Process of buying from lash factory in Vietnam
There is a common process of buying directly from lash factory in Vietnam. It’s not a must, it’s just widely accepted and applied.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Sourcing
Market research
In which countries/areas there are many lash factories?
For example, at the moment, in Vietnam, There are 4 areas where you can find most lash factories Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh city, Thanh Hoa Province, Nam Dinh province and Hanoi.
And which supplier segment are they?
For example, in the North or the South, are there more suppliers of individual lash trays? Where can you find the majority of pre-made fan lashes? Where are the suppliers predominantly large, and where are they smaller-scale? Where is the work done professionally, and where should you expect lower quality? Where do lash factories primarily produce for brands, and where do they focus on non-branded lashes? Where do suppliers specialize in one type of lash, and where do they tend to offer a variety?
These specific information will be updated as time goes by. That’s why we don’t give you those information right here but giving you only the approach. However, this approach would remain valuable for your sourcing process in your journey of finding your right lash factory in Vietnam.
Refer to:
- 5 Typical Types Of Lashes Supplier in the world
- Practical methods for lash market segmentation (supplier segmentation)
Short-list
To have a short-list, you need a sheet of information of suppliers that you found in the areas that you have already chosen. There are 3 main sources of information that you can collect for your consideration to have a short-list of lash factory in Vietnam:
- information published by the lash factory (website, instagram, facebook, alibaba…)
- information collected when you talked with each supplier
- information you collect in lash groups/channels/forums/community.
It’s better to have a model of information with specific creterias to choose a lash factory before collecting the information.
Refer to: 7 key factors to select a good lash supplier
- Quality
- Cost/Price
- Production Capacity
- Technical Level
- Service
- Creativity
- Social Responsibility
Step 2: Sampling
After having a short-list of potential lash factory in Vietnam, you can ask for a sampling process. The point here is considering it as a process so that you can test the quality of their both product and service. Therefore, it’s always better to ask for samples as your requests rather than available samples that they have already prepared.
Step 3: Designing
Designing should not be understood in a narrow meaning like designing the packaging. It would be considered in a broader meaning like: designing the catalog structure (which items should be included in your catalog and their rate of quantity), designing the general approach for your products (ex: design to cost, or design to branding…) before designing the packaging, designing each tiny details on the lashes.
Examples:
- Design the Catalog structure: which items are best selling at your market? which are not best selling but a must? An experienced lash factory in Vietnam can always answer this question. She is even willing to help you build an optimized catalog based on your budget.
- Design Packaging: Does this lash supplier care about your market segment and budget before offering suitable packaging solution? Is she doing more standard or customization? Is she able to help you customize the packaging for both of your function and aesthetic purpose?
- Design the details on the lashes: Would you like glue tape with more or less stickiness? Would you prefer dark matte or dark glossy black? Would you prefer wide or narrow fans? And How about the stem – long or short?…. A strong lash factory in Vietnam can help you customize almost everything that you want.
Refer to: Unlimited Customization Service of Sen Lash Factory Vietnam
Step 4: Ordering
Ordering is not only giving a list of lashes items that you need but also other requirements that you need your lash factory in Vietnam to fulfill. In a broader meaning, when you place your order, all the terms and conditions in both the general contracts and the specific contract of that order should be mutual agreed.
For examples, at least, your orders should have these requirements in details:
- Products list, quality, time to delivery
- Packaging
- Stickers/Label
- Documents that you needs
….
Step 5: Building the relationship
Improve the performance
Since you have 7 key groups of factors to choose a right lash factory in Vietnam you can expect that you find a supplier performing oustandingly in all of those aspects. That’s why you would always have a need of their performance improvement. By giving your feedback and expectation, listenning to the supplier proposal and mutual following up, you build a practical relationship with your lash supplier.
Design the role
You’re might not working with 1 lash factory in Vietnam because of 2 reasons:
- Reason 1: 1 factory can’t do everything for you as you want
- Reason 2: You would like to work with more than 2 suppliers for safety and to make use of the strength of each one.
These are very reasonable thoughts. That’s why each supplier would play a specific role in your supplier pannel. These are some main roles that you can use in your taxonomy:
- Partner
- Massive manufacturer
- Innovator
- Challenger
SO, WHAT (IN SHORT) CAN BE A PROCESS OF BUYING DIRECTLY FROM A LASH FACTORY IN VIETNAM?
