Our £7M Dropshipping Approach Explained… It’s Not What You Think (Episode 147)

👉 Ready to start your own online store? Start here: https://dropshipunlocked.com/online-event?el=podcast-147-our-dropshipping-approach

🗣 In this episode, Lewis Smith and James Eardley reveal the exact approach behind their £7M+ in e-commerce sales—and why it’s completely different from what most people think dropshipping is.

Forget slow delivery times, overseas suppliers, and Facebook ad guesswork. This episode breaks down the real secrets to building a high-profit, low-risk online store using the HomeTurf Advantage model taught inside Dropship Unlocked.

👉 Prefer to watch this on YouTube? Check it out here ➡️ https://youtu.be/QWLPlLoOeJQ

🧠 Topics Discussed:
 ★ Why most people get dropshipping completely wrong—and what actually works in 2025
 ★ How the HomeTurf Advantage model helps you build a 6–7 figure business without holding stock
 ★ The 3 key ingredients to our successful ecommerce model:
  ✓ Domestic suppliers for fast, local delivery
  ✓ High-ticket products for bigger profits
  ✓ Zero upfront stock—stay cash-flow positive from day one
 ★ How this model compares to Amazon FBA and traditional low-ticket dropshipping
 ★ Why you don’t need prior experience to get started (and how James went from zero to successful store owner)
★ What makes Dropship Unlocked’s training and mentorship different from everything else online
★ The power of real community: in-person meetups, collaboration calls, and lifelong connections

📚 Links and Resources Mentioned:
 📘 Pick up a copy of Lewis’ book: https://dropshipunlocked.com/book
🛒 Get Shopify for £1 a month for 3 months: https://dropshipunlocked.com/shopify
📞 Try a professional phone line free: https://dropshipunlocked.com/circle

✅ Key Takeaways:
 ★ You don’t need to hold stock or invest thousands upfront to build a profitable online store.
★ Selling high-ticket products from local suppliers is the fastest path to scalable, sustainable income.
★ The right training and community support can make the difference between struggling for months and launching confidently.
★ This business model is about building freedom, not stress. A few quality sales can replace your monthly income.

📱 FOLLOW US:
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dropshipunlocked/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DropshipUnlockd
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/dropship-unlocked
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/dropshipunlockedlewissmith
Website: https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/

Thanks for tuning in to the Dropship Unlocked Podcast!
 If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps us reach more aspiring entrepreneurs like you.

★★★ Dropship Unlocked – Lewis Smith ★★★
 🌍 Want to create location, time, and financial freedom? Watch our free training now ➽ https://dropshipunlocked.com/free?el=podcast-147-our-dropshipping-approach

