID’s. They need some form of proof that the dropshipper is a legitimate individual.
If you need local suppliers, and you’re based in the US; Canada, UK, Ireland, or Australia, then you can research local suppliers in your area.
If you’re an outsider, then you might run into the same difficulties other dropshippers (myself included) have met when trying to follow these types of approaches. One solution is to start an off-shore firm in Delaware, but that’s a bit out of reach for some people, to say the least; even if you can, you still have a lot to learn on the legal side of business.
Before you decide to go through with something like that, consider hiring advice from an expert on the subject, especially with tax law knowledge. If you have a local accountant, you can ask him, but he probably won’t have the necessary knowledge, so consider a professional. Understanding US taxation and how it impacts your home taxes is the main hurdle.
That’s why it’s recommended to start with low ticket dropshipping available with local suppliers in whichever country you live or with sources like AliExpress that are open to anyone.
Reviewing eCommerce Paradise Academy
Starting out
The first 3 modules are about starting out your business.
The first module goes into welcoming you to the course itself. You learn how you can access the private group, create a new email specifically for your business, and the necessary knowledge for venturing into the internet industry.
The second module is the mindset section. It offers 5 videos explaining you how to reach this mindset, and while some people don’t really like this type of content, you do learn how to set goals, plan your future, and ethics, which is entertaining at the very least.
Even if some people might find these topics boring, Trevor does show quite the interest on the topics themselves, and it’s a good sign of how genuine he is.
The 3rd and final starters module is an introduction and explanation of the dropshipping model and which products are best for you. You’ll also learn why Trevor uses Shopify, a few tools, and a bit about niche research before showing you some success stories.
Finding your niche
This is a nice module, especially because Trevor dedicates a lot of time explaining niche selection, and most dropshipping courses fall short in this section. There are 9 lessons totaling the module, and they cover the process the author uses.
It begins with a good video detailing how to research niches and categories. The next one is about how to price for a profit and finding your best target market. There’s a lesson on using generic and branded products.
You also learn about handling search volumes, finding the best trends, and understanding seasonality. He finally explains how to find suppliers who can agree to dropshipping and how you can come up with new approaches for working with your suppliers.
Market research
The 5th module is one of the most extensive modules both in the course and in general market research content. Trevor definitely intends to help you find amazing products and which niches you can target.
I can’t really cover everything here because it would be both spoiling the content and impossible to really explain everything that Trevor covers here.
You’ll learn how to research your niches, and it comes accompanied by a spreadsheet you can use for this task. There’s another video on how you can take advantage of your competitors to increase your market knowledge.
Some videos cover extracting categories, how to determine the average prices in the market, checking out which keywords are being searched the most in Google, and which categories you probably want to avoid depending on trends and seasons.
You also learn how you can revers engineer the competition to discover which suppliers they’re using for you to keep them for yourself. There’s also content on how to use MAP policies and customer reviews to filter your possible suppliers.
You’ll learn how you can use different tools for understanding your audience better and knowing the best markets you can target. After that, the module turns into more business-oriented content.
There’s content on how shipping works and some basic concepts like the different industries and competitiveness. There’s also an explanation on 2 approaches you can take to the market: business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C). Each approach has different targets and methods for you to tackle the market.
There’s a final video explaining how you can understand the difficulty of different products and which ones you should avoid. You can also access bonuses here already done for you, and they include a database with suppliers for you to start right away.
Niche research
The 6th module offers 4 niche reports about different products that have brought success to Trevor himself. You have pitching machines, bathroom stuff, wine coolers, and even electric fireplaces. The videos average between 15 and 30 minutes, and they offer a lot of detail about why these niches are good.
Just keep in mind that every student is accessing the same lessons, so make sure the markets aren’t already saturated before going for one. However, the training is actually very good, and it provides a good foundation for beginners to understand the following module’s training.
Said module goes into how to research niches with 6 lessons providing advanced strategies for those who understood the previous lessons on the same topic. The first ones talk about how to find best-sellers and which upsells and cross-sells you can add to them by looking at accessories or add-ons.
