Advanced eCommerce Academy Review – Seth Smith (Real Student)
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You would have seen many Advanced eCommerce Academy advertisements and wondered if $1,997 worth the course? Dropshipping courses are packed with information and perfect for beginners.
According to the website, it is a training program that helps you build a profitable Shopify store and that’s why we are going to review it for you.
Advanced eCommerce Academy Pros & Cons
[pros-cons]What is Advanced eCommerce Academy?
Advanced eCommerce Academy is one of the many dropshipping courses offered by Seth Smith, a popular YouTuber. He launched the course only a year after entering the dropshipping business. The course is priced at $1,997 and works as a 9-week training program that you can access from anywhere across the globe.
When you become a member of Rocket Message, you get a 90-day membership of the website and a year’s access to Kamozi app suite. Other than that, you become a member of Smith’s big online community of like-minded businesspersons. Every month, Smith hosts two live question and answer sessions where you can ask all your dropshipping business-related doubts.
I have reviewed many cheap and expensive dropshipping courses in the past that is filled with poor quality content but Advanced eCommerce Academy falls somewhere in the middle. Seth only has one year of dropshipping experience, so we aren’t sure how much you will benefit from the program.
Make sure you read the entire review to make an informed decision if Advanced eCommerce Academy by Seth Smith is right for you or not!
Who is Advanced eCommerce Academy For?
Advanced eCommerce Academy is designed for beginners, who have zero to little knowledge about dropshipping, marketing, and online advertising. Since the course is for newbies, it has basic information and we think, Smith is charging a lot for it. On the Rocket Message website, Smith mentions that he has created this course for students. They surely can’t afford something so expensive.
Who is Seth Smith, The Founder of Advanced eCommerce Academy?
A marketer by profession, Seth Smith is a YouTuber with just about 1,550 subscribers. He is an Irish lad who works as a digital marketer and runs a dropshipping business on the side. We don’t know a lot about Smith but we do know that he has a bachelor’s in computer science and business from Trinity College, Dublin.
He works as a general manager at Kamozi Marketing Ltd, a technology-based marketing company in Ireland. When he isn’t dropshipping products or working at the office, he works as an influencer on Instagram.
What is included in Advanced eCommerce Academy?
Advanced eCommerce Academy is delivered in nine weekly modules with a special bonus module that talks about high ticket dropshipping business. Let’s find out what each module teaches you:
Welcome module – Introduction
The course starts with a welcome module that briefs about its content, dropshipping and why you need to start your own store and eCommerce technology. Smith makes sure to emphasize on the urgency of starting a dropshipping business as a way to enjoy the lifestyle you always wanted. It has three videos but the last one is the most useless because Smith explains common acronyms used in the dropshipping business.
Week 1 – Product Research
Another small module consisting of only five videos, Product Research introduces you to free and paid tools like Dropship Spy and Thieve.co. Smith discusses different types of stores you can set up on Shopify and how to do product research for each of them.
After that, Smith moves on to Aliexpress Techniques, which can help you find the right products for your Shopify store.
Week 2 – Building Your Store
In Module 2 – Building Your Store, Smith teaches you how to use the Rocket Message tool. This is off-topic but some users complained that when they used the tool with Facebook, they were banned from the social media platform. It is one of the biggest modules of the course and is divided into several lessons, including:
- Setting up Shopify, deciding shipping rates, developing a pickup plan, and shipping information
- Getting a logo designed at a cheap rate
- Registering your domain
- Installing and setting up Rocket Message
- Google Analytics and email setup
- Product pricing
- Oberlo automation and conversion optimization
- Adding reviews to your Shopify store
- Setting up a parcel tracking system
- Editing product images and SEO
Week 3 – Facebook Ads
Module 3 has 25 videos dedicated to Facebook advertising and talks about audience insights, Facebook Pixel, and targeting different types of interest groups. Despite the length of the module, it isn’t as content dense as other courses because you will find most of this information for free on YouTube. Here are some things you will learn from this module:
- Fan Page strategies
- Organizing a niche audience
- Improving tracking data and flex traffic
- Retargeting methods
- 20 percent scaling strategy
Week 4 – Email Marketing
Email marketing is the most crucial strategy for growing your dropshipping business. In this module, Smith will teach you about building relationships with your customers, effective email marketing strategies, and setting up Klaviyo. It is a marketing automation tool, available for free and paid, which is instrumental for a new dropshipping business.
