Starting a beauty products website with imported products

alyth

hi - this is me just thinking out loud and looking for a bit of advice - my partner brought me back some fantastic toiletries from the States this week, and I've been searching on google and ebay and you don't seem to be able to buy them anywhere in Britain, even on ebay there's only 3 pages of the product. This got me thinking, is there a way you could import the products and sell them via a website, presumably buying from the company. The products have fantastic reviews and there are posting on websites which I found on google asking where in Britain you could buy the stuff, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere. The stuff is truly fantastic, I was searching to buy some and couldn't track it down, hence me having a bit of a lightbulb moment!

Has anyone done anything like this - apologies is this is the wrong board.

icartz

Hello

This is a fab idea. You should research a webname www.123-reg.co.uk has some great hosting and buy name which is around £3 up for a year.

WWW.Sitewizard.co.uk is another great service for web design.

All you have to do, is buy from the company in US and import to you, to then sell on.

I would suggest doing a business plan, work out a profit and loss margin. Also research company status, i.e. Limited, or sole trader.

Do SMART objectives

Specific
Measurable
Achieveable
Realistic
Time

And write out from this above, and go from there!

Good luck!

:j

soolin

The other thing apart from import duties and shipping to consider is what sort of outlay you would need. If this is a high end product they may want to only sell to recognised outlets to keep the exclusivity of the product so may want a large upfront order.

The other thing is how are you going to advertise a website, it isn't the easiest thing in the world to get noticed. I sell on ebay and even directing existing buyers to my website only resulted in a couple of sales so I actually gave up the website entirely.

danteCARAX

Also if your importing from the US, be wary of currency fluctuations and the potential impact this may have on your costing...

alyth

hi, thanks for all your advice. The products are Bath & Body Works, which are similar to the Body Shop, and the company will not export outside of the States. They are absolutely gorgeous, not too expensive, about Body Shop prices, and I suspect the company would not sell to me even if I had a shop/webshop. I'll keep thinking about how I could import the products, but I appreciate your posts.

hopeless_case_2

Hi alyth i get some chocolate from the states and it is gorgeous and like you i thought great will sell it in the uk but they wont export it. I was gutted.Was going to sell it into hotels and all kinds but there you go cest la vie!

alyth

I've still been thinking about this and can't think of any way round the export problems, as you say Hopeless Case companies are very selective in who they want to sell to, and I doubt whether someone can just set themselves up as an import business and suddenly expect the companies to sell to them - it's frustrating! There has to be some way round it, I'll find it!

misskool

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martindow

Some companies are wary when you mention selling from a web site. I would approach them saying you are a retailer and giving the impression that you are a shop. I would normally send a short message asking for wholesale terms and conditions (trade prices, expected order sizes, requirements for payment, etc.) and take it from there.

As has been said, starting a web site is not an automatic route to riches, however, for niche products it is quite possible to get well listed. Price everything up fully and make sure that you have sufficient margin to cope with dollar/pound fluctuations.

The major problem I see is whether enough people will have come across and be searching for a product that is not normally advertised or available here.

Good luck and I hope that it goes well.

richt71

alyth wrote: »

hi, thanks for all your advice. The products are Bath & Body Works, which are similar to the Body Shop, and the company will not export outside of the States. They are absolutely gorgeous, not too expensive, about Body Shop prices, and I suspect the company would not sell to me even if I had a shop/webshop. I'll keep thinking about how I could import the products, but I appreciate your posts.

Might be to do wih the new EU laws on beauty products and what they contain. It's very strict now in the EU. At worst it may be that the products would have to be repackaged for consumers in the EU.