Connective eCommerce: Everyone’s Got This All Wrong!

Cortney Fletcher came up with the expression “Connective eCommerce,” to package an idea that online merchants can be more successful if they start out with a DIY store, enlist suppliers to ship products to customers, and use free content distribution channels instead of paying for ads. 

Now, thousands of people want more information, but the answers aren’t easily found without paying for the course. Unfortunately, other than the original sales page, I think most of the top search results were written by AI.

Be that as it may, the details aren’t all that complicated, so I want to present the facts. Let’s dive deeper into connective eCommerce — what it is, the strategies involved, and whether it’s a worthwhile approach to take. 

Note: I have no affiliation with eCom Babes or their branded system, and I am not a member of their group. This content is based on my own research and industry experience. 

Here’s what’s in store: 

• What is Connective eCommerce?
  • How Does Connective eCommerce Work?
• eCom Babes Company Overview
• The Connective eCommerce Strategy
  • 1. Use Shopify & Shopify Themes
  • 2. Get Suppliers to Ship Directly to Customers
  • 3. Find Products Proven to Sell
  • 4. Make Sure You Can Ensure Fast Shipping
  • 5. Price for Profits
  • 6. Connect with Influencers
  • 7. Scale With Advertising
• The ”Strategy Call”
• eCom Babes Paid Course Overview
  • How Much Does it Cost?
  • What Concepts Does the Course Cover?
• Connective eCommerce Alternatives
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Result: Is Connective eCommerce the Way to Go?

Now, let’s take the plunge! 

What is Connective eCommerce? 

Connective eCommerce is a term, coined by eCombabes, that refers to a method of eCommerce with no web developers, no inventory, and no paid ads. It’s framed as a way to start an online boutique without a large investment. As I see it, it’s simply repackaging what has long been referred to as “dropshipping.” 

(Several people searching the web have confused connective eCommerce with “collective eCommerce,” which is probably just a clerical error.) 

Let’s get some perspective on what I mean by repackaging. Back in the early 2000s, Russel Brunson took a concept that was already widely known as “market research” and put it in a shiny, new box called “Funnel Hacking.” While the concept was not new by any means, his presentation made it seem groundbreaking, which got people excited.

Many of Brunson’s Clickfunnels™ followers have successfully used the Funnel Hacking system for a decade. And, it doesn’t much matter what you call it — it apparently works (but it is a little MLM-ish). 

Connective eCommerce is to dropshipping what Funnel Hacking is to market research but on a smaller scale. 

And, the “no paid ads” part isn’t really true, since the connective eCommerce approach does involve paid social media ads after the business has income to reinvest. 

How Does Connective eCommerce Work? 

Fundamentally, connective eCommerce enables retailers to move goods directly from the manufacturer/supplier to the customer, without the need to go through traditional distribution channels. The business model allows you to put someone else’s products in front of your customers on a website that you build yourself, and eventually profit from. 

Furthermore, it comes without the need for inventory management, storage, shipping & handling, nor some of the many other headaches that arise when you run an online store. 

Here’s how it works: You add products to a website, distribute your offer across free channels, get customers, and transfer the orders to your suppliers. The suppliers then ship the products directly to the customers. 

While all of this sounds amazing, you need to know what you’re getting into. While you’re not in charge of product development or fulfillment with connective eCommerce, you are in charge of web development, pricing, branding, marketing, customer service, fraud prevention, policy creation, refunds & returns, chargeback management, and more. 

No matter how shiny the packaging, there are no true get-rich-quick schemes, and connective eCommerce is not a guarantee for success. 

eCom Babes Company Overview

eCom Babes (a DBA that I couldn’t find in the National Corporation Directory) was founded by Cortney Fletcher and Erika Constantine. Strangely, I couldn’t find much info on the founders, either. The company is not listed on Crunchbase, LinkedIn, or BBB.

