I Made $12M Selling A Fruit

Summary

Steven, a 24-year-old e-commerce entrepreneur, shares his journey to building over 15 businesses with a combined revenue of $12 million. He discusses the secrets to scaling businesses, finding million-dollar products, and the pitfalls of e-commerce. Emphasizing frugality and sustainable business practices, he reveals his strategies for success, including leveraging influencer marketing, maintaining high-quality products, and focusing on niche markets. With insights into his daily operations and future predictions for e-commerce, Steven's story is an inspiring guide for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Takeaways

• 😀 Steven has built over 15 e-commerce businesses by the age of 24, with total revenues exceeding $12 million.
• 💰 He emphasizes the importance of being frugal with money and not getting caught up in the unsustainable lifestyle often portrayed by 'internet gurus'.
• 🏄‍♂️ Steven lives a semi-retired life in Bali, working a few hours a day and enjoying surfing and traveling.
• 🔑 The secret to his success includes scaling businesses to seven figures, finding million-dollar products, and addressing common e-commerce challenges.
• 🚀 His first business was selling fidget spinners on Reddit, which grew to $250,000 in revenue and sparked his interest in e-commerce.
• 📈 He has businesses in various niches, including selling fruits online, K-pop jewelry, and car accessories, with a focus on direct-to-consumer sales.
• 🌐 He highlights the importance of having a high-quality customer experience and a product that encourages repeat business for long-term success.
• 📊 Steven shares insights into his business operations, including sales figures, customer return rates, and the importance of organic traffic.
• 🛠️ One of the biggest challenges he faces is logistics, including managing inventory and fulfilling orders for customized products.
• 🔄 He suggests using platforms like Notion and Slack for systematizing business operations and hiring remote teams for scalability.
• 🔮 Looking to the future, Steven predicts difficulty for traditional drop shippers due to competition from Chinese companies and advises focusing on high customer lifetime value or high average order value products.

Q & A

How many e-commerce businesses has Steven built and what is the total revenue?

Steven has built over 15 e-commerce businesses and the total revenue has surpassed $12 million.

What was the highest single-day revenue Steven's business achieved?

The highest single-day revenue was around $250,000.

Where does Steven live and what is his lifestyle like?

Steven lives in Bali and enjoys a semi-retired lifestyle, working a few hours a day and spending the rest of his time surfing and traveling.

What are the three main businesses Steven currently runs?

Steven runs a business selling fruits online called meduldays.com, a K-pop jewelry and fashion business, and an accessories brand for cars.

What was Steven's first e-commerce business and how did it start?

Steven's first e-commerce business was selling fidget spinners, which he started selling on Reddit during high school.

How did Steven's business grow from selling fidget spinners to over $12 million in revenue?

After the initial success with fidget spinners, Steven moved on to selling mini anime figurines wearing Nike sneakers, which attracted high-profile customers like Justin Bieber. He then continued to build more brands and businesses, leading to a cumulative revenue of over $12 million.

What advice does Steven give for someone starting from scratch in e-commerce?

Steven advises to be frugal with money, focus on finding a differentiated product with a 'wow' factor, and to avoid the trap of imitating what others are selling in the market.

What are some of the biggest challenges Steven has faced in running his e-commerce businesses?

Some of the biggest challenges include logistics, such as managing seasonal quality of products, dealing with a large number of SKUs in the jewelry business, and customizing products for customers in a timely manner.

How does Steven approach scaling his businesses?

Steven focuses on building solid systems for logistics and marketing. He uses platforms like Notion and Slack, hires teams, and leverages influencer marketing to scale his businesses.

What is Steven's perspective on the future of e-commerce and the challenges faced by traditional drop shippers?

Steven believes that the future of e-commerce will be challenging for traditional drop shippers due to competition from large Chinese companies like TiKu. He suggests focusing on high lifetime customer value or selling products with high order values to overcome rising ad costs.

What is the typical customer demographic for Steven's dates business?

The typical customer demographic for Steven's dates business is 73 years old and above, and all female.

Outlines

00:00

💼 Success in E-commerce: Steven's Multi-Million Dollar Journey

Steven, at the age of 24, has built over 15 e-commerce businesses, amassing a total revenue of over $12 million. He lives a semi-retired life in Bali, working a few hours daily and enjoying his free time. The video explores Steven's strategies for scaling businesses, finding million-dollar products, and the common challenges faced by e-commerce entrepreneurs. He emphasizes the importance of frugality and sustainability, sharing insights on his business ventures, including selling fruits online, K-pop jewelry, and car accessories. His first business was selling fidget spinners, which led to his e-commerce addiction and subsequent success with various brands. The video also includes a sneak peek into his store's backend, revealing sales figures and customer retention rates.