You’re taught how to spot offers from your competitors, the products, and how you can find the best keywords to run some content marketing. You also see how you can find influencers and other content sources that you can use for backlinking to your offers.
Forming your business
The 8th module goes into a US perspective, and it seems this course was aimed primarily at this student base, so international students taking this course will find irrelevant a lot of the things explained in this section.
The good thing is that most countries have similar business structures regarding independent traders and limited liability firms, so not everything is lost. You learn what are the best bank accounts for businesses and how to set them up as well as acquiring your credit card (if possible).
There’s also content on how to create a PayPal for businesses and hiring an accountant, which applies to any region, and the last videos explains how you can determine whether or not you need a virtual office, usually offering telephone contact.
Shopify setup
This topic occupies the 9th and 10th modules, and it’s a huge section with more than 40 videos detailing everything. Obviously, I can’t really go into every video, unless you want to read a 10,000-word review.
But let me give you an idea of what’s included here.
It starts off with 10 videos with your basic Shopify setup content: what is Shopify, which apps you should get, how to create your pages and blog posts, menus, and which themes are better for high ticket businesses. Trevor suggests Shoptimized.
After that, it goes into rarely visited territory. You learn how you edit the template’s code, how to install Google tracking codes, using Shopify analytics, adding discounts, masking domains, staff accounts, and URL redirections. Trevor explains it all with great detail, and you can add other pixels to the tracking codes (Google’s) like Facebook, and he does explain that later.
That’s it for module 9. Module 10 extends that knowledge by telling you how to find a suitable domain name and the links. You also create an email with GSuite, and you then add your logo and phone number (but this number is for US citizens, an 1800).
This module then goes into homepage banners, demo products, collections, and a refreshment on module 9 content with a bit more detail. Trevor also added a few templates you can use for your about pages and videos.
You’re recommended supporting a charitable course to help your sales, and he goes into creating a contact, satisfaction guarantee, shipping policy and warranties page. As with the previous ones, you have downloadable templates for all of these. Just make sure to not use them as is; edit them a bit before posting them as all students also have access to them.
The last lessons on creating pages close it by telling you how you can create pages for your terms and conditions, financing, privacy policies, and branding. They’re all critical to running a high ticket business.
You also get an affiliate link from Trevor for purchasing Shoptimized with a nice discount.
The module closes with some basic SEO like how to create meta descriptions and titles as well as integrating your Google webmaster tools.
Overall, the videos offer a lot of detail and insight. Beginners will leave this section with a great-looking Shopify store, and even more advanced users have something to learn.
Onboarding suppliers
Again a 2-module section, the first module tells you how you can find suppliers and the ones you should actually go with. You learn how to reach out to them either via phone or email. Trevor adds a script here you can follow, but again, try to edit them and give a personal touch.
Then there’s how you fill out applications with these suppliers as well as what information you need from them and how to attain it. However, many international students will find issues in this module.
The 2nd module in this section talks about onboarding your suppliers and how you can list their products on your store. Think about using third-party integrations for your stock list to avoid overselling stuff that your supplier currently doesn’t have in stock or products with changed prices.
You also learn to add product tags that integrate with the premium theme you’re using and how to have all your image sizes equal so that your theme has no issues loading. On that topic, you then learn how you compress images to optimize your page loading times; this is also good for your SEO rankings.
You have videos about how to create branding collections and targeting long tailed keywords to match your products. That lets you add supplier products sales taxes to your sales taxes. If you don’t understand why you would want to do this, US dropshipping requires you to charge the sales tax on every order shipping within a state.
Let me explain that with an example: if someone in Texas purchase a product from you, and your supplier is also in Texas, they must pay the sales tax. If one of the two is in a different state, then it’s not required. Yes, that’s US-oriented content.
Optimizing conversions
The 13th module covers how to optimize your conversion rates, and you might be used to then little detail offered in other courses, but this is an actually solid section.
It starts off by taking a look at the apps you can integrate for encouraging client interaction by showcasing reviews. Trevor also tells you how you can create gift offers. Another app helps you to recover abandoned carts, and that’s before apps including Conversion plus and smart and instant searching integrations.
