How to make money online through mini importations
Step by step approach in having a successful carrier or lifestyle as a mini importer from foreign countries to your country for sales, sit down and enjoy the article that will change your life and make you a guru entrepreneur in your country as a mini and an e-commerce tycoon
Before now importation business was considered a business for the rich businessmen. One needed millions of naira and connection to go into importation of any kind. But since the advent of the internet anyone can now go into this highly profitable business right from the comfort of his or her house without travelling
Nowadays, importation business is online. You make your orders through the Internet, whether you want it shipped through the sea, air or land, the clearing systems are already structured. It does not need your presence in case you don’t want to leave your job before starting, and the market is available
Before you start this business, there are six (6) powerful keys to having a successful importation:
1. Have a target market for each of your product; never import a product without knowing your target market.
2. Before you think of importing any product, always have a marketing plan on how to reach your target audience.
3. Do a thorough research on the product before you even think of buying it.
4. Make sure the product you wish to buy meet the needs of a target set of people (your target market).
5. From my experience, buy products that solve the pressing needs of majority of people not those that add to luxury.
6. Start small, grow big. Never buy more than what your marketing plan can take, it is very risky
Once you have all this in mind, then you can now start to think of building your own Mini Importation business empire
BASIC TOOLS TO GET STARTED
China is the largest producer in the world and their products are extremely cheap.
China is the main market where everyone purchases products at a very cheap rate.
You can buy virtually anything from china ranging from clothes to personal products to health products. There are so many online sites today where Nigerians can buy items cheaply from china and have them delivered to their houses.
However not everyone believes in online purchase because of bad experiences some of them have had. The belief is always that everything online is a scam.
However the belief, it is not always the case when rules are followed to the letter; one can actually avoid being scammed by buying from trusted sites and following the rules of the site. I personally advise that you buy from sites having Escrow service. What is an Escrow? you might want to ask. Don’t worry you can get the meaning in any good dictionary or better still just relax you will know what it means in the next few sentences so just read on
As a mini importer you don’t need to have anyone abroad or know any Customs officer ‟ agent/forwarder. The essential things you need to start this business from home are:
● Mobile Phone or Laptop/Desktop Computer
● Internet connection
● An ATM card (Mastercard or Visa)
● Startup capital (N10,000 – N50,000 or even more)
● Email address
● Facebook account
● Secured source to get product online
● Reliable courier service
● Your marketing strategy.
In this Article, you will be learning how to go about the last three. So relax as you read on
PRODUCT SOURCING
There are many international shopping websites you can use to import your products, some of which are:
❖AliExpress - www.aliexpress.com
❖Dhgate - www.dhgate.com
❖Alibaba - www.alibaba.com
❖IPmart - www.ipmart.com
❖1688 – www.1688.com
Among the ecommerce portal listed above, I prefer 1688.com but we’ll start with AliExpress
One good way most Chinese sites now secure your money is called Escrow. It is based on the principle of a third party company, in this case the owners of the site, holding on to the buyer's money until the buyer receives the item in his own country and confirms that it is exactly what he ordered for, only then and then will money be released to the seller. So you see, with Escrow you are covered
AliExpress is the most popular global consumer marketplace in the world, it is more popular than any other consumer marketplace in the world be it Amazon or eBay. It was launched in April 2010. It is a global retail marketplace targeted at consumers worldwide. The platform enables consumers from around the world to buy directly from wholesalers and manufacturers in china and have access to a wide variety of products at competitive prices. It is my goto place whenever I wish to buy anything from china and it is one of the safest consumer market place so far due to the presence of ESCROW - which means that when you pay for a product on the website, the money is kept with a third party till the product is delivered to you and you‟ve received it in good condition.
COMPLETE PROCEDURES TO PLACE ORDER ON ALIEXPRESS
You can buy almost anything on this site: laptops, phone/accessories, clothes, shoes and many more. Just search for the product you want and click on buy now. Their products are very cheap, good and reliable (although not as cheap as 1688)
1. Visit www.aliexpress.com
2. Click on sign-in and enter the email address/password you used during registration
3. Browse through the categories: Browse through the categories to look for new ideas in the case where you have none. So you go through each category and subcategory to search for new ideas if you don’t already have one. But in the case you already know what you want to order for, all you need to simply do is go to the top of the page, look for the search box and type in whatever phrase you are searching for (e.g rechargeable hair clipper) and the page will come up with results of all the listings on the website that contain such product.
