 What's going on guys, welcome to a new video. So first of all then, everybody who's following my channel or has followed my channel do apologize for lack of uploads over the past few weeks. It's been a good few weeks in fact. If you're new to the channel, then I sell quite a lot of seasonal products. So busy periods for me tend to be kind of like the beginning of summer and then the end of summer pretty much when the clocks change here in the UK. And then add coronavirus to that. People's buying behaviors have completely changed. Some product ranges have completely tanked. Some have been bigger and better than ever. So what I'm trying to say I guess is the last few weeks have been pretty manic, but seeing as things are somewhat returning to normal now, things are starting to open up. Delivery times are starting to improve. They're also getting a bit cheaper too. Then basically what I'm trying to say is you can expect regular content from me again. Now three to four times a week may be more, but let's see how we go. I don't want to make any false promises. In terms of the video topic as well, I thought it'd be good to do a video like this because I run a free Facebook group. It's got over 10,000 members in and probably almost on a daily basis I would say. I see people posting saying what's the current state of drop shipping e-commerce? Are people still buying online? What are delivery times currently like? So I thought I'd do this video, address all those kind of comments and questions and hesitations, answer the question, give you my honest opinion to whether drop shipping is a good idea right now. And if there are, by the way, any questions that don't get answered in this video, please do make sure you just comment them down below. I do go through my YouTube comments every kind of probably two to three days. So we'll get back to you. I do read every single comment. And yeah, that being said, thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed the video, please do make sure you subscribe. Please do make sure you like the video as well if you do, of course, and let's jump straight into it. So the first thing I want to address then are delivery times, when coronavirus and everything kicked off and people went on lockdown and weren't working. It was probably the number one biggest thing that was affected. But probably people's buying behaviors, people went into panic mode and they were less willing to spend their money on those luxuries. So they were only spending their money saving the money because they weren't really sure financially how secure they were going to be. Alongside that then, deliveries obviously took a massive hit. Everybody knows ePacket just pretty much went to crap to put it bluntly. And in my opinion, it still is nowhere near where it used to be. ePacket was always for China to the UK and China to the US as well. The go-to shipping method, in my opinion, if you were buying and drop shipping from Aliexpress, it was the most reliable. And generally speaking, it was the quickest too. As far as things go right now, I'm gonna show you a couple of resources. I'm gonna show you some comments as well from different Facebook groups and part of just to show and prove to you or at least give you my recommendation enough of the best shipping methods to use right now from Aliexpress to the UK. In terms of what they are, number one has to be Aliexpress standard shipping. The reason being is because so far for me, it's been the most reliable. Now it still isn't as reliable in my opinion as ePacket was before all this happened, but in comparison to the other shipping methods that I've tested, plus it's also still the number one recommended shipping method from a lot of couriers that I've spoken to, a lot of suppliers, sorry, not couriers. So number one is Aliexpress standard shipping. The second one is special line YW. It's by a company called Yangwen, which is the YW. You might find a lot of suppliers recommend this one to you, but what you also might find as well is this one's quite expensive. All shipping methods have increased in price. Some are still pretty reasonable. Some you can still build into the cost of your product so you can still offer free shipping. But if there is one that you just can't get the price down to, then you will just have to pass that cost onto your customers, unfortunately. But Yangwen special line, again, it's pretty quick actually. It's pretty reliable. The only thing that really lets it down is the price. A lot of suppliers are still quite expensive in that regard. You don't just have to take my word for this either. Obviously, well, not obviously, I guess I could have a biased approach because I do dropship and I sell a course, but you don't just have to take my word for it. So here's three different people part of the Ecom Academy that I created. First, we have Imran. If we have a look at his post here, he was concerned about shipping times, asking about E-Packet and AliExpress standard shipping. And one of the other members, so this wasn't just me, this is another member who said he's had good experience with AliExpress standard shipping and he's getting around 12 to 15 days delivery to the UK, which is pretty good. I mean, back in the day, well, I say back in the day, probably six months ago, E-Packet, you were looking at anywhere from kind of maybe pretty similar in fact. So it's at that point or just as good at the moment. The only thing that lets it down, like I said earlier, is its reliability. By me recommending these, I'm not making any guarantees whatsoever in terms of orders that just never show up. The percentage of orders that never show up that is still increased and shipping is nowhere near as reliable as it used to be. So still just be wary of this. The best advice I can always give you is to speak to your supplier. They are the ones shipping these orders day in, day out, using all the different shipping methods to all the different countries around the world. They will be able to advise you better than anybody else. Next up then, I want to show you this post from Kerry. So this was June 3rd, about a month ago now. And she placed 15 orders, half and half AliExpress standard shipping versus E-Packet. And she came back and she said that AliExpress standard shipping was by far most reliable as you can see on screen. And they arrived, they took anywhere between kind of nine and 23 days. So even worst case scenario, you're looking at three weeks. I think given the current situation with coronavirus, customers expect delays. So if you're saying anywhere from one to two weeks and it comes a week later, then I think in the majority of the cases you'll be able to negotiate that by or at least sweeten the deal by offering some form of a discount or something along those lines. The final example then to show you guys, I don't want to make this video too long, so I'll just show you three. But the final one then is from Sam and just to kind of summarize this post here, Sam AliExpress standard shipping with this supplier. Most of the orders have taken 10 to 14 days, so less than two weeks, which is awesome. You also recommend special line YW, which is the one I mentioned earlier in the video. And this