Edit: When I first published this post, I included a link to a new Trustpilot profile that I created for ecombabes.com here, hoping that Connective eCommerce program participants would write their honest opinions. Less than 24 hours later, the entire page had been deleted.

Fletcher is the face of eCom Babes — she’s on Facebook, listed as a ‘Public Figure’ as well as an ‘Interest.’ Her YouTube channel, where she speaks on eCom Babes success stories, brand news, and mindset, has almost 5K subscribers.  And, she’s got over 18K followers on Instagram. The only personal info Fletcher really shares are photos of her little dogs (which are super cute, btw).  

According to Redditors, eCom Babes is an MLM company that requires a $3K investment. But, this isn’t exactly true… not quite. They do have a free course that you can access in exchange for your email address. 

eCom Babes’ “free training” video is a scripted voice speaking over a series of stock videos. The purported no-cost course skims the basics of dropshipping strategy but essentially tells the story of Cortney Fletcher (originally from Swampscott, Massachusetts) and her success. 

At some point, Fletcher got to the point where she was earning $24K in daily sales from her dropshipping store. Eventually, she moved to her dream beach house in Puerto Rico. The video entices others to join and use her proven system.  

The Connective eCommerce Strategy

Connective eCommerce tactics are not new, nor are they earth-shattering. But, there is a specific order in which the system is packaged. So, let’s look at everything eCom Babes’ free connective eCommerce training covers. 

1. Use Shopify & Shopify Themes

The first problem with conventional online sales, that connective eCommerce solves, is the need to hire a web developer to build a store. eCom Babes introduces beginners to Shopify and Shopify themes. 

The Shopify eCommerce platform and its themes (online store templates) are legit. We recommend them. But, I’ve consulted with business owners who thought that a $29 price tag was too high (it isn’t), and felt that the platform was too difficult to use (it’s as easy as it gets). The point is that not everyone will be able to build their own online store, and this objection isn’t covered in the free training. 

Another item that isn’t covered is the fact that the Shopify theme store isn’t the only place to get themes for your Shopify store… Other websites have them. You should know all of your options.

We recommend you check out the Shopify Theme store, yes. And, take a peek at what Templatemonster has to offer so that you are sure you’re getting the right theme for your needs.

Recommended: Custom Shopify Themes: Make Your Online Store Stand Out

2. Get Suppliers to Ship Directly to Customers

Next, inventory is traditionally managed in-house, whether it’s your actual house or a storage facility. This takes up space and creates the need for a ton of manual processes. If you can get suppliers to manage inventory and ship directly to your customers, you eliminate a ton of tedious work. Plus, you save money.

Again, this training doesn’t tell you about the drawbacks of dropshipping. 

While this is a proven, legitimate business model, dropshipping comes with its own set of issues, namely your high reliance on a supplier for customer satisfaction: 

• You must trust the supplier to ship on time, as agreed… every time
• Returns and refunds processes are disconnected
• The returns rate for dropshipping is exceptionally high, so you need a lot of patience to manage and navigate returns with suppliers, and exceptional customer service skills.
• Dropshippers are at the highest risk of chargebacks 

Always do your due diligence and weigh the pros and cons when you embark on any new venture. 

3. Find Products Proven to Sell

A massive part of what makes an eCommerce business successful is the sellability of the products. Connective eCommerce involves choosing products that are already proven to sell. 

Fletcher states that you should focus on a niche that you’re actually interested in. Still, she recommends that course participants skip over the “proof of concept” stage and choose inventory that is already in demand. Part of this is to make sure people are already buying and selling your product(s).

The downsides to this method, again, aren’t outlined in the free training. 

I used to make a killing on Amazon FBA. Then, I stepped away for a few years and tried to come back. At that point, I had no idea where to begin because of the sheer volume of competitors. Shopify and Amazon aren’t necessarily apples and oranges — though, there are a lot of similarities. 

Yes, you want products that are in demand, but you also need to know who you’re competing with. If you decided to offer your own product that nobody else is selling, there’s a chance you could corner the market. Once more, always weigh your options. 

