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00:00I just watched someone brag about making $50,000 a month, but when I looked at his actual profit
00:05numbers, he was only making $2,000. That's a 4% margin, so basically, he was one bad week away
00:12from going broke. These days, everyone's obsessed with revenue screenshots, store dashboards,
00:18look what I did posts. You see those numbers and you think, if I could just hit that, I'd be set.
00:23But nobody ever shows you what happens behind the scenes. The 25% return rate that deletes your
00:29margin. The customer service nightmare eating 16 hours a week. Or the product that looked like a
00:34$20 profit, but nets you only $3 after reality hits. There are seven product niches destroying stores
00:41right now. And they all have the same thing in common. They look like winners. They have high
00:46demand. They're easy to source, Instagram ready, trending on TikTok, perfect on paper. But in
00:51reality, they're margin traps. I run a class and I have had to talk my students out of selling many
00:57of these products, usually after they've already lost money. And one of these niches,
01:01number four, half of you are going to defend it in the comments because every guru is pushing it
01:07as the beginner-friendly goldmine. But it's not. So if you're selling any of these seven products
01:12right now, stay with me. If you're about to launch your first store, these next 15 minutes
01:17could save you thousands of dollars. All right, I've scored all seven of these products based
01:22on four factors that make for a bad e-commerce business. Return risk, lifetime value, operational
01:28complexity, and whether the margins make sense. A 1 to 10 scale. Anything above an 8 means that
01:34you're not going to make money. We've got 9s and 10s on this list and thousands of people are
01:38launching these stores right now. So at number seven, we have selling jewelry online. Now here's
01:44what's interesting. I've got students in my class absolutely crushing it with jewelry. They're making
01:49real money and building actual brands. But I've watched way more students fail than succeed.
01:55And the difference is this. Are you selling generic jewelry or something that is actually defensible?
02:01Because generic jewelry looks perfect on paper. It's tiny, lightweight, huge markups, Instagram ready,
02:07everyone wears jewelry. But when you're selling the same stuff that's on Amazon, Shein, and 10,000 other
02:13Shopify stores, you're dead. Now here's what often happens based on real stories from my students.
02:18Customers buy jewelry for an event, whether it be a party, a wedding, or a night out. They wear it
02:24once and then return it. Or they keep it and never come back to shop. Because why would they? There
02:31are endless alternatives selling the exact same thing. And the margins look incredible until you
02:36realize you're spending 30 bucks in ads to get someone to buy a $50 necklace once. You need them to
02:42buy one or two more times just to break even on that customer. So for generic jewelry, that almost never
02:48happens. Now the students who win, they've got unique designs, a specific niche, and an actual brand.
02:54And they're not competing on price. But everyone else, you're just another store with the same
02:59products fighting on price with zero loyalty. All right, at number six, we have home fitness
03:04accessories. Resistance bands, yoga mats, foam rollers, weighted vests, these look like absolute
03:10winners when you're researching them. Because fitness is every green, search volume is massive,
03:14and everyone's working from home. But here's the biggest problem with fitness. People buy gear with
03:20motivation, and then they return it when the motivation dies, and it dies quickly. I had a
03:25student selling weighted vests for about a year, and he did okay. He was making consistent sales with
03:31decent revenue, but one return would completely kill his margins because of how the economics work
03:36on these bulky fitness products. Let me show you the map. He sells a weighted vest for $50. Product
03:42costs him 10 bucks. He pays $15 to ship it to the customer. So his margin looks like $25, which is
03:49great on paper. Customer uses it twice, loses motivation, and returns it within 30 days. And now
03:55he's paying $15 to get that weighted vest back. And when it arrives, maybe it's got some wear on it.
04:01Maybe it smells like someone's garage, and you can't resell it as new. So he just spent $15 to ship
04:07it out, $15 to get it back on a product that costs him 10. And between the shipping and the product
04:13cost, one return ate through the profit of two successful sales. And here's the killer. The people
04:19who actually keep the product, they're done with you forever because they don't need another weighted
04:23vest. There is zero repeat purchase potential. So you're stuck in this cycle where you're acquiring
04:29customers at high costs, dealing with returns that destroy that margin, and the ones who don't
04:34return never buy from you again. It is a terrible business model disguised as a good product category.
04:40All right, number five is where things get really interesting, and that is art and prints. Now this
04:45one looks like the dream when you're planning it out because the margins are incredible. It's creative.
04:49It's Instagram ready. You can build a whole aesthetic brand around it. But I've watched more students fail
04:55at selling art than almost any other category, and the problem is always the same. Nobody buys.
05:01But it's not because the art is bad or bad marketing. People just don't buy art from brands or artists
05:06they do not know. And I've seen this pattern so many times. You source beautiful prints or create your
05:12own art. You set up a gorgeous Instagram feed, run ads showing these aesthetic pieces in stylized rooms,
05:18and you get clicks. You get traffic and maybe some add to carts. But the sales don't come. And when
05:23they do come, it is a trickle. Because art is one of the most personal purchases someone can make
05:29and they need to trust the source. People buy art from artists they follow or galleries they trust.