is all from his experience too. So like I said, you don't just have to take my word for it, but then also take my advice, I guess, with a pinch of salt. The best thing you can always do is speak to the supplier about a specific product, ask them what shipping method, what carrier they're going to be using and ask them what the delivery time realistically will be to the country that you're shipping to. That being said then, let's move on to the second biggest hesitation people are having and that is people's buying behaviors. So I see it all the time, people questioning the facts whether people are buying online actually spending their money or are they keeping it safe under their mattress for a rainy day because they're still not quite sure of their financial security moving forwards. So I guess to kind of summarize this, so I don't make the video too long, is that people's buying behaviors are continuing to change and they're no longer what they used to be at the beginning of the coronavirus, the beginning of lockdown. And the best way I can illustrate this is if we take the home workout niche, so this is Google Trends that we're looking at, we can see if I just hover here in February and March. So when lockdown was first brought in when the coronavirus was announced, people who got into home workout gear at this particular time made a ton of cash because everybody was buying it. All those people that went to the gym that could no longer go to the gym and could only work out at home were buying home workout equipment. And this is proven by the fact of how many people were searching for it. So this is in the UK in the past 16 years. In the last 16 years, it was the most popular it ever has been by long way. But what we can also see is now that things are starting to open up, gyms have got a date to open up, which I believe is the 24th next week that the popularity or demand for these types of products has dropped off considerably. So there is a clear illustration of how people's buying behaviors are changing. And if you ask me, I'm more or less returning to normal and I think they will be back to normal in the next kind of three to four weeks. And I also think what will come from this is there'll be loads of niches. For example, the gift niche, I think will explode because people haven't had the chance to spend time with their relatives. They haven't seen them. They've missed birthdays and other special occasions like, well, births, for example, weddings. So there's gonna be loads of people buying gifts to send to people or to bring to people to say how much they've missed them. So that's just one niche as an example, which I think is going to explode. And if we look at also the search term of things to do at home, we can see again how this just kind of rocketed sky rocketed exploded around lockdown, people forced to stay in their homes. So they were looking for things to do at home. And again, as we saw with the homework, our niche is just completely tanked now. So any kind of niche that really falls into that is going to be dropping off in popularity. And one of those that fits the bill quite nicely is baking. So again, as illustrated, kind of February March time exploded, people staying at home looking for things to do. Baking is one of those things and we can also see how it's dropped off now that people can go out. So there's gonna be less and less people cooking at home in my opinion now because restaurants are opening up or they already are open because all of that time, people haven't had a chance to eat out. They're gonna start making up for that now by eating out more than they ever have been, especially since the government are bringing in certain regulations to encourage people to do so. And with that being said guys, to summarize the video or to answer the question that is, is now a good time to start drop shipping or e-commerce Shopify, whatever you wanna call it, is now a good time to start sending things online. I think now is a great time. And for the following reasons, number one, we are coming towards Christmas. We're coming up to Q4. Now is a great time to get a store together so you can start testing products. And the more time you have between now and kind of, well, the beginning of Q4, then the more time you have to, the more freedoms and flexibilities you'll have. You'll have the option to start sourcing products in bulk if you choose to. You'll have the option to test a dozen products and find out which one is selling well before you commit to it so you can capitalize on Q4. So that's one big reason. Honestly, if you see my earlier YouTube videos, one good Q4 as corny as it sounds really is good enough to completely change your life. The second reason being is because as people buying behaviors change, as long as you go into the right, as long as you follow those behaviors and go into the right niches, then you can make lots and lots of money. Now take that with a pinch of salt. I don't wanna sit here and say it's easy. This is not easy. In the best of times, drop shipping is not easy. Nothing is ever guaranteed. It's a business at the end of the day but it increases your likelihood and chances and it makes the opportunity bigger. So if I had to summarize the answer to this question in a few sentences without going on for hours and hours and hours and just blabbling on, then I would say yes is a really good time to start but you have to go into the right things. And when I say the right things then, I mean the trends. I mean the things that people are gonna be actively spending their money on due to the current climate, not necessarily the weather, but certain things, how people's lives are changing. That's always the best way to think is if your product can serve somebody's life in the way it's changing. So let's take the weather for example, here in the UK as it starts to improve, what do people do when the weather gets better? They spend more time outside. So what do they do outside? They play certain sports. They do barbecues. They might spend more money and time doing their gardens up. So just make sure you think along those lines and make sure you go into a niche or a product range that is in demand. And the best way, hands down to check this is to use Google Trends. And with that being said then guys, I'm gonna wrap the video up there. I could go on for hours and hours and hours but I'm sure you don't wanna listen to me for that long. I will finish the video off by saying thank you very much for watching. I really do appreciate the support. So please do make sure you subscribe to keep watching my videos. Please make sure you hit that like button if you did, of course, enjoy the video. And finally, if you are looking for a program that comes with my full support and guidance, check out my Ecom Academy. The results from the students has been pretty awesome, if I may say so. So the link will be down below. Just check out the info. There is a callback service as well. So if you wanna hop on a call with me and go through any questions before joining we can do so. And apart from that, have a great day and I'll see you in the next video. This is the end of this video. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.