Trevor Chapman: The eCommerce Expert Who Sold His $200 Business for $10 Million

Trevor Chapman is a highly regarded digital marketing strategist and eCommerce specialist.

In fact, in 2019, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) credited Trevor Chapman as one of the greatest digital marketing experts in the world.

Trevor founded LDSMan.com and has since gone on to become an eCommerce guru. He says you can build an eCommerce and become successful in 90 days.

Can you believe him?

This Trevor Chapman profile review will tell you how he used $200 to make a $10 million eCommerce business and whether it’s something you can copy. 

Who is Trevor Chapman?

Trevor Chapman is a digital marketer and an eCommerce expert, currently the CEO of Bark.com and several eCommerce platforms. He is recognized by Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Time, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Money.com, Inc., and other publications. 

Trevor Chapman’s greatest achievement was founding an online store — LDSMan.com — for $200 and selling it for $10 million in just 2 years. He also founded the Academy of Arbitrage, an online course that teaches people how to become successful eCommerce entrepreneurs in under 90 days.

Trevor is currently a digital marketing and eCommerce strategist for top digital brands. He owns over a dozen eCommerce websites and is an eCommerce entrepreneur coach. 

Trevor Chapman’s Background and Career Path

Trevor Chapman was born in 1983. He grew up in Guam before moving to Alaska, where he attended high school. In college, he majored in philosophy.

While he was a college student and broke, Trevor Chapman became a salesperson selling pest control door-to-door to make some money. 

Later, he launched his own sales operation for solar panel installation that quickly expanded across 3 states.

Two years later, he thought about quitting his job. In his mind, “There would come a point in time when he had to say, ‘I’m in my mid-30s, am I willing to wait until my kids are out [of our house] … to enjoy my life to the extent I imagined I would?”

Fortunately, before he quit the solar business, Chapman came across a Warren Buffett quote saying:

 “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”

Then he figured that eCommerce was his best chance to earn passive income.

So he decided to start an online business first, spending $200 to launch LDSman.com, offering a strange but wide assortment of unique items sourced from China.

Within 3 months, Trevor Chapman went from working 12 hours per day at his solar company to spending only one hour and a half per week on his site. The site hit its first $1 million in sales within 3 months. 

His strategy was Facebook ads, digital marketing, and inspiration from his solar panel business: When selling door-to-door, make the product so intriguing that people will just let you into their homes. When selling online, you’ve got to offer something very interesting to pull someone from their feeds.

Chapman turned down a buyout offer in 2017 worth approx. $3 million.

Then, in 2018, Chapman sold LDSman, his courses, and corresponding e-commerce logistics companies to a holding company. The deal was worth over $10 million.

Overview of Trevor Chapman’s Accomplishments as an entrepreneur and business leader

Trevor Chapman has had many accomplishments, small and big, over his career as an entrepreneur and business leader. Here are some of his notable achievements

He started out as a door-to-door salesperson of pest control products door-to-door.

Then, Trevor operated a solar panel installation company for 2 years.

He founded the LDSman online eCommerce store and achieved $1 million within 92 days, $2 million within 6 months, and $3 million in one year. 

Trevor Chapman sold his eCommerce store — LDSman — for $10 million only 2 years after launching it.

Trevor began an online teaching platform for eCommerce coaching — the Academy of Arbitrage — where he helped thousands of people enter eCommerce. 

He helped people without any experience build eCommerce businesses. 

Trevor founded eCommCon.co, the largest free virtual summit for people in eCommerce and digital marketing. It united the whole eCommerce community. 

In 2019, the Harvard Business Review named Trevor Chapman one of the world’s top digital marketing experts. Leading publications like Forbes, The Huffington Post, Money.com, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Inc., and Entrepreneur have also featured him.

Trevor Chapman currently consults for top digital brands because he’s one of America’s top digital strategists. 

He is the CEO of Bark.com and also owns more than a dozen of his own eCommerce websites. 

Trevor also hosts The Entrepreneur Trevor Chapman Show, a popular business podcast. 

Personal insights & lessons learned from Trevor Chapman’s career and personal development

Between 2014 and now, Trevor Chapman has grown and become a respected and recognized eCommerce entrepreneur and coach. 

He has executed different strategies to help individuals and businesses with eCommerce and digital marketing. 

Out of his many digital marketing strategies, three of the essential ones to skyrocket the growth of eCommerce businesses are:

• Advertising (Facebook)
• Commerce Coaching (eTraining)
• Community and networking 

Chapman noted how revolutionary the opportunities provided by a digital economy and globalization could make one rich in a fortnight.

He says Facebook data helps shape Facebook ads and spur growth in ways that couldn’t be achieved before the advent of digital marketing.

Today “In a month you can be more powerful than Target … and you can simply do that online. That’s the power of e-commerce,” says Chapman.

His eCommCon.co community gave him a huge platform to market himself as an eCommerce coach and market his businesses. 

But it’s also clear that success is cumulative

“Success doesn’t appear, success accrues.” — Trevor Chapman

You have to focus on performing well consistently (in your eCommerce) rather than performing brilliantly once in a while. 

And you have to be intentional with your success like Chapman decided to start a business and enjoy his life now.

FAQs

When did Trevor Chapman start LDSman?

Trevor’s LDSman.com went live on Nov. 11, 2016, and 92 days later, it earned the first 1 million.

What is the Academy of Arbitrage?

The Academy of Arbitrage is Trevor Chapman’s online course that can teach individuals how to retire by making money in eCommerce within 90 days through dropshipping.

What is Trevor Chapman’s Net Worth?

Trevor Chapman’s net worth is estimated to be $46.5 Million. But this is not confirmed by reliable sources like Celebrity Net Worth.

Takeaway

Despite the longer time taken to succeed, Trevor Chapman’s experience says you can succeed with e-commerce. It’s a great option for anyone who wants to control their time and achieve financial stability. Plus, you can use powerful social media to market to drive sales and generate more revenue. Now, learning these strategies alone isn’t enough; you need to execute the ideas and see how you can start and scale your business.

If you’re looking to build an exciting e-commerce business that sets your family up for life while also making the world a better place, we’d love to help you. In fact, we’re on a mission to make one million millionaires by 2028. 

Want to be one of them? Your first step is watching this free video that’ll help you find the perfect business for YOU.