Are you interesting in selling physical products online?
If so, you’re in the right place. Ecommerce can be a lucrative side hustle with great potential to scale into a full-time business.
In these archives, we cover Amazon FBA business models, ebay selling, dropshipping, and of course the traditional ecommerce model of setting up your own online storefront.
You’ll discover print-on-demand ecommerce models and how some side hustlers have found success in the homemade and handmade marketplaces.
Now these different “flavors” of ecommerce can vary widely in terms of how much they cost to start. With print-on-demand and dropshipping, you essentially have zero upfront inventory cost. With Amazon FBA private labeling, you might be looking at a minimum order of several thousand dollars to get your product imported and up for sale on Amazon.
Your time involvement on the fulfillment side is another factor to consider. With shops like Etsy, you’re in charge of making and shipping the product for each order that comes through. With ebay, it’s off to the post office each time an auction ends. At the other end of the spectrum, the print-on-demand services and Amazon FBA handle the fulfillment for you — but at a cost.
Keep these concepts in mind as you explore the ecommerce archives here at Side Hustle Nation.
John Cavendish of FBA Frontiers started his FBA business three years ago and has become an advocate for the e-commerce and FBA scene in Europe.
If you already have experience with Amazon FBA in the US, expanding into Europe is easier than you’re probably thinking and opens up a much wider customer base.
Scott Voelker is the host of the super popular Amazing Seller podcast, where he’s recorded more than 300 episodes about the Amazon FBA business model.
He’s a family man and a serial hustler, having been involved with a number of businesses ranging from construction to photography to ecommerce.
His latest project is the 1k FastTrack Challenge, where he takes a group of students through the paces of making their first $1000 selling online.
Dan Meadors is one-half of TheWholesaleFormula.com. He and his partner Eric Lambert began selling on Amazon as a hobby with an original investment of only $600.
They would work nights and weekends buying products on clearance at local retail stores and selling them on Amazon for profit.
It took only a few months before they saw the potential to turn this hobby into a business and they both left their day jobs to sell on Amazon full-time.
Nathan Chan is the founder of FoundrMag.com. The digital magazine started as a side hustle in 2013, and has since transformed into a multi-million dollar media company.
Nathan is perhaps best-known for growing his business through Instagram, a platform where Foundr now has almost a million followers.
But today I want to dive into a different angle of Nathan’s business, and that’s crowdfunding.
Elaine Heney is an app entrepreneur, an Amazon FBA seller (a business she actually sold), and is living the location independent lifestyle. You can find out more about her merch business at MerchEntrepreneur.com
Last year she sold more than $128k worth of t-shirts through Amazon’s Merch by Amazon program, a print-on-demand service offered by the retail giant, of which, $53k was profit.
As a private label seller on Amazon, Andy has seen his revenue grow from $400k in year one, to $900k in year two, and he is closing in on $1.8 million for year three!
I last spoke with Andy Slamans on episode 84 of The Side Hustle Show back in late 2014. At that time, he was wrapping up his first year as a full-time Amazon seller. Today he and his partner Liran (also a 7-figure Amazon seller) join me to discuss what’s working on Amazon NOW in terms of product research and marketing.
“Find a hot trend and piggyback on it,” Toni Anderson told me.
And that’s exactly what she did in launching her ecommerce business last year in the jewelry niche. It’s not just generic jewelry, but jewelry designed to specifically ride on the “essential oils” trend.
Toni said 90% of her business comes through Amazon vs. her own storefront, but that she and her partner did $190k in sales in their first 7 months!
Kara Lamerato is a work-at-home-mom of 2, but runs a successful business in her spare time. Kara’s Vineyard Wedding supplies brides with wine-themed wedding decorations, and has shipped thousands of orders.
Kara started the business before having kids while she was still working full-time in private banking. The idea came from her own wedding and thinking there might be other brides out there looking for similar DIY-style items.
She put a listing up on Etsy, and a couple weeks later, she had her first order!
Dropshipping is also a topic we haven’t really covered in depth in the past, but many listeners have been requesting to learn more about it.
I reached out to Anton Kraly, who’s one of the most successful people I know in this space. He’s been selling online for almost 10 years and he and his team have built out an impressive portfolio or drop ship stores.
Dropshipping is where you sell a product and the manufacturer or supplier ships it directly to your customer.
A few people have been asking for an update on my Amazon FBA efforts, so here goes!
The bottom line is that this side hustle has been profitable, but not by a lifestyle-changing amount.
So far, I’ve only focused on local clearance arbitrage, with my best finds being from Walmart, Home Depot, Office Depot, and Babies ‘R Us.