4. Check out the product details and specification: Ensure you check out the specifications, details and reviews to see if it matches your expectation If you are satisfied with the product details, then you can then add it to your wishlist before adding it to the cart, so you can receive updates about the product in your email especially regarding discount and offers.
5. Input the Quantity and Click on Buy Now: Input the quantity you want and click on buy now. At the point of payment, click on Cancel Payment so you can have a chat with the supplier, so as to negotiate the price before making your payment. This is a secret I use and I want you to do the same so you can buy cheaper than what the seller displayed as the price.
6. Contact merchant: Now that you are very sure that the product is exactly what you want and you are interested in buying, you will have to contact the seller before making payment, you can use the chat button if the seller is online or you can send him a direct message if he is not online (that is offline) When you contact the supplier, ensure you ask lot of questions, including negotiating the price of the product especially when you are buying in bulk, so below are some questions to ask him, though you can add more to it if you wish.
*❖Is this product still available for purchase?
❖Can I get some discount on this product?
❖Can you ship to Guangzhou, China?
❖Do you offer free shipping to Guangzhou?
❖How long will it take you to ship this product to Guangzhou if I order for it?*
And some other questions you might want to ask, please take note that it is important for you to ask as many questions as you can especially the ones I listed above before you proceed to make payment. And also take note that when you message a merchant and such merchant doesn’t respond within 48 hours on a working day then you are advised to look for another merchant because if he cannot respond to your message within this time frame, what is the guarantee that
he will respond to your order when you place it. So communication is important and it can go far as getting you a good bargain with the merchant if you master the bargaining skill.
7. Specify Your Delivery Method: Before you make payment, specify your delivery method to the merchant, whether you want them to ship via post office, courier of your choice or if you want them to send to a proxy or third party logistic address in Guangzhou China who will do the shipping for you. If you want to use the logistic company to ship your product to Nigeria, tell your supplier to deduct the shipping fee to Nigeria from the total product price before you make payment on AliExpress.
8. Checkout: Checkout once you have contacted the merchant and you both have reached an agreement, you can now go ahead and make payment for the product. At this point you will be directed to the page where you will provide your payment information such as payment method and details, if you select card, you will be asked to provide your ATM debit card details so that the amount of the order can be deducted from your bank account. At this point, make sure you provide the correct details
HOW TO GET THE BEST PRICES AND IDENTIFY CREDIBLE SELLERS
Please take note of this step, its my magic trick of earning a bargaining opportunity on aliexpress
To get the best price for a product, ensure you compare prices with other suppliers selling the same product and also note the following in other to identify a credible seller.
● Seller‟s rating (do not buy products from suppliers whose ratings fall below 95%)
● Buyers‟ reviews/feedback (Check what other buyers are saying about the product)
NOTE - Ensure you pay on AliExpress‟ website so you can be covered by the ESCROW payment system. By now you should know what that means. Do not pay directly to the seller‟s account else you are on your own
SHIPPING TO NIGERIA
After you’ve made payment on AliExpress, the next thing is to ship your product down to Nigeria. One of the common mistakes people make when it comes to mini importation business is that they tell the supplier to ship directly to Nigeria, what happens when you do this is that you pay more for shipment of the goods than the actual cost of the product itself and you will have to wait for a long period of time before getting your product. A smart importer like me will not use this method because only little profit will be left.
See sample: A product of $15.45 cost $85 to ship within 9-18 days. That‟s over 5 times the cost of the product
‟Don’t be scared! There is a way forward - the secret to shipping at a very low price is by using a logistic company to ship your product from China to Nigeria
There are many of them, some of which include:
● Base 1 Logistics
● Chrisvicmall Logistics
● NonnyKings Logistics
● St. Patrick International Logistics
● Cj logistics
● ANYI – NATURE Logistics
● Happy Time Logistics
● Nsibor Express and Cargo Shipping
● Royal Gate
● Nze 1 Logistics
Base 1 Logistics because it is cheaper. I recommend Base 1, since that is what am currently using. Though am not saying anything cannot go wrong, make sure you also do your own research as well.
To ship your product to Nigeria, this company charge $8/kg for express delivery and $4.5/kg for cargo delivery. Express delivery takes 24 - 48hours while cargo delivery takes 7days to deliver to Nigeria. If you want to use this logistic company, you would have to tell your supplier to ship your goods to Base 1‟s office address in Guangzhou China. Once your products have been delivered to Base 1 in China, they will help you to ship it down to Nigeria. With this method, you will be able to make between 100% to 700% profit from your imported goods\
To use Base 1 Logistics, follow the steps below:
1. Contact Chinedu on Whatsapp/Wechat, and tell him you want to start using his company to ship your goods. Here are the three Whatsapp & Wechat numbers:
+86 158 1813 4755
+86 136 6899 8812
+86 137 1924 6303
Note - While chatting with him, ask for the Posting Details (Contact Name, China Address & Phone No), save the details and send to your supplier anytime you want to ship your product.
