Burak, 19At a glance
Who
Burak. The Real World’s caption gives the age as 19 and shows a Dutch flag; the interviewer introduces Burak as a “young kid” from “up in the Netherlands” (0:20). Burak doesn’t state an age in the video.
Starting point
“I was low on cash flow, so I never should have even started with e-commerce in the first place” (0:53).
Campus
Ecommerce. Burak: “seeing everyone making money here with dropshipping, seeing everyone else making money there with their own brand in e-commerce” (1:02).
Timeline
Started in December (0:46); first sale “about two to three weeks into it” (1:42), “the third week of December” (2:04); 60,000 “within three months” (1:24). The video gives no year; it was on The Real World’s home page by 8 June 2023.
Result (video)
“I got to 50, I believe I’m at 60,000 even now. So 60,000 within three months” (1:24). No currency; sales or profit not said.
The store
“my store has a really high conversion rate. It’s up to three to 4% now” (2:28). Burak’s own figure; this site hasn’t seen the store.
Result (caption)
The Real World’s caption: “New revenue: $66,000 in 3 months”, and that Burak “reached over $60k in sales doing E-commerce” in the first three months in The Real World.
The caption and Burak roughly agree: Burak says 60,000 in three months; the caption’s text says “over $60k in sales” and its headline “$66,000”. The dollar sign and the word “sales” are the caption’s; Burak gives neither, and says nothing about profit after the first weeks. The figures are Burak’s and The Real World’s own; this site hasn’t seen the store’s accounts.
What Burak said
7 lines from the interview, copied exactly, each with what it means in plain English. The times are where they fall in the video.
“In the first couple weeks I wasn’t making any money, I was actually losing, so it was quite bad.”
What it means: The start was a loss, by Burak’s own account.
“I was low on cash flow, so I never should have even started with e-commerce in the first place, but I was just greedy”
What it means: Burak’s own warning: starting a store with little money behind it was a risk.
“It was my first sale after advertising for about 100 bucks, and I got 30 bucks back from it, so I was still minus 70 for that week.”
What it means: A first sale is not a first profit: about 100 spent on ads, about 30 back.
“I got to 50, I believe I’m at 60,000 even now. So 60,000 within three months.”
What it means: Burak’s headline figure. No currency, and not said whether it is sales or profit.
“my store has a really high conversion rate. It’s up to three to 4% now.”
What it means: The share of store visitors who buy, by Burak’s account.
“The professor has a material list where you can see exactly, like, what you need to do”
What it means: What Burak sees in the weak student stores reviewed: they don’t follow it.
“After you make some money, of course, test your own things and see what works best for you.”
What it means: Experiment later: first follow the lessons, then test.
What Burak did, step by step
Burak started e-commerce in December
“low on cash flow”, and “in the first couple weeks I wasn’t making any money, I was actually losing”.
In the video at 0:46
Burak made a first sale, still at a loss
“about two to three weeks into it”, after “advertising for about 100 bucks”, with “30 bucks back”: “minus 70 for that week”.
In the video at 1:42
Burak followed the professor’s material
“The professor has a material list where you can see exactly, like, what you need to do”: a plain store, “You just want a white background” (3:13).
In the video at 2:55
Sales snowballed
“After the first sale everything kept coming on”, and now Burak has “to put my notifications out”.
In the video at 2:08
60,000 within three months
“I got to 50, I believe I’m at 60,000 even now”, with a store converting “three to 4%” (2:28).
In the video at 1:24
Full transcript
Read the full interview transcript (4 minutes)
Transcribed on 5 November 2026 from the interview audio with Whisper speech recognition (run locally): a first pass on 25 October, then two more full passes with the medium and small models; punctuation fixed, fillers dropped, nothing added. “Grokas” (0:00) is a member the interviewer names, as two of the three readings hear it. “The Tate Brothers” (1:14) is as Burak says it (two of three readings). The video is edited: the answer at 2:18 follows no question on screen. Speaker labels are ours. The interviewer is not a Tate.
0:00 Interviewer: I want to let everybody know about you, because I learned about you from Grokas, who is an absolute G in The Real World, interviewing a whole bunch of other dudes as well that are killing the game, young guys. But he told me about you, that there is this young kid with lots of potential up in the Netherlands who's been absolutely killing it in the e-commerce game. And I was like, who is this? And he told me that you pulled some crazy shit in the beginning when you joined The Real World to get you where you are now. So how did that story begin, and explain to me the results that you got when you first joined The Real World as well.
