Ecom Warrior Academy Review 2026: Matthew Lepre's AI Ecom Business + An Alternative

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Ecom Warrior Academy is a fine dropshipping program that teaches you how to use AI tools to lower costs and increase profits. However, the business model is high risk, even with AI and 1-on-1 coaching. You need to spend money on products and paid AI tools. But there's no guarantee that you'll make sales. Sure, AI can help speed things up, but it's not reliable on its own. It can create store content or ads. It can't predict winning products or fix bad marketing decisions. You still have to test, adjust, and manage everything manually. On top of that, the dropshipping market is highly saturated. 90% of beginners fail because they struggle to stand out and maintain profit margins. Local SEO lead generation is a lower-risk business model. Instead of selling products, you build websites, rank them, and sells its leads to local businesses. You don’t need to buy inventory or rely on AI to get results. Once a site ranks, it produces consistent leads with no day-to-day management. Your only competition is other businesses in the specific area. Your leads are also super easy to sell because local businesses need them to survive.

In this Ecom Warrior Academy review:

  • I look into Matthew's AI ecom business model.
  • I show you what's included in the program.
  • You'll also learn more about Matthew Lepre.
  • I checked the reviews on platforms like Reddit and Trustpilot, so you don't have.
  • I compare dropshipping with local SEO lead generation.

In my opinion, using AI to set up your Shopify dropshipping business, like the core concept of Ecom Warrior Academy, is like applying the strategy in The Art of the Start 2.0 by Guy Kawasaki. It encourages entrepreneurs to move quickly and leverage available tools to launch businesses with minimal resources. However, just as the book’s approach becomes less unique when more people adopt the same methods, dropshipping becomes oversaturated when many sellers use the same AI tools to create stores. You’re not only competing with experienced sellers but also with other AI-generated stores that have the same products, pricing, and marketing.

Public Review Sentiment

Sentiment is based on public reviews, discussions, and independent analysis available at the time of publication. Percentages reflect identified positive, negative, and neutral sentiment by platform.

Reddit (200 reviews)

Mostly negative

Positive: “Mathew Lepre is NOT A SCAM. I did the course and it was detailed paying $500 every month. They actually run the courses.”

Negative: “It's a scam! Unfortunately I lost $6k AUD for one of his courses after multiple phone calls.”

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Negative: “ECOM WARRIOR ACADEMY IS A SCAM! I enrolled in Ecom Warrior Academy, paying $2,700 for their program.”

Negative: “I'm so disappointed I signed up to this crap! they DO NOT help you find products, they DO NOT help you build a store.”

Positive: “So far it's laid out quite nicely, the training is in depth and worth it (so far).”

80% 20%

YouTube (14 reviews)

Mixed and skeptical

Positive: “Overall, the Ecom Warrior Academy by Matthew Lepre offers a solid foundation for those serious about dropshipping.”

Negative: “Do I recommend this program? I would say probably not right now.”

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Neutral: “Matt is the real deal... he's not a scam artist, nothing like that. His program is legit.”

Neutral: “The only thing I would say that I don't like is that they focus on Facebook Ads.”

Negative: “The high cost combined with the fact that Matthew Lepre isn't as hands-on as you might expect makes it a bit of a gamble.”

44% 56%

Reviews.io (137 reviews)

Highly suspicious

Positive: “I am satisfied with the overall experience.”

Negative: “Dont Go to ecom warrior Academy. Its a scam!”

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Positive: “The program provides a solid learning foundation.”

Positive: “A very smooth and well-managed learning experience.”

Positive: “I found the program to be both informative and practical.”

10% 90%

Trustpilot (1101 reviews)

Potentially manipulated

Positive: “I've been with Ecom Warrior Academy for nearly 2 years, and my experience has been very positive.”

Negative: “Although I learnt the skill of drop shipping through these people I made no money whatsoever.”

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Negative: “They refuse to refund your money and even request a $600 cancellation fee.”

Negative: “I had a terrible experience. I lost a lot of money and despite being with them for over a year, they never helped.”

Positive: “My coach, Kingy is amazing.”

14% 86%

Ecom Warrior Academy Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Ecom Warrior Academy has students from over a dozen countries around the globe.
  • Recently, the course underwent an update to focus on teaching how to use AI for dropshipping.

Cons

  • The Ecom Warrior Academy YouTube does not give away any useful information but simply promotes the course.
  • Matthew is not active in the mentorship of Ecom Warrior Academy. His team members will instead mentor you.
  • Reported rude and pushy sales representatives and refunds not being honored.

