Girlfriend setting up online business selling cosmetics

[Requiem]

Hi folks!

 

Not sure if this is the right forum, you're welcome to move it if needed.

 

So here's the deal. My girlfriend wants to set up online business selling some specific women cosmetics. She says she is planning to take 100 000 thb from bank as a loan, because she is planning to pay manufacturer to make a particular product for her. The manufacturer does everything - package, design, cream, product logo - ready to sell.

 

Has anyone had an experience with such business? How successful do you think it might be?
What advice could you give?

 

I appreciate any info.

 

Req

[maprao]

Yes a friend did this start up is about 10k to 14k normally. Then see how it goes.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Requiem]

1 minute ago, maprao said:

Yes a friend did this start up is about 10k to 14k normally. Then see how it goes.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Thank you for reply! Could you explain about 10k to 14k - do you mean this is income per month from such business or does it take 10k to 14k to start such business?

 

Sorry if it's a silly question :)

[samsensam]

 

need more information...

 

has she experience in running a business? knowledge/experience in the cosmetics industry? experience of running an online business?

 

market research carried out?

 

business plan?

 

realistic financial projections?

 

SWOT analysis?

 

online; own website, ebay, facebook? international/domestic market?

 

quality control?

[Requiem]

25 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

need more information...

 

has she experience in running a business? knowledge/experience in the cosmetics industry? experience of running an online business?

 

market research carried out?

 

business plan?

 

realistic financial projections?

 

SWOT analysis?

 

online; own website, ebay, facebook? international/domestic market?

 

quality control?

Nope, she has no experience. But she has an idea and it sounds like it would sell. At least she herself and her friends would definitely buy it :)

 

There's no analysis done yet, just the idea so far.

 

I was hoping to find someone who has such experience to share their success or misfortune.

 

I imagine you would need a Facebook business page to promote it. Not sure about delivery of the product yet though..

 

 

[maprao]

That is the start up costs with product to start selling. Not sue about the ins and outs after initial probably another 30k

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[ezzra]

Rule of the thumb when it comes to GF investing in business using

others money, do not invest more than you can afford to lose, and usually

from past experience, those investments tend to go sour after a while

due to myriads of issues, inexperience and gullibility being right

up the top....

[mstevens]

Thai women setting up an online business selling their own branded cosmetics on Lazada, Facebook and through friends and agents is quickly becoming a very saturated market.  There is money to be made and some have done very well indeed, but your girlfriend needs to differentiate her product for what is already out there and that is not easy because, as I already said, the market is becoming saturated.  My feeling is that this is a good idea for a sideline business and supplementary income but every day more people are entering what is already a very saturated market where the margins are getting slimmer and slimmer.

[oldcarguy]

is a Thai company  "The manufacturer does everything - package, design, cream, product logo - ready to sell " ????

 

This could be the first con ,  sell 10k worth of stuff for 100k because her stickers are on it !

 

If she really had a unique idea , this company "might" make it for her exclusive ,  but I doubt it........ soon everyone will have it !

 

Is she good at Websites and social media ?   Again everyone will copy her if she is good...

 

What would I do........Sell Japanese or Korean  cosmetics  that already have a "value" to the ladies

 

See if you can make a deal with a Japanese or Korean brand  and then if things work have that brand make exclusive items for her ( mostly packaging)

 

and do not sign anything from the bank , let her do it all in her name

 

If it works she will be proud of herself , if it fails she will be coming to you to bail her out and pay off the bank loan.....

 

PS.......I wish there were classes in Thai on how to prepare to start a business......it might save some of these people with "great" ideas from losing $$$$$$

 

 

 

 

[mstevens]

57 minutes ago, oldcarguy said:

is a Thai company  "The manufacturer does everything - package, design, cream, product logo - ready to sell " ????

 

This could be the first con ,  sell 10k worth of stuff for 100k because her stickers are on it !

100K baht is cheap.  She won't get a lot of product for that amount.  Remember, they have to manufacture the cream (probably copying someone else's product) and then design packaging, make the packaging, bottle it all up and package it up in to large lots.  And on a small run like say 1,000 bottles, the cost per unit is MUCH higher than if it it was a run of say 10,000 or more.  You might be surprised that in this industry 100K baht does not go that far.

[oldcarguy]

there is a street of bottle shops  in BKK where you can buy all kinds of perfume , lotion  type bottles ,

 

maybe go buy a few gallons of "magic face sauce" and bottle it yourself :)

 

printing stickers  or pad printing Logo on bottle is cheap.....

 

I agree 100K  is not much ,  but really 1000 bottles can be 900+ unsold ones if it does not fly !