0:46 Burak: Yeah, so in December is actually when I started. That's when I started with e-commerce. In the first couple weeks I wasn't making any money, I was actually losing, so it was quite bad. And I was low on cash flow, so I never should have even started with e-commerce in the first place, but I was just greedy and I wanted to make money, seeing everyone making money here with dropshipping, seeing everyone else making money there with their own brand in e-commerce. So I was like, all right, I got to get on this shit, and that's exactly what I did. I started, and it really took off after the Tate Brothers got in jail, because that's when I started to pick things up, get serious about what I was doing actually. And from there on, it really took off from the start, and I got to 50, I believe I'm at 60,000 even now. So 60,000 within three months. So that's where I'm at right now.
1:36 Interviewer: When did this, like, happen, in terms of when was your first sale?
1:42 Burak: My first sale was actually about two to three weeks into it. That's when I got my first sale, but I was still not profitable by this time. It was my first sale after advertising for about 100 bucks, and I got 30 bucks back from it, so I was still minus 70 for that week. So I was not making any money at that time either. So my first sale was back in December, on, I believe, the third week of December. And from there everything went on, and it was a snowball effect. After the first sale everything kept coming on, and now I literally have to put my notifications out, because it's annoying to hear that money sound come in every time.
2:18 Burak: It's quite basic, but I would really put the emphasis on following the lessons correctly, because I've seen multiple student stores. I've tried to review them, because my store has a really high conversion rate. It's up to three to 4% now. So I'm trying to give people tips and just trying to improve their stores, or trying to improve their winning product criteria, or their ads, or just their metrics. I'm trying to help them out as well. And when I look at everything, I just notice the same thing happening again with the stores that are bad, basically. And they're basically not following what the professor is putting out. The professor has a material list where you can see exactly, like, what you need to do and what the best way of doing it is. And people still go out and do it their own way, which basically doesn't work. Basically, like, coloring the whole background yellow, green or whatever. A site doesn't look good like that. You just want a white background, and just follow the lessons of the professors and you will definitely get there. Maybe not as high as I am in three months, but you'll definitely get your first sale, or even go beyond me in those three months, if you just follow the lessons correctly and implement every single day, without going your own path and trying things on your own. After you make some money, of course, test your own things and see what works best for you. See if you want to do an ABO or CBO campaign in Facebook ads or whatever. See if a black background works better in your store instead of a white one. But starting out, you really need to follow the lessons of the professors to actually get started and to get that first sale, to hear that first ka-ching and your phone blowing off. You really need to follow the lessons of the professors, and keep doing that consistently, to reach that first sale or even go higher.
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E-commerce in context
Burak’s store is one business in a market that governments measure every quarter. The figures below are the latest official ones on 25 October 2026, with the date each was checked, because they move.
What it is
- E-commerce is selling goods or services where the order is placed online. The US Census Bureau counts sales “where the buyer places an order, or the price and terms of the sale are negotiated over an Internet, mobile device … or other comparable online system. Payment may or may not be made online.”
- Dropshipping is a way of running a store without holding stock: the supplier ships each order after the customer pays. Shopify’s definition: “Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where online stores sell products without keeping them in stock.” The campus’s first course is named for it: “Start Here: Learn how to start dropshipping”.
- Where Burak fits. Burak runs an online store with paid ads: the first sale came after “advertising for about 100 bucks” (1:46), and Burak mentions “an ABO or CBO campaign in Facebook ads” (3:39). The campus teaches both halves: its Store Setup course is “Learn how to build a high-converting Shopify store” and its Paid Traffic course “Learn how to get sales with Meta Ads”. Burak doesn’t name the products or the platform.
A short history
- 1999: the first official count. The US Census Bureau’s first estimate of retail e-commerce was $5.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 1999, 0.64% of US retail sales (released 2 March 2000).
- 2007 to 2025 in the UK: internet sales went from 3.4% of all retail sales to 27.5% (Office for National Statistics, series J4MC, released 23 October 2026).
- 2026: US e-commerce was 17.1% of retail sales in the second quarter (Census Bureau, 18 August 2026), and 28.3% of UK retail sales were online in September 2026 (ONS).