Price: Ecom Warrior Academy costs $5,000 AUD for the Diamond Level packages and $1,497 AUD for the Gold Level package. There are various upsells available.

Refund Policy: If you launch 4 products following exactly what the course teaches and make no sales within 90 days, you can get a full refund.

Origin: 2017

Reputation: Highly positive review ratings.

What Is Matthew Lepre's AI Ecom Business?

Matthew describes AI Ecommerce as the use of AI to lower the costs and increase the efficiency of an ecommerce store. Ecom Warrior Academy specializes in Shopify dropshipping and teaches you how to use AI tools to create business/store names, product images, product descriptions, legal pages, and more.

A typical dropshipping store requires you to hire professionals to personalize your site, create and edit product photos, create optimized product descriptions, create and run your marketing campaigns, and more. By leveraging AI, you no longer need to outsource work, as the AI tools can do the tasks quicker and cheaper. In addition, Matthew teaches marketing strategies that do not require an ad budget.

ecom warrior academy review

What Do You Get With Ecom Warrior Academy?

  • Ecom Warrior Training Program - Easy-to-follow 12-module video training program that you can access on-demand where you get an entire “behind-the-scenes” overview of the business model. The program will tackle everything, from product research to scaling and automation.
  • Weekend Business Launch Plan - A step-by-step actionable plan on how to launch your business within a weekend. The plan is heavy in detail and covers all steps of the business.
  • 1-on-1 Kickstart Coaching - On day 1, you get a personal call with one of the Ecom Warrior Academy coaches. You can ask questions related to the business model and the program.
  • Bonuses - Bonuses include a monthly list of trending products, a list of ecommerce tools you’ll need, mindset calls, access to the network of “sourcing agents”, a blueprint on how to work with influencers to promote your listing, and a checklist to avoid missing any important parts of your business.
  • Unlimited 1-on-1 coaching with one of the Ecom Warrior Academy coaches. This is only available with the Diamond Level package.

Who Is Ecom Warrior Academy For?

  • Aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to learn how to create an online business with low entry barriers.
  • Ecommerce business owners who want to learn how to leverage AI to scale and automate their business.
  • Ecommerce business owners who are looking for 1-on-1 mentorship to help them with their stores.

Ecom Warrior Academy Reviews

Ecom Warrior Academy has a claimed profile on Trustpilot with a 4.5/5 rating. Most of the positive reviews appear to be from people who left a review right after their first call or right after the setup of the store. I have found no review that actually talks about how successful their store is and how much they earned.

ecom warrior academy review

This Trustpilot review by Zain Deepak thanks his mentor and explains that his store was just launched. Most of the 5-star review mirrors this, as they only rate the experience with either the first call or with launching the store.

ecom warrior academy review

Fatima's negative review highlights how her children invested thousands in the program but have made no profit. She also called out that most positive reviews are from people who haven’t even had time to see if the program actually works. Other negative reviews also complained about the lack of support, ineffectiveness of the program’s methods, the lack of evidence of student successes, and the cancellation fees for the services.

ecom warrior academy review

This review from a verified customer who wishes to remain anonymous on review.io mentioned that he lost over $4,000 in almost 5 months using ecom warrior's business formula. He also complained that they did not issue him a refund in the 90 days as he made $20 profit, which voids the refund policy.

Is Ecom Warrior Academy Worth It?

Ecom Warrior Academy is not worth it, in my opinion. Using AI in your dropshipping business sounds great, but this technology is still in its infancy. Just as Matthew puts it, an AI tool is only as good as the skills of its coder. Copyright laws do not protect AI generated content, meaning anyone can copy your content. Using AI can cut down your spending, but the tools still cost money. You can try Matthew's Million Dollar Product Accelerator to get a peak of what you will get with Ecom Warrior Academy for a low price.

ecom warrior academy review

What Is the Million Dollar Product Accelerator?

The Million Dollar Product Accelerator is a 2-module self study course that teaches you how to find the winning product on AliExpress within 45 seconds. Matthew says that finding the right product is 90% of what makes a dropshipping business successful. This accelerator course teaches you Matthew's most effective ways of finding highly profitable dropshipping products. The Million Dollar Product Accelerator costs $27 AUD and comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee.

What Do You Get With the Million Dollar Product Accelerator?

  • Module 1: How To Pick Winning Ecommerce Products - You will receive a 4 question checklist that every selection must pass to be considered a profitable product. The module will cover how to find and hire a team that will find products for you all year round, how to dominate any niche, what shipping types to use, and what to do if your product turns out unprofitable.
  • Module 2: Step-by-Step Guide - Matthew begins the 2nd module with a case study on how a brand new store made $500,000 in just 50 days. The module will guide you through every step of creating and creating a dropshipping store from scratch.
  • Bonuses: Bonuses include a step-by-step module on creating your Shopify store and what settings you should use. This bonus module is a preview of what you will get in the Ecom Warrior Mentorship program. In addition, you also get a one-click website template for your store.

