How to Start Perfume Business in Nigeria (Pro Tips)

In this article, we will be looking at how you can start a perfume business in Nigeria and make profits. Recently, a co-worker of mine came to sell me perfumes. Apparently, she has been in the perfume business for quite some time now and now termed it as her side hustle. The day she approached me, she came with different brands all packed in little bottles.

And was able to persuade me to buy from her after listing many outstanding reasons why I should buy a pocket perfume. On my quest to know if she’s really making profits from the perfume business, she smiled and said yes but this is just her own way of starting – her ultimate aim is to start her own perfume line and brand.

She further said she decided to go into the business because of her passion for perfumes and didn’t know how to start until someone advised her to start small by selling perfumes in tiny bottles. She said because Nigerians like to eat their cake and have it the selling in tiny bottles has been making lots of profits for her.

Many Nigerians like big perfume brands but they cannot afford them so someone thought of it one day to buy all these expensive perfume brands and sell them in small quantities (tiny bottles). The ultimate aim here is to give Nigerians what they want (the ability to use any perfume brands they want by buying them in small quantities) and make money on the side.

These tiny perfume bottles come in packs ranging from 12 to 16 bottles per pack and are sold at wholesale prices of N1000 to N1500 per bottle – final buyers buy them at N1,000 per bottle. The perfume business in Nigeria is a kind of business anyone can go into because its low capital demands. With about N5,000 – N10,000 you can start your perfume business this way.

Another way of starting your own perfume business in Nigeria is to buy these designer perfumes in different brands from wholesale shops around you and sell them at retail prices to people. I will be sharing more tips on how-to you can do this easily as we move forward in the article. Then the third and final way you can start your own perfume business in Nigeria is to make the perfumes yourself and sell them.

Although this is not yet common in Nigeria, it doesn’t mean it does not exist. You can start this method by first learning how to make perfume from local perfume makers in Nigeria and after learning you register your brand and start selling in mass production. This method asides its been capital demands can also take more time to manifest.

Sometimes, demanding as much as 10 – 15 years for you to get to the top – being the most popular perfume brand in Nigeria. All these methods are the most visible way you can start your perfume business in Nigeria. Now let’s move to how you can start the business with what you have since one of the aims of this blog is to encourage small startups in Nigeria.

If you get this right you can start small then after so much understanding of the business, you can then get investors to invest in the business to go on a higher scale.

How to Start Perfume Business in Nigeria

Here are steps on how to start a perfume business in Nigeria.

1. Decide the Type of Perfume Business                   

Out of all the 3 types of perfume businesses in Nigeria I mentioned earlier all are profitable it just depends on how much time you have and how much capital you are willing to invest. You need to decide out of these 3 which type of perfume business is suitable for you. If you’re thinking about starting small with a capital of about N10,000 – N15,000 you should go for buying and selling of perfume in little bottles.

Immediately you order them and they are delivered to you, you can start selling as soon as the next day. If you’re thinking of selling the designer brands as they are in their casing themselves you will need about N50,000 – N100,000 as capital to start. To get this done you will need to go to where perfumes are sold wholesale in your area and buy.

Buy the ones you know people are more familiar with for a start to fasten your sales. You can ask the perfume dealer you are buying from to help you in selecting when you are about to buy. And if finally, you’re thinking of creating your brand – starting your own perfume company you’ll need about N500,000 to N1,000,000 as your starting capital to start.

This capital is for you to first learn how to make the perfume for yourself for mass production, second to register your perfume brand with SON, and register your perfume business with CAC. And third to buy little material and equipment for the mass production of perfumes and to employ staff for the business. So you’ll need to decide carefully which part you want to follow in the perfume business after doing your proper findings both in and outside the market.

My best advice for you here is to visit the perfume shops in the local markets both the wholesale and the retails to hear what they have to say about the business asides from what you’ve heard on the blog. If it’s possible tip them and ask them the best advice they can give you as regards starting a perfume business in Nigeria.

Also, ask them about the best kind of perfume business you should start with and most importantly how to convince people – Nigerians to buy the perfumes. These dealers might not be able to give you 100% answers to these questions but they will be able to answer them to some degree that kills all your insecurities. This was what I did with my co-worker I sought her counsel about the business.

Even though I was not planning to go into the business, I still wanted to know “how” so I can understand the business and asides from that be able to write an article about it to share on the blog.

2. Get the Required Capital

Capital is very important in starting any business in Nigeria and any country all over the world but getting it is actually hard and the bigger the capital the harder is it to source. Depending on where you are and how much you make monthly if you want to self-fund your perfume business it’s achievable it’s just a matter of time.

You can save towards it and if you are already a saver having some money saved up already you can take some out of the money to start. If you do not have money and can not wait to save up some you can use other people’s money to start. Please note here I am saying you should approach complete strangers for money telling them about the business you want to start.

