LEVEL UP YOUR SIDE HUSTLE: GO ONLINE
SELL TO THE WORLD, EVEN WITH A TIGHT BUDGET
If you want to start a small online business but lack the funds, drop-shipping is a relatively low-risk and fuss-free way to start a side hustle.
Basically, there’s no need to fork out any money up front to invest in an inventory of items. Instead, you can trawl websites like Alibaba.com and Amazon.com (through its Fulfillment by Amazon programme) for drop-shipping manufacturers, and choose what you want to sell from their catalogues.
All you have to do is to set up a website with an e-commerce store and promote the things that you’re selling online. When a sale is made on your website, you simply act as a middleman to transfer the customer’s orders and shipment details to the manufacturer, who will ship the items directly to the customer. You earn a cut out of each sale.
Cherie Lim, a 22-year-old business and marketing undergraduate, dabbled in drop-shipping for four years.
“I found the cheapest ways to set up my website,” she recalls. “I experimented with Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, and I’m still exploring other platforms.”
She worked fast as a one-woman show, capitalising on the free two-week trial on e-commerce