 

From 31 Oct To 2 Nov  at Bitec is

in-cosmetics Asia trade show

http://www.in-cosmeticsasia.com

 

 

[meatboy]

first before she thinks its a win win win.

borrowing cash from a bank is a NO WIN.

all the rage at the moment is girls trying to sell food supplements.

[asiaexpat]

From actual experience I can say this is a losing business. Turn key manufacture costs are greater than the market sales returns and every lady on FB is selling cosmetics at cut rate prices. We lost over 100,000 in our business. Good luck if u go ahead.

[Baerboxer]

11 hours ago, samsensam said:

 

need more information...

 

has she experience in running a business? knowledge/experience in the cosmetics industry? experience of running an online business?

 

market research carried out?

 

business plan?

 

realistic financial projections?

 

SWOT analysis?

 

online; own website, ebay, facebook? international/domestic market?

 

quality control?

 

555! Farang no understand Thai people

[Baerboxer]

I know many people who now do this. Thais love this type of selling now. Your GF will buy a lot of stock for that amount. She will then sell to end users, 1 - 3 off etc but also look to sell larger quantities to her "network of distributors" at discounted prices for quantity. They will do the same. 

 

No wonder Amway is here!

 

Don't expect any business plan, cash flow forecast, sales & marketing plans, use of strategic analysis tools, SWOT, PESTLE, risk assessment or any of all that farang mumbo jumbo.

 

You will need to set up the basic accounting spreadsheets or she'll just do it all from memory and then wonder why it's buggered up.

 

Remember - they only see positive, never negative; only think for today not tomorrow or onwards; don't worry about, OR LEARN, from past mistakes; will expect you to cover "business expenses" without ever offering to reimburse you. And any inconvenience will come your way to ensure smooth running.

 

All plain sailing mate - good luck :-)

[rocketman777]

First see what similar products are being sold on ebay and for how much.

 

Then if she can buy at a price and compete on ebay (remember the cost of ebay and paypal fees are approx 14% of the top) Then start small  with a single (her brand) product selling on ebay.

 

100K sounds to me a lot of start up money, particularly if its being borrowed. The latter seems a recipe for disaster.

 

A website should come later and only after getting some good sales through ebay and extending the product range.

 

A website takes a lot of costly promotion and just relying on a new site to generate sales is almost certainly doomed to failure.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

 

 

[hobobo]

6 hours ago, meatboy said:

 

"all the rage at the moment is girls trying to sell food supplements. "

 

All the rage at the moment is girls trying to start a business with farang bf money!  "What, it's been like that forever? Sorry, I'm pretty new here"

[coconuthead]

you don't need 100k to start a business like that

 

you can do it on a lot less

 

it's surprising how many people don't even understand even the basics gross/net

 

I can hear it now...

"tirac can you pay loan off for me, big touble with bank"

Edited August 31, 2017 by coconuthead

[Lamkyong]

9 hours ago, mstevens said:

Thai women setting up an online business selling their own branded cosmetics on Lazada, Facebook and through friends and agents is quickly becoming a very saturated market.  There is money to be made and some have done very well indeed, but your girlfriend needs to differentiate her product for what is already out there and that is not easy because, as I already said, the market is becoming saturated.  My feeling is that this is a good idea for a sideline business and supplementary income but every day more people are entering what is already a very saturated market where the margins are getting slimmer and slimmer.

quite saturated then really  ??

[1FinickyOne]

I would imagine that for cosmetics, you need to be out and around, maybe try a mall or market. I think ladies like to try out these products especially if it is an unknown. 

 

Good luck. Success is very rarely achieved without a lot of hard work. 

[Pib]

Gosh, there are only a gazillion small shops, carts, stalls in malls and markets already selling cosmetics....combine that with another gazillion selling cosmetics online it's definitely a saturated and highly competitive market.   

 

But hey, females will buy cosmetics and clothes at most any price (mostly way overpriced) as if an absolute necessity to stay alive from day-to-day.  It's a girl thing.

[steven100]

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

Gosh, there are only a gazillion small shops, carts, stalls in malls and markets already selling cosmetics....combine that with another gazillion selling cosmetics online it's definitely a saturated and highly competitive market.   

 

But hey, females will buy cosmetics and clothes at most any price (mostly way overpriced) as if an absolute necessity to stay alive from day-to-day.  It's a girl thing.

what about opening a massage shop ...

[Ridge]

A female friend sells shampoo online. Well basically via facebook. Fo 499 you get a basket full off foam, a bottle of 80 b worth shampoo and some handcream. Needless to say she is always looking for mia farangs, befriend them and hope the are too shy to say no. Well my wife said that she has an allergy...

[Dakhar]

 

Barrier of entry is rather low, which is why this area is saturated. 