05:03

📈 Scaling Businesses: Overcoming Challenges and Finding Niches

Steven discusses the challenges of scaling e-commerce businesses, particularly the importance of logistics and marketing systems. He shares his experiences with different businesses, such as dealing with seasonal fruit quality in his date-selling business, managing a vast inventory of jewelry and fashion items, and the complexities of customizing products for customers. Steven also talks about the daily operations, including communication through Slack, planning marketing calendars, and the significance of building systems around influencer marketing to scale sales. He suggests using platforms like Notion and Slack for organization and hiring remote teams for efficient business operations.

10:04

🚀 Navigating the Competitive E-commerce Landscape: Strategies for Success

The video delves into the competitive nature of e-commerce, highlighting the difficulties of succeeding with generic products in the age of Chinese companies like Shein. Steven advises finding differentiated products with a 'wow factor' and emphasizes the importance of branding and customization. He also discusses the challenges of logistics, especially during high-demand periods like Q4, and the solutions he employs, such as using customer relations management software like Gorgeous to streamline customer service. Steven encourages finding unique products in niche markets and understanding customer needs to offer solutions, predicting that the future of e-commerce will favor businesses with high customer lifetime value or high average order values.

15:06

💰 Financial Insights and Personal Reflections on E-commerce Success

Steven provides financial insights into his businesses, aiming for at least a 30% profit margin across all brands. He discusses the decision-making process for marketing investments, suggesting that the choice of platform depends on the target demographic and the nature of the product. Steven also shares his thoughts on new opportunities like TikTok Shop, noting the challenges of building a long-term brand without customer ownership. Reflecting on his personal journey, Steven admits that despite his success, his lifestyle hasn't drastically changed, and he remains frugal, with the main difference being reduced financial stress.

Keywords

💡E-commerce

E-commerce, short for electronic commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, as well as the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. In the video's context, it is the primary means through which Steven has built and scaled his businesses, achieving significant revenue. The script mentions Steven's e-commerce businesses selling various products online, such as fruits, K-pop jewelry, and car accessories.

💡Revenue

Revenue is the total income generated from the sale of goods or services by a business. It is a key financial metric that indicates a company's financial performance. In the video, Steven mentions that his businesses have surpassed $12 million in revenue, highlighting the success of his e-commerce ventures.

💡Scalability

Scalability refers to the ability of a system, process, or business to handle a growing amount of work, or its potential to be enlarged, if demand grows. The video discusses how Steven scaled his businesses to seven figures, emphasizing the importance of finding systems for logistics and marketing to facilitate growth.

💡Frugal

Being frugal means being economical with money or resources, avoiding waste and unnecessary spending. Steven emphasizes the importance of frugality in business, cautioning against the unsustainable lifestyle of excessive spending often portrayed by internet gurus, and advocating for keeping expenses low.

💡Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store does not keep the products it sells in stock but instead forwards customer orders to either a manufacturer, another retailer, or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. Steven mentions using dropshipping to validate products and build brands, but also points out the need for a strategy to retain customers for long-term success.

💡Logistics

Logistics refers to the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation or the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption. In the video, Steven identifies logistics as a significant challenge in e-commerce, discussing issues related to inventory management, demand forecasting, and order fulfillment.

💡Niche Markets

A niche market is a subset of the market on which a specific product or service is focused. Steven advises finding niches that are passionate and potentially profitable, using the example of his fruit-selling business, which targets an older demographic, and suggesting that niches can offer high profit potential.

💡Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing where endorsements for products or services come from influencers rather than the brand itself. Steven mentions building systems around influencer marketing, sending free products to micro-creators to generate content that can help scale the business.

💡Customer Retention

Customer retention is the ability of a company to keep or maintain its customers over time. Steven stresses the importance of selling high-quality products that do not feel gimmicky to ensure customer retention and repeat business, which is crucial for a sustainable e-commerce business.

💡Profit Margins

Profit margins measure how much profit a company makes for every dollar of revenue, essentially the percentage of revenue that turns into profit. Steven mentions aiming for at least a 30% profit margin across all his brands, indicating the financial goal for his businesses.

💡TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop is an e-commerce feature within the TikTok app that allows users to shop directly from the platform. Steven views TikTok Shop as a great opportunity for short-term gains and acquiring one-time customers, despite the challenge of not owning customer information for long-term marketing.

Highlights

Steven, at 24, has built over 15 e-commerce businesses with a total revenue of over $12 million.