- Step 1 – Sourcing: You get to know which area in Vietnam with many lash factories and their segmentation in each area. You got a short-list of potential suppliers.
- Step 2 – Sampling: You test the quality of both the product and service of some lash factories in your short-list.
- Step 3 – Designing: You and your supplier design the catalog structure, the packaging and the details on the lashes.
- Step 4: Ordering: You and your supplier get agreement on not only the items of lashes but also other requirements like: quality details, delivery time, labeling and packaging, documents that you need…
- Step 5: Building a relationship: You proactively involving in improving the performance of your lash factory in Vietnam and getting her playing her role more efficiently and effectively.
Do you need a big budget to start a lash supply business?
No. You don’t need a big budget to start a lash supply business. From Just 3000 USD is enough.
Table of Contents
1. LASH SUPPLY BUSINESS STARTUP COST-BREAKDOWN
The following table will help you estimate a pretty comprehensive budget to start a lash supply business. Don’t forget to update the numbers of the cost at your market to have a closer estimation.
| Category | Item | Cost Range (Low) | Cost Range (High) |
| Initial Inventory | Lash Products | 500 | 2000 |
| Adhesives and Tools | 200 | 500 | |
| Packaging | 300 | 1000 | |
| Storage Solutions | 100 | 300 | |
| Branding and Design | Logo Design | 50 | 300 |
| Product Labeling/Packaging Design | 100 | 500 | |
| Website Design and Development | 200 | 2000 | |
| Legal and Administrative Costs | Business Registration and Licensing | 50 | 500 |
| EIN | 0 | 0 | |
| Insurance | 200 | 500 | |
| Marketing and Advertising | Social Media Ads | 100 | 500 |
| Influencer Collaborations | 50 | 500 | |
| Photography and Product Shoots | 200 | 1000 | |
| Operational Costs | Office Supplies | 50 | 200 |
| Shipping Supplies | 100 | 300 | |
| Platform Fees | 30 | 80 | |
| Shipping Costs | 100 | 500 | |
| TOTAL | 2330 | 10680 |
Many lash manufacturer in Vietnam are willing to support customers to start small. Any some of them are professional in doing that.
2. TIPS TO OPTIMIZE COSTS WHEN STARTING YOUR LASH SUPPLY BUSINESS
Free samples
You don’t need to always pay for the sample. Many lash suppliers in Vietnam are willing to offer you free samples. Don’t underestimate the sampling cost, since you might need to try the samples from several suppliers before choosing the right one. This is the number one reason that leads to over budget to start a lash supply business.
Free support to design the label and packaging
Professional manufacturers usually have the service supporting you to design label & packaging for your products under your private label (ODM/OEM services). And they can do it for you for free.
Free support of photography
Similar to package designing, some manufacturers can also support you in product photoshooting. Don’t hesitate to ask them help you for free, or at last at a cost lower than the same service at your place. They can also hire professional photography service at manufacturing country with lower cost than it is at your country.
Ex: Sen Lash Factory Vietnam is offering Free Support on Product Photoshooting for wholesale customers.
Make use of space before renting a warehouse
“Need to rent a warehouse before starting your lash supply business” is just a 1 misconception. The lash products are normally very small. 3000 boxes of lashes will take you just less than 0.5m3. And for a simple start, Many of our customers just need about 3m2 for: a shelf, a table for packaging, for computers and sticker printing. So renting cost should not be in your innitial budget to start a lash supply business.
Ask your lash manufacturer to help optimize your buying budget
For example, if you would like to invest $2000 to innitial lash stock, and you would like to have as many types of lash possible in your catalog. You can ask your lash manufacturer to help you making an optimized proposal. They can even add more market insights from their experience to your lash order.
Ask for gifts instead of discount
Value of a product is always higher than its cost. Lets examinze this case:
For a lash box, your cutomers buy it at $10, you bought it from the manufacturer at $4, and its cost your manufacturer only $2.5 to produce.
So if you need a budget of $100 USD for the promotion it would be:
- If you use $100 USD as discount: Your customer can buy 10 more boxes.
- If you ask your manufacturer to send you more boxes of lash instead of discount, they can send you from 25-40 boxes more. (100/4 = 25 boxes; 100/2.5=50 boxes).
Simplize every operations to save operational cost.
You may notice that managing operation of lash supply business is actually a management on 3 flows: physical product flow, information flow and financial flow. Keep those flow as simple as possible and don’t rely too much on complex information system when you start your business.
