This post is for you if you've been thinking of starting mini importation but you don't have enough money to sort out shipping costs and other costs attached to it.

Let me inform you that there's an equally profitable alternative that doesn't require you to import any good, all products will be sourced locally.

This business model is called local arbitrage. Let me break the English down.

Local arbitrage simple means you'd be sourcing for products to sell locally. You'd be buy these products at cheaper costs from the manufacturers/wholesalers and you'd resell at a profitable price.

You might think this is nothing new, but allow me put a spin on it.

What you'd be selling wouldn't be products that are generally available i.e products that anyone can get from their environment. These product are high quality products that produce a "WOW effect". Basically these products attract rich people who love to live easy lives.

An example is this hand held iron steamer. This isn't something you'd find in a supermarket in your area but it'll definitely make things easier for you. You can buy this product for 3000 or less and sell it for 15k or more because it's of high quality.

This business model can also be called smart e-commerce.

How do you start local arbitrage and how much will you need to start?

I think I'll make this post a thread


Comment "following" if you want me to continue

following

How to start local arbitrage

Choose a niche

A niche is a segment of a market.

This means that you should choose which products you want to sell. Do you want to sell health products or kitchen utensils? The first thing to do is to choose a niche. Don't skip this step.

After you choose a niche, determine which product you want to sell in that niche. For instance if you choose the health niche, determine if you want to sell sexual enhancement products or intimacy gadgets.

After choosing which category of products you want to sell, do your research to see what people are already buying.

When doing your product research ensure that the product isn't something that's common.

Also ensure that it's valuable. If it makes you say "wow!", You should sell it.

Here are some sites where you can do your product research

dhgate.com
alibaba.com
thieve.co
fancy.com
joom.com
HSN.com

Basically sites where people go to buy stuff. What you're looking for is a product many people are buying

When you find the product, the next step is to look for someone who sells it in Nigeria.

You can do this by two ways:

1. Go to a market and search for it or something similar

2. Go to jiji and search for it. This is easier and faster.

Note: when searching on jiji, ensure you search from lowest to highest price because your goal is to buy the product at the lowest price and sell it at a higher price.

When you find someone who has what you want, bargain with the person to sell cheap for you in bulk.

Now that you have a product and you have a way to buy it in bulk, you need to develop a channel to sell these products.

This is where social media comes in. Since you don't have a shop, you need to do your selling online.

I recommend using Facebook and Instagram. You can also use WhatsApp if you like, but WhatsApp is more useful for closing. I'll explain what I mean

To chat with someone on WhatsApp, you need their number and many people wouldn't give out their numbers anyhow. You might think you'd advertise with WhatsApp TVs but that's not nearly as profitable as using Facebook or Instagram to advertise.

Why? Because Facebook and Instagram allows you to show your ads to people who are most likely to buy from you.

Someone should comment so I can continue. I want to know that I'm actually giving out relevant and valuable information

Okay I got a like. That's good enough.

Facebook allows you to target people and if you do it right you'd make so much money you'd wonder what you were doing before.

So decide which platform you want to use to advertise and run ads on that platform.

If you do your homework right, you'd have people placing orders for your product.

This is how local arbitrage is done. It's very simple and anyone can do it.

If you don't want to buy the products and deliver them yourself, you can strike a deal with the seller to pay you a commission for every person you bring to buy from him.


So what you'd do is run ads for the product, but the ads will direct people to the product owner instead and when they purchase, you'll be paid a commission.

Have any question? Feel free to ask.

Extra tips:

1. Do NOT sell illegal products
2. Do NOT sell common products
3. Do NOT sell products that are easily accessible
4. Do NOT sell products that do not solve a problem.
5. Do NOT sell products that do not have the "WOW effect"
6. Do NOT sell products that do not promise transformation.

Am with you

Summary of this thread:
1. Start local arbitrage if you don't have enough money for mini importation.
2. Choose a product with a wow effect that's not common and sell it.
3. Source for the product locally and buy it in bulk
4. Advertise this product to the right people through the right channels.