Week 5 – Instagram Influencer Strategy
If you are new to Instagram, this module will teach you everything about influencers, engagement, hashtags, and scheduling posts. You will learn multiple strategies in these modules, including:
- Vetting and contacting influencers
- Paying influencers
- Tracking collaboration results and scaling your business on Instagram
Week 6 – Instagram Ads
Instagram Ads is a small but insightful module that teaches you to make the most out of sponsored posts and video stories.
Week 7 – Scaling Past 10K
Module or Week 7 is all about increasing your profits beyond $10,000. Smith tells you all the tricks that you need to know but fails you inform that the first few sales are going to be the most difficult. You will learn different Facebook Ad objectives and how to optimize your audience to make a profit. While all the tricks he mentioned look good on paper, we would have loved to see some real-life examples.
Week 8 – Outsourcing & Automation
Week 8 is boring but it teaches you something that most of us ignore, which is outsourcing and automation. It is a small module that you can finish within one day.
Week 9 – Branding & Growth
Branding is the most important thing for your business. This week will teach you how to brand your best selling products, setting up the fulfilment department, building a partnership with influencers, boosting your brand’s popularity on social media, and selling your store and starting a new one.
Week 10 – Bonus
The bonus week might seem useless to a newbie drop shipper but as you move ahead in your business, it will come handy. You can use the high ticket dropshipping supplier list when you are ready to enter the high ticket product market. These are products where you make $300 profit per sale.
Personal Experience With Advanced eCommerce Academy
I was impressed by the course but all of us kept going back to one question — is the course worth $1,997? One question comes to our mind — a big NO. Why invest so much when you get an equally competent course for $250 to $450? There were a lot of misses, for example, Seth fails to mention about Google Ads, which has been the most important form of online marketing until now.
Other things that weren’t mentioned in the course including chatbots and gaining organic traffic through social media and search engine optimization. Also, the course doesn’t account the money you will have to spend to start a dropshipping store. Remember, Advanced eCommerce Academy is only for beginners and we don’t think it is right to charge college students, so much money.
Another point that stood out negatively is that Seth Smith has only one year of dropshipping experience. We don’t do how much he earned during the time because he hasn’t mentioned it anywhere. All information mentioned on the course is something you can easily find on the internet.
Facebook and Instagram ads are two of the most important marketing strategies for the success of your business but Seth hasn’t put enough research in making the modules worthwhile. There’s no mention of Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, which is surprisingly odd.
Advanced eCommerce Academy Scam?
Nope, Advanced eCommerce Academy is not a scam however, for 1997$ there are definitely better courses out there you can get like eCom Elites.
Is there a Discount Code?
There is no discount/coupon for Seth Smith’s Advanced eCommerce Academy course.
There are other sites claiming they either have Advanced eCommerce Academy Coupon or Advanced eCommerce Academy Discount but, this is definitely not true. Also, Advanced eCommerce Academy Nulled or Advanced eCommerce Academy Free is not a thing.
Advanced eCommerce Academy Final Verdict
Seth has tried to put too many things one course, which stops him from exploring any single topic in detail. Beginner or not, everyone should know both, positive and negative sides of the dropshipping business but Seth fails to do that. Not even once, he has mentioned the struggles or setbacks you will experience when you are new to the business. For some odd reason, he gives too much importance to retargeting cart recovery. It seems like it is his way of promoting Rocket Message, an automation tool that might make Facebook block your account. Rocket Message might be his own product that he is trying to sell or is affiliate marketing for the tool’s company.
You will find most of this content for free online and for the remaining that you can’t, go for a cheap course that costs up to $250. You can use the remaining $1,749 for setting up your Shopify store, buying automation and management tools, and promoting your products through paid advertisements and influencer partnerships.
Advanced eCommerce Academy Alternative
Now I have personally bought a ton of dropshipping courses out there. I even review a lot of them on my blog. Generally, these gurus try to sell you a lifestyle of getting rich and successful that’s why they charge a ridiculous amount for the information they sell.
Their courses typically aren’t even comprehensive at all. They focus all their efforts trying to market their course so, they can make more money from course sales.
I do however think that dropshipping courses are worth it if they are good. They will save you a ton of time and hassle that’s why I highly recommend a solid dropshipping course.
I have been dropshipping for a long time and I have built profitable stores (I currently do affiliate marketing though) and I highly recommend you check out this course called eCom Elites. (I did a review on this, make sure you read it!)
It’s by Franklin Hatchett who has been doing dropshipping WAY before it was famous.
This course definitely has helped me increase my eCommerce income before. However, I don’t do dropshipping anymore because I am focused on affiliate marketing.
Now, this is not another expensive garbage guru course. It’s one of the best & most affordable dropshipping / eCommerce course out there.
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