When I got started, I don't think I fully understood the big picture when running a Sellvia store.
Over time, I've come to think of it this way:
1) Yes, Sellvia is out to make money by offering pre-built and managed stores... and that's not evil
2) They've improved the drop shipping model by warehousing goods stateside to improve shipping times from China. This is a bonus for those of us that did dropshipping under Aliexpress.
3) They help new users get over the startup hurdles that maybe people failed at like store design, pricing, marketing, and management.
4) Their auto promotion plan is to help your store get immediate sales right from the starting gun, but it's foolish to think that alone will start making you money. It's a start, but you have to make plans on your own to ramp things up.
5) Their auto promotion plan only sells small ticket items that make it hard to even recover your costs never mind make profit. What it does do is drive new customers to your store that you can re-market to. I continue to use their automated plan and I enjoy having a constant stream of new users in my store. This is a huge bonus over trying to build this up yourself.
6) Today, social marketing is key even more important that SEO. Today, SEO is pretty much impossible to get any traction with. I didn't really understand what their Social marketing add on's were all about. I didn't understand that I had to open accounts on all Social platforms, and what I was purchasing from Sellvia was not their marketing service, but rather content for me to post on my platforms myself and promote with that platform's ad program. So yes, if you want to promote these items on Social, you have to pay the platform for their marketing. So budget for this.
7) Is Sellvia a scam? Believe me I've had those thoughts. They do have some policies that infuriate me. Like when I buy a product advertised at $99 but the invoice turns out to be $127 because of undisclosed handling and setup fees. This makes me see red - but - change your thinking. It is what it is - deal with it. Rather than get mad like I did, I started thinking of how much that service would cost me if I'd reached out to a designer to create the content for me. In short, in spite of their billing practices, it would cost a ton more money to get the same content in any other way.
8) In business you pay money in order to make more money. You can pay the money and completely fail, you can maybe break even with moderate work, or you can flourish by running it like a business. Sellvia often makes users believe it's a setup and ride-the-wave to success, but it's not like that. They can get you started leveraging their years of experience to guide you, but ultimately, it's your baby to make it work and it will cost you before you see the rewards. Get discouraged and quit? sure- if you wan to lock in your losses, or you can work the plan and look at the long plan.
Just my thoughts.
Kerry