| Written by Siti Rozianti, on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 |
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  So you have dreams of starting your own business. What can you do? Well, why not follow the examples of many others and set up your very own blog shop? Blog shops can work because most youths are tech-savvy and Internet banking as well as PayPal make online payment easy and relatively safe. Best of all, there is a ready supply of consumers online. “In a way, it is a good form of retail therapy. I can shop whenever I want to,” says student Geraldine Chua. Besides the ease of reaching out to consumers, the convenience of having an easy start-up is also one reason why blog shops are springing up like dandelions. Alvin Tan, the PR liaison of flea.sg, an online blog shop directory, says the appeal of blog shops for new business owners is the low start-up cost. In fact, blog shop owners can just take a “blogspot” or a “livejournal” address and start their businesses right away. In addition, blog shops work so well because the blogging interface is pretty straightforward and “as an owner, you don't have to go through the whole process of setting up an e-commerce store in the conventional way. You just need to know how to make a blog post.” Owner of Jewelry of Lav, Lavender Low, cited the ability to work from home as another reason to open up a blog shop. As a mother, family is important to her and having a blog shop gives Lavender the chance to combine her passion of jewellery making with a business model that suits her schedule. 
ONE OF THE NEW ITEMS IN LAVENDER'S COLLECTIONS However, more and more blog shop owners are now making the switch to having both an online presence and an offline retail shop for a bigger piece of the market. Lavender, for example, is just one amongst a group of other blog shop owners who has made the move offline. If blog shop owners are not comfortable with owning an entire retail space, shops like Best of Blog Shops in Far East and other shops at Haji Lane, Suntec and Jurong Point allow blog shops to display their items either on a commission or on a rental basis. These shops help give both the blog shop owners and their customers a different shopping experience. As Jenny Chan of Jenny’s Bitz and Pieces told Youth.SG, “Jewellery is something people feel comfortable feeling and touching and trying before buying. So in a way, it is easier to retail it directly. 
SOMETHING YOU CAN BUY FOR VALENTINE'S DAY! When asked if they would pick one form of their shop over the other, both Lavendar and Jenny insisted that their business model would only be effective with both. Lavender has “customers who still prefer shopping online” and they constantly check her blog for updates. Jenny on the other hand, also sees her retail spaces as a marketing tool to redirect customers to her blog. But, before you jump onto the wagon, opening a blog shop is deceptively easy. As Alvin tells Youth.SG, “The true test [of setting up a shop] is the marketing and retailing that sets your brand apart… a large number of blog shops are created, but only a handful survive and succeed to the point where it can become a person's full-time income.” Therefore, uniqueness and exclusive designs, something that Jenny strongly believes in, is an important factor. “I get parts from overseas, all the way from US, Hong Kong, Israel because there is not much variety here in Singapore. You can’t go very far, or reach out to more people, if your designs are identical to others.” S PHOTOS: JEWELRY OF LAV, JENNY'S BITZ AND PIECES siti[a]youth.sg | 
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