University student making $3000 a week 'selling baby formula' to China
A Chinese university student is banking $3000 a week, by selling vitamins and baby formula to people at home, it has been revealed.
The business of selling Australian products online such as baby formula, vitamins and pawpaw cream to people in China has become an easy way for the student to get a bit of extra cash.
Carol Lin arrived in Sydney in July last year and is studying English at an ELS language centre, Business Insider reports.
It's reported the student takes her orders from relatives and friends through WeChat, a Chinese text and voice messaging app, and packages and posts them to her customers.
Ms Lin told the publication she makes between $2,000 and $3,000 in a good week.
She claimed her first sale was Swisse vitamins, which in Australia sell for $17 in but she managed to sell them online for $29.
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Ms Lin said she also sold a2 Platinum Formula and Bellamy’s Organic formula.
She claims to buy most of her products from Chemist Warehouse, but added that it took up a lot of time sourcing everything.
“It’s a lot (of time). It’s very troublesome. It’s hard work,” Ms Lin said.
Another Chinese tycoon is 26-year-old Maggie Ma who has just completed her Master of Accounting at the University of Sydney.
She claims she started her WeChat business after taking Australian health products back home.
She said her relatives began asking for more each time, and realised it would be a profitable business.
Ms Ma said her best selling products are Manuka honey and pawpaw cream, and claimed that over the Chinese New Year one sale alone was $2000.
The success of Australian products in China was due to the rise in counterfeit products and fake brands which had prompted Chinese consumers to seek offshore products.
Another reason is the increasingly health conscious population.
Just last week it was revealed Australia's favourite breakfast cereal Weet-Bix was being sold for up to ten times the price in China.
China's version of Ebay, known as Yoycart, has the item listed as “Aussie Weet-Bix cereals" for close to $50 AUD a 1.4kg box.
Weet-Bix boxes of the same size sell for around $5 in Australia.
TV show 'Ode to Joy' is believed to be the main driver of the Weet-Bix rush after the cereal featured on episode 21.
