Adrian Morrison’s eCom Success Academy Review: Shopify Dropshipping Coaching, Strategy & Viable Alternatives

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eCom Success Academy was started by Adrian Morrison in 2017. It’s an excellent course for dropshipping beginners. Some of the strategies in the training are bit older, but Adrian does provide weekly live coaching once you’re part of the program. The model of dropshipping Adrian teaches has some issues since you’re still shipping from China which means customers won’t get the product for 3-4 weeks. This leads to a lot of complaints and headaches.

eCom Success Academy reviews are negative. On the Better Business Bureau, the program has 1/5 stars with reviewers calling it misleading, citing payment grabs, upsells, and difficulty getting refunds even after spending thousands. The dominant complaints across BBB and Reddit center on constant upsells, broken or low-quality templates, poor support, and unauthorized or excessive charges. A few users say the pre-built Shopify store can save setup time by auto-loading products

In my previous experience as a 6-figure dropshipper, Shopify dropshipping as taught by eCom Success Academy reminds me of playing Street Fighter at a coin-op arcade, where the session only continues if you keep feeding quarters. Dropshipping is the same in that paid traffic must be bought every day or sales flatline. Then there’s the hidden fees, which are like the LEED certification, where line-item fees, documentation, commissioning, and surprise re-submittals keep appearing. Shopify plans, app subscriptions, refunds, and chargebacks stack into “extra charges” that drain what looked like healthy revenue.

This article reviews eCom Success Academy, outlining its course modules, bonuses, pros and cons, pricing, and effectiveness for dropshipping beginners. It also highlights Adrian Morrison’s background, his experience in e-commerce and Facebook ads. We’ll also hold it up against local lead generation which we will use as our chosen model for sustainable and scalable business models.

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What Are the Pros and Cons of eCom Success Academy?

Pros:

  • Beginner-Friendly Structure – Step-by-step guidance on product research, store setup, and ad campaigns makes it accessible to newcomers.
  • Extensive Facebook Ad Training – Over 60+ lessons dedicated to paid traffic strategies with real-world examples.
  • Weekly Live Coaching – Ongoing coaching via Adrian’s “Profit Power Hour” ensures continued learning and support.
  • Bonus Materials & Tools – Includes tools like Sizzle Product Sniper and supplemental modules on email marketing and outsourcing.

Cons:

  • Outdated Modules – While live coaching keeps parts current, much of the core video training dates back to 2017 or 2019.
  • Heavy Reliance on Paid Ads – Facebook Ads are becoming more expensive and less predictable in 2025.
  • No Coverage for Ad Account Suspension – A common issue in dropshipping, but not addressed in the training.
  • Not Beginner-Budget-Friendly – Realistic ad testing requires $3,000–$5,000+ beyond course cost.

💰 Price: eCom Success Academy costs $2,495.

Refund Policy: eCom Success Academy offers no refunds.

Is eCom Success Academy Beginner-Friendly?

eCom Success Academy is beginner-friendly, but you’ll need a budget beyond the course price to see results. Adrian Morrison designed ESA with step-by-step modules that walk you through every stage of building a dropshipping business.

What Is eCom Success Academy?

eCom Success Academy is Adrian Morrison’s main paid course that teaches you how to start a dropshipping business . Adrian shows you how to find trending products, how to create attention grabbing Facebook ads that triggers emotions and how to use funnels, e-mail marketing and a well designed Shopify store to sell e-commerce products to paid ads traffic.

Shopify has approved this course and made it available to their customers as well.

What Are the eCom Success Academy Modules?

Module 1: Shopify

Easy to follow step-by-step training on how to set up your Shopify store. How to install the right plugins to make sure your store not only looks the best but converts the best.

  • Shopify store design
  • Promotional Techniques
  • Setting up your store and sales page
  • Various Shopify Apps
  • Building out the look and feel of your brand
  • Shopify Quickstart
  • Producing killer sales copy on the landing page
  • How to ensure the checkout runs smoothly
  • How to set up various payment processors

Module 2: Sourcing Products

Adrian walks you through how to find the right type of products that will convert well with dropshipping. Products that solve problems, that address a deep pain point, products that elicit emotions or passions in people. Remember, in dropshipping, you need to capture someone’s short attention span with a paid ad on social media.

Adrian then shows you how to find the right suppliers with excellent reviews from platforms like AliExpress or Alibaba.

