How to shop and ship laptops online from the USA or China

Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday January 16, 2013 at 13:10:8:

One cool business one can be doing in Nigeria is by buying and reselling laptops to the Nigerian market. There are varying categories of laptops ranging from the cheap ones to expensive ones.

If a laptop goes for about N50,000 in Nigeria and you can get it for N30,000 - N40,000, you are already in business. Besides, there are also cheap laptops nowadays from China that go for as low as N10,000 and even though they don't come with all the features, thers is still a market for it here.

What it involves
When getting involved in this sort of business, you need to decide on your target market, how to sort for your laptops and how to make payment for your goods and shipping.

Computer laptops are one of the hottest selling items in Nigeria and it is the young people who have money that are the ones mostly interested in buying it. You can decide to buy laptops fro mas low as N15,000 or better performing ones as high as N60,000 and when it gets to Nigeria, you can always decide on your price.

Laptops are not banned in Nigeria and there really is little or no import duties paid on them especially if you are not shipping via containers but using a courier service like DHL.

Things you would need
- An internet connection
- A means of payment e.g USD Visa or Mastercard
- Shopping website: from USA or China
- Freight service

How to do it
You can decide to buy from Chinese or American websites. Shipping from China is much cheaper and at times free if you buy in bulk and you can also find the cheapest prices. Shopping on American websites may be a bit more expensive but it offers a wider variety of products, better specifications and better quality too. So you'll need to decide whether to ship from China or USA.

Shopping on Chinese websites
There are probably a lot of websites in Chine from where you can shop online in Nigeria but one I know that works well is Aliexpress.com. Their shopping system works in such a way as to protect the buyer from fraud. You can decide to buy and make payment but prevent the seller from being paid until you receive your goods. You can find a lot of laptops from this website and for cheap too. It is also good when shopping for accessories.

You just need your prepaid Card ro make payment and your item would be shipped in a few days

Shopping on USA websites
One major websites where I know you can buy a good variety of laptops is Amazon.com. You can also buy from toshiba.com, sony.com and so on.

To shop on Amazon, you will need to get a US mail forwarding account and you can get this from myus.com. It costs about $10 per good received and about $50 per shipping to Nigeria for 1kg. Most US websites don't ship laptops directly to Nigeria so the trick is to use a freight forwarding service.

How to reduce laptops shopping costs
There are many ways to reduce the final price of getting a laptop in Nigeria and here are some tips:

- Buy used ones for cheap
- Buy refurbished ones
- Buy new ones only if they are cheaper than what is obtainable in Nigeria
- Buy in bulk to reduce shipping cost per kg
- Buy from a single seller rather than multiple sellers
- Look for laptops that come with free shipping

How long does it take to get your laptop(s) in Nigeria?
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After making your order and payment, it takes about 5 days from the USA using DHL and for shipping from China, it takes about 2 weeks.

What if I get invited by the EFCC
You should know that due to the fact that importing laptops tend to raise a red signal at times, the DHL or shipping office(with probably EFCC officials) may invite you at times if you are a high profile shipper or they suspect something. Nothing to fear, just come with your valid form of id, proof of making online payment and your goods would no longer be delayed.

Comments:

Re: How to shop and ship laptops online from the USA or China

I having be trying to buy some product through Aliexpress but i am encounting some challenges in making bid. please how do i go about this?

Re: How to shop and ship laptops online from the USA or China

Want to say thanks for this eye opener and please i would need more info on this business. thanks.

Re: How to shop and ship laptops online from the USA or China

Happy to be of help

Re: How to shop and ship laptops online from the USA or China

Please does anyone know how I can get to buy things on eBay.com? I have tried numerous times to register but looks like the Nigeria IP addresses are blacklisted. As a result, I can't complete the registration process. Many thanks.

Re: How to shop and ship laptops online from the USA or China

I've already written a report on how to shop on ebay from Nigeria here : http://www.makemoneynigeria.net/small-business/4/post/1

Shop online in Nigeria