Readers Questions – Import or UK Supplier

I had a question this week from Tracy on Facebook, Tracy has a new lingerie business and this is her question:

I have just setup a web page selling lingerie and finding it very hard to find a supplier in England. 

I was wondering if you know of any as when I buy from abroad it is costing me more money in shipping fees.

Thanks for any advice.

Miss T Byrne

Thanks for your question Tracy, it can be tricky working out the best method to buy your stock but you are on the right track. If you buy from the UK the chances are that the UK supplier will simply be importing the stock from abroad anyway, adding their own profit margin and then selling on in smaller quantities so you may save some money in shipping fees but you will loose out in profit margin anyway so I would suggest sticking with importing. The best way to get your shipping costs down is to make bigger orders so that your “per item” price will be much lower and you should be able to factor this item cost into your decision of final selling price for your stock so it shouldn’t be too much of any issue.

If you don’t have the funds to buy in bigger volume I would suggest using eBay or Amazon to sell your lingerie as this will get your faster sales allowing you to re-invest your profits into more stock.

This will also allow you to use eBay as a market research tool to find out which are your best selling product lines by checking the analytics tools that will show you which has the best sell through rate and so when you make your bigger order you can buy the best stock for your business at the best prices also.

I have recorded my response to Tracy’s question on YouTube if you would like to watch it you can see it below:

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