How to read vendor feedback, negotiate lower prices, and scout for the best-selling products.

There’s also a bonus section on how to do print on demand.

Module 3: Facebook

The longest module with 63 lessons. Learning how to run Facebook ads is the most technical aspect of the dropshipping business. But it is a crucial aspect of the business because you’re spending your own money everyday to run Facebook ads. If you don’t optimize it correctly, you may not make your money back, instead begin losing money on your ad spend.

Topics covered:

  • Keyword Mining
  • Re-targeting Campaigns
  • Look-alike Targeting
  • Intersect Targeting
  • Page Post Ads
  • Creating Ad Copy
  • Split Testing
  • Carousel Ads
  • When to kill or scale your ads

The better the targeting the lower your CPC or Cost per click. Adrian did a good job making a complex topic and simplifying it down for a beginner.

Adrian covers everything in this module, including Facebook Pixel, which he spends 2 hours on it. Pixel gives your store trackability. Anytime someone buys your product, the pixel lets Facebook know who that person was and so the ad can optimize and begin show the ad to more people that’s got similar interest as your customer that just purchased.

He also goes in-depth on the do’s and don’ts of Facebook Ad copywriting and what types of images / videos work best. I’m personally a fan of creating dropshipping video ads .

CRITIQUE

My critique for Adrian’s Facebook ad training is that he doesn’t go over what to do when you get your ad account banned or suspended. This is quite a common occurrence when you start aggressively scaling your Facebook Ads. There are strategies to get your ad account unsuspended or creating new ad accounts, but the strategies are constantly changing as Facebook gets smarter at fake account detection. Adrian should cover this in the course.

Module 4: Email Marketing

Collecting customer’s email happens at checkout. Email Marketing gives you the ability to send automated emails to your customers to get repeat business, upsells or repeat orders. It gives you the ability to build a relationship with your customer and build up your brand loyalty. You can even ask for reviews for your product or suggestions on how you can improve it.

Adrian teaches you to use MailChimp, which is one of the cheaper / easier to use email marketing software. He also provides templates that you can use.

Module 5: Building Your Team

Once you have become profitable with dropshipping. It’s time to hire some VA (Virtual Assistants) that can take over some of the mundane tasks of dropshipping. Primarily, handling customer service, because one of the issue with shipping products from overseas is that shipping times can take 3-4 weeks and so you’re going to have customers that are wondering if they got scammed. Speedy response is critical to prevent chargebacks. You also want VA’s that can take the daily purchases and then place the proper orders to the manufacturer. You should be always focused on studying the competition and looking to launch new products. You won’t be able to do that if you’re bogged down with dealing with customer service issues all day. Many people use Upwork to hire VA’s.

Also, it’s quicker and more effective to outsource specific tasks at all stages of your journey. Why should you spend hours designing a logo that looks amateur when you can pay someone a few bucks to make a classy logo?

Lastly, you also want VA’s that can monitor your Facebook ad performance and help you with some of the product research. Monitoring trends or go through large data set and find products that meet certain metrics.

Module 6: Project Management

This is an extension to the last module. Once you have the team, how do you best manage your team? Adrian recommends few different softwares to help you do so. Adrian likes to use Asana.

Asana

Also what tasks do you need to prioritize on a day-to-day basis with your team? What metrics should you look at? This is great for dropshippers that are ready to scale.

Module 7: Long-term Exit Plan

Adrian covers how to sell your dropshipping business, which is quite unique. We haven’t seen a lot of other dropshipping courses talk about selling the business because most dropshippers create Shopify stores to get temporary success while the product is trending. Selling the business requires a drop shipper to build a reputable brand that sells multiple related products. And then building out the social media presence around this brand, possibly using influencer marketing.

Adrian Morrison doesn’t have his own story of selling a dropshipping brand, so this short module of 12 minutes, we felt, didn’t cover this topic in-depth enough. Most of the training seems to center on keeping a basic profit & loss spreadsheet, that can be found anywhere online.

Adrian Morrison eCom Success Academy Profit Loss Sheet

Most dropshipping stores you build will not be developed further. In order sell a brand, you really have to convert a dropshipping business to an e-commerce brand that has other digital assets other than just a Shopify store that sells other manufacturer’s products. You need things like social media followers count, engagement, profit/loss statement over multiple years, unique image & video assets that represents the brand well, etc. Take a look at our dropshipping vs. e-commerce article to get an idea of what it takes to build a brand that’s worthy of companies buying.

