Starting A Skincare Business in Nigeria: Six things to know

Nigeria's skincare market is one of the biggest in Africa and is expected to generate over $2.5 billion in 2025. If you’re new to the skincare market, you’d think that the size of this market translates to making easy money – it doesn’t. There are a lot of hurdles to pass through to become a profitable skincare vendor.

For the second episode of The Midddleman Pod, we invited two skincare experts with a combined 10 years of experience to share their common challenges as skincare vendors and the best tips to overcome them. The wealth of knowledge shared by these experts is invaluable for anyone in the skincare business, whether you're just starting or have been running your business for months or years.

If you're just starting a skincare business, this article will provide insights to help you start stronger and more profitably than your competitors. And if you've been in the market for years and faced challenges, this article will equip you with proven strategies to overcome unique challenges and grow your business.

Now, let’s break down the lessons from episode 2 of The Midddleman Pod into six valuable insights for your skincare business.

The power of community

Community is the bedrock of any skincare business, and with the right social media platform, you could grow your business to thousands of returning customers.

The best social media platforms to build a skincare community are WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok. These three platforms are proven sales drivers for online businesses in general. WhatsApp brings you closer to your customers, while Instagram and TikTok allow you to expand your community.

The skincare experts on the show concurred. They mentioned that social media has been a significant part of their businesses because of its role in building their respective communities that support their businesses. They recommended three ways skincare vendors should use social media:

To position yourself differently in the skincare market: The skincare market continues to grow because of the increasing number of customers and skincare vendors. As the market gets saturated with more competition, it will become important to differentiate yourself as a skincare vendor. You can start by asking yourself, “Why should someone buy from me?”.

Your unique value may lie in marketing niche products, offering online counseling, or sharing life-changing customer stories. Finding and building on the unique aspect of your business is a responsibility that will position you for more online sales.

To educate and offer counseling: People buy from brands they trust, and you should aim to become who they trust. This objective is not an excuse to spread misinformation or offer counseling on topics that you’re unfamiliar with, but rather, an opportunity to invest in educating yourself thoroughly on everything skincare.

If you want to sell more as a skincare vendor, you need to push yourself to learn everything about skincare. And if you can’t, try to partner with a professional to provide education and counseling to your customers.

To evaluate your impact on people's lives: Any passionate business person understands how fulfilling it is to know the value of their products/services in people’s lives. Social media is one of the best ways to track this immeasurable value since people freely share their best experiences.

There are easy ways to get your customers talking about your business online. You can start by requesting feedback and sharing it publicly to encourage new customers. You can also run an online challenge for your customers to showcase their best skincare products from you.

Source skincare products efficiently

Sourcing is the single most significant factor that affects your profits as a skincare vendor. A reliable supplier ensures you get your products at the best prices and sell them at a good profit margin. For beginners, start with dropshipping to avoid losses on sales and transition to stocking as your business grows.

The increasing number of fake products in the market makes sourcing extra hard for beginners and experienced vendors. It means that vendors must be extra careful when acquiring skincare products. You must learn to use all available resources to confirm the authenticity of any product before procuring it – search online, call the manufacturer/distributor, or ask experienced vendors. To avoid any regulatory issues, we recommend you source directly from manufacturers or distributors.

Two benefits are associated with sourcing efficiently: positive brand image and increased profits. When your business is known for selling high-quality products, you naturally attract more customers. And when you acquire your products at the lowest rates, you’ll make more profits.

The value of quality assurance

Quality assurance goes beyond vetting original products and good packaging. It includes the authenticity of information you share directly or indirectly with your customers. As retailers, many customers trust you to identify their skincare problems and recommend a product afterward. This situation will arise often, but you must remember that you are not a medical expert.

We asked the skincare experts on the show how they handled this; they advised that you avoid recommending products without sufficient knowledge. To prevent such situations, always inform your customers that you only sell and do not offer counseling. In the meantime, follow a professional path to become an esthetician or partner with a dermatologist to provide skincare counseling to your target customers.

Customer service is king

Yes, the common saying is “customer is king”, but our experts disagree – they believe that “customer service is king” and they are right! How you serve your customers matters more, and the best way to ensure customer satisfaction is to invest in customer service. Invest your time in customer service if you're a beginner, and if you've been in the business for some time, invest your money by hiring a customer specialist.

These five tips shared by the skincare experts will help you hack customer service as a skincare vendor:

Ask questions before addressing problems. If a customer has a complaint about a product, conduct a full inquiry on the product in context before taking action. Ask for the product name, the date of purchase, the usage frequency, and a photo of the product. The reason is customers often raise complaints after misusing the product and, in some cases, for a product that was acquired from another vendor.

Be helpful, especially when resolving disputes. Give assurances, recommend solutions, and offer discounts. For example, if you err on an order, assure the customer that the situation is a one-time setback and offer them discounts on future orders. If every effort to resolve the dispute fails, offer a refund to avoid escalation.

Be involved in customer service. Even with a customer specialist, you can never go wrong by playing a part in customer service. Customers prefer to interact with a person, not a company.

Leave every communication with the customer happy. It may be an inquiry or a complaint, but ensuring customer satisfaction should be your utmost priority.

Learn the skills of patience and empathy. Understand that customers are entitled to their opinions. Still, try to make them understand the problem by being very patient.

Avoid delivery issues

Logistics is a significant part of a skincare business, which you can’t directly manage as a vendor. That's why choosing a delivery partner is very important. We asked the two expert skincare vendors how they avoid delivery issues. They mentioned four strategies that worked for them:

Work with registered companies for deliveries.

Do monthly or yearly audits to identify which companies have been responsible for the most problems. Avoid doing business with them going forward.

Build personal relationships with delivery companies or riders. Check in on them regularly and let them know how important they are to your business.

Keep customers updated on delivery schedules at all times.

Treat your business like a business

It is a common attitude among vendors to treat an online business with significantly less care, like a side hustle, which is one of the reasons why skincare businesses fail.

The perception of your business is a consequence of how you manage it internally. So, we asked experienced vendors with a combined 10 years of experience how they manage their businesses internally to create successful skincare brands. They shared three proven tips:

Employ committed people: It is simple. You need people who care for the business as much as you do.

Create and implement policies: Create a clear, structured system for packaging a product, teach it to your team, and emphasize its importance. Now, do the same for delivery and customer service.

Design a communication plan: Define exactly how team members should communicate with and without your presence. This will help you resolve problems quickly.

Key Takeaway

Breaking into the skincare business can be incredibly rewarding and profitable, but don't expect success without knowledge and real experience.

With the right mix of social media, effective sourcing, quality assurance, customer service, efficient logistics, and business management, you'll be set to succeed in this business. Mastering these key areas is your roadmap to building a thriving skincare brand.

Pay with Midddleman

Midddleman helps African businesses trade globally by offering easy and secure payments to Asia starting with China. With over one billion in total transaction volume and over 6000 users, we are on our way to becoming the most reliable platform powering Afro-Asia trade.

Use the Midddleman app to buy and send RMB to Chinese suppliers on their Alipay accounts. The transfer to Alipay accounts is secured, takes a few minutes, and is as smooth as a bank transfer. Over 6000 people trust us with their RMB transfers to Alipay. Get started here