For more ideas of proven winning products to sell on Shopify, see 9 Best Products to Sell on Shopify.

4. Make Sure You Can Ensure Fast Shipping

Naturally, fast shipping is crucial for successful online sales. We live in the age of Amazon Prime when consumers have come to expect that free, 2-day delivery is possible. Now, COVID did reign this paradigm back a bit, but not completely. 

The only thing that the free connective eCommerce training states about this is that when you ship direct from the manufacturer, there’s a risk for slow shipping, “unless you know how to do this the right way” — this insinuates that you might learn if you move forward with paid training. 

DoDo Dropshipping recommends that you choose a local supplier(s), while Oberlo advises that you choose overseas suppliers that offer ePacket and complete test orders. I’d like to add that you should always work with a real person within the company, even when you use a dropshipping app to add products to your store.  

Before you start adding products to your site all willy-nilly, reach out to each supplier you’ve shortlisted to work with and make sure that it’s easy to get in touch with a real person quickly. Then, ask about their shipping policies and what to expect. While you have them on the line, discuss returns as well. 

When you keep in touch with real contacts, it mitigates your risks, since people are less likely to slack with someone they have a solid relationship with.  

5. Price for Profits

With connective eCommerce, the free training basically outlines the example to find a cheap product and offer it somewhere around 5X your cost. And, this is how you profit. 

Now, if you’re running your business in such a way that you can compete with a product priced at 5X the original cost, yes, you should do it. 

Take a look at this example: One dropshipping store, Notebook Therapy, offers Tsuki bullet journal stencils for $31. 

And, comparable products are sold and drop-shipped by AliExpress suppliers from 99¢ to $9, with variable shipping costs (in some cases, shipping is free). 

As with products that are already selling, markups of this magnitude also require that you consider your competition. What price are your competitors selling this product for? The free training, as you might have guessed, doesn’t mention competition. 

Note: There are many tools on the market to help you with product research. eCom Babes does offer their own tool, according to their advertising. I’ll get to that below. 

In the meantime, you might want to look into some others that are actually transparent about their features and pricing: SellTheTrend, DSers, and Oberlo are good places to start  — do your research and try to find one that has everything you need. 

6. Connect with Influencers

The free training goes a bit more in-depth into this step than the rest of the concepts. Essentially, you want to find an Instagram influencer in your niche … either through hashtags or through your competitors’ followers. 

Then, you reach out to them with eCom Babes’ proven script: 

“hey girl! I took a look at your page and you have a very similar style to us, so I want to invite you to be an ambassador for our brand. We can talk about the details but it’s really simple. All you do is post photos of our products and we will pay you for whatever purchases you generate 🙂”

After that, send users who reply positively to the brand ambassador details page of your Shopify store.

While this is a proven approach, the free training doesn’t tell you that influencer marketing comes with its fair share of risks. Mainly, if an influencer doesn’t reflect an image in alignment with your brand, or they somehow humiliate themself, it can make your business look bad as well. 

Do your homework and, if you do take this approach, monitor your influencers to be sure the content they’re sharing is in alignment with your brand. 

Recommended: The Top 6 Influencer Marketing Metrics for eCommerce

7. Scale With Advertising

After your products start to sell, and you earn enough to reinvest, you can implement paid traffic. 

• Setup an account on Facebook to advertise
• Target people who have similar interests or a niche
• Pay for ads to show up to them 

The free training explains that if you were selling dog leashes, it would make sense to target people who have an interest in Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer, or a certain dog food brand. As Cortney states, this is a 50K-ft view of how Facebook ads work.

The key risk with ads is that you will invest. And, only when they show a high return on investment should you scale them. Allegedly, the free course will cover this topic more in-depth. 

For more, see How to Make Money on Shopify: 42 Unique Business Ideas

The ”Strategy Call”

When you set up a strategy call with eCom Babes, it’s not supposed to be a pushy sales pitch “because most people don’t qualify.” I had to find out for myself, so I hopped on a call with a rep. 