Steven's business model includes selling fruits online, K-pop jewelry, and car accessories.

His approach to e-commerce emphasizes frugality and sustainability over flashy lifestyles.

Steven's first business was selling fidget spinners on Reddit, which grew to $250,000 in revenue.

He experienced a significant sale to Justin Bieber, validating his marketing strategies.

Steven's businesses have a high returning customer rate, minimizing customer acquisition costs.

He advises against following the advice of 'gurus' promoting viral products for e-commerce success.

Steven suggests focusing on differentiated and high-quality products for sustainable growth.

Logistics are a significant challenge in e-commerce, especially with customized products.

Steven's daily routine includes monitoring Slack channels and planning marketing strategies.

Scaling businesses requires solid systems for logistics and marketing to manage growth effectively.

Steven recommends using platforms like Notion and Slack to build and manage systems.

He advises on the importance of hiring remote teams for scalability and cost-effectiveness.

Steven discusses the challenges of high volume orders, especially during Q4, and the need for robust customer service systems.

He emphasizes the need for originality in product selection to avoid saturation in the market.

Steven suggests niche markets as a rich area for e-commerce, where passion and demand meet.

He predicts the future of e-commerce will favor businesses with high customer lifetime value or high average order value.

Steven shares his thoughts on TikTok Shop as a short-term opportunity with potential limitations for long-term brand building.

His biggest day of sales was Black Friday 2020, reaching around $250,000 in a single day.

Steven's personal experience with wealth includes living a normal life with less stress and maintaining frugality.

