 Hello, everyone. My name is Yuan Fumato Diaz. I'm the content manager and today I have a very special interview with Andre, a dropshipper on the Facebook marketplace. I don't know if you guys have tried this on tap marketplace before, but it's definitely a good idea and I hope that this interview will help you guys get some inspiration on how to start, should you start and what's in it for you. So hello, Andre. Thank you for joining us today. Please give us a little bit information about yourself. Your name is Andre, your age, where you're from. Cool. Well, thanks for the invite. Yeah, my name is Andre. I am 25 years old. I'm currently in San Diego, California, originally from Russia, but I was in Boston for a while, but recently moved to San Diego. Yeah. Oh, nice. And how did you hear about dropshipping on the Facebook marketplace? Where did it all begin? Well, it's a funny story, but I guess it all began with me not having a good time at my day jobs. I was looking into, you know, ways to make money on the side and actually my first child was born relatively recently. So I had a little bit of that pressure too, but, you know, I actually started with print on demand. Then I did a few ads here and there, but then I started Shopify dropshipping. So I watched YouTube videos. I did one product stores, general stores. And, you know, the issue was I have to pay for Facebook ads all the time. And, you know, one day in July of 2020, my wife tells me that she saw the Buy Now button on the Facebook marketplace and it was not there before. And this is when, you know, my dropshipping brain clicked. And that's when I realized that this is finally this amazing opportunity for anyone really who is located in the U.S. to just go ahead, list a bunch of items, not pay for any ads and just find your winning product. So I switched from Shopify to marketplace. I released my Shopify winning product and they took off on marketplace. And yeah, I've been doing that ever since. Nice. Good start. So you started on print on demand. Was that dropshipping too? So I had a store on Teespring. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but Teespring is kind of a Shopify for print of demand. So you just list your designs, you drive traffic. So it's kind of a similar concept. So you started from there, moved on to Shopify, one product stores. Didn't want to spend too much money on marketing. And then you heard about the Facebook marketplace. And that's pretty much where it all began. And yeah, like you said, first of all, it definitely fits whoever lives in the U.S., like you said, because that way you're also getting the shipping options. And I've also spoken about that in my videos on how to dropship on a Facebook marketplace. You have to be located in the U.S. for those who don't know, because you guys want to get shipping options so that Facebook will open up your listing to all 50 states in the U.S. and you won't be limited to a certain small spot and location where only a few people are going to see your listing and probably not buy. So Facebook is going to give you guys the organic traffic that you're looking for. You don't have to spend money on marketing like Andrey just said. Let's move on to the next question. So how long have you actually been dropshipping on the Facebook marketplace? Yeah, so started in July of 2020. It took me a few months to scale. So in October of 2020, I quit my day job because Facebook marketplace started paying more than my day job actually. In about two months. Yeah, July, August, September, October. So about two or three months. Exactly. So it took me a few months, but yeah, giving me a nice confidence boost. I just kept on listing. It didn't take me too much time. Honestly, the best part about this, anyone can do it. You just need half hour, maybe like an hour or two hours to just list a few items daily on Facebook marketplace and just find those winning products. So it took me a few months and then since October, I've been doing this full time. So yeah, a little bit over a year now. Nice. Very nice. And do you optimize your products when you import them from your suppliers or do you just leave them as is? Yeah, great question. So I strongly suggest interpreting as much effort as possible into creating a listing. So I definitely customize them. I pick the best possible images for them that I can find online. And I don't do like wide background images. So I make sure I can find very good lifestyle images for my photos, for my listings, and then create a very good quality description that is straightforward and answers all the questions that my customers have easily. So quality over quality for me. Good tip. I'm always up for optimization. It makes you also unique. It makes you stand out. It makes you look like a serious business. And at the end of the day, it is. And you are a serious business because you're taking care of your customers. You're making sure that the product descriptions fit. And even for those who don't like optimizing and understand that you guys want to save some time, you'll still make sales on the Facebook marketplace. I won't say that you won't, but definitely go for the optimization. If you have the time for it, it's going to make the difference. So my next question is, is it a part-time job or a full-time job? But I pretty much got the answer there. It started as a part-time and after two, three months, you turned it into a full-time, which is actually relatively quick for people starting on a new platform to turn it into a full source of income within two, three months, even though on the Facebook marketplace, it does make sense because it's still completely untapped. And you know, many people are always asking me after I upload videos like these or articles like these on our blog channel. They ask, you're saying it's an untapped marketplace. So why are you letting everyone know about it? It's not going to be untapped anymore. Guys, it's