Transcript

0:00

Our approach to e-commerce is very different from what you've probably heard. I mean, we are actually able to guarantee that you'll make £10,000 in sales by. I used to think that the key to e-commerce success was all about Facebook ads and getting that right. But the truth is. And that alone is a key piece of the code on how to build a successful e-commerce business with very minimal upfront costs. There are not many businesses that allow you to generate £1,000,000 worth of sales with such a low investment. It's not about. Throwing huge ad budgets at Facebook or just hoping for the best? The real secret to scaling your e-commerce business is actually. So most people think that achieving success in drop shipping means selling low ticket products at rock bottom prices, focusing solely on Facebook ads and fast sales. But we've both built 7 figure drop shipping businesses now, Lewis, and they're not what you might think. Today, we're revealing the core approach that's driven our success and how it's actually different to what so many other people are doing when it comes to drop shipping. So, Lewis, you ready to draw back the curtain on our approach? I am. Let's do this. So firstly, I think we should explain the three main components that our e-commerce model stands out by, like what are the differentiators with the home turf advantage model. So the first is that we work with domestic suppliers. So that means same country deliveries. So we're able to focus on partnering with suppliers that are a lot closer to home and are in fact located in the same country as our customers. Now, the reason for this is it ensures much faster delivery times. It means that you're not dealing with the long delays and having to pay custom import duties when items arrive at the border. You're not dealing with like shipping containers, you're not dealing with suppliers in a different language or a different time zone. You can offer much better customer service because of that because you can get items to customers quickly and you can liaise with your suppliers by picking up the phone or dropping them a quick e-mail. Plus, it gives us a huge competitive advantage over drop shipping businesses that rely on overseas suppliers because we can get the items much faster into the hands of our customers. Yeah. And this is so different to the previous traditional approach of drop shipping where you think there's going to be a week's worth of delivery to wait, but it's not like that anymore. Things have moved on. People are expecting next day delivery thanks to Amazon, but we can provide that if you're partnering with domestic suppliers. That was one of the things that really drew me to the model straight away, Lewis. Exactly. The other part of this is the price point of the products that we choose to sell. So we target higher value, often known as high ticket products that don't need a massive volume of sales to generate US substantial income and and replace most people's incomes. So because we can sell these types of higher value products and higher priced products, it means that we can operate on higher margins and it leads to less stress over having to chase customers for orders and have a huge volume of sales going through your online store. Customers are happy to invest in high quality, high value products that last longer and it creates trust and it creates repeat business. And actually they're often easier customers to sell to overall. So that's another huge benefit of this. Yeah, the benefits, they're not just in the admin, as you say, Lewis, a lot less orders to fulfil, but also in the fact that we can get these high quality products to customers and make upwards of five, six, £700 per order just for one single order. And that's the same work I realised as selling low ticket items. But the rewards are like 5/10/20 times for doing the same amount of work. That's the kind of business that you want to go into. Yeah, most people think it takes a lot more effort to sell a product of a higher value, but it really doesn't. It's just a case of uploading the product and being strategic in your decision making when you build the business. That's why it's worth following a proven model that is going to create the business that you want at the end of it rather than piercing it together and ending up with a business that perhaps you didn't want in the 1st place because it creates loads of headaches and stress. Another one of the huge selling points of using our model, our home to have advantage model is that you don't need to purchase inventory upfront, so you're not purchasing stock. So with our model you like, we never hold stock. We never need to part with capital ahead of making a sale to hold that stock or import that stock or even just keep that stock for a day. Like we only purchase product after a sale has been made so it keeps us cash flow positive as a business. It means that I take a an order from a customer for 2000 lbs, I buy that product from my supplier at trade cost. So maybe it's like 1400 lbs and I net the £600 in difference as my profit. Like that's my fee for being the retailer. That's how retailers work and it's a great model. And like you say, you earn £600 on a single sale. A lot of people would need to make a lot of sales of low ticket Timu or Aliexpress or Alibaba items to make that kind of profit. With us, you make four or five sales across a whole month and you've replaced a decent income, you know, but eventually you can get to making four or five sales per day. When you do this right, it just helps also avoid the risk of over investing in stock that may never sells. We hear so many horror stories of members that join Dropship unlocked because they had such a bad experience with investing in stock and risking their capital and buying this like containers worth of items, only to find out later that something awful happens. Like Amazon rejects it and says no, sorry, it's not up to the qualities we want so we won't take it. And you've you've parted with that money from a supplier in China or another one is they get there and then they find out that a Chinese seller has undercut them or even just another seller in the UK maybe, or the US has undercut them to take all of the profit out of that type of product that now they have to sell it at the cost that they bought it for and make no profit. If anything, make a loss. It's just that's not a business, right? That's just, you know, you're just wasting time by doing that and wasting money and it's just frustrating. And we hear it time and time again. So yes, some of the the benefits of the home turf advantage model that you can avoid a lot of those pain points that