Transcripts

this is Steven at just 24 years old he's

built over 15 e-commerce businesses

we're just past $12 million in in

Revenue today Justin just ordered my

product in a single day I think we did

around like 250,000 we met up in Bali

where Steven lives a semi-retired life

working a few hours a day and spending

the rest of his time surfing and

traveling in this video we go through

how he scaled multiple businesses to

over seven figures the seceret to

finding million-dollar products and the

most common problems that people who get

into e-commerce face you have to be

really Frugal with your money the reason

a lot of these guys are showing off all

these expensive things is because they

have something else to sell you the

lifestyle of having Lambos flexing

spending $1,000 at restaurants it's just

it's not sustainable if you were to

start from scratch right now what would

you do man do I want to give the sauce

that's crazy the sauce bro the only way

to win

is so can you give me a breakdown of all

of your companies how exactly do you

make money yeah it's pretty simple so I

run a few businesses I run a business

that sells fruits online it's called

medul days.com and we basically just

sell dates online direct to Consumer I

have a little facility where we can

fulfill the dates straight from the farm

and send it straight to the customer I

also have a K-pop jewelry and fashion

business where we sell clothes to fans

of that Niche and then lastly we have a

accessories brand for uh cars and I'm

going to keep that lowkey because it's

it's a crazy product your bio on

Instagram says 12 million in Ecom one

exit can you tell me the backstory

behind how did you get to the 12 million

basically first ever business I ever did

was selling fidget Spinners that was

when I was in high school I started by

selling it on Reddit and just you know

like spamming it in all these subreddits

and I got my first sale and when I heard

that shop by ding I got addicted to uh

selling stuff on Shopify that eventually

grew to I think it was like $250,000 in

revenue and that kind of was the gateway

drug for me getting into e-commerce then

moved on to another product when I was

in my first year of college I sold these

figurines it's like mini anime figurines

um and they were wearing Nike sneakers

tons of copyright but made a decent

amount of money I had Justin Bieber uh

buy from me then he told me that he saw

one of my Facebook ads and purched

directly so that was really cool from

there I just started building more and

more Brands uh and it cascaded into so

many random uh e-commerce businesses

that some stayed some died out but over

the course of a lifetime ended up just

passed $12 million in in Revenue across

all of

them all right Stephen so for all the

people that are already commenting cap

on this video can you show us some

backend stuff from your stores yeah some

of these numbers that we're talking

about so this store here we're almost at

$4 million around 10% of it came from

PID ads rest of it actually is organic

so if you can calculate the prit margins

it's a lot higher um so this is one of

the stores also just over a million

dollars in sales mostly from organic as

well you can see we have a 40% returning

customer rate which is really really

solid uh that means we barely spend any

money on customer acquisition just from

repeat sters this new one right here we

just launched um and it's already at

175,000 uh doing about like $50,000 a

month but uh in the upcoming months

we're about to do between 100 to

$150,000 a month so we've all seen

people Flex money on social media but I

wanted to know what does it actually

take to succeed with an e-commerce

business today like what separates

people who are the winners from the

losers like how many hours do you have

to work a day how much money do you have

to invest what does it take to actually

succeed I think a big part of it isn't

even What It Takes or how much work it

takes it's about looking at the right

places a lot of beginners they're really

misguided because on YouTube there's

just a wealth of gurus telling you sell

this viral Tik Tok product and you're

going to make money and you know some

people make money selling these viral

Tik Tok products but the likelihood of

you hitting a hot product like that is

very hard and especially now with the

Advent of teu and all these Chinese

companies coming in it's becoming very

hard to succeed with you know a generic

product like that so I think what it

really takes is to find a way to sell a

differentiated product and sell

something that has an immediate wow

factor that a lot of people uh haven't

seen before and you can't do that with

just normal AliExpress products for the

most part you need to make customized

products and uh sell it in a branded way

okay we got to got to try that again

that's going in that's going

[Applause]

