By Liew Hanqing

LIKE many of her working peers, Miss Shannen Ang, 26, spends most of her time in the office.

But the accounts executive also spends almost 20 hours a week on a small online business, where she sells handmade jewellery.

The self-confessed shopaholic carefully assembles each piece by hand, photographs her work and uploads the pictures on her blog, where she sells them.

She makes about $100 a month from her blog shop, Sweet Nothings Accessories, which she runs as a hobby.

Miss Ang is among an increasing number of small online local retailers who run blog shops, or websites selling personalised items.

Some of them will be participating in the E-biz exhibition, an online shopping bazaar tomorrow and Saturday at Singapore Management University's School of Economics and Social Sciences.

The exhibition, a first, aims to raise awareness of the local online shopping scene.

Some retailers will be selling their products at the exhibition, in addition to showcasing them.

Miss Ang herself will be sponsoring prizes and promoting her creations at the exhibition.

The event's organisers, Miss Hooi Ren Yi and Miss Li Ru, both 19, said they came up with the idea for the exhibition while chatting about a mutual friend who had recently set up an online business selling personalised gifts.

'We felt what he was doing was interesting, but little seems to be known about online shopping here,' said Miss Li.

Miss Hooi and Miss Li, both former students of Hwa Chong Institution, decided to organise the exhibition instead of taking up part-time jobs like most of their peers, while waiting to enter university.

Said Miss Li: 'Online shopping here is growing, but the market is still relatively immature. We hope we can heighten awareness of online shopping, especially among those who don't really shop online.'

Miss Hooi added that the allure of small online retailers here is the huge variety of personalised gifts and accessories which are available.

'Also, unlike real-life bazaars, most of the products sold online are accompanied with detailed descriptions,' she said.

SHOWCASING GOODS

Hand-crafted earrings such as these are just some of the custom products available online for sale by local sellers.

Among the items showcased at the exhibition are imported clothes, shoes and organic skincare products. Some 35 online sellers will be showcasing their products at the exhibition.

One of them is Miss Lee Wei Ling, 22, who runs an online handicraft business. Her most popular items include photo frames and handmade flowers. She makes between $50 and $100 a month selling items on her website, which was set up about a year ago.

She said: 'I've always enjoyed making handicrafts, so I decided to start selling them.'

Like Miss Ang, she has a day job in a company selling camping equipment, but devotes her spare time to maintaining her craft website, which her boyfriend helped her set up.

She will be manning a booth at the exhibition, showcasing handmade items like crystal gifts, photo frames and keychains.

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to attend talks on how to set up an online business, how to shop online safely, and how to use the Internet for marketing.

With the help of online entrepreneur Shaun Stanislaus Lau, 21, one of the founders of youth lifestyle club nEBO, the organisers managed to secure $5,000 to fund the event.

They hope to attract about 1,000 visitors to the exhibition.