How much is spent
US online sales, Q2 2026
$340.2 billion (seasonally adjusted), 17.1% of all US retail sales. US Census Bureau, 18 August 2026; checked 25 October 2026.
UK retail sales made online
28.3% in September 2026; 27.5% for 2025 as a whole. ONS series J4MC, 23 October 2026; checked 25 October 2026.
Sales through Shopify
“$1 trillion+” of sales made by businesses on Shopify (Shopify’s own about page, checked 25 October 2026). Its Q2 2026 results reported “more than 30% growth in GMV” (5 August 2026).
What a new store earns
Nobody publishes it. The figures above are market totals, not what one store makes. The only member figures on this page are Burak’s and the posts below, each one person’s own account.
The Census Bureau’s third-quarter figure is due on 19 November 2026 and the next ONS release on 20 November 2026.
What The Real World offers for e-commerce
What the Ecommerce campus looks like from a member’s account, how a new member starts, and what the support is like. The Ecommerce campus page covers what it teaches, and the Ecommerce campus review covers the costs and what can go wrong.
How you get started
Join and pick the Ecommerce campus
One membership covers every campus: $99 a month or $996 a year on the official checkout. Inside the app you choose a campus; the Ecommerce card reads “Learn how to start and scale an ecommerce business”.
Read #start-here
The first channel you see. Prof. Shuayb’s pinned post: “Start going through the courses by clicking below. More channels will open once you complete the COURSES.”
Work through the Learning Center in order
Six courses: Start Here (“Learn how to start dropshipping”), Branding (“Learn how to find winning products to sell”), Store Setup (“Learn how to build a high-converting Shopify store”), Paid Traffic (“Learn how to get sales with Meta Ads”), Artificial Intelligence Masterclass and Knowledge Hub. The later courses stay locked until the earlier ones are done.
Unlock more chats as you go
The roadmap in #start-here shows three stages, Introduction complete, Branding complete and Paid traffic complete, each opening more channels: “Complete courses to unlock more chats”.
Follow the material as written, then test
Burak’s advice: “follow the lessons of the professors to actually get started and to get that first sale” (3:48), and only “After you make some money” test your own ideas (3:35). Budget for a loss at first: Burak’s first week with a sale was “minus 70”.
What support is like
- Chats. From day one you see #start-here, #new-student-chat, #wins and #GM-daily; more open as you complete courses. Burak reviews other students’ stores and gives them tips on “their winning product criteria, or their ads, or just their metrics” (2:28). That is Burak’s account. The Real World publishes no response-time promise.
- Professor. Inside the app the Ecommerce campus is run by “Prof. Shuayb”, whose pinned post opens #start-here; the public campus page names no professor. Burak doesn’t name the professor, but says “The professor has a material list where you can see exactly, like, what you need to do” (2:55).
- #wins channel. Members post their results there, and every post has to include a screenshot. The five posts below come from it.
- No guarantee. The Real World’s Terms of Use say it doesn’t guarantee any financial outcome. Every campus starts from the fundamentals and assumes no prior knowledge.
Real wins and reviews
Posts from the Ecommerce campus’s #wins channel, captured on 25 October 2026 from the owner’s own member account. Each is that member’s own post with its date; names and avatars are blurred. Tap any screenshot to see it full size. They are individual results, not typical ones, and not a promise: The Real World doesn’t publish average member earnings.
The next screenshot is so far today. The bounce back happened and I didn’t have to mess with anything. Sometimes less is more…
What members said on Trustpilot
Trustpilot has since removed The Real World’s profiles. These excerpts come from archived copies of those pages, read on 25 October 2026, with the reviewer’s first name, country and date as shown; “Invited” is Trustpilot’s label for reviews that came through a business link. The jointherealworld.com.de profile was not run by The Real World; reviewers used it anyway. They are other people’s words, not this site’s findings.
“The biggest thing for me, besides the lessons and the professors, is the community. You have a problem, ask a question in chat, fixed in 5 minutes.”
“after a month, I informed them that their services were not suitable for me. Despite my clear communication, they attempted to withdraw a significant amount of money from my credit card for an additional two months.”
The Real World replied: “turn off auto-renew before your next billing date.”
“Most the informaton you could find for free online in other places but you'll spend more time trying to find a simple step by step guide then using this platform.”