Bonuses

1. Profit Power Hour Video Archive - Adrian’s weekly live coaching that dates all the way back to 2016. Many of the videos are outdated strategies, but you may still find tons of gold nuggets. You could simply start tuning into the new lives he’s doing every Monday. He uses the hand written tool a lot. I suppose it’s better than just looking at a talking head.

He covers every facet of the dropshipping business. Tons of product research & Facebook ads training. Sometimes mindset & having the right expectations.

2. Emailing with Anthony Morrrison - Adrian’s older brother, Anthony Morrison, walks you through 26 videos of how to approach e-mail marketing. He has learned e-mail marketing through affiliate marketing.

Anthony Morrison Email Marketing

Unfortunately, all the videos are using white board and a lot of explanation about concepts and theories about email marketing and not enough showcasing of real world examples.

3. Outsourcing Mastery - Here you get a few basics about getting a team up and running to hand off some of the day-to-day tasks. Adam Radar is the presenter but there’s not much info on who he is or why he’s providing the info.

4. Sizzle Product Sniper Software - This is an exclusive software platform created by the Morrison brothers that enables you to spy on what products are going viral on AliExpress & Facebook. If you are going with the AliExpress model, it will save you time.

Sizzle Product Sniper Software Adrian Morrison Ecom Success Academy

TBH there are a handful of similar product spy research softwares and browser extension which do the same. But with all these spying platforms, it also means swarms of people are all following the same trends for products. Meaning everyone gets a smaller slice of the pie or your product won’t stay profitable as long.

5. Case Studies - Adrian’s uses a few case studies of his top products, specifically focusing on his approach to advertising on Facebook. These specific examples show you how he set up his ads and get attention. Sadly, he still doesn’t reveal his Facebook bidding strategy. Another thing to keep in mind is these are from a few years ago and what worked then might work anymore. Over time I’ve learned to be cautious of copying templates from courses. See, the problem is there are 1000s of people all copying the same thing. Firstly, customers get sick of it. Secondly, if there’s any nifty hacks or work-arounds, platforms eventually catch on and add a filter to prevent you doing it. Thirdly, platforms and trends change fast - I’m sure you can think of plenty of examples on social media that didn’t exist a couple of years ago.

What Is E-Com Quickstart?

E-Com Quickstart costs $37, and it’s the lite version of his main dropshipping course. Only parts of the training are in there. It’s designed to get people into his funnel & lower his paid traffic cost. Even if he breaks even, he can get people into his funnel and upsell his real course, which is the E-Com Success Academy which costs $2495.

What’s included with E-Com Quickstart?

  • “Home-Run” Product Research Training - Adrian walks you through his process of finding winning products, plus showing some of his own products that he’s selling today.
  • “Shopify Quickstart Accelerator” - Shopify store setup training, with all the plugins & widget Adrian uses to maximize profit margins.
  • “Fast Traffic Facebook Ad Training” - Adrian shares his own Facebook ad copy, targetting and image strategy. This training was only available to his high paying students before.
  • Bonus 1: Adrian shows which vendor he uses for print on demand business model.
  • Bonus 2: 6-Figure VIP Bootcamp - Adrian’s strategy on finding winning ads by running low budget ad campaigns.
  • Bonus 3: Weekly Live Training - he does weekly live coaching where he shares strategies working today and answers students’ questions.

What Are the eCom Success Academy FAQ?

What’s eCom Success Academy Refund Policy?

It’s not easy to find a refund policy on the ESA sign up page but we found their policy once we  digged deeper. eCom Success Acdemy is a NO REFUND policy.

It’s a $2495 price tag so make sure this is the course you want because all sales are final with them.

Is there a eCom Success Academy Affiliate Program?

Yes eCom Success Academy pays out 40% commission or $998.80 per sale. You could refer your friends and family or try to promote the course using YouTube videos or a blog.

Here’s their leader board of affiliates.

ESA afflliate program leaderboard

There is Adrian’s brother, Anthony near the top. Tai Lopez is probably familiar to many after he blitzed YouTube with ads for his social media course. And Bob Proctor is known for appearing on the movie “The Secret” as well as being a motivational speaker. Who unfortunately passed away recently.

These people all had big following already. And they simply promoted ESA as an affiliate to their email list & followers.

What’s the Success Rate of eCom Success Academy?

