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| Business-savvy kids turn blogs into e-shopping outlets |
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RACHELLE Yee is 11 but she already runs two shops - online.
One is sweetified-shop.blogspot.com, where she sells clay jewellery she makes herself. The other is lolly-fantasy.blogspot.com, where she customises lollipop pendants based on customers' requests.
INTERNET FINDS: Some of Rachelle Yee's handmade clay jewellery. Net-savvy entrepreneurs who run blogshops are profiting from their creativity. |
The Primary 5 pupil who started her business last month has already sold 19 pieces of her creations, ranging from bracelets to mobilephone charms. She has made a profit of almost $30.
She is part of a fast-growing group of youngsters - in true digital native style - who are setting up shop using their blogs and earning extra pocket money from their ventures.
The Straits Times polled 80 youth, aged 13 to 19, and found that Internet shopping is the preferred choice for half of them, because of its convenience and unusual finds.
Whereas digital immigrants might prefer the old-fashioned consumer technique of haggling face to face, natives make a beeline for the Internet. There, they trade on a wide array of items ranging from second-hand clothing or brand-new ones they bought on impulse (and now want to get rid of), to handmade accessories or art pieces.
Portals which consolidate blogshop numbers, like OneShop or Emall.sg, showed more than 200 such shopping blogs in Singapore by teenagers, with most started last year.
Rachelle hit on the idea of starting a business after seeing her cousin Cheryl Lui, 17, start hers successfully at www.treaties.blogspot.com
She now spends six hours a day updating her blog during school holidays in addition to another few hours creating her clay jewellery - her stock.
She also sells charms or little mementos which she imports from Japan with thehelp of her cousin.
Said Rachelle, who studies at De La Salle School in Choa Chu Kang: "Running a business is not easy. Sometimes I need to post something out and the nearby shop runs out of stamps. Or I may have to handle customers' complaints that the workmanship is not good enough."
And for an entrepreneur as young as she is, collecting payment from her customers is not straightforward because she does not have an Internet banking facility.
Some of her teenage customers also have no access to online banking and so theyhave to post her hard cash, hidden in an envelope - a payment procedure aptlycalled "concealed cash".
Others do a fund transfer to her POSB account, but in order to check that the money is in, she has to take a free shuttle bus from her Hillview home to West Mall shopping centre where the nearest ATM is located.
Rachelle, who designed her own blogshop, learnt Web design by experimenting on her father's computer while she was in Primary 1.
She plans to continue her business even during schooldays, but will close her shops during the Primary School Leaving Examination next year.
The plucky girl said: "If business is good, I plan to open my shop worldwide. I can send items by airmail and they can pay me using Paypal."
Paypal, an international payment facility and currency of the Internet, calls for the use of a credit card which Rachelle does not yet qualify for.
But she and her many peers are undeterred, going by the number of blogshops in the virtual world. On most shopping blogs, there are also links to at least another 100 blogs owned by young digital natives.
Some teenagers who are more tech-savvy go a step further - they even design from scratch websites of their own.
Monica Lie, 15, from Singapore Chinese Girls School, for example, owns theglassbead.vze.com, a professional-looking site she designed herself. The self-taught graphic designer has been interested in design since she was nine.
She borrowed $50 from her mother to start her jewellery design business, and has already made a profit of $500. She even received two orders from the United States recently.
Before she started the online shop, her mother helped her apply for Internet banking.
Said Monica: "I prefer an online business because it's cheaper to set up, I don't have to pay rent. But because I don't think it's safe to just meet someone I know online, I always post items out instead of arranging to meet up."
To keep her designs exclusive, she makes at most five pieces of each.
While handmade jewellery remains the most popular items sold by teenagers, there are others who prefer to sell something different - for instance, hand-painted canvas Mary Jane shoes or art pieces, or whatever appeals to them.
For these teens, the range is endless.
Lin Xin, 17, a first-year Singapore Polytechnic business administration student, paints Mary Jane shoes in leopard, sunflower or stripes prints.
At Button Parlour (button-parlour.blogspot.com), colourful buttons are turned into fanciful earrings by adding a stud behind the button. Prices start from $1.90 for a pair of plain coloured studs.
Another shop, Pixel Pastry (pixelpastry.com), has digital artworks and graphic designs by artist and boss Lim Si Ping.
The 19-year-old LaSalle SIA College of the Arts design student said her site is more a hobby than a career for now, even though her clientele has grown quickly to include overseas ones since she started the shop last year.
While working with the Internet has allowed her to reach clients on the other side of the globe, she said it has disadvantages because "anyone can rip my work off from the Internet and use it illegally".
Parents of these teenagers are still trying to get used to the idea of their child starting a business.
As Rachelle's mother, housewife Madam Joanna Qua, 40, put it: "At first, I was worried she might be doing something illegal. She's still so young and I don't know much about IT. But now I see her putting in so much effort, I feel quite happy and proud of her."
First published: The Straits Times, Jan 8, 2007
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