 So in this video, I wanna answer the question of whether dropshipping is a good time to start now slash e-commerce in general. It's the most popular question I get asked, probably a dozen times every single day. So I put together this very quick presentation just to address the three biggest concerns that people seem to be having at the moment. Number one then is that people, you've seen everywhere people are saying people aren't buying, people aren't spending their money, they're stockpiling their money because they're too unsure, too fearful of what the future holds. Now, this is true to some degree, as it says there, e-commerce as a whole has been hit hard, very hard, but it would be absolutely and completely false to say that all industries are down. What this means then that if we're going to succeed during a time like this, what we have to do is adapt by changing the products in which we're selling. Give you a few examples then of how this is true. I've got some screenshots up here on the right. This is different Google trend data for different search terms. The top one is online gifts. It might be a bit difficult to see if you're watching this on a mobile device, but basically during this current time, so April time, then the search for online gifts has been more popular than it ever has been in an April for the past 14 years. If you go on to UK sites like Moonpig or Thoughtful.com, a lot of them aren't taking orders for cards and online gifts because they simply just can't keep up with the demands. Number two is the home workout niche. I've featured this in previous videos, but it just continues to spike in popularity as gyms are closed and people are staying at home. One thing that a lot of people are doing, including my girlfriend, who never had an interest in working out whatsoever, she is now doing online things at home in our living room. The third and final one then is things to do at home. This bottom one here, which you can see, again, if you look at the spike in popularity, it just continues and continues to grow and spike. More and more people, it makes sense being quarantined and locked down at home. They're looking for things to do. So that should spark some ideas of different products you can sell to satisfy that demand. Despite the current climate then, I just wanna share with you this screenshot that I took from datafeedwatch.com. I've been doing a ton of reading and research into the current situation because the better understanding you have of what is going on or what is going to happen, the better you can adapt and plan for things. But to summarize this one, basically the US government is estimating that online sales will actually increase in this quarter over Q4 of 2019. Because people are locked down, shut down at home, they're not supposed to go out and do their shopping, then obviously people are resorting and turning to shopping online. And just so you haven't just gotta take my word for it, here's a couple of screenshots from a couple of members of the Ecom Academy. And you can see the kind of results that they're able to achieve during these current times. So that is point number one then, moving on to point number two, which is a biggie, which is that people are saying that China slash shipping in general is impossible, trying to get your item shipped to the UK, to the US on time just isn't happening. And it's the deciding factor of why you shouldn't be doing drop shipping, which is completely false in my opinion. Yes, shipping is affected, by the end of the day it's still operational, so there's still opportunities to be had. And as it says there, you just have to adapt. If we take a look at this blue screenshot on the left then, it's from a friend of mine that I had a call with many weeks ago. And he sent me this because he's been using a shipping method called YDH, he works with an agent. Now to tell the truth, I'm yet to find a supply in Aliexpress, they'll offer this to me, but perhaps it's something you could ask your supplier about because it is gonna be a case by case basis. You can see then all of these are March deliveries to the UK, and he's been able to average six to nine days, which is pretty crazy during March, during the peak of the pandemic, just goes to show that there are ways of still operating to some normality during these times. What I've been using myself then is a service called SpecialLine YW, YW standing for Yang Wen, which is the company that offers it. And as you can see, the time they quote is actually faster than E-Packet to what I've seen so far is more or less unaffected until it actually reaches the UK. And even then we're only talking a couple of days in the hands of Royal Mail. The second source I wanna share with you guys is this screenshot from Honest Fulfillment, their Facebook page. If you don't follow these guys, make sure you head over there now, pause the video, like their page because they post regular updates and they're speaking directly to these companies too. So kind of to summarize this screenshot then, they're talking about a delivery company called Young Express, a delivery method, sorry, that typically you'll find most suppliers actually offering this on Aliexpress to the US. So if you're out dropshipping there, you can expect two business days. Now this is directly from the shipping courier. So it may be a bit unbiased, it may be a bit longer than that, but still two days is not much to worry about. And then for the UK, they don't really give a specific answer. But basically what they're saying is there could be some delays. Now from my personal experience doing UK to UK with the Royal Mail, then it's probably maybe one or two in 10 parcels arrive a day or two late at max. So really nothing to worry about in my opinion as he says there, as this page says there, my postman still comes to me every day. Mine does too, so at the moment, then all is good there to be honest. A couple of days here or there isn't going to matter much. Just make sure you stay in contact with your customers, explain the situation, the whole world knows what the situation is. I'm sure the majority of your customers will be willing to wait an extra couple of days as well. Takeaways then from this page, number one, have a positive attitude at all times, look for solutions, not problems. There's too many people spreading negativity out there. At the end of the day, if you have a positive mindset and positive outlook, you're going to find ways to capitalize rather than just be negative about the problem essentially. Number two, speak to individual supplies. It's going to be a case by case basis. China is absolutely huge. What's going on in the East is going to be different to what's going on in the West, South, North, et cetera. In terms of the delivery methods, you should be asking them about, ask them about UNEXPRESS, special line and SFXPRESS. And then finally, just make sure you place test orders from each supplier with using the different shipping methods which should cost you like 30 pound max depending on absolutely what the product is. Again, I've seen it many times, people saying that suppliers lie, which can be true, but at the end of the day, if you have a good honest relationship with a supplier, there's no reason why they shouldn't be upfront with you. Moving on to the third and final point then is maxing opportunities. Those businesses that are affected during the current times that are shutting down, having a reduction in business and therefore having to reduce their costs, they're no longer advertising online and this makes the online advertising space less competitive and therefore cheaper. So for example, then just to name one, Facebook ads are obviously being a bidding platform. So think of it as like eBay, but for impressions, the less people bidding for a product, so the impressions, then they're cheaper they become. And what that translates into then is cheaper CPMs. Here's a screenshot from some different ad sets for my accounts. Ultimately, they are all conversion ad sets, a mixture of ad to cut and purchase, so you can see the average CPM I'm achieving at the moment is about five pounds and 50 pence. Now typically it'd be about double this, maybe a bit less, so maybe kind of eight to 10 pounds on average, so at the moment you're probably operating at about 20 to 30% cheaper than what it was say three months ago. Just to wrap the video up then, if you guys have any questions or concerns about anything whatsoever, make sure you get in touch, leave a comment down below, I respond to every single comment, so if there is something you wanna ask me, I will get back to you. And to finish on this then, I really asked some huge opportunities to be had. I honestly wouldn't be saying that if I didn't believe it wasn't the truth, but you have to do these three things then, I'm gonna call it the golden combination, which is number one is you have to be selling a product that's currently in demand. There are certain products, certain ranges, certain niches that are just completely dead because people are spending their monies on different things at the moment. There's no kind of secret to that, it's a fact, I'm not gonna deny that. Secondly, you need a reliable source, obviously you need as products that you can source, whether it's from China, from the UK, from the US, doesn't matter, it just has to be reliable. And then point three is social media marketing. There's opportunities to be had here, cheaper CPMs than probably seen for at least the last couple of years. So as long as you do all three of these things correctly, then you run to something really good. And that being said then, thank you very much for watching, make sure you stay safe, stay at home, make use of the time wisely. If you are looking into a course or program to help you start your business, then please do check out my Ecom Academy, you can see on the screen now, the kind of things that you'll get access to. Plus there is a ton more. So if you do download this keynote, make sure you head across, there will be a link in the video description as well. And you'll see all the different testimonials, all the different content and support groups that you will get access to. So thanks again for watching and see you in the next one.