Ecom Dave Review – Is His Amazon FBA Academy Worth Your Time & Money in 2024?

Who is Ecom Dave?

Soon after, with only $4,800 in savings at the age of 18, he invested it all in one thing - an online Amazon business. The first product he sold on Amazon was a diaper caddy. He immediately ordered 1,000 units to sell. But it was a complete failure. Since he was new, he copied another seller's product but lost out by competing on price against a competitor with tons of reviews.

But he kept going and learned through trial and error. The process cost him over $20,000 due to weak negotiating, working with bad suppliers, launching poor products, making ineffective PPC ads, and more. But over time, he made FBA work and claims to have sold over $5 million in Amazon merchandise over the last five years.

Is Ecom Dave a Legit Amazon FBA Expert?

Ecom Dave is a proven expert with an FBA training video on his website, tutorials on his Youtube and Facebook, and high-income sales data demonstrating his results (specific numbers shared below). He approaches Amazon FBA by emphasizing three main categories:

• Find profitable products
• Source from elite suppliers
• Rank your products on page one

How Can Ecom Dave Help You Start an FBA Business?

Ecom Dave can help you create your first FBA business with his two programs, the FBA coaching program and the FBA Academy program. By signing up for his coaching program, you automatically get enrolled in his Academy program as well.

Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide To Starting an FBA Business According to Ecom Dave

Who are Ecom Dave's Amazon FBA Programs For?

• People who like to work with coaches and want accountability
  
• People with no experience with Amazon FBA

What Does Ecom Dave's FBA Academy Course Include?

On top of a “private” Amazon FBA Facebook group (which anybody can join, even if you don't buy his programs), it includes everything shown below. Each section is intended to be worked on week by week (for a total of 12 weeks).

What Does Ecom Dave's Coaching Program Include?

• Weekly strategy meetings (tailored to a student's experience and level)
• On-the-spot phone calls when available (usually to answer a student question that's too lengthy for an email response)
• Personal touch (student's often felt cared for and that he wanted them to succeed)
• Access to full FBA Academy lessons and videos (on top of the personal coaching)
  

Do Ecom Dave's FBA Programs Generate Income?

Ecom Dave's methods are proven to work based on his personal sales numbers and those of his students. There are several interview-style testimonials included on Ecom Dave's sales page. And many of these testimonials talks about the great experience of the program and share exact numbers supporting their claims. On top of this, Ecom Dave shares his own results as well.

In his free Amazon training video, he shares numbers from his past and recent FBA experiences. In his first year on Amazon, he made $64,449.00 in product sales. The next year he had $159,393.26 in product sales. But the latest snapshot of his numbers, a staggering $496,772.28, is shown below.

(Ecom Dave's results: $496,772.28 in product sales)

His students also shared their numbers as well. There are plenty of testimonials that show the success they've gained using Ecom Dave's methods. Below is just one of many shown on his website.

(George Estrada's results over 30 days: $3,031 in products sales)

The range of profits shown in his student’s testimonials is anywhere from $1,000 - $120,000 each month. The most recurring range seems to be in the $2,000 - $4,000 monthly range. Based on all the testimonials and numbers, Ecom Dave’s programs seem capable of helping you create an FBA business that earns you money.

Here are the results of another student, Natasha, as well as her experiences with Ecom Dave's coaching and Amazon FBA Academy programs:

(Natasha's results over 7 days: $817 in products sales)

• Experience with Ecom Dave's coaching and Amazon FBA Academy "nothing but great."
• Says a million hours on Youtube studying Amazon FBA wouldn't compare to the "little golden nuggets" of info Ecom Dave provided in his programs.
• Applauded Ecom Dave's effort to personally show her how to be successful in Amazon FBA.
• Suggests Ecom Dave's coaching program for people with limited time and want to dive into Amazon FBA right away.
  

Can You Trust Ecom Dave and His Coaching and Academy Programs?

You can trust the impressive sales numbers Ecom Dave and his students share. But beware of the hidden FBA fees and troublesome suppliers that aren’t mentioned. I ran across a detailed online review and found some information about their experience with Ecom Dave's coaching program. 

In a nutshell, they felt misled because his marketing and teachings only talk about revenue and not net income. So the numbers advertised may be higher than the actual income earned by Ecom Dave and his students. Here’s what they said specifically:

"Wasted $4k in this course after 4 months everything is lost. His videos only tell you what you want to listen and not the reality about all the cost and expenses. Those videos are talking about revenue. Revenue not the same as income. If you subtract all expenses on shipping, fees, samples, other hidden cost the real income is not great."

Here are some things they liked about Ecom Dave’s coaching and Academy program:

• Direct one-on-one coaching
• Learning how to find suppliers
• Three free images for your Amazon listing
• Learning how to open an Amazon FBA account
• Lots of training videos to learn from

Here’s what they didn't like:

• The emphasis on selling cheaply made products from China
• The difficulty of communicating and dealing with foreign suppliers
• The lack of guaranteed profit of any kind
• It takes 3-5 months to sell your first product
• To rank your product, you need to spend $400-$700 (likely on PPC/sponsored advertising)
• Amazon can literally copy your product and compete with you (they can even undercut you at ridiculously low prices and then bring the price back up when you’re out of business)
• You can spend over $7,000 yet make zero dollars
• A cheap product can equal lots of returns (leading to bad reviews)
• You can end up with only 25% - 30% of your revenue after expenses (e.g. shipping fees, transaction fees, inspection fees, etc.)

According to their experience, the cost for Ecom Dave's Amazon FBA coaching was $4,000. They gained nothing after investing four months in the program. Overall, they found it not worth it after learning about the hidden expenses, cheap product recommendations, and unexpected difficulty of dealing with international suppliers.

Is Amazon FBA Even Worth It In 2022?

Amazon FBA is still a profitable venture in 2022. But there are a few things you should keep in mind.

First, it's a saturated market and it's getting more full by the second. At least 4,000 new sellers join every day. So if you don't have some kind of advantage in the market, you can be undercut and pushed out of business. Worse still, Amazon can (and will) do this is as well!

Second, the costs of running an Amazon FBA business are growing steadily. Base operation costs increased by 5.2% this year. And sellers are reporting a 3-4x increase in shipping fees. This should be factored into your numbers if you're considering starting an Amazon FBA business.

Finally, beware of account suspension. Because of the large amount of new sellers joining every day, Amazon has become more liberal with suspending accounts. Amazon isn't a fan of dropshippers in particular as it can confuse customers with where their product comes from. So they have no problems with simply suspending large groups of accounts with little warning. 

Ultimately, as long as you can deal with these issues and are ready to enter a hyper-competitive market that requires constant work and innovation, then you can make Amazon FBA work.

Conclusion

If you want to start an FBA business and would like a great coach, then Ecom Dave is a good bet. You've got plenty to get you started between genuine coaching and his range of training videos. However, keep in mind that there's no guarantee of financial profit. Additionally, you'll be facing profit-killing expenses and supplier communication issues that'll prove annoying to deal with.

Local Lead Generation is Cheaper and Safer Than Amazon FBA

A big problem with Amazon FBA is how expensive it can be without ensuring you’ll make a dime of it back. Plus, international suppliers can be a pain to interact with due to language barriers. 

These issues are solved with local lead generation because the investment is much smaller (basically the time and energy needed to set up a small website, which can be done in your spare time for relatively cheap). And you only work with local business owners as well.