Mini Importation 101

In my previous article, I had written about business models to try out this year. You can read it here. So subsequently, I’d be writing more about each of them.

What is Mini Importation?

Mini Importation involves buying goods in small scale from another country usually at lower prices and selling them at slightly higher prices (depending on your profit margin) in your own country.

It is called “Mini” Importation because you can start with small amount of money; as low as #10,000 to as high as over #1,000,000. Not necessarily because you can only import small quantity of goods🤣.

Who can go into Mini Importation?

Virtually anyone can go into mini importation:

• Low-income earner
• Unemployed graduate
• Undergraduate looking for other streams of income
• eCom Store Owner
• Local Business Owner
• Small Business Owner
• Freelancer
• Digital Product Marketer

What you need to go into Mini Importation

• Smart Phone or Laptop with good Internet access.
• Start-up capital (depending on how much money you’re willing to invest, it can be as low as N20,000).
• Debit card to make payments. Mastercard and Visa are the most acceptable.
• Valid means of Identification.
• You will need a physical address to be able to receive your goods.
• You will need a working telephone number. This is necessary to pick up your goods and manage the business effectively.
• A working email, I guess you have that already, an email address is required to register on online portals or to sell goods online.
• You should be able to navigate and browse through the internet and fill out forms correctly. If you’re reading this, you already know how to surf the internet😁.
• You should also have a platform to buy and sell the goods you import.

What to Import

Any product, as long as it is not banned by the Customs Service in your country can be imported. So from fashion accessories, phone products and accessories, baby products, etc can be imported and sold. Sound simple right?

How to Import

• Choose a Product to sell: Having knowledge of products that have a high demand is essential if you are to make sale. You also have to choose a niche to sell. Your niche could be fashion (male, female or unisex); beauty and skincare products; gadgets, home appliances, etc. Your choice of product should be what is popular in your locality or at the time. It is advisable to create awareness for the product you want to import before actual importation inorder to “test” the market.
• Find a Platform/ website to import from: This is important. For a particular product you may want to buy, different platforms could have different prices so it is necessary to know how much different sellers on different platforms offer for a product.
• Find a reliable seller on the platform/ website to buy from. If you do not want to lose your money in the hands of fraudsters, you would take time finding a reliable supplier. Some platforms have seller information, so it is necessary to check the review of supplier. Check for red flags like late delivery, spoilt or wrong goods on arrival, or non-delivery of products.
• Place an order for the product and make necessary payments. Some websites e.g Aliexpress provide escrow protection. That is they hold your money in safe-keeping after payment till you receive your products before paying the seller. This is to avoid and/or reduce incidence of scam. You should confirm if the platform/ website you are buying from offers Escrow protection before use to avoid stories that touch the heart😉.
• Order Fulfilment: Your product may be delivered to you either through free shipping or premium/express delivery, depending on the supplier. Free delivery/shipping sometimes come with small products I.e in terms of weight. The product may take 30-90 days before arrival.
• Advertise and Market your products: You definitely are not going to use all the products you import yourself so unless you have an already known and established physical store for such product or a list of potential buyers, you would need to advertise your products. Even a physical store needs advertisement! There are various channels of advertisement- online and offline advertisement.

Online advertisement usually entails use of social media (e.g Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc) and search engines (e.g Google Ad).

Where to import products from?

According to Legit.ng, China, US and India are in the List of Nigeria’s Top 10 Export, Import Trade Partners in 2022. There’s already a market for importers in this country, so you can join in and import from these countries.

Websites you can buy/ Import goods from at cheap prices include:

• 1688.com
• Alibaba
• Aliexpress
• taobao.com: You can buy any product at very cheap prices. This site however needs to be translated to English and you can easily do this by using the Google translate on your Chrome.
• DHgate
• DealeXtreme: Online shopping for cool gadgets at the right price.Buy cheap computers,electronics,car accessories, cellphones, iPhone, apparels and home appliances.
• Ebay: You can buy and sell electronics, cars, clothes, collectibles and more on eBay, the world’s online marketplace.
• NewEgg: This site offers the best prices on computer parts, PC components, laptops, gaming systems, automotive parts, office supplies.
• Amazon

Why You should Start Mini Importation

• It is easy to start: You don’t need any special degree or certificates to start. As long as you understand how it works, you’re good to go😁.
• Involves little risk: If you learn to use the tools correctly, and do proper research before starting.
• Require low start-up capital: You can start importing with little capital. You don’t need to start with much. You can start this with as little as #10,000.
• High Return On Investment (ROI): You get over two times (×2) your profit. Imagine spending about #500 on importation withshipping inclusive on a piece of prduct and selling about 50 pieces of such product at #1500, that’s about #1,000 profit for each piece of product sold and #50,000 for the 50 pieces!
• You can do this as a side hustle (part-time) or devote your time to it specifically (full-time). So even if you’re a stay-at-home mom, student, 9am to 5pm worker or someone looking for a business, you can do it.

I really hope this helps you. Don’t forget to like, comment and share if you enjoyed this post. You can also ask questions if you didn’t understand, I’d be happy to explain🙂.

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