Dymaco:
yes I made the same mistake...

I bought female loafers for 7h and use 1300 to ship it. I later discovered that the shoes sell for N1800 wholesale price. I really cry because I need to sell off those shoes even below cost price.


but I just discover a trick......
buy a goods and use post office with free shipping , then u go enjoy importation.
post office accept only 20kg and very cheap but 40 days of patience

hello bro , how are you doing sir. am base in China and i need some advice from you in doing business

ThePianoGuy:
hello bro , how are you doing sir. am base in China and i need some advice from you in doing business

ok

It always like that if u not familiar with procedure on the importation business...
There are sellers who will sell at a cheaper rate,but the cost of shipping becomes the issues..
Anyway have been into the business for a while now, and I think I know where, when and how to get the goods with a good returns on investment..
I wrote down a E-book for those that need helps on importation general from oversea or from different web site in China..
China happen to be the best place to get cheaper things...
Pls free to contact me ...08104398483..

muhammed001:
Hello everyone please I need your advice and encouragement on this mini importation business because i am really facing problems on this importation biz.


What I found out now is that the things I import are always cheaper at lagos

Because my first order was 30 watches and after buying them I found out that they are even cheaper in lagos than importing them because I want to sell them on wholesale price.

My next order was tummy slimming waist trainer for women. When I received the samples I said let me go and look for buyers that will buy it on wholesale before importing them
When I got there I found out that my price is higher than lagos price.
Even the price I bought it is higher than lagos price not to talk of adding profit.

please how can one really make money from this mini importation biz?
I am buying from 1688
Please help me with a solution to this problem or is there anything I am thinking wrong?

The goods are always cheap in china but when you calculate the total cost price of the goods and shipping fee, you will found out that is very expensive when compared to the price of lagos.

Then you will start saying that buying from lagos is even cheaper than buying from china. So now, what is the big deal on importing from china or uk/us when we can even get it cheaper in lagos?

Info marketers will always show you the prices of the goods in china but they will not include the shipping fee.
Sometimes the shipping fee can even multiply the cost of the goods * 4 and above.

Please your contributions are highly welcomed.

What you did wrong or likely to have done wrong.
1. Using express shipping as your routine method is wrong. You only use express shipping on some few or rare occasions examples of which I cannot give here now

2. You are likely to have used expensive shipping companies. If you used the likes of Chrisvicmall or NBC it will be difficult to have low landing cost

3. Beginners in mini importation are not advice to start with shoes, bags and heavier items until you have mastered the business so well. You are supposed to be dealing with very light items. Some shoes or bags can be as heavy as 0.8kg or over 1kg.

4. You are likely not good at product research. You don't import products that are very easy to come by in the market as a beginner except you have a unique design you will not be able to compete favourably with guys that import in container using sea shipping

5. If you don't know how to procure yourself you could probably be using procurement agents with high fee

6. There are some products you don't import just 5 to 10 pieces if you want to have low landing cost. In such cases you do what is called group importation where you join other mini importers interested in the same products so as to increase the number of pieces to import.

7. You probably don't negotiate with the sellers. You just buy at the price given on the website. Learn how to chat and how to negotiate with sellers.

8. You are probably too glue to just 1688. I have found and bought some products cheaper on Alibaba before now. Research across platforms before you buy

9. If you use currency exchangers to make payment in Yuan/RMB you might be using expensive ones or your procurement agent might be giving you high Yuan to Naira conversion rate

10. If you observe the above points correctly and you still cannot get the products at cheaper landing costs please go ahead to buy from Lagos and resell..


This my little contribution from experience

Learning

Onistephen2:
What you did wrong or likely to have done wrong.
1. Using express shipping as your routine method is wrong. You only use express shipping on some few or rare occasions examples of which I cannot give here now

2. You are likely to have used expensive shipping companies. If you used the likes of Chrisvicmall or NBC it will be difficult to have low landing cost

3. Beginners in mini importation are not advice to start with shoes, bags and heavier items until you have mastered the business so well. You are supposed to be dealing with very light items. Some shoes or bags can be as heavy as 0.8kg or over 1kg.