3. OVERCOME THE PROBLEM OF MOQ
MOQ of a lash manufacturer is mainly decided by 2 MOQ: MOQ of lash manufacturing & MOQ of packaging manufacturing. And normally the MOQ of producing the lash is lower than the box. In almost cases, the lash manufacturers are not producing the packaging by themselves.
Therefore,
- If you use standard packaging, the MOQ is the MOQ of lash manufacturing
- If you use non-standard packaging, the MOQ is the MOQ of the box.
However, your lash manufacturer can have very creative solution to resolve the MOQ problem. So don’t hesitate to ask them to start small.
For example, if you would like to do private label, your manufacturer can help you to design creative logo stickers or cover too add outside the standard boxes. Or for case that you would like to make custom-design cardboard box, you can ask your supplier to pay surcharge or make boxes to stock and use them for several delivery order of lashes.
In conclusion, You don’t need to have a big budget to start a lash supply business. You can start from just several thousand dollars while still be able to have advantages. The most important thing here is the art of optimizing the cost since the ability of cost-cutting is actually a big competitiveness.
Start your lash supply business with the right products
First stock is a big part of your initial investment. Therefore, deciding which products is essential for your lash supply business. Since we have many years serving with many lash supply businesses worldwide and in many cases we accompanied them from the 1st days of their business, we believe that we can share some tips based on our experience.
Table of Contents
1. WHAT SHOULD I SELL?
There are 2 product strategy for the starting period of your lash supply business:
- Focus on lashes only
- Serving the whole need of a typical customer
Strategy 1: Focus on only lashes
This strategy is especially suitable if you want to build your own lash brand with strong competitive advantages, such as positioning it as a high-end brand or offering very competitive pricing. Consider why your target customers might choose to buy other products for their lash salons elsewhere, even while keeping purchasing lashes from you. They need a truly compelling reason to remain loyal to your brand.
By focusing, you can truly invest in that competitive edge, making your lash brand stand out from the rest. This strategy allows you to leverage the success of your lash brand to support other products as you expand your range in the future.
Follow this strategy, your lash supply business convince your potential customers by the product superiority (no matter if it’s quality or price).
Strategy 2: Service the whole need of your typical customer
Your lash supply business can adopt this strategy during the initial phase by informing your target customers that they can find nearly everything they need for their lash studios at your store. Purchasing everything from one place is always a compelling reason for customers to try a supplier and remain loyal.
Follow this strategy, your lash supply business convince your potential customers by the service superiority (the convinience and the speed).
For example, you can refer to this post: 14 Lash Extension Kit Essentials – every lash starters need
- Lashes
- Glue
- Tweezer
- Doll head
- Practice lashes
- Adhesive ring/holder
- Gel pad
- Tape
- Wands
- Brush
- Mapping stickers
- Primer
- Remover
- Mirror
2. SHOULD I SELL PRODUCTS OF MY OWN BRANDS OR OTHERS?
There are 3 options for your consideration. Each on has its own advantage and disadvantage for each model of your lash supply business.
Sell only your brand
Building customer trust in your credibility can be challenging, but it is well worth the effort. Once you earn their trust, you gain a substantial profit margin and unlimited potential to expand your product line. You can also be more proactive in pricing strategies and stock planning, as you work directly with manufacturers.
You can also work with the lash manufacture to customize many details on the products to make it outstanding from products available on the market in terms of both its function and its appearance.
And since you’re the founder of the brand, you know the story behind it, you know how to integrate the messages to the design of the products. These things will eventually contribute to your brand.
Sell only famous brand at the begining
By following this approach, you minimize the risk of quality issues and leverage existing brands to attract customers already in the market. You also gain customer trust more easily. However, in terms of competition, you have fewer opportunities to create significant advantages. And getting more advantage will rely heavily on how big your investment is. Additionally, the profit margin for your lash supply business is likely to be low, and you may be less proactive in pricing strategies and stock planning due to heavy reliance on other brands.
Combine your brand and other Famous Brands
You can choose to combine selling lash under your own brands and other lash supplies items or tools under other famous brand. This way bringing you 3 benefits:
- You can focus on working for high quality lashes while the quality of other items has been assured already.
- Famous brands of other items can imply that your lashes products has the same high quality as those brands.
- You can fullfill the whole need of a lash artist, studio or salon. The brands of other items can help you attract customers naturally.
