How long it actually took me to build a profitable ecom brand

★★ signal-medium r/dropshipping · ↑ 111 · 💬 56 · 2025-05-23 · kw: better way to · open on reddit ↗

Tool

Shopify, Facebook Ads, TikTok, AliExpress, Fiverr, 3PL, WooCommerce

Issue

Dropshipping store owners struggle with prolonged unprofitability (0 sales in first 2 years, repeated store closures), ineffective ad spend without proper strategy knowledge, and product sourcing risks (DMCA takedowns, supplier disputes), requiring 5+ years and 10-15 failed iterations before achieving consistent daily profit.

Cost

$50+ spent repeatedly on failed marketing; 8 months warehouse work to save capital; 6+ years to profitability; unstated revenue impact of repeated closures

Recommendation

none

Date context

late 2015–early 2016 start; December 2018 first sale; 2021 profitable store launch; platform dynamics (TikTok saturation by 2021, shift to Facebook ads) suggest post-2020 ecommerce landscape; 3PL scaling observed by 2021-2025

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

Everyone loves to post screenshots. Almost no one talks about the timeline. So here’s mine, how long it actually took me. I didn’t get rich overnight. Not even close. I lost money for years. I started in late 2015- early 2016. The first two years? A complete mess. I listened to the wrong people, watched all the guru YouTubers claiming they had the “winning product,” tested random stuff with no structure, ran ads I didn’t understand, bought shoutouts from meme pages. I’d quit, start over, run out of money, save up, and repeat. Made zero sales in my first two years. During that time, I probably opened and closed 10–15 stores if not more. In December 2018, I still remember this, it was around Christmas. I saw these dog Christmas clothes on AliExpress. Built a store around it. It was terrible. But I bought a $50 shoutout from a meme page and weirdly enough, it kind of worked. Got around 7-10 sales in a few hours, Even made a small profit. Blew it all on the next shoutout. Nothing. Closed the store again. Went and got a warehouse job. Worked 8 months straight to save up. Tried again. Next store: women’s gym clothing. Way better store design. followed some strategy from youtube about running Facebook ads. Made some sales, but no profit. Now I know it wasn’t the product. I just didn’t know how to run ads properly back then. Closed the store. Again. Next try: IPL hair removal device. Shipped it to a girl on Fiverr, got a UGC video made, launched on TikTok. It actually worked, got around 10 sales/day. I was hyped. One month later: DMCA takedown from a big store selling the same thing. I panicked and shut it down. Back to the warehouse. Saved up. Launched another store. By this point, I had learned a lot. I knew how to build a good looking store. I had basic experience with FB and TikTok ads. And most importantly, I stopped chasing shortcuts. In 2021, I launched a store in the gifting niche. Didn’t follow anyone, just trusted what I’d learned through all the failures. Made my own TikTok creatives, ran them with a simple strategy. And it worked. Made consistent profit daily. 6 months later I went with a 3PL, started holding inventory. That store is still running today, it’s grown a lot. Now I’m selling all over Europe and the US. Left TikTok and went all in on Facebook ads, saw more profit there What I want you to take from this: Most people quit too early. They think failure means they’re not cut out for this. But if you refuse to fail, and keep adapting you’ll eventually win.

Top comments (7)

[score=11] No-Recording-9334

There’s a quote I hear a lot: “It happens slower then you think, then faster then you can imagine”. My first 6 online stores did not amount to much, my 7th was the first one to make over 1K, and even then it took a few months. Now I run a profitable wholesale company and make that daily. What I can tell you is that volume negates luck, if you work hard enough it’s basically a law of the universe you will eventually see results

[score=5] BeyondNo840

Hi congrats on your success! If you don't mind i have a few questions, before you went with a 3pl for storage and delivery did you use a dropshipping model to test the market? Also how were you able to manage the expectation of customers with product delivery being 7-10 days?

[score=3] bolokin

Your persistence is so shining and so strong. I am also starting a business, and I know how difficult it is to persist, especially after repeated setbacks and denials. The reality is very simple, there is only one wrong result. I admire you very much, to be honest

[score=3] RedEyedHustla

Very similar to how it all went for me took me a few years of failure and just knowledge i got from mentors/ videos eventually everything i learned worked an one day my site took off… glad i never gave up!

[score=3] mehranbrah

3PL means private label correct? Also congratulations on your success, tenacity is a key factor in entrepreneurship!

[score=3] Interesting_Star_707

I am good at woo commerce do you think I can achieve good result without shopify?

[score=3] crazycornman99

For the content/ads side, you shot and edited content on your iPhone and posted on tikTok first? Then figured out what works and turned them into Facebook ads? How much effort and budget did you need to put in to developing the content? Did you shoot everything yourself? Did you ever use models/studios/etc. I have my product but I am just struggling to come up with a good content strategy.