“Despite paying $49 per month (around $300 total), I didn't make any money or gain valuable insights. Much of the content was outdated and U.S.-focused”
“the campuses are also perfect if you are completely new to these methods of wealth creation but it'll take you some time before you see results.”
“The courses themselves are okay, but they're difficult to apply, and getting real clients is even harder. Overall, I don't think this works.”
For the record, the scores on 27 February 2025: the profile at trwstudent.com showed 2.9 from 23 reviews, and therealworldeducation.com showed 4.4 from 82, most of them invited through a business link over two days. Both profiles have since been removed.
Is this path for you?
It may suit you if
- You will follow the lessons as written before trying your own ideas, as Burak advises.
- You can take a loss in the first weeks. Burak was “minus 70” in the week of the first sale.
- You like working on numbers: ads spent, money back, conversion rate.
- You have a small budget for a store and ads. The Real World groups Ecommerce with “a small budget and an interest in products”.
- You are patient and willing to test more than one product. The member behind this site found the first product rarely works.
It may not suit you if
- You have no budget at all. Hosting and ads cost money before any sales arrive; for no budget, The Real World points to Client Acquisition, Strategic Marketing or AI Automation instead. Burak, who started “low on cash flow”, says “I never should have even started with e-commerce in the first place”.
- You want quick results. Testing products takes time, and one of the #wins posts above lost $450 on ads before its first orders.
- You read 60,000 as profit. Burak doesn’t say; The Real World’s caption calls it sales.
- You need a guaranteed return. The Real World’s Terms of Use say it doesn’t guarantee any financial outcome, and Burak’s figures are Burak’s own.
Burak’s numbers are one student’s account, given in an interview The Real World chose to publish. For the campus itself, read the Ecommerce campus review, written by a member who built a Shopify store with it.
What happens after you join
The member behind this site went through these steps himself. This is his own account, from 25 October 2026.
Choose a plan on the official checkout
You go to the official checkout and choose a plan. Only Conquer ($99 a month, or yearly at 17% off) can be bought now: Vanguard ($499 a month) shows “Sold Out” on the checkout (checked 25 October 2026).
Get the sign-in email
After you pay, you get an email with a link to sign in.
Set your password and log in
On the sign-in page you click “Forgot password”, which emails you a link to set your password. Then you log in.
Choose the Ecommerce campus
You choose your campus: Ecommerce, the one this page is about. Every campus is included.
Start the courses
You start the courses: watch the lessons and take notes. Finishing lessons unlocks the next sections and chats.
The choice is yours
Includes the Ecommerce campus and every other campus.
Take action
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- Chat groups for every campus
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Sources
- The Real World: Burak’s student interview video (Cloudflare Stream) — transcribed November 5, 2026
- jointherealworld.com home page with the interview and its caption (Wayback Machine, June 8, 2023) — checked November 5, 2026
- Inside The Real World app: the Ecommerce campus Learning Center, #start-here and #wins channel (screenshots from the owner’s member account) — captured October 25, 2026
- The Real World: Ecommerce campus page — checked September 12, 2026
- The Real World Terms of Use (no guaranteed outcome) — checked September 14, 2026
- US Census Bureau: Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, 2nd Quarter 2026 (release CB26-133, August 18, 2026) — checked October 25, 2026
- US Census Bureau: Retail E-Commerce Sales for the Fourth Quarter 1999 (release CB00-40, March 2, 2000) — checked October 25, 2026
- Office for National Statistics: Internet sales as a percentage of total retail sales (series J4MC, released October 23, 2026) — checked October 25, 2026
- Shopify: about page (“$1 trillion+” sales made by businesses on Shopify) — checked October 25, 2026
- Shopify: second quarter 2026 financial results (August 5, 2026) — checked October 25, 2026
- Shopify: What is dropshipping (updated November 21, 2025) — checked October 25, 2026
- Trustpilot reviews of trwstudent.com, archived February 27, 2025 (Wayback Machine) — read October 25, 2026
- Trustpilot reviews of therealworldeducation.com, archived February 27, 2025, pages 1 and 2 (Wayback Machine) — read October 25, 2026
- Trustpilot reviews of www.cobratate.com, archived December 28, 2022 (Wayback Machine) — read October 25, 2026
- Trustpilot reviews of jointherealworld.com.de (not run by The Real World), archived February 27, 2026 (Wayback Machine) — read October 25, 2026