3. HOW COULD I SHORT-LIST THE PRODUCTS TO START WITH?
The reason you should always narrow down your product catalog to a shortlist is to optimize your budget for the best ROI (Return on Investment) in terms of both its amount and speed.
Ask your targeted customers
Observing and conducting consumer surveys can help you identify the typical needs of your target market segment. However, don’t stop at simply listing “what they usually buy.” Always delve deeper to understand “why they buy those items most frequently“.
You can also consult with lash experts (lash masters) who set the trends in the lash extension market to gain a better understanding of basic needs, current trends, and which trends are likely to last or fade away.
You can also research the most popular lash extension sets in your market to identify the types of lashes being used. By combining this information with some knowledge of lash extension techniques, you can quickly create a shortlist of items to sell.
Study your competitor
Which items does your competitor usually running Ads/ place at the most attractive postion in your store? get the most reviews? people diss the most in forums?, best selling on their website, best selling on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Etsy… (or other favourable platforms on your market).
You can also check the combo, the set, the kits that your competitors are offering.
For example, you can know best selling product of a Shopify store just by adding these /collections/all?sort_by=best-selling after their URL. For example:
Ask your lash manufacturing partner.
Normally, a lash manufacturer in Vietnam or China will work with many lash supply business in many market. They not only know, but have a deep understanding on the reason why this lashes are on big need, other aren’t. They can tell you on not just general ideas but item by items without leaking confidential information of their other customers. Don’t hesitate to ask them to help.
For example, when you come with Sen Lash Factory Vietnam, we can even help you to build an optimized lash catalog for your budget and your market segment.
Refer to Sen Lash Factory Vietnam shared resources
Full Check-list to start a lash supply business
For such a checklist, you can easily ask AI models like ChatGPT or Gemini. However, you might also benefit from the insights of experienced professionals in the lash industry. This article is written by a lash manufacturer who work with many lash supply business. Hope that it can give you some more intesting information.
Quick Action: Check-list to download: HERE, Insights from us as content below.
Table of Contents
I. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
1. Market Research
When you start, Market research should be simple like getting to know Who is your customers and Who is your competitors.
The first bitter truth we have to accept is that a single lash supply business can’t sell to everyone. Therefore, we must choose the right customer segment to serve effectively. And on your targeted customer segment, there would always be competitors there. Serving them effectively means “significantly more effective than your competitors”.
The simplest method to achieve both objectives is as follows: list all the criteria that can be used to differentiate customers and competitors in the market of your lash product, and then use each pair of criteria to segment in a matrix.
- Branded or Non Branded Product, Luxury and Exclusive product or Basic.
- Trendy or Basic Product
- Online or Offline Buying
- Brand loyal or price-sensitive
- Profession: Technical Mature Market or Young Market.
- Income level: Budget-conscious buyers vs. premium product buyers
- Urband or Rural Area
- Regular or Ocasion Buying
- Style preference: Natural or Bold, Western or Asian?
- Values or Attitutes: High or Low on Eco-friendly and cruelty-free products
- Order size: wholsale buyers or retail buyers?
- Business size: At home, independent lash artist or big salons?
Don’t worry if you see a strong competitor in your favorite segment. First, it might be a signal to reconsider why you prefer that segment. Second, when you work with other pairs of criteria, you may find that the competitor is no longer in the same segment as you. In such cases, you will discover your unique differentiator. Afterall, you’ll find your “blue ocean” by summing up the segments that you’re in, and easily to set out your USP (Unique Selling Point).
2. Business Plan
Define your business goals and mission.
Since you have conducted thorough market research on both customers and competitors through careful segmentation, you now have a clear understanding of your ‘blue ocean’ in your lash supply market. Your mission is simply to strive to become the ‘King of that blue ocean’.
For example, if this your case of market segment:
- Branded or Non Branded Product, Luxury and Exclusive product or Basic: Branded Luxury.
- Trendy or Basic Product: Basic
- Online or Offline Buying: Offline
- Brand loyal or price-sensitive: Brand Loyal
- Profession: Technical Mature Market or Young Market: Technial Mature
- Income level: Budget-conscious buyers vs. premium product buyers: Premium
- Urband or Rural Area: Urband
- Regular or Ocasion Buying: Regular
- Style preference: Natural or Bold, Western or Asian?: Bold
- Values or Attitutes: High or Low on Eco-friendly and cruelty-free products: High
- Order size: wholsale buyers or retail buyers?: Retail
- Business size: Professional Salons.