2. Send Base 1 posting details to your supplier on AliExpress and tell him to ship to the address. Also, tell your supplier to write Base1 Posting Details, Your Full Name & Phone No on the cartoon for identification purposes
3. Chat with Chinedu and inform him you are expecting a package from your supplier. Specify the delivery method you want (Express or Cargo Shipping).
It is as simple as that; you will only pay for shipping when your package gets to Nigeria. Once your package arrives Nigeria, you will get a message from Base 1.
You can either go to their office in Lagos to pick it up or tell them to send to your address (the latter attracts a fee, depending on the weight of your package and your location).
NOTE- To avoid delay or loss of parcel, ensure you adhere strictly to the procedures above.
Wares on 1688.com are relatively cheaper than that of AliExpress....I've gotten stuffs from both, though Aliexpress is good when you are buying for personal usage and 1688 is perfect for business purpose and bulk buying. 1688 may be treated later.
HOT (HIGH DEMAND) VS LOW DEMAND PRODUCTS
I call these “wrong products” not because they are forbidden by the government but because they are wrong products if we should consider the economy, standard of living, the need it satisfies and competition. For instance, you know that there are bigger companies that import Apple iPhones into the country in larger quantities and still sell at reasonable prices. If you still go ahead to import quantities of such a product, this means you are directly competing with these big players, meaning you are not going to last long in the market and again this same Apple iPhone is an high-end smartphone. If we should consider the standard/cost of living and the Nigerian economy, only a small chunk of people would be able to afford it thereby killing your chances of selling your product when faced with stricter competition. Anyone can now order an iPhone online and a larger percentage of people already know the price, they will rather patronize other sellers if your price is above the market threshold (price) and here is where competitors come in, you can never compete with those that buy large quantities of such products, and the product itself does not satisfy a pressing need since there are other phones that have the same features and perform similar functions, at cheaper prices. Let me give some examples of low demand products to import so you can fully understand my point. Some examples of low demand products are: laptop computers, television, cameras, adult‟s clothes, high-end phones, hollandaise, household equipment, kitchen utensils, adult shoes, bags, and other things one can easily walk into a nearby store and get, in fact what is the purpose of importing products people can easily walk into any store and get immediately. I will only advice you to import these products if you already bargain with some persons selling these in their physical store and they have agreed for you to supply them.
When it comes to ecommerce business, the type of product you import will go a long way to determine the number of orders you get daily and your profit. Am sure you don‟t just want to import products and stock it in your house/office without getting a reasonable number of orders daily. A lot of people have opted-out of this business because they were getting it wrong in this area. Of course there are hot (high-demand) products and low-demand products. First, let us talk about the low demand products.
PROVEN CRITERIA TO DISCOVER HOT (HIGH DEMAND) PRODUCTS
For you to know what products to import, such products have to satisfy these criteria.
● The product must be able to solve a particular problem or address a pressing need people are willingly to pay for.
● It must not be the one you can easily walk into any nearby store to get.
● It should target a vast majority of people not just a few.
● Rarely seen product or uncommon products
● Light weight products i.e. products that are not heavy. Because you will not want to spend too much money on shipping, knowing fully well that shipping fee is determined by the weight of the goods being shipped.
To show my sincere desire to help you, I will show you 30 hot products you can choose from. I sell some of these products as well and I make cool money on a daily basis. To be sincere with you, showing you these is like revealing my wealth empire; nobody will ever do this for you, I hope you value it.
✓Handy Stitch
✓Slimming Tea
✓Tyre inflator
✓Hair Growth
✓Back Pain Reliever
✓HD vision
✓Waist trainer
✓Car Fuel Saver
✓Digital Therapy Machine
✓Stretch mark remover cream
✓Pink lips
✓Delay Ejaculation Oil
✓Car Tracker
✓Fat burner
✓Big Vision
✓Toothpaste dispenser
✓Car Auto Scanner
✓Enlargement Pump
✓Teeth whitening kit
✓Car scratch remover
✓Anti-snore belt
✓Body Odor Spray
✓Mosquito repellant
✓Wristwatch
✓Power Belt
✓Dark Spot Remover
✓Beard oil
✓Jewelry
✓Mouth Odor Spray
✓Hearing Aid
So these are the criteria for knowing what product to buy and what not to buy, ensure the product you want to import solve human immediate personal life problems.
