HOW TO START A MINI-IMPORTATION BUSINESS AND MAKE MONEY IN NIGERIA

One of the beauties of the Internet is being able to trade with people in all parts of the world. Before, there used to be different kinds of barriers that blocked people from exchanging goods and services among themselves. For instance: most traders are limited to selling goods only to the people in their country before, but this is no longer the case as the Internet has made trading become effortless. The Internet has broken so many barriers and replaced them with equal opportunities for every willing human being to make trading possible.

I remember those days, importers used to be rich people who could afford to ship large quantities of goods in containers from overseas countries and they made a killing from it. Starting an importation business in those days required a huge amount of money—this put many people off.

Nowadays, the Internet has made things easy and importation is no longer an overwhelming process. Mini-importation is the kind of importation where you buy your intended goods from sellers in other parts of the world on the internet at a small scale and get them shipped into your country. It required small capital to start the mini-importation business. You can import any kind of product in small quantities from the corner of your room.

Mini-importation is one of the lucrative businesses you can start without breaking the bank. Almost everybody can engage in the business.

What are the things you need to start the business?

Determination: Before starting any business you must be determined and ready for the business demand because business comes with a headache and if you are not determined to stay in business and grow it, you may give up easily.

An Internet-enabled device and Internet Connection: You must own an Internet-enabled device to start the business. It can be a smartphone, PC, or tablet. You are not going to a physical shop to buy your goods. You will be buying on foreign e-commerce websites and without any of these, you will not be able to do any importation.

ATM Card: Owning a personal debit card is required because you are going to be making payments with it. This is not a brick-and-mortar business—so no cash transactions.

Capital: You need to have some money that you will use to buy and import your desired product. You can start your mini importation business with as little as N10, 000 only.

Your Physical Address: Any product that you buy on the internet is going to be shipped to your address. You will be picking up your ordered products at the post office. If you don’t have a physical address, if, by luck, your products get to the post office in Nigeria, they will be sent to NIPOST Headquarters. Imagine the stress. But if you have one, you will just pick your products up at the nearest post office.

Valid Mean of Identification: This is what you will be using at the post office to claim your goods. Also, as you are progressing in your business, you will need to be importing more quantities of products. Some platforms limit the quantities of products you can buy except if you have some valid documents and the number one required document is a government-issued ID card.

An e-mail address: You need to have a valid email address to do mini-importation business—you will use it to sign up on online platforms where you will be buying your products.

Where are you going to be importing your products from? 

China is the best place to import your products from. You don’t have to fly to China before buying any product of your choice. I will be listing the websites where you can import your products and sell them in Nigeria at a profitable price. Let’s go:

taobao.com: Taobao is a platform where you can buy any product at a ridiculously cheap price. You will need to use the Google Chrome browser so that you can translate the Chinese language on the website. For instance: some wireless earpiece brands sell for 54 Chinese Yuan. When you convert that to Naira you will get N1, 100 or thereabouts. This product can be easily sold for N5, 000—so let’s do the maths: N5, 000 – N1, 100 = N3, 900 profit on a single product! See profit margin!

ictcomputerlimited.com: This is a platform where you can buy computer hardware, networking equipment, CCTV, printers, servers hardware. The mobile phone number of the sales rep of this platform is on the website. You can save it and chat him up on WhatsApp. His name is Rony. There is one thing I love about him: He regularly sends price updates to all his contacts even if you don’t request them.

1688.com: This is another Chinese website like Taobao where you can buy almost everything at a cheap rate.

jd.com: I love JD. If you want to be selling phones and accessories, computers and accessories, and cameras and accessories, jd is one place where you can get them.

tmall.com: Tmall is good too for business too. Products there are cheap. It is recommended to buy from sellers who have good reviews.

alibaba.com: Alibaba is another good China’s sure where you can buy almost everything you can ever think of.

dhgate.com
AliExpress.com
dx.com
chinabrands.com
banggood.com
tinydeal.com
lightinthebox.com
gearbest.com
paipai.com
miniinthebox.com

Outside China, there are other reputable websites where you can import from and make a good profit on your products. I have the list with me. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you need it. For instance: there is a website where almost everything they sold is $5. I mean $5. Imagine the kind of profit you can gain selling products like these.