The mission of your lash supply company would be something like: The first and last place where true lash professionals can come to find truely high-end lash products for their salons.
And Now about the Business Goal: It should align closely with your mission. Think about when you would like to achieve your mission and the criteria that will indicate its realization. This clarity will help you define your business goal precisely.
For example: You would like your mission would be completed in 2 years, and you can only agree with yourself on that only when you convert 60% of luxury lash salons in your area into your loyal customers.
Since you can estimate the number of customers in your segment and their average spending on your products, you can translate these figures into targeted revenue, profit margin, and other metrics like scale and costs. This approach enables you to set business goals across various areas—whether it’s marketing, sales, cost management, or financial performance.
Outlines innitial cost, pricing strategies and revenue projection.
Now that you have your business goal (a SMART one), complete with specific numbers and a timeline, creating projections becomes much easier. These could include revenue over time, variable costs, stock requirements, and financial investments over the same period.
Your initial costs will not only cover inventory and online presence but also include expenses related to an offline store. This offline store should be seen as an investment, recouped over time through depreciation factored into the selling price of each product. We will discuss about this in the next section.
Your ‘blue ocean’ (the segments you have chosen) will guide your pricing strategy effectively. In line with your mission from the example above, you can set premium prices to reinforce your image as a luxury brand. Instead of lowering prices or offering discounts, focus on adding unique benefits to enhance the total value package for your customers. For example, it can be a free-trials of your products in your store including some gifts with their first orders after trying. Or you can also consider trying Iphone price skimming strategy if you have a plan to upgrade your products seasonally.
Build up your business model.
Taking the time to think through the pieces below will help you get a complete picture of your business model.
- Customer Segments: For whom you’re creating values? Who are the most important customers?
- Value Propositions: What values do you deliver to your customers? Bundle of products/services we offer.
- Customer Relationship: What type of relationship does each of our Customer Segment expect us to establish with?
- Channels: Through which Channels do your customer segments want to be reached?
- Key Activities: Which key activities do out value propositions require?
- Key Resources: Which key resources do out value propositions require?
- Key partners: Who are our key partners?
- Revenue Streams: For what values are our customers willing to pay?
- Cost Structure: Which are the most important cost?
And make sure that you will not think about it for only 1 time. Regular review is a good practice.
II. LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SETUP
1. Business Registration
Choose a business name and register it with your local authorities. Your lash supply business name can be the same or not the same as your lash brand name. In case that they’re not the same, you need to choose both.
To choose good name, you can refer to our post: How to get great eyelash business names
Decide on a business structure (sole proprietorship, LLC, etc.). If you’re not familiar with this, counsult a law service would be the best choice.
2. Licenses and Permits
Obtain any required business licenses or permits, Check local regulations for selling lash products and tools. And also you should check the licenses of doing business under other lash brands name or products granted with patents owned by other lash suppliers.
3. Tax Identification
It’s crucial to apply for a tax identification number (EIN) even when you just start your lash supply business at a very small scale.
Anyway, Legal and Administrative setups are normally 1 shot actions and you can always hire a service to help you. Spending too much of time and effort on it could take your energy that you should have to start a business.
III. FINANCIAL PREPARATION
1. Startup Costs
You would need budget for these groups of cost: Innitial inventory, Branding and Designing, Legal and Administrative Costs, Marketing and Advertising, and other Operational Costs, Product Development and Testing. Other additional cost might be: Employee or Freelancer Costs, Education and Training, Custom Tools and Equipment, Miscellaneous Costs, Technology and Automation…
There would be specific type of cost in each of those group. You can download a Full list of costs in details here: STARTUP COSTS FOR LASH SUPPLY BUSSINESS
2. Banking and Payment Setup
You need to open a dedicated business bank account and Set up payment processing systems (e.g., PayPal, Stripe, credit card processing). Nowadays, many customers prefer using Creditcard or even BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) Services like Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm…
IV. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
1. Source Products
Find reliable lash suppliers or manufacturers for your lash supply business.
As you may know, almost all lashes are made in China & Vietnam. Korea seems to have many lash brands, but actually their products are made in China and Vietnam too. And especially, Vietnamese factories are really willing to support you to start from very small.
Refer to these posts:
- How to find good lash vendors in Vietnam
- Vietnamese lash vendor list – a practical guide to collect
- Your lash vendor should be a real factory, not a trader
- 5 Types of lashes supplier in the world.