The people I am talking about here are your family and friends. Depending on the kind of relationship you have built with them and their perceptions on the way they see you and money they might be able to borrow you more than what you think of. But just in case you need a full in-depth article on how to do this you can read my article on “How to start a business in Nigeria with no money.”

After sourcing your capital the next step for you is to go to the market to buy the first batch of perfumes for your perfume business.

3. Start Selling Perfume to Customers

The ability to sell is the most integral part of any business. You have to know how to sell your perfumes first to your friends before you can sell to strangers. Here are some of the tricks I used in selling my goods way back when I started my men’s accessories business.

4. Sell Perfume Oil Online

The next step for you here is to be able to sell your perfumes online in Nigeria.

A. Sell Before Goods Arrive

The first trick I used was I started selling even before my goods arrived. Here’s how I did it. I looked for pictures on the internet similar to the good I was expecting and I started using them as my DP on WhatsApp. I also started using it as my WhatsApp status advising friends on the best products they should go for and how much they can buy if they decided to buy from me. And soon the messages started coming in.

How much is this? How much is that? Bring it to church on Sunday I will buy it. Bring it to work on Monday I will buy it. This was the way I started selling my goods before they arrived. You can also use this method. You don’t need to wait till you buy the perfumes before you start advertising them. Start even before the business starts.

After doing this for a while and you’ve been able to gather success you can now proceed to other social media platforms to sell your perfumes. But sell first to people around you and let it be a major. If you are good at persuading your friends and family to buy you might not need to spend money on Instagram and Facebook ads.

Remember you are just starting you don’t want to do anything that will take money from your business (expenses) if there’s a need for this you want it to be as little as possible. Also, try as much as possible to keep your prices low. Depending on how much you buy the perfumes from the wholesalers you can decide to add N300 to N2000 as your profit before selling to your potential customer.

Let’s give an example here. Let’s say you bought the perfumes for N500. You can decide to add N300 to sell instead of adding N500 to sell at N1,000. These little sales tweaks will make people patronize you more. If you bought the perfume N5,000 for one you can sell it for N6,500 or N7,000 instead of the usual N8,000 price from other perfume sellers. The goal here is for people to think of buying from you first before thinking of going to the market.

B. Market Perfume oil on Jiji

This platform is for those that have been in any business for a while have scaled higher and are now looking for customers beyond their friends and family. You can use Jiji to advertise to customers both in your area and outside your area. You can advertise on the platform for free or do a paid advert – anyone you prefer.

Their website is also fully optimized with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so if anyone googles perfume dealer or seller in your area or location your profile on Jiji will pop up to the person. However, you need to keep in mind that the price of your perfumes in Jiji will have to increase in order for you not to go into losses when the orders start coming in.

Aside cost of the perfumes, the cost of profit you will need to add delivery costs as well to pay for the waybill. You need to factor all this in so that in the end you and the buyers will not lose. Everyone will go home smiling.

C. Sell Perfume on Konga and Jumia

The world has moved on to eCommerce so is Nigeria. Do you know you can also sell your products – perfume on Jumia or Konga? Just in case you don’t know how it is done here’s how you can go about it. All you have to here is to go Jumia.com.ng or Konga.com and register as a seller there.

Within a short while, your perfumes will be displayed on the websites for consumers to see and buy. However, this is not free I heard there are some charges.

5. Increasing Perfume Oil Sales

At this stage, you need to know how to increase sales in your perfume oil business and also know how to maintain your perfume products – making them potent till they are bought from you. So here are bonus tips on how you can do this successfully.

Bonus Tips

A. Sell to Yourself First

Do me a favor, don’t be like the guys who say they sell clothes and put on rags in Lagos. Do not look like the cobbler who says he sells designer shoes yet put on thorn sandals. You have to look like what you sell. Don’t say you sell perfumes yet you do not put on any brand. No! Spoil yourself! Try different brands if not for anything but to understand perfumes in general and to speak for these brands when they are criticized.

B. Keep Perfumes away from Sunlight

Try as much as possible to keep your perfume oil away from direct sunlight in other to retain its potency. Also, try to keep the casing as clean as they came. Do not allow people in the disguise of buying to spoil their boxes. What you can do here is to always help in opening perfume casings for customers.

C. Promote your Perfume Products

As a sole proprietorship, your business is you and you are your business until when the business has grown and is now beyond you (no longer needing you to survive). Until then never think of separating your business from you. Always talk about perfumes or perfume oils anywhere you go and why people should smell nice. This makes people know this is what you’re into even though they are meeting you for the first time.

Conclusion

There is no one-size-fits-all as regards the perfume oil business in Nigeria. You either choose the path that is already available or you create your own. Finally, the perfume business is not a magical business that once you; start you making millions. It takes time to achieve this and consistency. In fact, this is not only for the perfume business in Nigeria it goes for any other kind of business in Nigeria.

Has this article given you ideas on how you can start a perfume business in Nigeria? Please give us a thumbs up by sharing it on social media. This is another way you can support us.

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