going to take hundreds of thousands of dropshippers to make a difference and maybe even more to make a difference into the competition. And even when that happens, there's always new products that are coming out. There's always new niches to tap into. So don't worry about it. It's going to be untapped for a while. And if you guys get your hands on it now, you may have the amount of success that my friend here, Andre, is having. So Andre, my next question to you, what is your monthly average revenue or profit if you want to talk about it? But what are the numbers? Yeah, so I pulled a few numbers before this meeting actually, but let's say I'm going to give you guys my August numbers, my September numbers and my October numbers. So for August in revenue, I did 69,368. Profit was 17,135. Profit margin of 25%. For September, 70,000 revenue, 16,000 profit, profit margin of 23%. October, 94,000. Profit, 23,000. Profit margin of 25%. And we are expecting this to grow because right now we also have comments manager shops, which is a relatively new initiative and that is being heavily promoted by Facebook. So we are seeing a lot of orders and traffic there too, in addition to the regular marketplace profile. Well, very interesting. Very interesting. And how many listings do you have right now? Well, that is a good question because we have quite a few stores. And let's see, I would say about 800 plus. Yeah, I would say 20 plus. Okay, which is not a lot when you compare it to drop shipping on eBay where it's a big numbers game and you have to have thousands of listings if you want to start making these numbers and your types of numbers could even take more than just a few thousand. So that just comes to show you how much when you import a product on Facebook, how many people are going to see it and how many people are actually going to buy it because, like I said, it's very untapped at this stage. So it brings me to my next question. Some of the difficulties, I mean, we all have difficulties, right? It's not a golden story where everything is just handed to you on a plate and everything is so easy. So let's go over some of the difficulties that you remember having along the way and the steps that you took to overcome those difficulties. Oh, man. Yeah, there have been quite a few, I would say the biggest one and the scariest one that I think at least, it will likely happen at least once, but probably the Facebook account suspension. That can happen and it can happen for no good reason. It can happen if you guys are also publishing listings and they consistently go against the commerce policies. But most often from what I'm seeing and from my personal experience, it just happened for no good reason. It seems like the bot just did not like something it's possible. I had a few observations personally. I was traveling, so I was using a VPN. So in my opinion, that was my mistake for using a VPN because with VPN, it gives you quite a few IP addresses and Facebook doesn't like it. So this is why Facebook marketplace for international users will be a little bit tough because VPN can result in account suspension. And that is the biggest obstacle in my opinion because once you are restricted on marketplace, then you have to wait for the appeal to come through. And if you have pending orders and you did not upload tracking numbers, then that creates an issue that you cannot mark orders as shipped. And you will not get paid for those orders. So this is the biggest issue that can happen. However, it is possible to appeal the ban, which is good news. You just have to be consistent and be quick about it and do not wait with the appeal process, which also brings me to the payout freezes. If your Facebook marketplace account gets suspended, it is possible that your payouts are going to be put on hold, but that is also resolved once you appeal the restriction. So that should be pretty straightforward. The only other thing that I think is a minor issue, but sometimes your listings will get flagged for silly reasons. If the bot, the Facebook marketplace AI doesn't like something, it can flag it. So you just have to really, again, appeal and appeal and appeal. This is all that you can do really. But I would say the suspensions would be the biggest issue that people can encounter. And at the end of the day, when you appeal, do you mostly have success with it? Do you have luck with it? They listen to you, they bring your account back? Yeah, so far 100% of the time during the appeal process, we successfully got all of their accounts back. So no issues. Okay, great. So there you go, guys. When you reach these suspensions, do not worry about it, do not sweat it. We also know about it from different marketplaces. We don't mind it happening also on Facebook. The only thing that we want to do is appeal to Facebook, tell them the truth, give them what they want, and they will give you your account back eventually. Sometimes it takes some patients, it may take some time. But that's okay. It's a business, and we have to take care of it. And yeah, that's regarding difficulties. And that's actually, it's a pretty good note because Facebook's commerce policies, by the way, is another thing that you guys want to pay attention to. We have a link to it also in the blog that we wrote on how to drop on Dropship on the Facebook Marketplace. You have all of the products, all of Facebook's rules and standards on what you can sell, what you cannot sell. And they have a bot that's always running, which is the next thing that I want to talk about. They have a bot that's always running on your store, it's always running on your listings. And sometimes, I'm not saying all of the time, but sometimes the bot is going to take you down on something that's not even true. It's not even your fault. And it's not even a bad thing. It's just the bot picked up on something that they thought, you know, goes against their rules