Sampling
Samples can help you in many things: to see the quality of both lash product & service provided by a lash manufacturers, to test the sales or the reaction of your customers and photoshooting too. You may also want to customize something on the lashes in accordance with your customers’ feedback. Therefore, paying for samples is really worthy. And since buying samples are costy, it will encourage you to take more time studying on a lash supplier. However, don’t underestimate free shipping policies from strong manufacturers.
Ex: Sen Lash Factory Vietnam’s Free samling policy for lash supply businesses:
2. Lashes Catalog Building
If variety is not a must, your lash supply business should not pursue it immediately by default. And the rate is very important. 80% of the revenue can be generated from 20% of your products. Basic things you can do is asking your targeted customers and spy on your competiors. And remember that you can always ask your manufacturer for their experience. They can surelly tell you what is selling good, what’s not.
Don’t underestimate the important of small items. Their values might be very small to make you some margin, but they can help to fulfill the need of your customers. It give you more chance to connect to your customers and give less chance to your customers to buy from other supplier.
3. Packaging and Branding
Create a logo and cohesive branding: No matter if you are going to design it by yourself or hire a professional service, Refer to this post first: Lash Logo – An ultimate guides for lash businesses.
Design appealing and durable packaging: Keep in mind that desiging packaging means not only the aesthetic part but also the functional part. Aesthetic part depending on not only the drawing, but also the knowledge of the materials & the finishing technology. The functional part are decided buy the structure of the packaging. And there are always other constraint like cost, MOQ. Make sure that you have the at least a consultation with your lash manufacturer in this phase.
In many cases that you find a professional lash manufacturer, they can help you in this designing for free.
Refer to: Sen Lash Factory Vietnam ‘s private label/ OEM/ ODM service HERE.
V. ONLINE AND PHYSICAL PRESENCE
1. Website Development
To facility the customer experience of online shopping, you should build an e-commerce website with product listings and secure checkout options. Shopify, WordPress are most favourite platforms which enable you to integrate almost all operational functions of your lash supplies business into 1 website. You can also consider creating your online stores on other e-commerce websites (like Etsy, Amazon….).
You should also needd to at least include product descriptions, reviews, and high-quality images. And don’t forget to think about a space to provide your targeted audience with useful contents in the future when you design your website.
2. Social Media and Marketing
- Set up your lash supply business profiles on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. However, Don’t try to appear on all social media platform. Consider Where your potential customers tend to visit, your human resource and your advertising plan before setting up any profile on any social platform.
- Share tutorials, before-and-after photos, and user-generated content. Don’t just make it spontaniously. You better have a content plan to make sure that you can deliver all the important message to your potential customers via those contents.
3. Physical Location/Warehouse/Store/Pickup point.
If you’re opening a physical store, choosing the right location and space are two of the most important factors. Consider how you want your customers to discover you, interact with you to learn about your products and services, and ultimately receive their purchases. These considerations will guide you in making a good decision.
For example, if you want customers to discover your store by seeing it in person, you should choose a location with high foot traffic. On the other hand, if you expect customers to find you through Instagram and visit your beautiful store nearby, you can opt for a less crowded area for a wider space.
VI. OPERATION AND LOGISTICS
1. Inventory Management
- Organize a system for tracking stock levels. Remember that you need to track the stock on both physical warehouse and on your information system. Therefore the way you organize the stock in your warehouse should facilitate not only picking up the lashes but also the inventory on a regular basis. To manage the stock on your information system, it’s the best practice to integrate this function into your website which can connect your data of stock and sales, and make you real-time reports.
- Plan for restocking popular items. After implementing your sales strategy for 1–2 months, you can observe and anticipate trends. Don’t forget the safety stock when making the forecast to guide your restocking plan.
2. Shipping and Delivery
- Research shipping providers and costs. And be creative on it. You can also create new shipping service. For example, you can cooperate with some local famous place for a click-and-collect point.
- Offer various delivery options, including express shipping.
3. Customer Service
- Provide a clear return and refund policy.
- Set up email and chat support.
VII. MARKETING AND GROWTH STRATEGY
1. Promotional Campaigns
There are 3 effective ways to run your promotional campaigns in lash industry:
- Collaborate with influencers in the beauty industry.
- Run discounts/Gifts for events.
- Organize events or sponsor for events.
2. Customer Engagement
- Encourage reviews and feedback at all of your touch points.
- Offer loyalty programs or referral bonuses.