are associated with other types of e-commerce that people don't talk. About that's right, yeah. So the main things that you you touched on there, Lewis, domestic suppliers, high ticket products and no need to hold stock. A beautiful way to paint how nice that is as a business model is to look at the alternative. They're thinking about if you've got overseas suppliers where you have to take stock upfront and if you have to also sell low ticket items, you're going to be selling meaning to loads of volume. You're going to need to outlay a load of cash upfront to hold that stock. And you're going to need to deal with overseas suppliers where there might be language barriers, long times for deliveries as well. So it's all about simplicity, but also more reward for the the work that you actually put into this business because it is lots of work, but you need to be putting that work towards a model that's actually going to make sense for you and the type of business that you want to build. So I did all this analysis before joining drop ship unlock myself, Lewis, and looking at the model that you propose compared to the more traditional one that people see out there. And it just clicked and it made me realise that often if you don't follow the crowd, you're going to find something that actually makes a whole lot more sense. And that's that's why I joined drop ship unlocked. I also joined drop ship unlocked. I realised that I needed to actually learn from scratch. I had no. E-commerce experience apart. From a few failed Facebook ads. When I'd followed. YouTube videos before so I needed to to follow something that was going to teach me so brings me on the drops of a locks and something I want to ask you this that we hear quite a lot is OK. Your model is very different the home to have advantage, but how is the training that you provide any different from these different drop shipping training providers that are out there? So if you put on the spot, Lewis, what would you say to that question? Yeah. Well, the training in itself is on a different model, right. So that in itself is the is a big, big differentiator. But unlike many other programmes, we're not just teaching theory, we're not just like rehashing some information. We are business owners actively running our own e-commerce businesses ourselves. So you get access to live calls where you can ask questions directly to us. So it's not outsourced coaches. Like we are actually going through the process and continuing to kind of pass those lessons along and guide you through it step by step. And the only way that we can keep our skills sharp in doing that is because we're doing it ourselves right here in the UK. So I think that's the biggest one. It's like the source of the information and the source of the, the mentorship and the source of the coaching is from people doing it actively right now. So like we're, we have skin in the game. The other thing is as aside from like the live mentorship and the coaching, our video lesson library walks you through everything on demand. So it's like Netflix. You can watch it 24 hours a day, seven days a week who can just TuneIn. And there's lessons on everything from registering your business to setting up a high converting e-commerce store to running ads to retargeting, to hiring A-Team. Like it's all there. It's housed in this like all in one solution. So there's no guesswork with every question that you're likely to have has been asked by one of our thousands of members in the past. And we've got every tool that you need links there available for you to succeed. So we can kind of walk you through it step by step in bite sized chunks as well. That's important. So we're not overwhelming you by just giving you everything and saying go ahead and do it. Like we guide you through it step by step. We provide twice weekly Q&A calls at a minimum. So these are like question and answer calls on Zoom where you can actually just jump on and be unmuted and attend and speak with us and ask your questions. And it's not like you're in an environment with hundreds of people. We might get 1015 people on those calls. And so we'll be able to chat with you directly and be like, what issues are you having this week? What questions do you have? Where are you at? And some weeks you won't even have questions, but you'll hear other people's questions who are on those calls who are a few weeks or months further ahead than you. And so you'll start to learn things that you didn't even realise you needed to know. And as you learn those, you'll be like, ah, that's definitely something I can do ahead of time or watch out for. So those are really great 'cause what we also found is that our members just like collaborating with each other. You know, it's great that we're able to there, be there and help, but sometimes they just want to meet other entrepreneurs who are like minded. So another thing we do because we saw how well our members were getting along with one another and how much they get from spending time with each other and how much we get from spending time with them as well, is that we now host regular in person meet ups. So we do these about quarterly and it's like we get together with our members and that's one another one of the benefits about us being based in the UK is that we can do that rather than having to fly everyone in from all over the world. And we just get to hang out with them and have drinks and have some food with them and chat about business and life and you know what they're doing. And like we've seen some amazing friendships form out of there that now our members are having like meet ups at their own houses and they're doing things like together, even independently of us, which is amazing. And I just really like seeing that community come together. It's one of the most valuable aspects, I think that a lot of members tell us that they get from being part of drop ship unlocked. It's that live community element. It's the the real kind of putting faces to names behind the screen. It's just there's something about in real life meet ups that just can't be matched. So those are just a couple of the, the things like we've got so much going on. We've got our member map so you can see where people are based. You've got the calendar with all of the live sessions on it, you've got 30 plus hours of training material, all of the recordings of the live store review calls. We've done the live ad account review calls that we do inside the programme, so you never feel isolated on your journey. And that's not to be underestimated because it's easy to feel that way when you do take a step out into the abyss on your own as an entrepreneur. So having