and commerce policies. And all you have to do is go for an appeal, be a little bit patient. And that's it. That should fix your problem. Okay. So we talked about what are the first steps that you took when you got started on Facebook Marketplace? So you heard about it. You have an idea, you know, a light bulb just turned on in your head. Oh, we have the Facebook Marketplace. I can list there. I can sell there. What were the first steps that you took from there? Yeah. So I think in my personal experience, because I started with Shopify and already had a few winning products, I simply released those two Marketplace. However, you know, if I just started right now from scratch, what I would do is I would go and find the section on Facebook called items people buying section. And then that is the section that is essentially gives you a very good product research method. So if I was starting right now from scratch, I would just look at that section and start listing those items and finding suppliers for those items from that section on Facebook Marketplace. So I would say I would probably do that. I would also get a few pages seasoned in order for them to get approved for commerce manager within a few months. So that's what I would do if I was starting right now. But before my story was different because I started with Shopify. So I had a few winning items, which I released it. Okay. But your method for product research, as you said was to or today, the best product research method for you is to just see what's selling on Facebook, see what they're suggesting that people are buying and just look for those products using suppliers. And now that we're talking about suppliers, can you share some of the suppliers that you like working with when you're dropshipping? Yeah, exactly. So I chip it relatively simple because with Facebook, you can use USPS, UPS and FedEx trading codes. So that means you can essentially still work with the big box retailers such as Amazon, eBay and Walmart. And there are no issues there. You can also use the over genius trading codes if you need those ever. So I work with the big guys. I also sometimes look for smaller suppliers in case I can find a better deal by basically running a Google search on the item that I'm looking to list and seeing if there are better deals. But mostly it's Amazon, eBay and Walmart. Okay. Makes sense. And for those of you who are using or who want to use Amazon on Facebook Marketplace and you're using also AutoDS, you guys can also use Aquiline now, which is also converting your tracking numbers. So you can always have it from something that Facebook supports and, you know, which is UPS, USPS and FedEx, like Andre said. And then you won't have a problem with the tracking. And even if you do use a different supplier and you're using a tracking number that's not supported by Facebook, you don't have to worry about it too much. Just your payout will just take a little bit longer. It can take even up to a couple of weeks. Correct me if I'm mistaken, Andre? If you're not using a valid tracking number and if the buyer says that he didn't get the item, you're going to have to prove that he got it because Facebook's algorithm doesn't support the tracking number that you use. So it may make that process a little bit more difficult, but again, not impossible. And you can overcome it, but it's better to use tracking numbers that Facebook does support. Okay. So we talked a little bit about the suppliers. We talked a little bit about the difficulties. We also talked about how to find products that will sell, which is just seeing what Facebook suggests on what people are buying. Actually, I want to take it back one second. You talked about having multiple stores. Why do you have multiple stores and not just one store when you know that Facebook allows you to list many items? They don't limit you to 10 or 100 items. Yeah, that is a great question. So I think there are a few reasons. My logic is, well, number one, when you have another store that is essentially your backup store in case you run into suspension and the suspension is taking way longer than necessary to resolve, this way you can still have your additional source of revenue and profit from another store. So number one is the backup. That is the biggest reason for me. Number two is product testing. I can essentially test different images, different titles and different price points with different stores. So for example, one of my stores, we do free shipping. On the other store, we have the same exact item but with paid shipping. So we just do those small tests and see whether free shipping is working better or whether paid shipping is working better. And we can also test a variety of images. Interesting. So multiple stores for A, B testing. So you're testing a whole bunch of methods and their products. It's a very good method, if you ask me. It's also being done on my eBay stores, for example, I'm using one for product research and I'm using the other one to use the winning products that I got from that store. So it's also kind of similar. I have a Facebook marketplace dropshipping account, which I am using with VPN, which is like you said, it's not very smart unless you have a very high quality VPN. And because Facebook has triggers, has algorithms that will pick up on it. But with that one store, I can say that we have a lot of listings there. I have a VA who's running it. A lot of listings there, a lot of sales. I also have a case study that I uploaded to our YouTube channel and I actually showed everything like the products, where I'm getting them from, how much I'm profiting, what's selling, also to help people get started. But I like the idea of having multiple stores for the reasons that you just gave. So that's interesting. Once your store started to sell, how are you able to scale it successfully? Because, you know, the second month is usually better than the first