The last app recommended is Lucky Orange for tracking your visitors’ behavior live through heat maps.
The section closes with how you can optimize your checkout pages, which is a neat hack not many courses mention.
Social Media Marketing
This is one of the more basic modules in this course; luckily, most people already have experience at least using these platforms. The module opens up by creating your pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
You learn how you set up buffers to automate your posts on social media, which saves you both time and money. Another lesson is about setting up your IFTTT; it’s a syndication process used in social media to get backlinks for your website.
With another tip great for SEO, you’ll quickly notice how this is also one of the most extensive courses in terms of SEO as well. You receive an InstaZoo recommendation to automate your engagement on Instagram.
Email marketing
The email marketing module offers a video spanning 2 hours, and it explains how you can set up and start using Klaviyo. It’s an email marketing, eCommerce-focused platform you can use to automate your emails and provide your customers with promotions, abandoned cart recovery, and new products listing.
Trevor also included several email templates, so you don’t have to go ahead and trial-and-error your way to a successful email marketing approach. However, the same applies here as with all templates: edit them before you use them.
Paid ads
This is another 2-module section about, and it starts with a short lesson on the 16th module about an app you can use for dynamic retargeting. After that, Trevor hits you with 11 videos on how to set up your paid ads with Google and Bing.
It might be strange not to see a Facebook Ads lesson or similar platforms, but they’re not really effective for high ticket dropshipping. Most high ticket entrepreneurs with success will tell you that Google Ads and Shopping is the best channel to reach people actually looking to buy your products.
There’s a lesson about installing your Google Shopping feed for your venture and how to release your first advertisement for free. After that, you learn about adding different pixels for your store and how to optimize the ads.
After Google’s done, he applies the same approach to Bing. However, this is a fairly short lesson, which was fairly disappointing. It’s not bad content, but for almost $1,000, you’d expect stronger content.
Optimizing conversions (advanced)
The 18th module builds on the previous conversion optimization content, and it mostly adds to it with more apps you can integrate to your business. There are great recommendations here, and I’ll admit I didn’t even know a couple of these apps existed.
The module kicks off with an app for product reviews, and it then mentions Clearsale to help you spot frauds. The next recommendation is Klarna to help your financing (and if it’s available for your store) and Norton’s “Shopping Guarantee”, which you can integrate to aid your trust flow.
There are many other apps like Trust Guard and Clyde, for insurance and some warranty upsells. Verge’s JSON-LD and Shopper Reviews are mentioned as well, and Trevor even offers an app to protect your content so that thieves can’t steal it; this is followed by a watermark-adding app to protect your images as well.
The last videos are page optimization for your different sections, mainly your sales, collections, thank you’s and upsells.
YouTube
Luckily, Trevor isn’t like other eCommerce gurus on YouTube without a single video about the platform on their courses. While you only get 5 videos, it does provide you a good grasp on the basics like how to set up your channel and optimizing it, creating your intro, and sales videos.
As for optimizing the videos themselves, Trevor recommends TubeBuddy. The last video is how you can create unboxing and reviewing videos, but these may not work for the niche you’re using.
How would you unbox playgrounds or gym machines? Sure, the review side of the lesson would work, but perhaps a video on how to install would’ve been more appropriate since it applies to virtually all high-ticket products.
Store management
Store management takes 2 modules, 20 and 21. The first one tells you how you can create an eBay store and list your products there. However, that’s the only mention of eBay in the entire course, so this feels slightly out of place and awkward.
The 21st module is about general store management: including how to fulfill orders all the way to how to overcome frauds and debts.
There’s a nice app called Aftership he recommends, and you can integrate it with Klaviyo; it sends notifications to your customers about their shipment tracking, and it’s a great way to reduce disputes opened with the payment provider you chose.
You also learn how to create a blog on Shopify and processing your orders, including how to deal with your returns and refunds. That’s one of the main problems with high ticket dropshipping, but Trevor does provide good advice to survive these issues.