Here’s what I found: 

I scheduled my strategy call, and the phone rang right on time the following day. In the hour we were chatting, I couldn’t keep count of the number of times I heard “no pressure,” “you don’t have to,” or “take it or leave it.” This is usually the case with a typical sales pitch. 

We spoke about work history, goals, and mindset. The rep said that she knew a bit about me, but it was apparent that she hadn’t done a Google search — in my experience, this is pretty standard too. 

The rep also told me that Cortney Fletcher has helped about 10K women build dropshipping businesses — which she referred to as “connective eCommerce businesses” — that earn from $5-$10K in the first month, then $10-$100K per month in the first year. When students hit the latter numbers, they can start to reinvest profits into social media advertising. To be fair, I do believe her.  

I should’ve used the conversation as an opportunity to find out more about the legal business entity behind eCom Babes, but I don’t know if I could’ve — the call was pretty scripted and difficult to navigate organically. 

According to the rep, Fletcher helps women, often moms, who want help getting to the next level in eCommerce and more control over their lives. Essentially, you pay for a mentorship and lifetime access to a six-week course that covers how to succeed in online sales, from start to finish.

For existing dropshippers, the training includes an audit of your current online store with advice about how to improve it. The course materials are continually updated as technology and the eCommerce landscape change. 

We also chatted about pricing, which I will explain next. 

eCom Babes Paid Course Overview

eCom Babes’ course portal can be found at app.ecombabes.com, but you will need to sign up manually through a rep to get started. According to the brand’s advertising, “seats are limited.” To get in, you need to schedule a call through the ecombabes.com website. 

The paid Connective eCommerce course includes weekly mentorship from Fletcher, a dedicated coach to speak with at touchpoints throughout the learning duration, and lifetime access to a self-paced, six-week course.

Apparently, coaching is intended to take your education to the next level, which is something “content can’t do.” This training is designed to guide learners at every step along the eCommerce journey and sets participants up with the tools and resources that can lead to success. 

How Much Does it Cost? 

First things first. The “usual cost” for the training through eCom Babes, according to the rep I spoke with, is currently $5,000. But, since “Cortney is offering a deal,” I was offered $1,200 off, which brought my total to $3,800 upfront. 

This is interesting since one Redditor said they were asked to invest $3,000 ten months ago, and I’ve seen at least one blogger say that they got into the training for $2,000. So, either the price is going up or eCom Babes charge based on who they’re talking to (like a used car salesman). 

eCom Babes is willing to offer payment arrangements for the cost, but they don’t currently have any set plans. So, these situations are handled on a case-by-case basis. If you were going to make payments, you would need to work out details over the phone at the end of a strategy call. 

Applicants who can’t afford the entire payment in full are offered options… The first suggestion is to apply for a new credit card.

“If money is your only objection now, let’s see what we can do… There is good debt and bad debt… You can apply for the Amex Blue card.” 

They were willing to accept a one-time payment of $1000 and $500 per month payments, but didn’t discuss any potential interest they might charge — it could be 0% APR, but I can’t be certain. 

What Concepts Does the Course Cover? 

Now, let’s take a quick look at what the paid course entails week-by-week: 