and the third is better than the second. So how are you able to scale it successfully? Yeah. So let's see. I would say, and that's the biggest thing. You just have to keep listing consistently because the more you list, the higher is the chance that you score some sales. But not only that, but Facebook also has the feature to have quantities. So you can just specify a quantity of five or 10 units and 20 units. And if the item is a winning product, then it will keep selling. And then because we have our additional stores, we list the exact same item on different stores. We capture more space in the search results and it's the exact same item. So even if the item doesn't sell in one store, it will sell another store and, you know, we still make the same exact sale just from a different store for the same item. So this is also why we have backups because we can maximize sales volumes. And yeah, I think the biggest thing is, again, you just have to keep listing because the more you list, the more sales you naturally will get. And the more chance that you will discover your winning products that will also continuously sell. So listing is the key. Yeah. And definitely adding more products from the same category from the same niche that's selling for you. Because, you know, if you already found something that's selling, continue multiplying, you know, your success from there, while also always searching for more products, testing more products, always having that balance is a good key to success. What do you believe are the key components to the long term success in this field? Because we're all here. I mean, I hope that we're all here for the long term. And, you know, we're not just trying to get rich overnight or make a quick buck. So what would be your tips to really make it in the long term in this business? I would say if you're specifically looking on Facebook, you should definitely invest in commerce manager shops. This is being heavily promoted and developed by Facebook itself. And it was specifically announced by Mark Zuckerberg earlier in 2021 that they are specifically developing the commerce manager platform. So definitely investing that in addition to that, which is kind of a straightforward thing, but always provide good customer service, make sure you respond to all the messages, you deal with returns, and you do all things fair and square with everyone. Because in the end of the day, we want to have good feedback with all the customers, and the more good feedback we get, the less likely, you know, we risk any suspensions with Facebook because, you know, good customer service is essentially the backstone on this business. And I think this is also very important to make sure we're here for the long run is make everything good, you know. And it's important for Facebook too, to make sure that you're taking care of their customers. It's your buyer, but it's their customer at the end of the day that they brought to you organically. So they want you to take care of their product, which is the buyer that they brought to you. And what advantages, what benefits do you see for drop shippers with Facebook's new commerce shops? So one interesting thing is you can also connect your Shopify to a commerce manager store. So not only can you do business on the Facebook platform, but you can also direct them to your Shopify store with commerce managers. So you can do both. You can actually have your buys check out on Facebook, if you want, or you can also direct them to your Shopify store, which is again free traffic for you guys, which is awesome. And commerce manager is just a more advanced version of the marketplace, because you can also invite virtual assistants who simply have a Facebook profile to work on your commerce manager platform. And the platform itself offers more tools. You can use bulk export features. So you can export your orders in an Excel format and then upload all the trading numbers similar to Shopify. So they're kind of trying to go to Shopify root, do lots of automation and provide better tools for professional sellers. And honestly, it feels like they also provide drop shippers with better tools because you can work with virtual assistants and you can do a lot of things in bulk. So I feel like commerce manager is where the future is at for a drop shipper and for anyone looking to do the business on marketplace. Right? Right. Because Facebook found the potential inside e-commerce marketing. They tapped into it a little bit. They saw the potential and they said, okay, let's grow. And now they came out with this new commerce shops, which is also great, like you said, for Shopify sellers and Shopify drop shippers. Because if you guys don't want to continue spending so much money on marketing, which is good. I mean, I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. If you got the right product and you're targeting to the right audience, it's scalable to the moon. But until you get to that point, you can use Facebook's free organic traffic to bring to your Shopify store. And I think it's even better for the buyer to check out on your Shopify store rather than Facebook in this case because on Shopify, don't forget guys, the customer is yours. He's filling in his information. You're getting his email address. And I think that just getting a customer's email address who takes interest in your products is worth so much money in the long run because you can start targeting them with email campaigns, which doesn't cost any money unless you're making a lot of profit and you're making a premium account for email marketing. But it's such a good tool to have. So it's a good thing that Facebook is also mixing it with Shopify. Even though they could also, like you said, check out on Facebook, which is also fine. But there are so many advantages having virtual assistants. Facebook is giving you the ability to scale. And we all know that without scaling, we can't