Necessary items for your cosmetics Shop

Stocking

Like we mentioned before there are hundreds brands of cosmetics. The main categories (not
brands) include:

 Weaves and Braids
 Hair Foods
 Hair Conditioners and Shampoo
 Hair Relaxer
 Body Lotion
 Hair Sprays
 Hair Treatments
 Hair Gels
 Hair Dye
 Skin Products
 Make Up Products
 Body Perfumes, Roll ons and such

 Generally women across all social classes have more or less the same cosmetics
needs. The difference is in how much they are willing and able to spend, how much they
know. i.e. their social exposure which influences specific tastes.

 Stock based on your target market: low, middle, high end, rural, urban, young, middle,
aged, mature, career and the like.

 At least have common visible brands that cut across all the classes (see below for some
of the popular brands in different categories ) E. g Vaseline, Miadi, Nice and Lovely,
Nivea, Rexona, TCB, Movit and the like. If you don’t have the common products then
consumers get the impression that your shop is poorly stocked “ haikuwangi na vitu”

 For each product at least offer a variety in terms of price and functionality. Although price
is important across or social groups it’s more crucial among lower income consumes.
Functionality is crucial across the board.

 Although there are advantages of having a wide variety of stock, if your budget is limited
then prioritize popular and growing products. Even with a big budget you need to know
how to spread the money so as not to end up with dead stock.

 Ask your wholesaler, hair dresser and other such heavy users to advice on which is the
popular brand at the particular time. Popularity of products keeps changing depending
on marketing and what manufacturers come up with. Sometimes a product could be
popular in a particular area and unpopular in another.

 With enough capital you can have a little of everything but more often than not capital
will be limited, and thus you have to stock intelligently. When deciding what to stock
think of the specifics of your premises and its location. For instance if your shop will be
near salons then you could be biased towards hair products. If in a high end mall then
you should stock premium cosmetics products. If in the rural areas then mass market
low priced products.
 A good start is to familiarize yourself with cosmetics products. While this guide gives
some broad strokes of some popular items, you will still have to familiarize yourself with
various cosmetic products; there are a million and one.

You could start by visiting cosmetics supermarkets and wholesalers such as Bestlady,
see what is available, and have conversations with attendants to know what is fast
selling at a particular time in a particular area.

 Among some popular brands are :

Body Lotions: Amara, Versman, Nivea, Nice & Lovely, Revlon and Eden
Hair Foods: Miadi, Venus, Baby Love, Blac Chic Nice & Lovely
Hair Gels: Movit Curl Activator
Hair Dye: Dark & Lovely & Beautiful Beginning
Hair Relaxer: Miadi, TCB, Venus
Hair Conditioner: Beula
Shampoo: Beula, Zoe
Foundations: Mac, Sleek
Nail Polish: Luron
Other popular items based on target customer are acne removers, stretch marks and other skin
care products. In some areas skin lightening products such as Makari exfoliating soap are quite
popular. Some herbal products like Himalaya Herbal Creams, Cantu Shea butter are also a