Korean/Japanese fashion and style in UK & Online

[Odie V.]

Hello there,

I want to open a website with Korean/Japanese style clothes as a reseller selling to consumers, mainly branded but unbranded too. I want to avoid china made and I'm almost certain that there are no wholesalers/suppliers in UK that have this kind of style/fashion unfortunately. So I guess the only way is to import. I dont really like droppshiping since I want to focus in UK market for now. Im very newbie in all this but I have done a tone of research and work the last months and after all my effort I got stuck, I need guidance and I have few questions:

1. Do you know any wholesaler/supplier in UK or EU who has Korean/Japanese fashion(brands or unbranded).

2. If not, then I'd like to import from few suppliers from Korea directly but obviously there are quite few different that I like and want to work with, so this would make big hustle and huge costs(shipping, communication etc). So, do I need an agent to make arrangements? if yes how do I find them? any advice generally? or is it better to make different orders from each supplier individually?

3. Regarding number 2, I can only imagine how costly and hustle will be and how much time will take re-ordering smaller quantities for sizes new arrivals etc. every time. So any advice on how I should move on that?

4. If someone could list all the shipping costs and other costs to the final bill to the garments come to your door? because if for expamle I order 3 orders 500 gbp each and the shipping costs to my door all come up to 200 each then that's ...crazy. I mean big shipping costs for the value/price etc, not worth it at all, right? any advice and explanation on that too?

5. I start as a sole trader and Im not expecting more than 11,500 profit the 1st year so I didnt register for VAT. Do I have to pay VAT and Import duty if I decide to import? and if I do, do I add this to my pricing for my customers to pay it and then add-up another VAT for them to pay too? how does it work?

6. Do I need special license to import, or any more documents?

Thank in advance, and sorry for the long post.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

How big is your potential market in the UK, whilst there may be many people from that area living in the UK it does not always follow that they dress to fashions from the Far East

Fashions are often dictated by the climates of each country and the practability of work in that climate as well as the size and shape of the persons

 

[Odie V.]

I would not say that is really big now, since it's something new for UK. But I'll mainly sell online, not offline, and I focus on UK for now with the plan of start selling in Europe very shortly after I launch, if not immediately. The customer I'm targeting is obviously more asian body-types since it's known that korean/japanese brands don't do more than one size in a lot of cases. There is a big percentage of petite people going to malls to buy our(western fashion) clothes and everything is too big and too long for them. Also there is a long-term plan about it too.

 

[TomJ83]

I assume that your target group will be Asian people living in the UK. Correct me if I'm wrong.

When it comes to Japanese/Korean brands, do you have any particular ones in mind?

If you want to get the best price, you should get in touch with the suppliers in those countries you want to buy from. Also, it should be mentioned that there is a chain of suppliers, so you should find those closest to the manufacturer level or the manufacturers themselves. When you cut the middle men, you get better prices per unit. Which will then be beneficial for you as you will get more profit per sold unit.

 

[Odie V.]

Yes TomJ83, I have already decided which brands I want to resell.
And yes you're right about the targeting group.
Thank you for your advice!

 

[TomJ83]

Yes TomJ83, I have already decided which brands I want to resell.
And yes you're right about the targeting group.
Thank you for your advice!

You seem to be committed about this business idea and that's a good sign. I wish you all the best.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I wish you well but think you will need a lot of investment to get to a very niche market and as with all ladies fashion hard to get rid of end of season fashion items

Here is one Japanese item that may bring a smile to your face
https://gizmodo.com/313221/japanese-anti-rapemugging-dress-transforms-into-vending-machine-disguise

 

[Odie V.]

Also I know that there's a Free Trade Agreement between South Korea and UK.
Does anyone know how does it work to get the import and vat relief ?
I heard something about "get commodity codes" and ask document from suppliers that the items are originated in South Korea.
Do you know what should I do and how more detailed ?

 

[Mr D]

Odie. have you looked at the Japanese shop?
They do supply trade too. No idea of MOQ or pricing that way.

https://www.thejapaneseshop.co.uk/

 

[MOIC]

Option 1. Find a person in your area, or online that speaks Korean/Japanese and buy direct from Korean/Japanese manufacturing/wholesaling websites.

Option 2. Get on a plane to China and go to the S Korean wholesale markets where you will see thousands of S Korean traders selling their products, where you can buy 5 - 10 pcs of each style. You will also see thousands of China manufacturers/wholesalers that sell to S Korean companies. (I know you said you wanted to avoid China made, but the reality is that many S Korean & Japanese clothing brands have their products made in China. It's no different to other world brands)

Option 3. As above, but go to S.Korea

If you're not targeting Far East consumers, you may find it hard to sell S Korean/ Japanese clothing designs to westerners, mainly due to the sizing, but also the cut which is designed for slim & short people. They are specifically designed & aimed at the Far East consumer.

I imagine that any Far Eastern person living in the UK, will be familiar with the websites where they can buy direct.

Everything is available online.

What will be your USP?

Check what's available online first, then decide the best way to approach your project.

Good Luck.

 

[Odie V.]

I'm aware of all the threats and risks of my project, but thank's for letting me know.

Yes, it would be good to get in a plane and go there, it'll cost me of course but I think it might be worthy.

I have an agent working for me in S. Korea and he's very helpful making deals and negotiations, whoever I still don't get the prices/deals that I want from the brands, the give me prices makes it very hard to compete, plus that I have all these costs and stress with the importing and shipping.

 

[Mr D]

If prices you are getting from South Korea make it very hard to compete have you thought of trying something different?
Costs and stress with importing and shipping are always an issue. Unless you let someone else have that problem and buy from them.

 

[Odie V.]

Mr D, I'm a bit committed that I want to import, even if is gonna be other brands, or for my own clothing brand from china, one way or another I will import. I didn't find any good supplier in UK and I checked quite a few.

 

[Mr D]

It is more hassle - and you may well find that suppliers overseas give you problems too. The advantage of using UK suppliers is that the stuff can be checked over by someone else, they take care of import taxes and problems are a minor issue quickly resolved. If you have to send stuff a few thousand miles back to get corrections done its more time and expense.

 

[Odie V.]

I was struggling though finding UK suppliers that they do nice fashion or at least decent.
The truth is I didn't search a lot for it, but from my first impressions I was disappointed of the UK ones. Do you have anyone to suggest? or direct me to a place/website I could find it?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

First place is to find a area where there are people who originated from the area's of concern live and do your research there, you need to know your market size and needs.

If you were going to sell African clothing or cloth you would research in popular area's where there are large numbers of that group

Google is still your best friend, just add ,co,uk after the search which will hopefully limit the search

 

[Odie V.]

Thank you for your respond.

 

[Mr D]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=t.....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.3.262....0.-RbBP67quxk