really make big money. So Facebook understands this. And like you said, they're also helping drop shippers. They see the potential, they see the market size that drop shippers, how much drop shippers help the e-commerce field. They want to also help us too, not just regular sellers who are selling inventory. So it's definitely a good thing. Okay, we talked about the key components to the long-term success. We talked about most of the important things. But if you can think of the number one tip that you would like to share with people who are just beginning, I mean, we talked about customer service, we talked a little bit about product research, that's fine. But someone who's just about to begin right now, what would be the number one tip that you can give them? I honestly think that beginners should start with Facebook marketplace and not Shopify. Because Shopify, while it is an amazing platform, it takes skill and time to master it, given how many components come into the Shopify, as I'm sure you guys already know. I agree. So I think Facebook marketplace is an amazing first stop for a beginner. Because number one, the user interface is honestly one of the simplest interfaces that I ever used to list items. Number two, there is super low entry barrier. Anyone who has Facebook profile and has Facebook account, and if they are located in the US, they have a social security number, they have a bank account, they're good to go, which means pretty much anyone in the US can start this and the entry barrier is super low. And again, the traffic is there, all you need to do is just find a little bit of time and list, and list, and list, and steal from there. So I think my biggest advice start with Facebook marketplace and do Shopify as your last stop once you master how the drop shipping game works. So we're not here to talk about Shopify anyway, Shopify is a totally different subject. So you're saying that we're just, it just mixes in well with the Facebook because of the new commerce shops that they'll have. So anyone who's dropshipping on Shopify can also have a good advantage here. But putting Shopify aside, so you're saying the best tip for Facebook marketplace dropshippers is to just begin, just take action. Like you already have your account, you already have most of the things set up for you and you didn't have to do anything. Now all you have to do is just click on the marketplace button, click on create new listing and start. Now once again guys, product research is important. So just don't just go listing any random product that you think will sell, get the information like Andre said from Facebook suggested. And there are also of course, other methods you can also go to Amazon or Walmart or eBay and see also what's selling there and try to flip that on Facebook. But if you want to target Facebook's audience better, it would be a good idea to see what Facebook is also suggesting. And you'll see that there's not a lot of competition, any product that you want to add, you'll see that you're probably the only one who's adding that certain product. You won't see like 10 other sellers who are already selling it, most likely. So what you guys have to do of course is just get started, take action. Once you do that, you'll start to see results. Okay. So let's go just one second off topic. When you're not running a dropshipping stores, what do you like to do with your free time, Andre? Good question. Well, now that I have a little bit more free time than before, I love exploring the outdoors. I love looking at additional income opportunities to invest. And I'm actually looking into the Airbnb business because you can do kind of the same approach and do the rental arbitrage. So yeah, I'm doing that, just spending more time with my family, looking for new income streams and just doing what I love, spending time in the outdoors, traveling the world, thanks to Facebook marketplace, dropshipping and the whole e-commerce thing. And anyone can do it really. Great to hear it. I love hearing success stories like these. I wish that so much more people would have them, so much people are dreaming to get to that point where the passive income works and you're making enough and now you can start to open up your mind to new things, also spending more time with your family, traveling outdoors more and thinking of new ideas for more passive income. So that is the point that we all want to get to. I hope that you guys are getting inspiration from stories like these. Andre, I must say it was really, really fun having you here. You're a very, very interesting person to talk to. I wish you the best of luck on your Facebook marketplace, dropshipping, business, and not just that, of course, any other type of income source that you can think of and that you start working on. I wish you the best of luck, the best of success. And if you guys want to learn more from Andre, I'm going to leave a link to his Instagram account right below this video and there you will have a link in his bio to his Udemy course on Facebook for just $19.99. You'll make that back in just a couple of sales, but with that course, I believe that you guys will go from beginners to experts in Facebook marketplace dropshipping. So once again, the requirements guys, all you have to do is live in the United States, have a social security number because once you reach $599 in sales, correct me if I'm wrong, Facebook will ask you for SSN verification, connect a bank account so that they can start sending you the funds. And that's pretty much it. Use the link below this video once again to get to his Instagram account. I hope that you guys found this video inspirational. Once again, if you haven't done so, subscribe to our YouTube channel to always stay updated on all of the latest and all of the hottest topics that we have coming out in the world of e-commerce and dropshipping. Andre, it was a pleasure. Thank you for being here today.