The struggles of physical shops during Covid-19 lockdown were real but something good happened during that time. The world became more digitally connected. Many businesses went online and people started earning money through digital means.
One such business model that became popular was dropshipping. In this model, you open an online store and sell products from different manufacturers without keeping a stock of those products. The packaging and shipping work is also handled by the manufacturer. Your main work is to attract customers to your online store and pass the orders to respective manufacturers. Ishaan Jain also aced droppshipping during the pandemic as a student in Kolkata.
Ishaan is currently working as a Key Accounts Manager for Zomato in Kolkata. In an interview with The 1% News, Ishaan shares how dropshipping changed his life during the pandemic. Edited excerpts:
How did you come across Dropshipping?
My family was struggling financially during the COVID time. So I felt I needed to earn and contribute. In 2020, I started watching YouTube videos to learn how to earn money online. I first started with blogging but soon realised that it depended on virality. Next was print-on-demand but even that didn’t work since I was not good with graphics. The third time was a charm because I found dropshipping. It was perfect for me. As I’m good with analysis and research, I could start without an inventory and make profits quickly.
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What were the initial challenges you encountered with Dropshipping?
The main challenge was paying for advertising to get traffic on my website. I spent around Rs 25,000 but it wasn’t enough. So, I switched to Amazon dropshipping. In a month, I sold products worth $1000 and earned 20 percent in profits. I reinvested it into better software to make my process more efficient.
I learnt that drop-shipping is all about patience and quantity over quality as the more listings you have on aggregators, the higher the chance of making a sale.
Was it always an upward journey after your first profit?
No, it wasn’t a smooth ride. I was blocked from Amazon twice and thrice by eBay because I broke a few rules mentioned in their guidelines, which I was unaware of. Because of that, I had to restart six times and it was only after making those countless errors did I achieve success in drop-shipping.
It would have been easier to stop but I wanted to prove to myself that success can be achieved so after making all possible errors I truly started to see that revenue jump. Soon, we were making Rs 1 Lakh a month and that’s when I got my day involved in it as well, and in 2 years, we made Rs 35 Lakh. After that Dad converted it to our primary household income.
Did you just focus on Dropshipping during those years or did something else as well?
In the meantime, I began studying the money market and trading and I also completed my BCom degree.
Why did you decide to do something else when your business was doing fine?
I want to do an MBA and get into venture capital or hedge funds but for that, I need to make my profile strong enough. So as soon as I completed my degree I got an internship in Zomato. Zomato as a company, even though it is not finance-oriented, adds a lot of value. Soon after joining, I was promoted to Key Accounts Manager in Zomato. I believe this role has helped me develop my communication and leadership skills tremendously, which wouldn’t have been possible sitting behind a computer.
Did your Dropshipping experience help in landing a job at Zomato?
Not really but it did help me in my work profile. A part of my job requires me to analyse industry trends to give proper guidance to merchants. Strong analytical skills and forecasting are also needed. I had developed these skills while researching and doing dropshipping.
You mentioned you started trading also. How did that go?
Initially, I faced heavy losses. My portfolio was down by 40 percent. Even when the portfolio was down, I did not lose faith in my ability. I backed myself with my own analytical skills and regained that money.
Why did you join The 1% Club when you already knew stock market basics and investing?
I took the Personal Finance Masterclass by Sharan Hegde in December 2023. I knew I needed more guidance and that’s why I joined the club. The knowledge that I have gained through the Stock Market Wizardry module by Shashank Udupa is really helpful. With that knowledge I can prevent a lot of mistakes and make greater profits in future.
Disclaimer: The above content is based on the information provided by Ishaan Jain. The 1% News doesn’t independently verify non-public data reported by interviewees.