4. You are likely not good at product research. You don't import products that are very easy to come by in the market as a beginner except you have a unique design you will not be able to compete favourably with guys that import in container using sea shipping

5. If you don't know how to procure yourself you could probably be using procurement agents with high fee

6. There are some products you don't import just 5 to 10 pieces if you want to have low landing cost. In such cases you do what is called group importation where you join other mini importers interested in the same products so as to increase the number of pieces to import.

7. You probably don't negotiate with the sellers. You just buy at the price given on the website. Learn how to chat and how to negotiate with sellers.

8. You are probably too glue to just 1688. I have found and bought some products cheaper on Alibaba before now. Research across platforms before you buy

9. If you use currency exchangers to make payment in Yuan/RMB you might be using expensive ones or your procurement agent might be giving you high Yuan to Naira conversion rate

10. If you observe the above points correctly and you still cannot get the products at cheaper landing costs please go ahead to buy from Lagos and resell..


This my little contribution from experience

please can you help my out by mentoring me on mini importation, can i send you a dm?

Nice thread... I added a lot to my knowledge of importation business. Thanks

AM INTO THE IMPROTATION BUSINESS AND I CAN SAY WHEN I STARTED I LOST CLOSE TO N60,000 REASON BEING I DIDNT KNOW HOW TO

1. TALK TO THE SELLER TO DRASTICALLY REDUCE THE PRICE

1B. IF YOU THINK THAT SELLERS DONT COMMUNICATE, YOU ARE SLEEPING ON OKADA, THEY DO AND SOMETIMES THEY OWN STORES WITH DIFFERENT NAMES ON ALIEXPRESS. IMAGINE IF YOU BUY HIGH AT HIGH PRICES FROM HIM, YOU CANT GET A BETTER TRADE FROM HIM OR HIS FRIEND ON THE NEXT ORDER

2 SELLER SOLD ME SUBSTANDARD PRODUCTS

3. SHIPPED IT IN THROUGH EXPRESS SHIPPING FROM CHRISVICMALL(NOTE DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF SHIPPING, IF YOU GOT NO BUYERS AVAILABLE FOR THIS, ITS NOT ADVISEABLE AS A BUSINESSMAN TO DO THIS, (WHY ARE BANKS EMPLOYING CONTRACT STAFFS, TO MAXIMISE PROFIT AND MINIMISE COST)

4. ORDERED LITTLE QUANTITY

5. DIDNT DO RESEARCH ENOUGH BEFORE I ENTERED INTO THE BUSINESS

6. DIDNT PUT IN PLACE THE CURRENT EXCHANGE RATE THE BANK CHARGED ME, WAS JUST HYPED FOR THE PROFIT AND I MADE A LOSS

7. DIDNT KNOW HOW TO CALCULATE IN KG THE AMOUNT OF SHIPPING

WHAT I LATER LEARNT IN THE BUSINESS IN THE LONGRUN WAS THAT

1. If those Chinese suppliers know you new to the business, their main aim is to exploit you.

2. Once you get a few samples of that particular product, be it 5 ordered at quite a high price on aliexpress, order for more quantities say 50, you would be surprised how much he will sell to you( my encounter with those chines people showed me that they are scared of any negative review and would sell to you almost the same price they got from factory).

3. Always make sure you tell them what you are facing in your country, reason being that they might never know the current exchange rate( this is for the chinese supplier you have done business with)

4. Never make them feel that you are in charge( reason is they believe you can call the shots at any given time and you can agree to their amount)

5. Even with the current rate i still imported because i make them feel sympathy for me that i have to be in business to survive.(those are your previous business partners)

6. Another trick i learnt was to never give in, always negotiate for the amount you want till the last... most of them after saying no would come down and give you a better offer

7. Always import things that will sell and that are rare in the country,(note you need advertisement) this way you don't have to compete with those major importers.