PAYMENT METHODS
Naira Credit/Debit ATM Card - When it comes to online transactions.
GTBank and Access Banks are the best banks to go to, this is because they have the cheapest exchange rate in Nigeria. GTBank monthly limit for online transactions is $1000 while that of Access Bank is $100 (I actually prefer GTBank because they have a higher limit). If you don‟t have an account with any of these two banks, you can simply walk into any of their nearest branches and request for a Savings Account form. Mastercard/Visa ATM debit card will come with the Savings Account you opened with them, this will only take few business(working) days.
2. Virtual Card – You can easily create a virtual card with your name and fund the card with your Naira ATM card. Virtual card works exactly like your physical card, the only difference is you don‟t have a plastic card to use at a physical location/terminal but you can use it for online transactions. There are many companies that offer the services of creating virtual cards, one of them is GetBarter, creating a virtual card is free, visit https://www.getbarter.co and follow the procedures on their website
3. Payoneer Mastercard – Payoneer is a US debit card and it can be used to make purchases, both online and in physical stores, or withdraw cash at ATMs worldwide. Getting a free Payoneer Mastercard debit card in Nigeria is quite easy.
You sign up for a Payoneer account and once it is approved, your Payoneer Prepaid Debit Mastercard will be shipped to your doorstep here in Nigeria. To get a payoneer card, visit http://www.payoneer.com and follow the procedures. Once you have your card, you can fund it using their currency exchanger.
MARKETING YOUR PRODUCT
Another challenge most people face is selling their imported products, of-course this is the most important part of it because if you get goods at cheaper rates and you can‟t sell it you will also end up becoming broke.
Now how do you sell your products very fast? The simple answer is sell your products where people are already spending money to buy similar or the same products‟, some of these places are Facebook, Instagram, Jumia, Konga, and Dealdey. In other to do this, if your plan is to import 500 pieces of a particular product, just import 20pcs at first and see how fast you can sell it on these platforms. If you are able to sell very fast then you can go ahead and import in large quantities. This is all about testing! Make sure you test, so that you won’t end up importing goods in large quantities and you later realize that people are not interested in it or it is not selling very fast.
SELLING ON FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM
Selling on Facebook/Instagram is quite easy, see the model below:
1. Create a business page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/create)
2. List your product and be consistent in posting your products with great contents using hashtags
3. Run an advert (https://www.facebook.com/powereditor)
4. Deliver to customers
Note - This is just a brief, you can contact me to get full details on how to advertise
on facebook targeting the right audience.
COURIER COMPANY
This is the best place to sell your imported products and make 8x profit.
Facebook/Instagram is a great resource; you can reach millions of people with just a click and drive tons of buyers to your sales page which in turns leads to whopping cash. The selling price of a product on Facebook/Instagram is higher than the selling price on the ecommerce platform (Konga, Jumia and Dealdey).
There are lots of Courier Companies you can use, popular ones include:
1. KOS (http://www.kos.ng)
2. CedarExpress (http://www.cedarexpressng.com)
3. EDS (https://www.eds.com.ng)
4. Ace (http://www.ace.ng)
5. Courierplus (http://www.courierplus-ng.com)
6. GIG Logistics (http://www.giglogistics.ng)
Out of the aforementioned, I actually prefer KOS, Couierplus and CedarExpress and it is very easy to register with them. They all have branches in all states, so you can easily drop off your package anytime you have new orders.
To register with KOS, send an email to businessdevelopment@kos.ng requesting for an account setup. You can as well checkout the website @ http://www.kos.ng
Note – Right now, KOS has stopped Payment on Delivery (POD) but you can use other courier companies for POD.