access to other successful members is really valuable for your own motivation and just getting that feedback that you might need along the way. Yeah, it's a it's a proper community. What sort of community is it if you can't get to know these people on a better level by constantly interacting with them and having the ability to meet up every few months? It's it's so powerful and for me, when I wanted to start my own online income stream, whatever that was, I just thought I need step by step video training. So that's my main reason for joining, drop ship or not. Was to find that. So I had the the guidance all the way from start to finish getting a business up and running off the ground. And then what you also have of drop ship or notch is that you start and you joined for the. The training, but. Then you stay for the community because then when you've built your ad account and you've got your campaigns running, you then have questions about how do I optimise or you have the the next round of questions about, well, how do I hire Ava and how do I, how do I scale from this position? That's when it comes in again, as you realise now that I've built a business, I've now got the support that I need to continue growing it and take it to where we've been able to take it to at this point. So yeah, so good. And, and not to mention just the friends and connections that we've made from the programme. It is amazing. It can be so easy to almost isolate yourself as a solo printer, building a business on your laptop, wherever you are. And so if you don't actively try and find other people that are in that space, you can easily just kind of sigh yourself off to be different from everyone around you without finding that new group of people that you can now relate to. But in today's world, it's, it's much more simple to find people like that if you reach out and look to communities such as Dropship or not. So people often think, OK, fantastic, I know the model, I know that I need training, but what about what can I expect to achieve? They come to us and say, what's a realistic expectation? That's quite a common question as well for people that are looking to get started the help us. Lewis, what I want to put you on the spot again with this question. If somebody comes to you and says what are my realistic expectations and maybe share some stories of what other people have have achieved, what would you say to that one? Yeah. So first thing to mention is that the big variable in all of that is the the person, the entrepreneur themselves. So I'm not going to sit here and make any income claims, you know, related to like what, what you're going to do that that will be dependent on you. What I can say is that our members have collectively generated over £10,000,000 in revenue at least, like probably way beyond that, but they often don't even report it back to us. So we have no way of really knowing a total figure, but way beyond 10 million, I'm I'm sure of it from just the screenshots I've seen. And so that's kind of testament to how the model works and it's repeatable and it's, you know, it's not a fluke like people are using this again and again and again in multiple stores across different industries. We've seen our members go from zero to 300,000 LB plus in sales in under a year simply by following the steps in the system. So we're not just, you know, talking here about like theory, we're actually putting it into practise. We're seeing it come to life. You can check out the real stores that we've built and reviewed, including members that have achieved amazing success, like Jared, for example, who did £4,000,000 in sales. We had him on the podcast recently and interviewed him. You can watch that one. And we've documented these stories for you so that you can see the blueprint being put into action. Like every member who joins gets access to the same content, and it's about what they do with it. Every member gets access to the live store. Review. Calls, we then breakdown what's working in a store. We share the lessons, you then apply them into your own store. And that's how you can keep your skills sharp and keep yourself at the forefront of what's happening in e-commerce because it's an industry that does move on quickly. And yeah, you get that direct, actionable feedback from experienced drop shippers who've been in your shoes as well. The other thing to mention as well is that we actually have a drop ship unlocked, what we call our £10,000 guarantee, our 10K guarantee. And that is when you come into the programme, there are some stipulations to this and conditions that you have to do your part. We can't just guarantee that the whole thing is going to fall into place perfectly from day one and make you 10K in sales. But if you follow. The steps that we lay out and you do go through that process, by the end of the year we guarantee that you'll have made £10,000 in sales. And that's a big thing to put our money where our mouth is and say like we've seen this work enough times, we know the steps you need to take. You've got to meet us halfway and do your part, but if you're willing to do that, then there you go. It's right there in writing so we can tell you more about the conditions and how that all works. But I think that's really strong and something that I haven't seen before either. Super strong, yeah. It's putting your money where your mouth is, isn't it, Lewis? It's like we believe in the the programme so much and what people follow that we can guarantee that they're going to make a certain amount of sales by a certain date. And it's powerful stuff. It's what I needed to hear before joining because it's easy to be hesitant before joining, even though you have that itch and you have that voice in the back of your head that's telling you that you aren't fulfilled in your current job and there's more you want from life and you want to experience financial freedom. You want to experience location freedom and travel the world. But unless you push yourself past that discomfort of going to start something or or getting around people that are also doing it, it'll always be just in the back of your mind and it will never become a reality. There is an element of having to step out of your compass zone. But for me hearing all this again, Lewis, it's reminding me of why it's such a powerful offer that you provide people through dropship or not. Now we've gone into detail about the offer today, but into detail about the training that you provide. But also we've got 140 odd episodes in the podcast as well. If you want to hear more from us, if you want to understand the full journey, we have recorded lots of content and one of the best of those