8. Importers dont only import one partcular product, they import different items, so the shipping fee would be less and the KG be more(issue here would be CAPITAL, but NO, look for an importer like you based on TRUST, so you can share the shipping fee)

9. LOL, its very hard selling your items to people who own SHOPS, felt discouraged when one spoke in IGBO on a particular day & i heard him saying we have shop and we have rent to pay, you don't have shop and don't pay rent, electricity, fuel and workers, INSTEAD DEAL WITH COMPANY BY WRITING OUT A PROPOSAL LETTER TO THEM.

10. Look for the bank with the cheapest exchange rate, there is nothing that it will take away from your body if you call up banks over phone to ask for their current exchange rate as at today.

11. Funny as it sounds, i owe CHRISVICMALL LTD , last time i checked, it was 13,000. Be ready to owe to them, although i guess you must have done several business with them before they can believe in you

12. Pray to God and be willing to take risk and look for new sellers

e.g former seller sells spy glass to me at $9, new seller sells to me $6.5 and she gets it from factory for $4.5 - $5.5 and i only import 50 pieces and i sell on konga for N6500 due to increase in current exchange rate, before it was N4980.

Good luck to y'all these year
I AM RESEARCHING FOR HOW TO BRING IN CONTAINER INTO THE COUNTRY, DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CONTAINERS AND BUT I AM WILLING TO LEARN, ANYBODY CAN HELP ME IF YOU KNOW

NOTE ALL THOSE MAJOR IMPORTERS, MOST WENT THROUG MINI IMPORTATION AND HARDWORK TO BE WHERE THEY ARE

Wow... ur advise is highly informative.... Are u still into importation I’m just seeing ur msg in 2020.

When you buy the goods from China.
Much more quantity, much more cheaper.
For example, you just buy 10 pcs, and express it by air. It is very very expensive.
But if you buy one 40 HQ, and ship it by sea. It is very very cheap.
If you have a lot of money, you can do the big business.
If you have a small business, the price will never low.

1688 Procurement @67 naira to 1 Yuan. Procurement fee: 200 per link

iMerchant:


You have raised a valid point but my challenges with most people especially those who start importation business after buying ebooks from someone who never practice the business they preach is lack of basic understanding of the business.

I do not claim to be an expert but surely am not a complete idiot and I do think you can learn one or two things from my foolishness if you are willingly to learn:

1. In importation business, you don't make money when you sell you do when you buy
2. It is obvious you don't do your due diligence before buying stuff from china because if you do, you will not end up buying stuff from china at a price more expensive than Lagos.
3. You basically from your post buy on impulse which is VERY BAD for any business especially when you are into importation business. Your consumer are suppose to buy from you on impulse not the other way round.
4. Stop buying generic goods at expensive price from china.
5. The infact that someone brainwashed you into believing that goods are cheap on 1688.com and Taobao doesn't mean the person is 100% accurate. Believe me when I say you can get some stuff cheaper on Aliexpress than 1688.com
6. Sir, except you are a contractor who buy stuffs for other to resell, you should NEVER EVER use EXPRESS shipping for goods you intend to resell. As a good business person, your aim should always be to reduce your cost of doing business not increase it.
7. If you do your homework very well cheaper doesn't necessary mean better quality in China. Except you import sub-standard goods from china you need not worry about the Lagos price if you have a product with superior quality. Before you say anything, I have sold hundreds of selfie stick nationwide at 7.5k each when other people selling at 1.2k are yet to sell 50 pcs. Quality beat price anyday anytime.
8. Before you buy anything from china please go to your source market in Lagos first thereby saving yourself unnecessary headache. If it is cheaper in Lagos with the same quality like the one you are buying from china, please do yourself a favour, Buy it in Lagos.


Thanks

Good evening sir, am a newbie but i will like to say thank you because i learnt alot from your comment.

Pls who have any idea of custom clearing fee,i can get my supplier to ship for free but I dont know if they will charge me for custom clearing fee once it land as its quite bulky ..or is there a way i can avoid the fee pls,pls help me