- Build groups or community where your customers or potential customers can join and free dicuss about anything regarding to lash businesses. Listen to their needs/problems… can give you a chance to support them. And then you get their better engagement.
3. Analytics and Scaling
- Use tools to track sales, website traffic, and customer behavior. Normally, you can integrate all of these functions into your website.
- Expand your product line based on demand. And don’t forget to be aware of new trend or new products on the market. You should do that for a period of time for a real deep understanding about customer needs and failed solutions before really taking actions to lead the trend.
VIII. CHECK-LIST TEMPLATE TO DOWNLOAD
We have make you a template of check-list here for anyone who are interested in starting a lash supply business, so that you can download it and use in your way.
Is doing lash supplies business profitable?
Yes, lash supplies business is very promissing! In this article, we’ll give you both qualititive and quantitive arguments. We’ll go through both the average cost breakdown of a typical lash box to some market analysis to have a deeper insight.
Table of Contents
1. COST BREAKDOWN OF A TYPICAL LASH BOX
Production cost: The cost that a lash supplies business needs to pay for her lash manufacturer (lash vendor).
Transporation cost: The international transportation cost from a lash manufacturing country (Vietnam, China) to your country (USA, Canada, EU, Australia…)
Import Tax: The tax that you need to pay for the Custom at your country (buyer country). In case of Europe, it’s about 20% of the buying amount (production cost plus international transportation cost).
Sales & Operation cost: it’s all the cost that you need to pay to operate and sell the lashes, like: advertising, place, warehouse, human resource, discount…
Margin & Tax: What you get. And the tax will be count on what you get.
The golden fomular in retail industry: Do you know that there is a golden fomular in almost any retail industry? it is (1/3-1/3-1/3). It means that 1/3 for buying for buying, 1/3 for selling, and 1/3 for margin and tax.
2. MARKET ANALYSIS FOR A LASH SUPPLIES BUSINESS
Lets take Australian Market as an example. We’ll see how big and potential it is.
In accordance to the data by Australian Bureau of Statistics, by 2024, There are 13.5 Mil womens in Australia, and 51% of them is at the age of 18-55 yrs (about 6.8 Mil women).
These women can use the lash extension service regularly, and not reglularly. Lets convert “irregular” to “regular” and lets say 20% of women in the age of 18-55 yrs using lash extension service. They pay for about 50 USD per month averagely (for both new extension and refill service).
And lets says only 5% of the total service cost is for the lash product cost (about 2.5 usd/month)… we have the lash product market value of 3.4 Mil USD/month.
And please note that about 65% of the Australian population is living in 5 biggest cities of this country. And 35% remaining live in smaller cities right next to those 5 biggest cities. So it’s a big and concentrated market. This point means a lot:
- A Growing market: And as you may know, lash extension services link to the modern world, the image of the city girl (more modern, more attractive, save makeup time…).. So there must be a growing market in Australia.
- Low Marketing & Logistic cost: Since we have concentrated market, it’s easier to reach a big demand. And logistic cost (for example: transportation cost to delivery the lash product to your customer) would be lower too.
3. IS IT EASY TO FIND A GOOD SOURCE OF MANUFACTURING?
Nowadays, the lash manufacturing service is dominated by China and Vietnam, due to many reasons. It implies that we also have a concentrate market of lash manufacturing service. Basically speaking, it is easy and cost-saving to find a good source of lashes (in the comparison with other industry).
And since the lash industry has already developed for many years, there is already a balance in negotiating power between the buyer and the seller. So there is not much chance that you depend heavily in 1 not-good-enough-manufacturer. You can easily making a choice. There are many manufacturer with different segment and scale of capacity. So that, no matter at which stage or segment your lash supplies business is, there will always suitable lash manufacturers.
If you would like a step-by-step guide to find a good source of lash in Vietnam, you can refer to this article: https://senlash.vn/how-to-find-lash-vendors-in-vietnam-_-guiden-by-detail/
4. CONCLUSION
In short, lash supplies business is worth to invest. Good margin percentage, growing markets everywhere, concentrated manufacturing market, balanced negotiating power, diverisfied segment of manufacturing service… I strongly believe that it’s not really easy to find a more promissing business to start with.
5 Typical Types Of Lashes Supplier in the world
With countless lash supply options available, how can you effectively classify them and narrow down your choices? Many people dive into overly detailed criteria while overlooking fundamental yet crucial aspects. This article will help you avoid that common pitfall by providing the two most basic dimensions for easier classification and a more informed selection.