episodes is 123 episode 123. And that is called an honest review of our journey from zero to 7,000,000 lbs. And that is packed with insights, packed with all the stories of all of the trials and tribulations that we've been through with both of our stores to get to the stage that we're at now. So to wrap up Lewis on this episode, what is one thing that you'd like to say to somebody listening right now? If they are looking to get started with the right mindset and the right system in placed, what is the first step that they should take? Yeah. The first step I would say is have a clear vision of the kind of outcome from the business that you want. Like what is the outcome of the business? Do you want a really high volume, high stress, high risk business that you need to order in loads of stock and have thousands of customers to keep happy? Or do you want a simple lifestyle optimised business that requires a few sales per week or per month even to replace an income with minimal stress, minimal admin and very little risk or capital risks along the way? I know the answer for me was certainly the latter, so hence why the home turf advantage model exists. But you have to make your own choice on that one and make the decision on what you want. I think once you have it and you say, right, I'm going to do this, I don't yet have the answers as to how, but I'm going to make this happen. If other people before me have done this, why not me? I can do this too. Then I think you've got to surround yourself with the right people. Learn from those who have already been there and are doing it step by step. The biggest thing is to stay consistent and just trust the process. We've laid it all out step by step for you, assuming no prior experience like yourself, James, no experience in e-commerce prior came in and you have a successful business now. So if you're looking to start with your drop shipping journey and you want to build an e-commerce store and you like the sound of what we do with the Home Turf Advantage model, we have a proven system. It's all laid out. If you head over to dropshipunlocked.com/start right there, there's a video. Everything you need is laid out, from registering your business right through to scaling up and hiring A-Team and outsourcing. So that you get your time back and have created a new stream of income. So whenever you're ready, we're ready for you at Drop shipunlocked.com/start. Are you enjoying the podcast? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment or a review and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. And for detailed show notes and resources, visit dropshipunlocked.com/podcast. If you found the value in any episode of this podcast, please could you take just 10 seconds to leave us a quick five star review on your favourite podcast app. It helps us more than you can imagine, and who knows, you might just hear your comments. Read out on the show. Thanks for being a part of our community. Your support helps us keep delivering new episodes to you every week. Now, is that part of the podcast episode where we're going to answer a question that's coming from a listener? And thank you very much to Mad Mod Jewel, who's asked the question today. And before we get into the question, quick reminder, if you've listened to today's episode or watched on YouTube, all you need to do is comment beneath the YouTube video version of this episode and it will not only be answered in the comments of YouTube, it may also get featured in an upcoming episode. So over to you, Lewis. I will ask his question now. So MAD module has said, does your community support people in the US? Thank you for your question, Mad module. And yes, well, we're I guess known for helping people build high ticket e-commerce businesses here in the UK because that's where we're doing it. And we've had successful members join us from outside the UK and either apply these strategies to the UK market or apply the same strategy to their market as well. So yes, the strategies we teach absolutely are flexible and can be applied internationally, and as long as you're serious about building a real long term business, you can absolutely take the same principles and apply them. So yeah, you'd very much be in the right place. Best place to get started is head to Drop shipunlocked.com/start. Watch that video in full and below that, there'll be the opportunity to apply to book a call and speak with us and we'll be able to direct you in the right direction as to where you're at and, and what you're looking to do. Once you join us at Drop Ship Unlocked, you'll get instant access to our private community, the live Q&A calls, the live meetups, all the exclusive resources and step by step guidance to build your business and get you up and running and launched. So we'd love to welcome you inside. Absolutely. Yeah, great question And yeah, shout out to the international members in the community. It's good to have you inside. OK, now we're going to highlight a recent review that we've had for the podcast as well. So big thank you to SA SG-77 for sharing your thoughts recently. And I know the video that she shared this underneath it was the episode where we did a role play of supplier phone calls. So how to sign suppliers and we acted as suppliers and and new retailers to to act that out. But SA SG said you took my role play suggestion on board. Love this, very helpful. Good stuff. Glad you found that one helpful, SAS G And yeah, really glad to hear that you've been enjoying the podcast and thank you for your suggestion as well. We're always open to suggestions for new episode ideas. Before we wrap up this episode today, I'd love to ask a quick favour of you. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a review. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and improve our content. Plus, we might just read out your review on our next episode. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Drop Ship Unlocked podcast. We hope you are leaving with new insights and inspiration to fuel your entrepreneurial journey. To kick start your e-commerce business, head over to drop shipunlocked.com/start. It's the perfect place to start and get access to resources that will help you build your business from the ground up. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button for more episodes packed with strategies, tips, and success stories. Plus, if you enjoyed this episode today, a five star review would mean the world to us and you might even get a shout out on the next episode. Thank you for choosing to spend your time with us today. We can't wait to bring you more insights on the next episode of the Dropship Unlocked podcast.