Who Is Matthew Lepre?

ecom warrior academy review

Matthew Lepre is a Shopify dropshipping entrepreneur, mentor, and founder of Ecom Warrior Academy from Sydney, Australia. Forbes confirmed his net worth to be over $5 million from dropshipping profits and course sales. Matthew was making $150,000 a month in revenue from his dropshipping stores before he created courses and mentored others.

Raised by a single mother in suburban Sydney, Matthew was on track to becoming a dentist. He dropped out from All Saints Catholic College to pursue an ecommerce business. After finding success with dropshipping Chinese cosmetic products, he received many requests from his social media followers asking him to teach them. In 2017, Matthew moved to selling virtual products and created Ecom Warrior Academy to sell courses. Matthew features in many publications, including Forbes and CNN, and was a Forbes Business Council member in 2020. He currently spends his time traveling the world.

What Are Some Ecom Warrior Academy Alternatives?

  • Brook Hiddink’s High Ticket Incubator – A high-ticket Shopify dropshipping mentorship that teaches how to make 7-figures by combining detailed training on luxury product selection, paid and organic marketing, B2B deal strategies, 1-on-1 coaching, and tools like profit calculators and outsourcing systems.

Is Shopify Dropshipping Worth It in 2025?

Shopify dropshipping is worth it in 2025 if you will risk your investment for possible quick profits. Dropshipping remains a high-risk business with no guaranteed returns. While the use of AI tools to automate the processes can lower the operating costs, it still does not guarantee any success. Market experts estimate that 90% of new dropshippers will fail.

There are many downsides in dropshipping that increase the chances of failure. With all the different ecommerce business strategies, dropshipping has the lowest profit margin since you are merely reselling and do not buy products at wholesale. Because of the low barrier of entry, dropshipping is highly saturated and you will need to compete with other sellers, which will lower the price of your listings. Quality and stock are also a concern, as you have no control over your supplier.

Dropshipping is not a sustainable business as you need to keep on top of the market to find profitable trends. This will take a lot of your time, so you may need to create a team to delegate some of the work for an added monthly cost. The COVID pandemic also showed how vulnerable the market is to shipping issues, as shipping costs skyrocketed and delays were common.

Create Low-Risk Sustainable Income With Local SEO Lead Generation

Local SEO lead generation is my recommended business that creates sustainable income at a low-risk. As a type of digital real estate business, you earn passive income by creating a website, ranking it on Google, then renting it out to local businesses. It costs as little as $500 to start and $30 a month to maintain while earning up to $2,000 a month (which would be >90% profit margin). Compare this to a dropshipping business where you need at least $500-$1,000 to start, at least $500 a month for advertising budget while only earning a 15%-20% profit margin.

With local SEO lead generation, you don’t have to run ads or even worry about high competition. You only have to outrank a handful of websites on the local search results. There are hundreds of niches and thousands of locations to choose from, so there is no saturation. The only way to scale a dropshipping business is to increase the workload by hiring a team and paying their salary.

In my 10 years of experience running an online agency, using AI to simplify core tasks like lead tracking is definitely helpful, much like using Google Maps in New York City for the first time. This way, you can focus on more important tasks like creating and optimizing more sites for a higher monthly income. Most Shopify dropshipping businesses rely on paid advertising (primarily Facebook and Instagram ads) to generate sales. Ads can be hit-or-miss. One campaign could give you a solid return on investment, while another could drain your budget with little to no return. It’s like playing the slots at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It’s a gamble, and while the potential is there, the outcome is never guaranteed. With local SEO lead gen, you earn 80%-95% in profit margins. You can even charge higher prices for premium leads. Plus, you have a direct client relationship. There’s no risk of dealing with unreliable suppliers or product issues that are beyond your control.

conclusion lead gen maps

For instance, my site Long Beach Electric Gates & Custom Metal 6632 Cherry Avenue Long Beach, California 90805 562-586-4355 https://longbeachelectricgates.com/ delivered 15 high-intent leads worth $24,670 to my client this month. Because I get a 10% commission for the potential customers I send their way, I earned $2,467 even without constantly monitoring my site.

To scale a local SEO lead generation business, you simply need to create, rank, and rent out another website. There is no limit on how many websites you can have. This makes local SEO lead generation the best business model to create financial freedom in 2025.

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