eCom Elites Module 1 Review

Video 1: General or Niche Store

The first video in this module is also the most important (in my opinion). You'll find this video in most courses but Franklin goes into serious detail about the pros and cons for both. 

When you're just starting out it makes sense to start a general store. This allows you to test as many products as you can, in as many different niches without needing to start a new store each time. 

You wouldn't sell pet products on a clothing themed store would you? So before starting a niche, you should find a few winning products. To do that you'll need a general store, which you can then rebrand once you've proven you can sell those products. 

The first video was: 7 minutes, 36 seconds. Updated: 2019

Video 2: Start Your Online Store

The first main video in the course is called 'Start Your Online Store' and includes a Shopify trial. 

You can get started right away using the best possible trial available. While I can't provide the length of trial in this post, it's one of the longest and is exclusively available for clients of eCom Elites. 

Franklin provides a complete walk through on how to complete checkout and choose your Shopify username. You'll also learn how to take advantage of the custom theme called eCom Turbo. 

This video was 12 minutes, 13 seconds. Updated: 2019.

Video 3: Unlock Your Store

Anyone can create a Shopify store freely without paying. However until you subscribe to an active plan you'll have a coming soon page locking your store out from the rest of the world. 

Until you've built your store, this shouldn't be too much of an issue however once you're ready to send traffic, you'll want to remove this feature. To do so you need a paid plan.

Franklin explains the Shopify pricing model which currently costs $29 per month for their standard plan. More advanced users may need their $79 plan and the pros and cons for each are included in this video. 

This video was 6 minutes, 12 seconds. Updated: 2019. 

Video 4: Uploading Theme

This video is all about uploading a custom theme and Franklin chooses to use eCom Turbo which is a premium theme costing $97-$147 depending on the version you choose. It's probably a little biased as it's actually his own theme but it's one of the best dropshipping themes out there. 

You'll learn how to use the theme customizer within the Shopify dashboard and just how easy it is to completely overhaul your theme and make it 100% unique to your store. 

And don't feel like you're limited to using his premium theme either. There's many free Shopify themes out there, you can choose one from their marketplace. Alternatively you can use another paid theme. 

This video was 6 minutes. Updated: 2017. 

Video 5: Adding Products To Store

Do you know the difference between products and collections? Well if not you will do after watching this video which includes a full run down on both. Also you'll learn how to add products to your store. 

You'll learn what those fields are such as SKU and how to keep track of inventory. Different pricing and variants are all explained and how to use them.

Franklin also looks at product descriptions and actually creates one with his over the shoulder training which includes how to correctly use your descriptions to create compelling copy that will increase conversions.

Lastly there are trust badges you can download to install on your store.  

Struggling to get sales? Franklin will show you tips and tricks to increase conversions. 

This video was 15 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 6: Customize Store Theme

You'd probably have expected this video to be after video 4 but for some reason it's not. 

This video expands on the basic theme customization that's included in the 'Uploading Theme' video and goes above and beyond to show you how to customize the theme further. 

You'll learn how to customize the homepage including sliders, collections, headings, subheadings and links. You'll also be able to customize for various devices including mobile, desktop and tablet sized screens. 

It does make sense to have purchased eCom Turbo for this video. You can follow along if you're using a free or other premium theme but it may be irrelevant to you. 

This video was 15 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 7: Customize Pages & Menus

This video lesson is fairly straight forward and shows you the power of pages and menus. You'll be able to customize them using various methods shown by Franklin. 

The most stand out feature is that you'll be shown how to optimize this content for search engine rankings by using the title tags, meta descriptions and keywords. 

Important pages are also mentioned here including frequently asked questions, terms and conditions, privacy policies and terms of service. European members will also need to added additional policies such as GDPR. 

This video was 15 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 8: Customize Checkout Pages

One of the main complaints often talked about online is stores that get lots of sales and adds to carts but few sales and this video is perfect for those people. 

Franklin shows you how to customize the checkout page to help improve conversion rates. Most people don't spend more than 5 minutes on their checkout page when it's the most important page on your site. 

This video will show how to add trust badges to checkout as well as additional content for winning over customers. Some earlier versions of the course may have included 'Conversion Pirates' script but this is no longer available for new stores and has been removed in the 2019 update of the course. 

This video was 5 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 9: Bulk Importing (Oberlo)

There are many plugins (or apps) out there for finding products for your Shopify store and one of those is called Oberlo which integrates Aliexpress suppliers with your store instantly. You simply find a supplier (see module 2) and then with one click you can import their products and descriptions/images etc into your store. 

Franklin then shows you how this powerful (free tool) can be used to bulk import products to create a store full of products within minutes. This tool can even automatically fulfil orders for you once you've sold them.

