Dimitris Skiadas – Brand Master Accelerator

Brand Master Accelerator by Dimitris Skiadas focuses on creating and growing an e-commerce brand without relying on products dropshipped from China or spending thousands upfront on advertising and inventory.

Brand Master Accelerator learning outcomes

• Discover how to build an e-commerce brand from scratch.
• Learn to scale your store without spending thousands on ads.
• Master digital advertising strategies that drive real results.
• Implement effective techniques to manage ad spend efficiently.
• Overcome the fears of leaving your 9-5 job for entrepreneurship.
• Gain insights from an expert with over $60MM in results.

From accounting to online advertising

Skiadas describes spending four years studying accounting and five more working as an assistant, during which he worked for five different companies. Dissatisfied with his jobs, he began searching for ways to earn money online after Christmas dinner in 2009.

He bought a $47 affiliate marketing course and made plans to leave his job, but initially took no action on those plans. He continued studying digital advertising while working his regular job and spent the following years trying different ways to make money online.

As his Google Ads skills improved, he managed campaigns for small clients, though he says the income was not enough to support him. He later joined a major Greek advertising agency, where he worked on campaigns for brands including Coca-Cola, Adidas, Philadelphia and Wind. The work exposed him to larger advertising budgets and a more data-focused approach to growing e-commerce businesses.

Although he developed a repeatable approach to scaling stores, Skiadas says working on other companies’ brands did not change his compensation substantially. He decided to apply his advertising experience to a store of his own.

Starting a Shopify store with dropshipping

Skiadas initially used dropshipping, a model in which a store sells an item without holding it in inventory. After receiving a customer’s payment, he would purchase the product from a supplier in China, who sent it directly to the customer.

He describes setting up his Shopify store in two hours. The arrangement gave him access to a wide range of products without a large starting budget, inventory or responsibility for packing orders. Advertising costs were also lower at the time, leaving room for profit on individual sales.

The problems behind the early sales

The store’s early success brought competition: another seller began offering the same product and used Skiadas’s video, pictures and descriptions. As competition increased, he says his profit on the product declined.

Fulfillment created another set of difficulties. Some deliveries took four to five weeks, and customers sent repeated inquiries despite being told about shipping times on the product page and in order confirmation emails. Some requested refunds or filed chargebacks through PayPal and Stripe; those who received their orders were not always satisfied with the packaging or product quality.

Skiadas also describes PayPal holding a reserve until customers received their orders and his main Facebook advertising account being disabled. When the account was restored two weeks later, he says its performance had changed. He recounts a friend’s experience with a supplier who took payment, provided false tracking numbers and disappeared.

Building a brand instead

After closing his store, Skiadas reconsidered the differences between his dropshipping experience and the established brands he had worked with. Those businesses had their own fulfillment and customer service processes: they could deliver quickly, replace defective items and build relationships with customers who returned to buy again.

He also points to the value of selling more than interchangeable products. In his account, the brands had loyal customers and were not dependent on Facebook advertising alone. Those observations frame Brand Master Accelerator’s focus on developing an e-commerce brand rather than relying on Chinese dropshipping.

About Dimitris Skiadas

Skiadas is an entrepreneur and public speaker who says he has built and scaled e-commerce stores since 2010. He reports speaking at 20 events across 15 countries, helping more than 10,000 people start or grow online businesses, and working with more than 120 clients to scale stores to multiple seven and eight figures.

He also reports hosting seven mastermind events in Greece and sharing stages with speakers including Robert Kiyosaki, Ryan Deiss, Neil Patel, Charles Ngo and Ezra Firestone. He attributes more than $60 million in results to his work in 2020.

Frequently asked questions

What does Brand Master Accelerator cover?

The course focuses on building and growing an e-commerce brand, including digital advertising and managing ad spend.

Who is Brand Master Accelerator for?

It is relevant to people interested in starting an online brand or growing an e-commerce store without relying on Chinese dropshipping.

Does the course require a large advertising or inventory budget?

The course is positioned around building a brand without spending thousands on ads and inventory.

What e-commerce experience does Dimitris Skiadas bring?

Skiadas says he has built and scaled e-commerce stores since 2010 and has managed advertising for both smaller stores and major brands.