in you can't fall into the Trap that a

lot of these internet gurus show you

right the lifestyle of having Lambos

like flexing spending $1,000 at

restaurants it's just it's not

sustainable um because you know with all

businesses there's always ups and down

downs and you have to be really Frugal

with your money the reason a lot of

these guys are you know showing off all

these expensive things is because they

have something else to sell you right um

so first keep your expenses low then

second have a product that offers really

high quality uh experience to the

customers you want to make sure that you

sell something that doesn't feel

gimmicky and it's going to make

customers come back because I think Drop

Shipping is a really good model to

validate a product but to have a real

business you really need a way to keep

customers coming back for the long

run so bad wait try

get maybe we should stop playing

pool stick to making money bro what's

been one of the biggest challenges in

running your businesses is there

anything that stands out like that was a

really hard time to get through one of

the biggest challenges with e-commerce I

would say is logistics with every one of

our businesses we've faced different

challenges in regards to Logistics so

for the day business we've we have

certain Seasons where the quality of of

our fruit isn't as good or we can't

produce as much so then we have to scale

up or down depending and then for the

jewelry and fashion business we deal

with thousands of SKS so you know you

can you can imagine trying to figure out

the the Fulfillment and storing of all

the the inventory and properly

forecasting the demand for the inventory

can be really difficult and you know

also with uh our last product it's a

completely customized product so you

know having the proper design and

sending it to the design team to have it

personalized for the customer it can be

very challenging and we have to have

really good systems for you know all of

the businesses to make sure that it run

smoothly okay so what does a typical day

look like for you you open up your lab

laptop what are you actually spending

your time doing so I open up my laptop a

lot of times is just checking you know

our slack channels where we can

communicate about advertising or video

creatives that need to be made all the

conversations we have internally for our

email marketing and we plan out uh

marketing calendars on a daily basis so

what does it take to scale these

businesses how do you take it from okay

you are testing a product you see that

it's working you're making some sales

how do you take it from from five

figures to six figures to seven figures

yeah a big thing that people fail to do

and this is one of the biggest

limitations when it comes to scaling is

they can't figure out the systems for

their Logistics and the systems for

their marketing because to get sales you

need to get the word out there for your

product so you know for example for for

this store we built systems around

influencer marketing and uh getting a

ton of micro creators to basically do

collaborations with us we send out tons

of free product to them and because of

that they're able to make a lot of

content for us and some of that content

blows up and that allows us to scale a

lot higher on the other hand when it

comes to Logistics we need to make sure

that everything is extremely solid and

if we can't fulfill the demand then we

actually do a drop based model where we

will fulfill uh maybe once or twice a

month and be be able to properly fulfill

all those orders close down the shop for

the rest of the month and then repeat

that if you want to have really solid

systems I highly recommend using

different platforms like notion and

slack and hiring out teams uh using a

website called onlinejobs.ph and upwork

you can find a lot of really talented

people and uh employ them to work for

your business and they come on as

contractors so you don't have to pay for

health insurance and all these other

benefits that uh typically full-time

employees need when you get to this

scale like you see right there you have

50,000 orders what is that in the past

year or uh past few years past few years

so when you get to this level of of

scaling what what types of issues are

you facing especially when you have

three brands that are doing this much

volume yeah so Q4 is typically one of

the hardest times for us because it as

much as we try to prepare for the volume

orders that come in there's always

issues you know one time we had no

blocking in our warehouse so we couldn't

get the orders out properly uh had to

fly over and pack orders myself uh with

the team um but typically to handle this

amount of orders we have to have a lot

of staff so especially for customer

service we have multiple customer

service agents and they are all they're

all implemented onto a platform called

gorgeous and gorgeous is basically a

customer relations management software

platform that that integrates directly

with Shopify and this really allows you

to uh streamline your customer service

and make sure that every customer is

happy and uh satisfied with with their

service most people when they're getting

into this e-commerce Drop Shipping space

they're looking at what everybody else

is selling and they're kind of copying

it and like next thing you know the

entire like business model is just

filled with people doing the same thing

over and over again so how can someone

who is just getting into this and

they're looking to find an original

product that is in complet oversaturated

what can they do to find those types of

products well yeah as you said it needs

to be unique and one thing I always

advocate for is the riches are in the

niches right so you want to find niches

that are really passionate and there's

so many out there you just have to keep

your eye open and look around you and

look at your friends what are their

interests what are their Hobbies what do

they spend a disproportionate amount of

time doing with their lives and where

they spend all their money and just by

doing that you're going to see a bunch

of random NES um and it's always the

ones that are really unsexy and nobody

really thinks about that actually have a

lot of profit potential I would say you

you have the unfair Advantage if you

sell stuff in a niche that you're

personally passionate in but it doesn't

mean you are restricted to just that

Niche like I didn't know anything about

dates before I started selling them

right um it's more about just

identifying opportunities Within These

different niches right so what that

takes is really understanding your

customer and trying to

fully get to know them to a level where

you know exactly what the problems are

and how you can solve those problems

with the product how do you see the

future of e-commerce evolving yeah so I

think in the future it's going to be

really really difficult especially with

draw shipping for traditional drawers to

succeed because with timu and all these

other Chinese incumbents coming in it's

going to be really hard to cooky with

them they're already spending billions

of dollars on Advertising which means ad

costs are going up and your profits are

going to go down so the only way to win

is two ways one way is high lifetime

customer value which means you have to

have your customers come back over and

over uh and to do that you have to have

a a good product it's maybe something

that incentivizes recurring

subscriptions or the other way is to

have a very high uh product price or uh

or order value so you want to aim to

sell products that can give you average

order value of over I would say $80 that

way you can justify Rising ad costs on

on Facebook Tik Tok Etc how much money

does somebody need to get started with

branded Drop Shipping yeah luckily

because you don't have to put so much

money upfront for inventory anywhere

between $3 to $5,000 is a pretty good

starting base and in terms of marketing

um is it very product specific whether

you go to Facebook or Tik Tok or Google

Google like how do you decide where to

invest the money when it comes to

marketing it's very Niche specific

actually so a lot of times different

platforms will serve a different kind of

customer so for example if you have a

older

demographic uh that you're trying to

Target uh then we would launch on

Facebook ads if you have a younger

demographic then Tik Tok works better

for the dates company who is the uh the

Target customer it's pretty funny our

Target customer is actually 73 years old

73 yeah there's 73 and above and all

female if you look on our website we

just have thousands of like five star

reviews from all these Grand Bas it's

pretty funny can you say maybe just

abroad profer margins for all of your

Brands can buy it yeah so for all the

brands combined we aim for at least 30%

in that profit word how do you feel

about Tik Tok shop and and all these new

opportunities popping up Tik to I think

Tik Tok shop is great the only thing is

when you get on there you don't ow the

on the customer so Tik Tok will have all

the customer information and it makes it

quite a bit harder to remarket to those

customers so to build a long-term

sustainable brand might be hard but in

the short term to acquire one time

customers and make a ton of money I

think it's a great opportunity what was

your biggest day um biggest day it was

Black Friday I think it was

2020 two of Black Friday and combined in

a single day I think we did around like

200 something,

250,000 mm yeah it was it was pretty

crazy good time at that point I had six

stores running all at the same time six

stores yeah if you were to start from

scratch right now what would you do n do

I want to give the sauce it's crazy get

the sauce bro um if I was to start again

I think the niche I would definitely get

back into is jewelry if not jewelry I

think another good one is uh autom

related stuff but um you know that's

something I've recently discovered it's

been very very hot on Facebook ads

anything else I think trending niches

like Pilates uh that's a good Niche to

probably look into if you understand

that demographic the more emotional that

Niche is the more likely they are to buy

and also come back and buy again SAU SAU

you're 24 yes you've made millions of

dollars most people of your age dream of

making that type of money how does it

feel that you're here now well it's

funny because when I first started I

thought that it would be really crazy to

make a lot of money make you know

multiple six figures every year uh doing

Ecom in reality I think I'm just living

my normal life I just have less worries

uh I don't have to stress about food I

don't have to stress about rent I can

kind of just live my life I'm still

Frugal right I save money and you know

not much not too much has changed except

I'm just less stressed out

a

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