Table of Contents
2 BASIC DIMENSIONS USED TO CLASSIFY LASHES SUPPLIER
Why we consider these 2 dimensions are fundamentals? Because we strongly believe that they binds the other factors which will eventually decide the quality of the relationship that you have with a lashes supplier.
- Dimension 1 – Direct Manufacturer or a Trading office?
Do they own and direct manage their manufacturing capability (production site)? This decide their ability to control everything in lash manufacturing.
- Dimension 2 – High or Low Professional?
Their level of focus on a targeted customer segments, their understanding of customer needs, the suitability of their value propositions to those needs, and their commitment to fulfilling promises.
GROUP 1 – PROFESSIONAL LASH MANUFACTURER
First of all, she own and direct manage their manufacturing capability (production site). Secondly, she manage her manufacturing service professionally.
Examples of professional lash manufacturers who really focus on their targeted customer segment:
- Manufacturer who focus on helping other lash brands produce their lash under that brand (not the manufacturer brands. It means they provide other lash brands with their manufacturing/OEM/ODM service.
- Manufacturer who focus on produce the lashes under her own brand, and try to win vendoring contract with salons or distribution channels.
Example of professional lash manufacturers who understand their customer needs and prove a good value propositions:
- lash manufacturer recognizes that many people aspire to launch their own lash product brand but often hesitate due to the overwhelming tasks involved, (such as product research, catalog optimization, inventory management, brand identity development, sourcing reliable manufacturing and supply services, and product photography). To address these challenges, the manufacturer has decided to offer a comprehensive service that encompasses all these aspects, providing customers with a convenient and affordable solution.
You can refer to SEN LASH FACTORY ‘S SERVICE as an example in reality.
GROUP 2 – PROFESSIONAL TRADER
Similar to a professional lash manufacturer, a professional trading company also focuses on their targeted customer segment, understands their needs well, has suitable supply solutions, and keeps their promises. The biggest difference here lies in “how they manage to keep their promises” and in “their core competency“.
- Being located in the country of production, they have an advantage over their foreign customers in sourcing quality manufacturers.
- While the trading office does not own any production facilities, it can effectively manage production through its subcontracting process.
- Their ability to work with multiple lash manufacturers provides greater flexibility in supply capacity compared to a single manufacturer.
- By avoiding the investment in fixed assets for a production site, trading offices can allocate resources to assets that support sales, such as marketing and promotion. This often gives them a competitive advantage in sales and marketing compared to manufacturers.
However, their disadvantage lies precisely in the fact that they do not own or directly manage any production facilities. Consequently, problems can arise beyond their control.
In short, a proffessional trading office really invest for 2 core competencies: (1) – The ability to do sourcing and manage a good lash sub-contractor panel to fulfill their customer’s order. And (2) – the capability to approach and convince more customers than a manufacturer.
GROUP 3 – LOW PROFESSIONAL MANUFACTURER
There are many manufacturer who think that as long as they can produce the lashes at the low cost and acceptable quality, customers would still want to buy from them. This is a typical example of a low professional lash manufacturer.
Let me add one more secret here. If a manufacturer follows the model of ‘big scale, super low cost,’ they will be highly sensitive to efficiency. In other words, they will tend to prioritize efficiency above all else, even over quality and on-time delivery.
GROUP 4 – LOW PROFESSIONAL TRADER
Low-professional traders are trading offices that lack both of the essential core competencies of a professional one. For example, when a trading office has a contract with a non-professional manufacturer, it suggests that this trading office has low sourcing competence.
GROUP 5 – TRADING OFFICE PRETENDS TO BE A LASH MANUFACTURER
Many trading offices target the same customer segment as that of a manufacturer, but they:
- Do not truly understand what it takes to be a professional trading office.
- Are unable to invest in the two core competencies of a professional trading office.
That leads them to deceive foreign customers by pretending to be lash manufacturers.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
After reading this article, we suggest you to:
- Classify all the potential lashes suppliers in your list into 4 groups from G1 to G4.
- Double check Group (G1 and G3) if any of them is G5.
This article is just trying to give a fundamental classification on lashes supplier in the world. it’s not aim to give you all the criterias in details to help you select suitable a suitable lash supplier. To do so, you can refer to the following articles:
- How to select suitable lash supplier – 7 key factors
- How to find lash vendors in Vietnam? _ Guiden by detail
- Be careful with the lash suppliers saying “We have QC team”!
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