Reselling has become a hot topic lately. People have started to consider reselling as a viable business opportunity which is why the industry is seeing exponential growth. Generally, people like to resell products as a part-time opportunity, but it has loads of potential to become a full-time business. According to a recent Redseer report, the reselling market in India alone is poised to touch $7 Billion by 2025, rising sharply from $600 Million in 2020. But what is reselling? How do you start a reselling business? What should you expect when you start a reselling business in India? We will answer all of these questions below. Keep reading to find out.
What is Reselling?
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As the name suggests, reselling includes selling items that have already been sold. Generally, business owners buy products or create trustworthy sources to resell these products further. These items include footwear, clothing, accessories, sports memorabilia, etc. Reselling platforms act as an intermediary between the seller and the buyer. What is the benefit for the intermediary? Like any other retail platform, resellers charge commissions from buyers for selling their products on their platform. This commission is the main source of income for a reselling platform.
1. Advantages of Reselling
- Low investment: Since a reseller themselves do not have to buy a product, their investment remains comparatively low. Resellers generally source products from different sources to make them available to buyers. The major investment that a reseller might have would be in developing a solid online platform, a loyal community and some minor advertising.
- Booming Industry: Reselling as a full-time business is becoming more and more prevalent, especially due to the increased popularity of limited-edition sneakers, hats, paintings and more. Some people buy these products for personal use, while others like collecting them.
- Large Inventory: Reselling does not have to be limited to clothing and footwear. You can do it for any item. The products can include gadgets, art, paintings, statues, images, videos and anything you can imagine. While the market for clothing and footwear is the largest, other products also find their place in the industry.
2. Cons of Reselling
- Customer Perception: While it is true that many people like to buy resold items, the market is comparatively small as compared to normal retail business. People perceive resold products as old and tacky rather than understanding the product’s true value.
- Fake Sellers: Since no major investment is involved, it is quite easy for anyone to create an online page to fool customers. Taking advance payments and delivering fake and invaluable products to customers has become a huge problem in the reselling industry.
- Thin Margins: Due to increasing competition in the industry, resellers are giving high discounts on the products. These discounts cut into their margins and reduce profitability. It becomes increasingly harder for a new business to stay afloat in the market.
How to Start Reselling Business Online in India?
Anyone can start their own reselling business in India through the easy steps mentioned down below:
1. Type of Reselling Business
There are two ways to get into a reselling business. First is to buy products at a wholesale price, build an inventory and earn a profit with every sale. The other route is referring customers to the wholesaler and earning a commission with every sale. Understanding what works best for you is important to maximise your profit potential is important.
2. Scan your Industry
As a reseller, you would not want to venture into all the industries simultaneously. It is important to find out the industries you are most passionate about and those that show the most potential. It would help if you always learned about the rules, regulations, customer base, sale rate, market trends and inflation to understand the real image of the market.
3. Identify Your Target Audience
Your business is only as good as your customers. As a reseller, you need to understand who your target audience is. The product line, pricing, advertising campaigns & marketing are some factors of the business that are affected by the customer base. For example, you might want a better presence on platforms like Youtube and Instagram to sell products to Gen Z. However, if you are trying to cater to the older population, Facebook may be your best bet.
4. Competition Study
As a particularly tough market, reselling requires a deep competitor scan. You should always check how your competitors are performing, what kind of campaigns they are running, and how their financial reports look and learn from them. It would help if you always optimised your product prices according to the competition in the market.
5. Budgeting
No business can run without a sufficient budget. You should always study the market and ask yourself certain questions. How much money will it take to set up the business? How much would customer acquisition cost? How long can you run your business without making a profit? It would be best if you answered these questions before getting into the reselling industry.
6. Start your Business
Now that you have done your research, set up your product sources, created a marketing timeline, considered your competitors and all your possible expenses, all that is left is to start your business. Most resellers these days operate online due to the higher availability of customers. However, you might need an offline storefront if you deal in products like art, paintings and other collectables. But for most, setting up an aesthetically pleasing and smooth functioning website may do the deed.
7. Market your Business
How will you let people know there is a new platform in the market? How do you build trust? How do you drive sales from different platforms onto your website? It requires hardcore marketing through different channels like SEO, Social Media Marketing, Google Ads and much more. Once your business starts running fluently, you can also begin producing ads for your business and running them on different social media platforms.
Important Tips to Start Reselling
1. Competitive Pricing
While keeping high margins on every product is tempting, it risks losing customers. Always keep competitive pricing on your products. Too many discounts too can derogate customer perception as people might think the products are fake. So do your research and price the products well.
2. Run Ads
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow you to reach the demographic you want by spending a nominal amount. You can run ads for your products and your website through these platforms and fine0tune their settings by adding customer age, active time, location, preferences and much more.
3. Create content
Every business in 2022 needs to have an online presence. Yours is no different. It would be best if you aimed to create catchy taglines, pleasing graphics and engaging videos for platforms like Youtube, Instagram and Facebook. Focussing more on the videos would help you get more engagement and traction across platforms.
Conclusion
Reselling is a relatively less competitive and less expensive business to start with. You will control everything about your business. Product line-up, pricing, and promotions will all be done by you. Follow our tips to start your reselling business today!