 

Understand that as a "boyfriend" anything she makes through this endeavor you have no legal access to the money.  (which statistically, the rate of which start ups fail, this would not be a problem)

 

I have donated to such an endeavor,  and with my experience 100K BHT will not go far, as MOQ demands from manufactures will be high. Further more, there will be other costs such as getting Thai FDA approval, packaging design fees, packaging fees if outsourced.   Also, cosmetics do have a shelf life (creams and such)  What I have seen is that they have a color change over time.  My wife has been lucky as her suppliers have allowed her to return the older inventory and have it replaced free of charge (minus shipping fees etc).

 

Your girlfriend will also need to register the company, and there are fees for that as well.

 

 

Good luck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Classic Ray]

We tried it still have 90% of the stock, luckily with long expiry dates. She got bored and moved on to something else which also hasn't sold. But now the bank have forced her to do a business plan I wanted for idea 1 for idea 2, so that might have a chance. In between there were expensive bakery courses but I still get no bread or cakes baked. We have a roomful of equipment ovens etc and I am promised it will all happen one day. Hope I live to see it!

[catman20]

1 hour ago, hobobo said:

"all the rage at the moment is girls trying to sell food supplements. "

 

All the rage at the moment is girls trying to start a business with farang bf money!  "What, it's been like that forever? Sorry, I'm pretty new here"

spot on mate.  there seems to be to many thais in thailand do the same old things selling, food, massage, cosmetics, salon.cloths and pussy. and none of them make any money apart from the last one.

[catman20]

12 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

We tried it still have 90% of the stock, luckily with long expiry dates. She got bored and moved on to something else which also hasn't sold. But now the bank have forced her to do a business plan I wanted for idea 1 for idea 2, so that might have a chance. In between there were expensive bakery courses but I still get no bread or cakes baked. We have a roomful of equipment ovens etc and I am promised it will all happen one day. Hope I live to see it!

[mike324]

the thing is, is she savy with facebook, IG? If not its almost impossible to sell if you are just relying on people to go to your website. Your gf has no brand image yet, and no followers, nobody will find her product online.

 

Those that are sucessful are able to leverage social media and get people to share their items, bring along other folks with many followers online and promote their product.

 

This girl makes a living just promoting cosmetics, she is famous for doing so. Your gf can learn from her just by looking at her website, learn to take good pictures will go a long way too.

https://www.facebook.com/khwankhong/

https://www.instagram.com/khwanvasinee/?hl=kn

[Bob12345]

Simple test how to know if she will have success selling through Facebook:

look at the last 5 pictures she posted online and if she does not get well over 1,000 likes per picture on average the business will fail.

 

 

I base this simple rule on what I have seen around me with many friends of my wife. Selling through Facebook, especially a product like cosmetics, is extremely difficult as there are thousands of unknown shops selling unknown brands already. What will make your gf's stand out? If she does not know any famous hi-so people who can help her promote it or if she does not have a network of friends clicking over a 1,000 likes on her current pics already than nothing will make it stand out.

 

Frankly, nobody is interested in an unknown brand of cosmetics of unknown quality. She will only sell if famous people recommend it (which they wont if they dont know her) or if all her friends help her out (for which she needs to have a huge network of real friends already). 

 

I do know some people who can sell about everything online but they both build a huge following over the years selling other products. One guy has a tremendous network of rich and famous people so whatever he sells already has an aura of richness around it making it interesting for most Thais (he will take a pic of the product with in the background the logo of his lamborghini steering wheel, famous friends will show his product off in hi-so settings, he arranges a free ad in a big magazine his buddy owns, etc). Another girl has build a huge following by selling plus-size clothes for years and she now sometimes sells, just for fun, a special product like dried pork or shrimp and easily gets orders for a few hundred kg within a day. In neither case they started with a limited budget and no following on Facebook.

 

 

Based on everything you told us so far, and what I mentioned above, I give her a chance of success of around 1%.

[Requiem]

17 minutes ago, mike324 said:

the thing is, is she savy with facebook, IG? If not its almost impossible to sell if you are just relying on people to go to your website. Your gf has no brand image yet, and no followers, nobody will find her product online.

 

Those that are sucessful are able to leverage social media and get people to share their items, bring along other folks with many followers online and promote their product.

 

This girl makes a living just promoting cosmetics, she is famous for doing so. Your gf can learn from her just by looking at her website, learn to take good pictures will go a long way too.

https://www.facebook.com/khwankhong/

https://www.instagram.com/khwanvasinee/?hl=kn

Thank you! Yes, we would set up Facebook business page of course and sell there, not using our own website. I also know a friend who is successful with such venture selling product for women online and making good money. If she makes a good product, I will probably convince my friend to promote it with her customers.

Promotion is not a problem, I think the problem is with manufacturing it, finding good materials, etc. I have no idea yet how much it would cost and what's the profit of one item sold.