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.
What came first; the domain name or the business idea?
For Peter Askew, the owner of VidaliaOnions.com, and the author of a viral blog post called “I Sell Onions on the Internet”, the answer is always the domain name.
Peter is fascinated by expired domain names and how they’re treated like physical assets.
From zero to $3,500 a day selling custom pet prints on Etsy – in just 6 months!
That’s the story behind today’s guest, Luke Emery of VanWoof.com.
Luke has a background in design and portrait painting. So, he decided to utilize these skills and his e-commerce experience and start a business selling custom pet portraits.
This week I’m excited to share a unique side hustle that’s turning hobbies into profits, through what I’m calling “local” e-commerce.
This is a story of building a following for homemade or handmade products without shipping anything, without advertising, and without relying on 3rd party marketplaces like Amazon or Etsy for exposure.
We’re going to explore this through the lens of So Here’s the Dough — it’s a local cottage kitchen cookie operation run by a friend of mine here in Livermore, Jenn Fei.
Create a design.
Upload it to a store.
Earn passive royalties whenever it sells.
That’s the passive income dream, and that’s the premise behind the Merch by Amazon and print-on-demand side hustles.
“It was costing me money to go to my job,” Nate told me.
That was a year after Nate and Alysha Jackson started their Amazon FBA retail arbitrage business — with just a $100 investment.
Since then, the former public school teachers have sold over $1 million worth of products on Amazon!
In the e-commerce space, selling private label products on Amazon has been a popular side hustle for the last several years.
But is it still the best way to go?
Or is there a lower risk, higher reward way to turn your ideas into profits?
Thinking about taking an offline business online to reach a wider audience?
That’s what today’s guest Dustin Riechmann did. He used his digital marketing skills to take a local business’s product online and generated $500k in sales in year one.
Dustin is a long-time listener of the show. He has a blog called EngagedMarriage.com, and a couple of years ago he started a new consulting business to help other businesses build their online presence.
Etsy is no longer just the marketplace of handmade crafts! Yes, you can sell digital products like printables and even drop ship physical goods without ever touching your inventory.
We haven’t really discussed Etsy in detail for a while. But I thought it was time to take a closer look at this platform again, as it’s seen tremendous growth in recent years.
What’s the fastest way to multiply money?
It might be reselling.
That is, buy low, sell high, repeat.
Keely Stawicki started reselling when she was just 12 years old, flipping a horse saddle on Craigslist and making $100 profit.
Fast forward 15 years–and more than $270,000 in sales–and reselling is now her full-time gig. Today, Keely focuses mostly on vintage goods, clothing, and furniture–all items in great demand right now.
Amy Feierman and Kristin Ostrander of MommyIncome.com have generated over $2 million in sales on Amazon over the last 12 months – not through retail arbitrage, not with FBA, but with a unique strategy that has high margins and lower costs per sale.
What are they selling on Amazon?
Bundles — Think shampoo and conditioner, peanut and butter, or any 2-6 products that compliment each other and provide some added value and convenience to the buyer.
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