There are other videos about handling orders out of stock or customers receiving defective items in any way. The module closes with how to use follow-ups, payments stuck “on hold”, and coming up with professional quotes to offer business customers.
The module offers a lot of detail, and you’ll surely learn a lot.
Fulfilling orders
Module 22 offers just 3 videos on how to fulfill orders, but the previous module did cover a lot about this topic.
This module covers how to set up your account with a freight worker, which ensures great shipping costs. Sadly, this is US-only. Still, there are some cool lessons like how to guide your customers to the best shipping choice and how to create lading bills.
Outsource and scale
Modules 23 and 24 cover this topic. The first one goes into hiring a virtual assistant and the different platforms you can use for that. OnlineJobs.ph gets a mention, and since Filipinos are English speakers secondly, it’s among the best places to find affordable English-speaking VA’s.
On the process, you’re taught how to post your listing, interviewing your candidates, onboarding, paying, and general management.
Trevor mentions PatLive for setting up a receptionist and answering calls to offer better customer service. You then receive the details of whoever called for calling them back. You can even have the call be directed to you.
The 24th module is the overall process to scale to 7 figures.
Buying/selling stores
This section covers 2 more modules, and it explains how you can sell a store as well as preparing yourself for it, how to value your venture, and transferring the assets.
It also goes into buying a high ticket store, teaching you how to spot good and bad deals, paying deposits, what questions you should ask, and how to value others’ stores.
He recommends EmpireFlippers, a famous website marketplace, and you also have a case study of a site purchase for you to follow.
Bonuses
There are 3 bonuses in the extra module, and they encompass some coaching calls for your niche research, a session with the author to discuss advanced emailing strategies, and extra training on sales with a friend from Trevor, Ryan Garrido.
There’s a private Facebook group, and while it’s fairly small, with just 93 members, you can still find daily posts and discussions.
Is there a discount?
Yes, Trevor offers a mini course for free, and taking it gives you the best price offer for this course. There are no other offers or discount available, so don’t fall for people selling them.
Is it worth the money?
In short, yes, there’s a lot of content being offered for the price. You have dozens of courses selling for the same price and not even reaching the 50-video mark, but Trevor offers 4 times that content.
You even get plenty of bonuses, and while they’re not really worth the $15,000 claimed by the Author, they do add value.
The content inside the course is also better than other courses, besides the amount. Trevor is very knowledgeable and has a lot of experience, and that translates to most of the course.
Should you go with high ticket dropshipping?
If you’re in the US or other countries with willing suppliers, you’re on the right foot. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time finding a supplier who will accept your offer.
Other than that, with higher profit margins comes higher risk. Imagine you sell something for $4,000 and the customer asks for a refund. That’s coming for your pocket.
If you’re starting out, it’s better to go with low ticket and look at high ticket as part of scaling your business.
Final Verdict
It’s a great course, so if you have the leisure money, you can pay for a great package. It will give you the results you want if you try.
There are only 3 issues depending on the student:
- Supplier-related content is mostly US-exclusive.
- The price tag can be unreachable for some.
- High ticket isn’t the best idea for beginners.
If you are in the US (or don’t mind researching a little on your own) and have enough leisure money, then go for it.
Also, high ticket dropshipping doesn’t have any specific processes, so a general dropshipping course does the trick. For $800 less, you can get eCom Elites, save $800 for a theme and ads, and still get enough knowledge to run any dropshipping store.
I’d recommend starting with low ticket and then using the same knowledge to scale to high ticket.
I hope you found this review useful and if you have any questions, please comment down below. I’ll be more than happy to assist you.
Once again, thanks for reading my eCommerce Paradise Academy Review and I wish you the best of luck.
Hey, I am Mike and I am a full-time affiliate marketer! Nowadays there’s a lot of people promoting guru courses and overall bad software products. I am absolutely tired of people pushing their overpriced and crappy products and courses out to everyone to take advantage of you. My mission is to review and call out bad products, software, and courses whilst recommending only the best there is! You can read a little more about my journey here!