If you want to use Facebook/Instagram to market your product, you will need a courier company to deliver your goods to your customers nationwide; most of them have branches in all states; they will help you to deliver your product to the buyer, collect the money and pay into your account. Some of them even go as far as coming down to your address to pick up the package and deliver to your customers
HOW TO PARTNER WITH E-COMMERCE COMPANY's (JUMIA, KONGA AND DEALDEY) FOR FREE
Note: other common and effective ways you advertise your products is whataspp status, send the ads to your friends to help u post to their WhatsApp status, and also list your product on Jiji. I got free advert on jiji 2 days ago and sales are rolling in well from there. Most people do not know this secret. The beauty of partnering with them is that they market your product for you, some of these companies handle the delivery for you as well and these are credible ecommerce websites that people spend hundreds of thousands every day to buy things from. All they want from you is quality products at a relatively cheap price, cheap enough to make a good profit, and also good enough to entice customers the more. You don‟t have to stress yourself
looking for whom to buy your product or spending money on adverts. So all you have to do is give them your products or create your own store on their website, sit back and watch your emails filled up with order notifications. In other to register with these companies follow the instructions below.
HOW TO SETUP A SELLER ACCOUNT ON KONGA
Konga is one of the largest e-commerce stores in Nigeria, Konga have over 50million buyers. In other to sell on Konga, goto: http://shq.konga.com, click on register now and read the full instructions on the site in other to get started
HOW TO SETUP A SELLER ACCOUNT ON JUMIA
Jumia is the largest store in Nigeria with about 200millions buyers in Africa. To start selling on Jumia, visit https://www.jumia.com.ng/marketplace-vendor and fill the form sequentially. Once someone places an order for any of the available products you listed on your store (KONGA for instance), you will receive a notification via e-mail/SMS. To deliver the order to the customer, do the following:
www.jumia.com.ng
Jumia Marketplace | Sell Online in Nigeria | Jumia.com.ng
Discover Jumia Marketplace in Nigeria where you can have your offline shop transformed online | It's free & simple to join | Want to start selling now? Start here!
● Login to your portal
● Print out the order invoice
● Package the product (the packaging depends on the product size, I use envelope to deliver most of my orders)
● Drop off the product at Konga‟s drop off center closest to you and Konga will help you deliver it to the buyer irrespective of the location. (You can as well self- fulfill the order if the buyer‟s address is close to you)
Note the following:
❖The procedures listed above also apply to orders placed on Jumia.
❖For orders placed on Dealdey, all you need is to package the product and drop it off at any FEDEX office nearest to you (Dealdey use FEDEX for their delivery and you can as well self-fulfil the order to the customer).
(Once you setup an account with any of this ecommerce company, you would be requested to download the NEW SELLER GUIDE MATERIALS. The material talks about all you need to know about their services)
HOW TO SELL ON JUMIA AND KONGA IF YOU LIVE OUTSIDE OF LAGOS
For Jumia
1. Use a Lagos address during registration to get your store approved
2. Make use of Jumia‟s warehouse (also known as JumiaFirst or jumia express).
To do this, transfer your imported product to Jumia‟s warehouse in Lagos, login to your Jumia store and list your products. Once you have a new order, Jumia will pick up the product, help you to deliver to your customer and pay into your account.
Click here to read the full information:
https://vendorhub.jumia.com.ng/2016/07/08/jumia-first . This is very easy, they will do the hardwork for you while you pocket the money. You can also make use of this option if you are engaged with other businesses. To use JumiaFirst, send an email to seller-support@jumia.com.ng and request for the JumiaFirst service
NOTE - Konga also has warehouse product for their sellers, if you warehouse your product with them, you won‟t need to drop-off product anytime you have an order. Since they already have your products, they will help you to deliver to your customers and pay into your account. To make use of Konga‟s Warehouse (also known as Fulfillment by Konga - FBK), send an email to mall@konga.com or call
08094605555
NOTE - Knowing fully well that you can make 8x profit using Facebook/Instagram alone, that doesn‟t mean you should neglect Jumia, Konga and Dealdey. To get more orders and make more money on a daily bases, make use of all the platforms
GENERAL NOTE ON HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL IMPORTER
In all sincerity, the competition is a little bit fierce, but there are ways around it, it‟s advisable to browse through all these ecommerce websites, and keenly observe which of the products on their platform is doing well, conduct a price survey, compare the price of the item on Jumia, Konga and Dealdey with the price tag from where you will be importing your goods, the purpose of this survey is to search for items that you can ship in at a relatively cheap price in contrast to what other sellers are selling, this allows you to carefully decide on what to ship.
It’s strictly inadvisable to import trademark items with the intention of selling on Facebook, or on ecommerce websites, because most times, the return on investment would be zero, often established companies like Samsung, HP, etc relate directly with ecommerce companies, hence they deliver their products at a reasonable price. It‟s advisable to think along the line of what an average man would use on daily basis, something not too expensive, Very unique, meets people’s needs and solves some peculiar problems.
This really helpful, to be sincere you nailed it down.
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