05:35They don't buy prints from a Shopify store that launched three months ago, no matter how good your
05:40product photos are. And even when you do make a sale, the customer service nightmare starts because art is
05:46completely subjective. The colors look different on their screen. The size isn't what they expected,
05:51or it doesn't match their couch, or the frame looks cheaper in person. And returns kill you,
05:57and the customers who keep the product, they're decorating one apartment, they bought art for
06:01that one wall, and they're not coming back. So if you're not an actual artist with a following,
06:06or you don't have years to build a gallery-level brand, this category will bleed you dry.
06:11By the way, if you're interested in learning how to start your own profitable online store,
06:15make sure you sign up for my free six-day e-commerce mini course below. It's 100% free,
06:20and I guarantee you'll learn a lot. All right, we're halfway through this list,
06:24and number four is the one that's going to make half of you mad in the comments,
06:27which is print-on-demand. Now, before half of you roast me, let me be clear. I'm not saying
06:33pod doesn't work for anyone. My own kids run a print-on-demand store. I've got students who make
06:38money with it. But here's what I need you to understand. Print-on-demand doesn't fail the way
06:43other products on this list fail. You don't lose thousands of dollars on inventory or get destroyed
06:48by returns. Pod fails quietly. It just never makes enough money to matter. And here's why.
06:54The margins are so thin that you can't profitably advertise. And AI has absolutely exploded the
07:00competition in the last couple years. Let me show you the math. You're selling a t-shirt for $28.
07:05Base cost from Printful or Printify is around $16. Shipping is another $5. Platform fees,
07:13or maybe $2. So you're left without $5 before you spend a single dollar in marketing. Your customer
07:20acquisition costs with paid ads, we're talking $15 to $30. So you're losing money on every single
07:25sale. So the only way pod works is if you've got free traffic, an existing audience, a TikTok
07:31following, organic social media that converts. And if you have that, yeah, pod is great because
07:37there's zero risk. You're not holding inventory. You can test designs and make passive income.
07:41But if you're starting from zero and trying to build a pod business with paid ads like most
07:46people do, you're on a treadmill. You're working. You're getting orders. You might even hit some
07:51revenue numbers that look decent, but you're not making real money. And here's the other problem.
07:57AI design tools have flooded the market with generic designs. Everyone has access to the same mockup
08:02generators, the same design tools, the same suppliers, and customers have endless options and zero brand
08:08loyalty because they buy wherever the ad hits them that day. And the pod sellers who brag about their
08:14revenue, just look at their profit. It's almost nothing. So if you got an audience or you want to
08:19test designs with zero risk, pod is perfect. But if you're trying to build an actual business from
08:24scratch with paid traffic, this category will keep you busy and broke at the same time.
08:30All right. Number three are fad driven products. Think fidget spinners, weighted blankets,
08:35those weighted hula hoops that went viral, whatever's trending on TikTok right now.
08:40These products are dangerous because they look like the easiest money you'll ever make.
08:44And sometimes they are. I got a friend who made multi-millions selling fidget spinners.
08:49He caught the trend early, rode the wave, and absolutely crushed it. But then the trend died
08:54almost overnight, and he was stuck with inventory that became worthless. That is the trap with fad products.
09:00They never decline slowly. They fall off a cliff.
09:03The trend is hot for maybe a year, sometimes two if you're lucky, and then it just stops.
09:08And if you're holding inventory when it stops, you're done.
09:12I've seen this pattern many times. You see a product going viral, you order inventory,
09:16it sells like crazy, and you feel like a genius. So you reorder bigger because obviously this is
09:22going to keep going, right? But by the time that second order arrives, the trend is already dying.
09:27Everyone else saw the same opportunity you did, the market is flooded, prices collapse,
09:31and suddenly you're selling at cost just to move inventory.
09:34A couple years ago, I had a friend get destroyed with selling weighted hula hoops.
09:39He ordered big right before the trend died and was stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in
09:43inventory that nobody wanted anymore. And here's the really brutal part. Even when you catch the
09:48wave perfectly and make money, the dopamine hit makes you want to chase the next one. Now you're not
09:54building a business. You're a professional trend chaser gambling on what's going to go viral next.