It’s difficult to determine the overall success rate of eCom Success Academy, however according to most polls the success rate for dropshipping is around 10%. Keep in mind, this is people that tried dropshipping, including people that didn’t invest in a course. So the ESA success rate should be bit higher than 10%. Also, most people never stick with things. They give up when they sense first signs of difficulty.

Can I Succeed With Ecom Success Academy if I’m Broke?

Even though dropshipping offers a business model that requires low startup costs compared to most businesses, since you don’t need to invest in an inventory, you still need money to run the Facebook ads. You will not find a winning product & winning ad on your first try. It takes some time testing different ads till you find the home-run combination. And testing means you need to invest some money running Facebook ad campaigns. The very realistic number that students should be ready to risk is $3000 to $5000.

Is eCom Success Academy a Scam?

eCom Success Academy is not a scam. Some people like to claim that a high-ticket course like this is a scam because you can find the same information online for free. However, when you look into the training and compare it to YouTube videos, it becomes clear that the paid courses offer much more in-depth insight on many of the aspects of dropshipping business. Paid courses like ESA also come with weekly live coaching where you can ask the course creator questions and get real time feedback. We feel that if you can afford it, this live interaction with experienced people in the field is worth the price tag.

Is eCom Success Academy up to Date?

The course originally came out in 2017 and Adrian dropped an update on 2019. He updated the Facebook Optimization, more print on demand strategies, Instagram ads, and new 30 Day Live Bootcamp. On his weekly Profit Power Hour, he continues to share new strategies such as subscription-based dropshipping. Perhaps some of the training modules itself could use some revamping.

Who Is Adrian Morrison?

Based in Madison, Mississippi, Adrian Morrison graduated from University of Mississippi but got into internet marketing because he couldn’t get into law school, failing the LSAT 3 times.

He was making $5.15 per hour at a car wash, and playing Call of Duty. He realized he needed to make a change, and so he learned affiliate marketing from his brother Anthony Morrison.

He got obsessed with running Facebook & YouTube Ads and promoting a Netflix trial offer where he would make $30 for each sign up. He treated this like a video game, working on it day in and day out. And he eventually got that business to $30K per month.

Since then, he has consulted with top social media influencers and multi-million dollar companies on Facebook Advertising. Facebook HQ even invited Adrian to their HQ. Shopify featured Adrian inside their platform to provide guides for their customers.

Overall, Adrian claims to have made as much $21,000 in a single day & $420,000 in his best month. And $4 million with 1 Shopify store. Keep in mind, this is revenue not profit. In dropshipping, profit margins are around 10%-25%.

And his courses have helped over 100,000 people. Unfortunately, there’s no way to verify these numbers.

Today Adrian Morrison is estimated to have a net worth of $5 million.

Many people may have seen his free content on YouTube called “Success TV” and “Profit Power Hour” that runs from 9 pm EST.

Adrian Morrison is the younger brother of Anthony Morrison. Who’s known for his affiliate marketing courses like the Parter with Anthony Program . Anthony was the older brother that learned affiliate marketing while going to college and later taught his younger brother Adrian everything he knew about internet marketing. They run separate programs but they also do a lot of things together like running the Morrison Publishing and Launch Wise LLC.

What Are Some of the Challenges of Dropshipping?

Rising Cost & Unpredictability of Facebook Ads

There’s currently more advertisers than Facebook’s ad inventory, which means ad costs are higher than ever before. The ads operate on a bidding system. This is the unfortunate side of paid ads. Eventually, these platforms get very expensive and the results become unpredictable. Depending on what competitors are running ads, it can make your ads profitable one day and unprofitable the next day. This unpredictability makes this business not so hands-free these days.

Apple released its IO14 update for the iPhone

This update removed a lot of the off the app tracking that Facebook was doing on many of their user base. Their ability to track users browsing behavior after they left the Facebook site helped them create a personal profile of each user with their interests, habits, and wants. They’ve been able to make billions off the data collected on their users to sell highly targeted advertising. And we are already seeing complaints on FB groups and Reddits about lack of conversions for ad campaigns. Not surprising as the data quality becomes weaker to target many users.

Your Facebook Ad Account Getting Suspended

This has been an issue for dropshippers and affiliate marketers for a long time. Facebook has awful support system and when your ad account gets banned, it takes forever to get reinstated. When your only traffic source is paid traffic, one suspension can mean you’re out of business overnight. Even when you follow all the guidelines, you can still get suspended automatically if your ad gets enough complaints. This is sometimes outside your control and makes this business not as stable as the gurus try to make it seem.

