Read this before you start your e-commerce business

How easy is it to start an e-commerce business? I get this question a lot from friends and readers.

From a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being easy to start and 5 difficult, I would say that e-commerce is a 2.

As long as you have some spare time to create listings on the different platforms and to source for product, you can start an ecommerce business. You can read more about how I started my e-commerce business here.

The next question that usually follows is how much can you make from an e-commerce business. Well my answer to them is that it's good enough for the spare time I am spending on it. You can read more about how much I am making in this post and this post.

The question I don’t really get asked a lot is "what are the problems I faced in this ecommerce Journey?" So this is exactly what I am going to share in this post.

The first and the biggest problem I faced is time commitment. Because I am at a stage of the business where I’m doing more sales than I can handle comfortably but also not doing enough to outsource it, I am always struggling to manage my time between work, family and packing orders.

When borders opened up post Covid19, and travelling resumed last year, my family wanted to go for a trip year end. This mean that I have to set my store to holiday mode and miss out on holiday sales.

Fortunately, I have another partner that I started the ecommerce stores with and we had to stagger our holiday plans so we can still fulfil orders during the holidays. The holiday surges with only 1 person handling packing is pretty challenging. Besides packing, we also had to deal with customer services and returns which adds on to the challenges.

The other problem I have is storage. Again, at this current stage of my business, I am needing more storage space and yet the business is not big enough to rent one. 

So I have to find ways to accommodate the product in my house and it is getting pretty messy and difficult to manage. Well not to mention the occasional complains from my wife....

Although the monthly side income is a good addition, it does comes with a lot of commitment and sacrifices. So be prepared to make sacrifices before you embark on your own journey.

If anyone of you had been through this, do also share with me your thoughts and journey.

Thanks for reading and do support me on my referral page. Stay Safe and Happy Side Hustling!

Get your free NTUC vouchers and more with Trust Bank here.

Check out the CPFcalculator to plan for your retirement now!