09:59Now don't get me wrong, some people make life changing money on fad products. My friend with
10:03fidget spinners did. But for every person who times it perfectly, there are 50 people stuck with
10:09garages full of products nobody wants, trying to sell them for half of what they paid. So if you
10:14want to play this game, you better be early, you better be fast, and you better get out before
10:17everyone else floods in. By the way, tickets for my annual e-commerce conference to Seller Summit are
10:22now on sale over at sellersummit.com. And if you sell physical products online, this is the event that you
10:28should be at. Imagine being in a room with 200 of the best e-commerce sellers in the world,
10:33seven and eight figure operators who actually share their secrets. I handpick every speaker
10:38because they're in the trenches right now. There's no theory, no fluff, just proven playbooks that you
10:43can steal immediately. If you're doing over 250k, there's a private mastermind where you'll meet the
10:48people who will 10x your business. We've sold out nine years straight. So if you're serious about
10:53winning, you need to be there. Link is below for sellersummit.com. All right, we're down to the
10:58last two. And number two is low trust health devices. We're talking posture correctors, slim
11:04belts, mini massagers, those snoring mouth guards that went viral on TikTok. These products look like
11:09absolute gold mines when they're trending because the demand is real, the problem is widespread,
11:14and the videos make it look like magic. I had a student who jumped on snoring mouth guards when they
11:19were blowing up. And people were posting before and after videos of their spouses snoring, and it
11:24looked like the easiest money ever. Now he made decent revenue on Amazon for about six months,
11:30but then it fell apart. And here's what happened. The product didn't work for most people, so he had
11:35a 20% return rate. And you can't resell a used mouth guard. Someone wears it for a week, sends it back,
11:41and now you've got a product you have to throw away. So you're not just losing the sale, you're losing
11:46the product cost, shipping both ways, and dealing with angry customers who feel like they got scammed,
11:51even though you never promised anything. And the market got saturated fast because every no-name
11:56brand on the planet saw the same viral videos and flooded in with the exact same product for half
12:02the price. That is the trap with low trust health devices. They go viral because the problem is real.
12:08Snoring, bad posture, weight loss, pain relief. People desperately want solutions. So when they see a video
12:14that makes it look easy, they buy on impulse. But when the product doesn't deliver on the promise,
12:19they return it, they leave bad reviews, they file chargebacks, and you're stuck managing the fallout
12:24while your profit disappears. So if you're going to sell health devices, you better have a product
12:28that actually works and a medical professional to back it up, or you're just setting yourself up for
12:33a customer service nightmare with razor-thin margins. Alright, and at number one, drumroll please,
12:40the worst product to sell online is fast fashion apparel. This is the most popular category with
12:45new sellers, and it's also the one that destroys the most businesses, and I get why people try it.
12:50If you love fashion, it feels like the perfect business. But here's what nobody tells you. Those
12:56viral revenue screenshots you see are real, but the profit is not. I had a student running a trendy
13:01apparel store, and she learned every painful lesson this category has to offer all at once.
13:06First problem is inventory. Every single piece needs five sizes. Small, medium, large, extra large.
13:12So if you want to offer 12 styles, you're not managing 12 SKUs, you're managing 60. And you have
13:18to guess how many of each size to order. And she guessed wrong, ended up way over ordered on certain
13:23sizes, capital locked up in inventory that wasn't moving. Second problem is returns. 20-25% return rate
13:30is average because the size is wrong. The color looks different than the photo, the fabric feels cheap,
13:35it doesn't fit right. And you're paying return shipping on a product that might have cost you
13:40eight bucks and sold for 30. Third problem is trends change fast. By the time she validated what
13:46was working and reordered, the trend was already shifting and she was stuck with styles nobody wanted
13:51anymore. And then here's the big twist that nobody saw coming. Ozempic. Her customer base started losing
13:58weight. Suddenly, she's sitting on inventory in larger sizes that nobody wants because everyone's
14:03going down two sizes. It sounds crazy, but it's real. The entire market shifted and she got caught
14:09holding the bag. And on top of all that, she's competing with Shein, who can sell at cost because
14:14of volume, so her margins got compressed to almost nothing. She was managing 60 plus SKUs, dealing with
14:21constant returns, fighting size complaints, floating thousands of dollars in inventory, competing on price
14:26with fast fashion giants and working her ass off for maybe five to eight percent profit margins if
14:31everything went perfectly. And it never went perfectly. This is why apparel scores a 10 out of 10 in terms
14:37of difficulty. It is not one problem, it's 10 problems hitting you at the same time and the revenue looks
14:43so good that you keep thinking you can fix it until you run out of money. So if you made it this far,
14:48you've probably noticed a pattern with all seven of these products. They all look incredible on paper.
14:53High demand, easy to source, trending on social media, other people making money with them,
14:58everything checks out when you're doing the research. But they all have the same fatal flaws.
15:03Customers buy once and don't come back, returns destroy your margins, you're competing with a
15:08thousand other sellers on price, and the operational complexity eats you alive. These aren't good
15:14businesses, they're treadmills. You're working constantly, you might even be making sales, but you're not
15:19building anything that lasts, and you're definitely not making the kind of money that justifies the
15:23effort. So what should you sell instead? Now I'm not going to give you a list of products because
15:28that's not the point. The point is understanding what separates out a good product from a bad one.
15:34Good products have high lifetime value, meaning customers actually come back. They have defensible
15:40differentiation, so you're not just competing on price with everyone else. They have reasonable return
15:45rates and margins that hold up after you pay for shipping, ads, and all the real costs of running a
15:50business. And most importantly, they're not trend dependent. You're building something sustainable,
15:56not chasing whatever is going viral this month. If you focus on these principles instead of chasing
16:01revenue screenshots, you'll build an actual business instead of a part-time job that costs you money.
16:07Now that you understand what not to sell, make sure you watch this video here on exactly how I would
16:12start an e-commerce store from scratch today.
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