The Duration of Winning Products is Going Down

As more people get into dropshipping, the business model as a whole is getting more saturated each year. And there’s tons of tools now that allows you to spy on the competitor. What a lot of dropshipping gurus teach is to use these tools to rip off winning ads & products that’s already going viral. This way, you don’t have to do all the testing to find it yourself. You can just copy from the winners. This creates a business model that races to the bottom because each new copier can set the price lower, until eventually the product becomes unprofitable.

Is Dropshipping Profitable in 2025?

If you’re checking out these dropshipping courses, you’ve likely seen some “testimonials” with insane sales figures. And you’ve probably been tempted to think that could be you too.

ecom success academy student shopify dashboard

It’s way too easy to get all excited about 5-figure and even 6-figure stores. But the cold hard truth? Those digits making you dream of luxury vacations, a swanky new home and exotic cars, well…it’s not painting the real picture. That number is just sales revenue, not profit.

Dropshipping profit margins is at 10-20% when you have a winning product that’s going viral. And this might last couple months but it’ll never last long-term because other dropshippers will eventually copy your entire business.

What are some of the other unforseen expenses in dropshipping?

  • Cost of the product
  • Shipping & handling
  • Paid ads or influencers
  • Buying creatives (images & videos)
  • Store & web hosting fees
  • Buying & renewing domains
  • Any outsourcing to VA’s
  • Customer refunds & chargebacks
  • Taxes

Dropshippers underestimate the cost of paid ads and taxes.

My best advice is to keep your money to reinvest back into your business. Hold off on going on vacations for a good while. Because the profits can unexpectedly dry up from various unforeseen variables.

Dropshipping can still be profitable in 2025 but its more difficult than it was 3-4 years ago. You need to invest in proper branding, web design and video ad creatives to ensure that your dropship product looks like a legitimate high quality brand.

What Are Some eCom Success Academy Alternatives?

  • Kamil Sattar’s Ecom King : An 8-hour, 33-minute free Shopify dropshipping training plus a paid mentorship that focuses on store setup, influencer marketing and content ads for beginner-entrepreneurs. ippei.com
  • Scott Hilses’s Simplified Dropshipping : A compact ~3-hour dropshipping course that advocates selling single-product Shopify stores, though the review notes it lacks depth and advanced strategy. ippei.com
  • Vlad Biaheza’s Biaheza Dropshipping Course : A six-module program teaching TikTok-centred Shopify dropshipping strategies for beginners, praised for its accessibility but criticized for offering content found elsewhere online. ippei.com

Final Verdict: Is eCom Success Academy Worth It for New Dropshippers?

eCom Success Academy is not worth it for new dropshippers because the training is outdated, requires high ad spend, and doesn’t address common modern challenges like account suspensions or platform saturation. While it offers solid fundamentals and weekly coaching, the reliance on old Facebook ad strategies and lack of updated content make it difficult to stay competitive.

Is Local Lead Generation Easier to Sustain Than Dropshipping?

In my opinion, local lead generation is easier to sustain than dropshipping because it doesn’t rely on paid ads, product trends, or fulfillment logistics.

Comparing Shopify dropshipping to local lead generation is like Pokémon card booster packs versus the St. Lawrence Seaway. Booster packs demand constant buys just to chase a rare pull, which reflects how paid ads need fresh capital every day, creatives rotate nonstop, trends flip, and thin margins get shaved by fees and refunds. The St. Lawrence Seaway keeps cargo moving after the channel was cut once. Similarly, build and rank local lead generation sites, and leads continue to come in on their own with no marketing.

Why Is Local Lead Generation a More Stable Online Business Model?

Local lead generation is a more stable online business model because it’s built on long-term SEO rather than temporary ad trends or fads. Once ranked, lead gen sites require little maintenance and produce predictable, recurring revenue every month—without the stress of ad budgets, product sourcing, or customer service.

A client of mine is Pasadena Elite Concrete Solutions, 2849 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107, 626-628-1311, https://pasadenaeliteconcrete.com/. When 7 of my leads closed for $37,550 in 1 month, I earned $3,755 from 10% commissions.

local lead generation

If you’re ready to stop chasing unstable wins and want to build online income you can count on, check out local lead generation.

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$52K per month providing lead generation services to small businesses

Ippei.com is for digital hustlers, industry leaders and online business owners.

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