The COVID-19 pandemic has caused rippling shifts in the global economy. With constant disruptions in international supply and demand, the retail industry has been hit particularly hard. Large retail companies have had to take drastic measures, pulling from their deep pockets to mitigate the damage. Many smaller firms, without the necessary emergency reserves, have had no choice but to exit the market entirely.

While disruptions have hit all aspects of the retail industry, the impact has been largely asymmetric. Online stores are faring significantly better than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Despite pandemic-borne challenges, such as supply chain issues and changes in regulations and customer habits, e-commerce firms have proved to be inherently more able to adapt due to their independence from a physical staff and concrete locations. In addition, community quarantine and social distancing measures have brought much of the typical retail activity online. As a result, the pandemic has served to demonstrate the capabilities of e-commerce as well as catalyze its growth into an increasingly significant aspect of the retail industry.

Among the various business models available, drop-shipping is one that fully demonstrates and capitalizes on the potential advantages of e-commerce. Drop-shipping allows a retailer to do business without physical contact with customers or suppliers. Instead, a drop-shipper serves to connect interested customers with the relevant manufacturers or wholesalers. In this manner, drop-shippers serve to take on both retailing and marketing functions. Through this added value, drop-shippers are able to negotiate profit margins depending on their proficiency in moving a supplier’s products. Drop-shipping is also unique in that it has very few barriers to entry, with little need to hold physical stock. These advantages have led to a continuing surge in the drop-shipping industry despite the challenges of the pandemic.

British entrepreneur Kamil Sattar is proof of the potential to be found in drop-shipping. When Kamil was only twenty years old, his companies were already earning a combined revenue of $3,000,000 a year. Aside from his staggering personal financial success, Kamil has also mentored aspiring entrepreneurs in drop-shipping, many of whom have moved on to create their own stores amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the face of these achievements, Kamil wants the latter–helping others achieve their entrepreneurial goals through dropshipping–to be his lasting legacy.

Kamil himself lives in a sort of Spartan austerity, with little taste for personal luxury. Kamil’s primary motivation was and continues to be his family. Seeing his poor immigrant parents struggle financially gave Kamil the spark to do more and to provide for his family a secure and consistent stream of income. Despite his success, Kamil maintains his humble aspirations, aiming primarily to secure a future for himself, his parents, and his future family. Kamil aims to secure his financial future to be able to retire by age 40, dedicating the rest of his time to quality moments with his family.

Kamil’s rough upbringing and the struggles of his parents were the main drivers toward achieving his dreams of financial success. These also drove his desire to in turn help others in achieving a similar level of accomplishment. Kamil wants aspiring entrepreneurs to be offered the same opportunities that helped him reach where he is today. Those with the right entrepreneurial mindset, Kamil believes, would be able to take advantage of these opportunities and reach their own goals.

To achieve his dreams of granting equal opportunity to aspiring businessmen, Kamil offers himself for seminars, interviews, and public speaking events on top of his mentoring business. During the pandemic, Kamil also documented his extensive knowledge in drop-shipping to create mentoring courses, which he released free of charge. Kamil aims to create and release more of these courses annually in order to help those who cannot afford paid courses.

If you want to learn more about Kamil’s story, you can follow him on his Instagram, @kamilsattarofficial. Kamil may be booked for mentorships, seminars, interviews, and public speaking events on his website at kamilsattar.com.