This tool can make your life much easier and help achieve the laptop lifestyle you so badly want. It's free too, you just need a Shopify subscription. 

This video was 13 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 10: Setup Payments (USA)

If you're from the United States then you can use Shopify payments on your store. This means you can start accepting credit card payments within minutes of starting your store. 

Franklin will guide you through the application process. 

For international students there are many different payment gateways available to you too which Franklin also covers. One of the most common gateways is called Stripe. While primarily not a credit card gateway, Paypal is also frequently used and does allow customers to pay with their credit cards. 

If you're from another country you can also use 2Checkout, Braintree, Authorize.net

Shopify has an information page here with over 100 additional payment gateways that they integrate with. 

This video was 8 minutes. Updated: 2017. 

Video 11: Setup Taxes

Chances are you're probably from a country that imposes a sales tax whether that's Value Added Tax, Goods and Services or simply a state tax so you'll probably want to watch this video closely. 

The Shopify platform has a full taxes section which allows you to either collect additional taxes during checkout or build them into the price of existing prices. 

Franklin will show you the best process for getting started. Don't panic here, it's very straight forward and depends on your personal situation as to how you proceed here. 

This video was 5 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 12: Abandon Checkout Setup

You send traffic, that person adds to cart and attempts checkout before disappearing, never to be seen again. It's a matter of fact, people will fail to checkout but thankfully Shopify has made it easier to try and win back that sale. 

Franklin will take you through a journey to setting up a checkout abandonment system. This means you'll send them an email with an incentive to complete checkout again.

How do you get their email? Well Shopify stores a copy of it when they enter it into the first page of the checkout process. You can then integrate this with a third party email provider who can send 'automated emails' to those lost customers, encouraging them to checkout again.

Franklin recommends using Gravitate. 

Cool right? Hell yes. 

This video was 14 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 13: Setting Up Shipping

There's a fine art to choosing the best shipping methods for your store and Franklin will take you through the process of finding what works for your store. There's a misconception that you have to offer free shipping to be successful and you'll learn of the different options. 

From there you'll then implement these into your store using Shopify's shipping page. 

For advanced users you can make use of rule based shipping as well as weight based rates. For even more advanced stores there are real time integrations with carriers such as Fedex, DHL and over 100 freight providers from around the world such as Royal Mail, NZ Post or Australia Post. 

This video was 20 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 14: Branded Domain Setup

Once your store is ready to go, you'll want to turn that 'username.myshopify.com' into something special. You'll want to purchase your own domain name such as 'yourstorename.com.'

As Franklin mentioned in the first video, general or niche store, you'll probably want to choose a domain name relevant to the business model you're intending to create. 

For most of you that will be a general store so something such as JoesWarehouse.com would be a good idea. If you're dead set on a niche store such as pet store you may find something such as JanesPetStore.com to be a better option for you. 

This video shows you how to mask your domain name to your Shopify store. It's a very simple process and for less technological people you can even buy your domain name through Shopify and they'll do everything for you.

If you bought your domain with Namecheap, Godaddy or Namesilo etc then you'll need to make a quick change using your account on their platforms. 

All the details are shown in the over the shoulder training and remember, Franklin isn't that technical but he makes it look very simple indeed. 

This video was 6 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 15: Setting Up Coupons

Creating a coupon code that buyers can actively look for online and use can increase your sales dramatically and in this video Franklin will show you how to create one within Shopify.

You can use the standard Shopify discounts or a third party app. Using Shopify offers a fixed amount or a fixed percentage discount which can be applied to the entire order, specific collections or specific products. 

You can also specify a minimum purchase amount or number of items. Lastly you can set dates with which the coupon can be used within and how many times it can be redeemed per order or in total sitewide. 

This video was 4 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 16: Creating A Simple Upsell

Gone are the days where you simply send traffic to the homepage and hope someone buys something. These days you can send traffic to a specific product page, then upsell them.

But how do you do that exactly? Well in this video Franklin shows you how to upsell someone using 'Upsell Hero' which is a free app that you can integrate with your store. 

You can choose when to show the upsell offer, whether that's specific products or a specific collection and then you can customize the offer you'll display such as the text, add to cart button as well as which products to showcase. 

You can customize pretty much every aspect of the upsell offer including colors, texts and fonts. 

This video was 12 minutes. Updated: 2019. 

Video 17: Store Funnel

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One of the best ways to make money with eCommerce and dropshipping in 2019 is with store funnels and Franklin has included this video to show you the entire process should you wish to do so. 

This module isn't a how to on setting up a sales funnel (this comes later in module 7) but will give you a good taster on what you can expect later on in the course. 

This video was 4 minutes. Updated: 2019.