• Week 1: Mindset – During the first week, participants work on changing internally first so their outer world can change. They are encouraged to break old thought patterns and limiting beliefs so that they can rewrite a new story for themselves.
• Week 2: Evolution of eCommerce – Next, people who pay for the course will learn exactly how to find a good niche. After that, they’ll figure out how to pinpoint the best products for their store. 
• Week 3: Building Your Website – Once the niche and products are selected, learners will get step-by-step guidance to build an online store on Shopify without paying a developer to do it for them.  
• Week 4: Social Media Setup – This is where participants get ready to hit the ground. The course walks ladies through creating an optimized, branded social media presence across the best platforms for eCommerce.  
• Week 5: eCommerce Strategy – Once the store and social media profiles are set up, learners are ready for the “secret sauce.” In this step, they learn how to get their business going without paying for inventory. 
• Week 6: Paid Ads – By the time they get to this point, the training is set up so that participants should be earning around $10K per month. They then learn how to use paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, and how to tweak their store for ad conversion. Later, they’ll be introduced to more advanced strategies that will help them scale. eCom Babes claims that this information can take businesses from $10K to $100K per month.
• Bonus Content (It’s a Surprise) – While Fletcher never reveals exactly what her bonus content is, she does say, “I developed a software that helps my team find the top stores with the most traffic & the top selling products on that store PLUS sources vendors for that exact product. Normally this service is $1,164/yr.  BUT, to eliminate any excuse as to why you can’t succeed,  you’re going to have the opportunity to get that for free on our call. ❤️” — This must be where the “$1.2K discount came from. 

I assume the bonus content is a product research tool. Whether this is a self-developed product or a white-label tool, I can’t say. But, my guess would be that eCom Babes has added their branding to an existing tool. If it were breakthrough software, I would expect the company to market it as a core offer, and make it available to anyone. 

**Again, I’m just guessing on this.**

To me, this outline seems like it probably does have all the bells and whistles to get a new or low-profit dropshipping store off the ground 🤷🏻‍♀️  

Connective eCommerce Alternatives

By now, you’re probably thinking “Sweet Jesus, who’s falling for this bulls**t?” – Trust me, I totally get it, we’ve been wondering the same thing.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of alternatives, most of which will cost a few hundred bucks at the very most. And best of all, you won’t be buying another sales pitch inserted into the course you just paid for! (If you couldn’t tell, we’re a little salty about scam culture).

If you’re seriously interested in dropshipping, one of the best suppliers on the scene is Spocket, these guys are just awesome. We highly recommend working with them. Aside from being the best supplier we’ve found, they also offer full courses on dropshipping and all flavors of eCommerce marketing.

Most courses are around $13 a piece, and all it takes is signing up to get full access to everything Spocket Academy has to offer! – Listen, you’re going to need a great dropshipping supplier anyway, so why not learn from a company with actual skin in the game? If you don’t succeed, neither do they, make sense?

I don’t want to go too much deeper here, but I really need you to fully understand that you’ve got so many alternative course options (I mean oodles!).

So, here’s a handful more of ’em:

• SaleHoo Dropshipping on Shopify Course (6 hours, $47)
• Dropshipping 101: Build your first online store by Jessica Guzik (2 hours, Free)
• Find winning products to sell by Paul Lee  (1½ hours, Free)
• Free Print on Demand Course by Adrian Morrison | Shopify (2½ hours, Free)
• Dropshipping Business w/ US Suppliers by Enina Bicaku (½ hour, Free)
• Complete Shopify Aliexpress Dropshipping eCommerce Course ($20-$125) 

As you can see, the offers vary tremendously, so get out there and look around to see what else you can find.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Results: Is Connective eCommerce the Way to Go? 

You want to know if Connective eCommerce is good or bad, and the answer is no; it’s neither. The truth is, this is a more complicated question than you might think. Connective eCommerce is an approach that will work for some “coachable” people who are willing to invest in it. There are plenty of training participants who have apparently built highly successful dropshipping businesses.

Honestly, if the company were more transparent about their business and with their pricing, and if they offered a portal to sign up in your own time, I might have joined to check it out. Along with the question, ‘Are you coachable?‘ — these are red flags for me  🚩 🚩 🚩

Still, I would say that this is presumably a legitimate offer that could work well for beginners. But please, I beg of you, check out some other dropshipping course offers before you make a final decision. You might find something that works better for you, and costs WAY less.

If you want to stay in the loop about future content, we explore offers like this all the time, so subscribe to the Aurajinn newsletter today — we’ll keep you in the loop!