Why Unified CEO Robert Nikic – The Dropshipping Guru Who Changed Dropshipping Forever

Growing up in Yugoslavia, Robert Nikic never imagined that he would become a multi-millionaire in the United States. In fact, dropshipping wasn’t something he even considered as a career until the Baltic War brought him to America. Today, he’s the founder and CEO of Why Unified, one of the world’s fastest-growing companies and arguably the best dropshipping platform on the planet. 

Discovering Dropshipping

When he arrived in the United States, Robert immediately sought a job. He found himself working in a wide range of hotels and resorts, and he ultimately ended up working in a large-scale luxury resort where he was surrounded by successful businesspeople day in and day out. Being friendly and curious, Robert gleaned useful information about up-and-coming industries, and when dropshipping was mentioned, he was intrigued. He decided to start his own ecommerce venture, but he quickly realized that the industry was riddled with issues that were nearly impossible to solve. 

Opening the Virtual Doors

Robert Nikic opened his very own ecommerce website hoping to get into dropshipping early and turn a substantial profit. After all, the conversations he had overheard led him to believe dropshipping was easy, and all he had to do was buy a website, find a supplier, and use the tools available from popular dropshipping companies to grow. Unfortunately for Robert, things weren’t that simple. He discovered that no matter how much time, effort, or money he put into his business, he just couldn’t profit. 

“They made it sound so simple, and I was sure I would be earning enough money to quit my job in a few months. That’s not how it worked out,” Robert says. “I spent countless hours and many sleepless nights trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t getting traffic, and the traffic I did get wouldn’t buy anything.” Many of today’s entrepreneurs can relate to this story; they experience the same thing. 

Unearthing the Problems 

Little by little, Robert dove headfirst into business, ecommerce, and dropshipping. He wanted to learn all he could and apply what he learned to his own store. At this point, he was determined to be successful. Robert says, “The biggest problem I had at first was trying to figure out how all the plugins worked. The marketing made them sound like miracle workers, but they were so complicated that I felt like I needed to take a semester-long course to figure them out.” 

This wasn’t the end of the ordeal, either. “The companies providing those tools are very misleading. They claim their plugin is a cheap solution, and it is, but what they don’t tell you is that you need to buy 15 other cheap solutions to make the first one work. At the end of the day, I spent thousands of dollars on tools and plugins designed to make other tools and plugins work, and I had no clue how to use any of them the way they were intended. I also had no idea how to compete with other dropshippers, and even back then, there was a lot of competition. I didn’t have a marketing degree, and I didn’t want to get one just to run an online store. That’s when I started thinking about making something better – something that actually worked.” 

Why Unified’s Infancy

After discovering for himself just how difficult it was to start and manage a successful ecommerce store, Robert put a team together and started working on a program that would make the marketing side of things simpler. They put their heads together, and Why Unified was born. It was released in 2011 as a marketing platform and it was immediately successful. Entrepreneurs who wanted to succeed without having to learn the ins and outs of marketing could use Why Unified to advertise their stores. Over the next few years, the news about this small but powerful tool began to spread. 

Even as dropshippers across the globe were discovering Why Unified, Robert was still learning more about the industry. “I wanted it to be more than a marketing platform. There were other problems that kept my store from growing, and I wanted to address those, too. Thanks to the success of the early versions of Why Unified, I knew we could make it happen. I wanted people to have something that was different and unique. I wanted people to have faster shipping times and access to better quality suppliers offering better quality products. I wanted to be transparent with the pricing and offer industry-leading profit margins that would give people a real chance at success.”

Robert thought of all the hardships he experienced with his own store, then created solutions. He applied those solutions to his own business, and when they worked, he incorporated them into the Why Unified platform. Not long afterward, the store he started with – the one that almost failed – earned $2 million in a single year. Shortly after that, he sold that store for $4 million and focused exclusively on Why Unified. 

In 2018, Robert Nikic and his team went all-in. They released the all-new Why Unified to the public, and it offered everything a dropshipper needed to be successful in virtually any niche. The four packages were tailored to individual dropshippers’ needs, whether they needed help with marketing their existing stores or they wanted a completely hands-off experience. As of 2023, Why Unified has grown from a small PaaS catering to a few hundred businesses to a massive dropshipping platform with more than 20,000 clients earning $100 million a year collectively. 

Dropshipping Advice from Robert Nikic

“While most people would say, ‘I never expected it to grow like this,’ I knew Why Unified would be huge. I saw it with my own two eyes.” Despite this, though, Robert says it’s important to set realistic expectations. “Social media has led people to believe that if they just invest $100 into a plugin and follow their channel, they’ll be millionaires overnight. That’s not realistic, and it’s frustrating when I see people making those claims. It took my store a long time to reach a million dollars in sales. At Why Unified, a lot of our clients see profits, but that doesn’t mean they’re millionaires in short order.”

Robert also wants dropshippers to be aware of the marketing tactics that Why Unified’s competitors are using and be wary of their claims. “Yes, there are cheaper options on the internet, but in this case, you really do get what you pay for. Why Unified is a monthly subscription rather than a one-time purchase, but that subscription gets you access to an entire team of professionals working behind the scenes to help your store grow and thrive.”

Conclusion

Why Unified’s future is bright. Recently, Robert announced his Forbes Agency Council and Fast Company Executive Board nominations, and Why Unified is also slated to be on Inc’s 500 Fastest-Growing Companies list for 2022. “I will never stop trying to make Why Unified better. It has completely changed dropshipping forever, and the goal is to continue leading the world as a dropshipping innovator for decades to come.”