Decoding Instagram Resellers – Observations and Critique

Hey gorgeous gals,

This would be the last part of the decoding series on Instagram resellers. It has been a long series covered over 5 parts:
Part 1 discussed how to identify a potentially fake Instagram reseller from a real one,
Part 2 covered the pricing aspect in detail and the markups involved,
Part 3 was all about behind-the-scene activities for the reseller, and
Part 4 enumerated the dos and don’ts of placing an order with an Instagram reseller.

Decoding Instagram Resellers - Observations and Critique

So today, in this last write-up on this topic, I share some observations and critique with you. Some of it pertains to the resellers and some to us as customers. So, grab your cup of coffee or tea or whatever rocks your boat and let us get on with it.

Insufficient Information Upfront

makeup shopping

This is one of the most irritating aspects of online shopping with Insta resellers. Let me explain. One of the key things about online shopping is that you get to see a variety of products at one go; you have all the relevant information available on the product to take an instantaneous decision whether you want to buy it or not. And yet, when it comes to Instagram shopping, all resellers will NOT share all relevant information, like whether the product is in stock or pre-order, sometimes even the shade names of lip products and – the worst of it all – the price.

90% of the resellers do not mention the product price, which is so irritating. I understand that India is a price sensitive market and another reseller may undercut your price. But when half the Insta is filled with fake profiles, how difficult would it be for another Insta reseller to create one to engage with you and check your price? All it does is mar the whole process for the actual customers.

Pre-Payment

I’m discussing this to clarify a point which is generally made by the buyer, “Why do we need to make the payment before the order is placed?”. On the surface of it, it looks like a valid concern. You are made to pay in advance and then you wait for the product for 2-3 weeks. Bummer! Well, to put this in perspective:

1. The reseller is not going to shop for you from their money. They will shop for you, from your money. Got it?
2. These aren’t big companies with a large sum of operating cash. More often than not, these are entrepreneurs who are working out of a home and cannot really afford to put that much money into potential “stock” for sale. This is also the reason why most resellers prefer to take “pre-orders” rather than have products “in-stock.”
3. Just like there are fake resellers, there are fake buyers, i.e. people who just want to create chaos or who at a later stage change their mind or go with someone else for they offered a price which was INR 50 less. The reseller cannot keep unconfirmed order stock and then hope to sell. This impacts their operating cash.

Live Swatches

pink and gold eye makeup

You will come across resellers who will do live swatches of products for you in their Instagram stories etc. This is a bid to engage, quite like the US-based beauty influencers. While it may sound like a great idea you are getting to see the product before buying it. Please, beware. Which product is being used to swatch here? Is it the fresh piece available for sale? Extremely unhygienic and a big NO! Yes, some resellers would assure you that the product being swatched is from their personal stash, which may well be the case. But, you need to understand the flip side of this.

Availability and Response Time

This can be quite an issue with most resellers and with their customers. There are 2 sides to this story, obviously. I will cover them both. First, let’s talk about the resellers. The reseller is someone like you and me – a student or a person with a family and the commitments that come with it. They might be working out of a home or have another business and this is something they have started on the side. Either way, this may or may not be a full-time thing for the person. And, neither do they have a team or staff to manage communication, packaging, etc. Having said that, once you are in the business, there has to be some level of professionalism involved.

There are some resellers who are prompt with their responses, with their whole communication setup. And then there are some who are not fake sellers but are absolutely lousy in terms of response time. I understand when someone needs to be unavailable for some time – it happens with work. However, the least you expect is an “Out of Office’ type of response on their Insta page. Whether it is a product enquiry or status update on their order, the unprofessionalism aspect leaves a bad taste in the mouth. If you are in business, there has to be a defined turn-around time.

The other side of the story is the customer. While the customers are within their rights to message the reseller about any product query or seek an update on their order, some cases go way beyond. There are times when people expect reverts with minutes; if not, will start calling up. There are cases where people expect reverts even at unearthly hours of the day or night. This is a bit of a Catch 22 because with launches happening on US time, people might want to engage at that time. However, that does not make it acceptable. What would help is, if the Reseller were to update their profile with their working hours and stick to it.

Courier Partners

face makeup products on flat surface

This is a problem area at times and something out of the reseller’s hand – except the part about them engaging with a good courier partner. I have seen certain resellers opting for partners like FedEx (yes! there are those) which ensures you get the product in an A-category city by next day itself. And then, there are sellers who will engage with the cheapest courier partner which will deliver the product in over 5 days. The issue is obviously the price the courier companies charge and the value which the reseller gives to this service.

Dispatch Details

This is one of my pet peeves with most Insta resellers. One, there will invariably be a delay in dispatching the product. You will get a response like “We will update you once we dispatch”. And after that radio silence. Nothing! Zilch! More often than not, unless you pursue, the product won’t be dispatched.

And even if it is dispatched, no one will bother to close the communication loop with AWB details of the package. Once, upon enquiring about the lack of AWB details, I had a reseller telling me that “I should stop pestering her for I had no idea how many packages she had to dispatch on a daily basis and she couldn’t be bothered to share the AWB details of each package with the owner. It had been dispatched and will reach me and I should be satisfied with that information.”

Needless to say, I never engaged with that site again. The bottom line is that it is a part of the job/transaction for the reseller to share AWB details with the customer and close loop till the product is delivered. Unfortunately, very few resellers bother to track the package till its delivered to you.

Giveaway

Certain resellers hold giveaways from time to time. This is a means to engage customers just like promotions run by any other retail company. It is just a means for them to create publicity for themselves and increase their following. The resellers aren’t big enough entities for brands to sponsor these giveaway products. So, more often than not, the giveaway prizes are purchased from the reseller’s own pocket and is a goodwill gesture on their part. As a customer, you have no say as to whom the giveaway should go to and rightly so.

Backend Work

online shopping tips

I discussed all the backend activities in Part 3 of the series to increase awareness of the same. Having said that, I find it distasteful when resellers constantly crib about how much backend work is involved. This may well be their bid to create awareness with their customers that there is plenty to do behind-the-scenes. However, it just comes off negatively. A chef doesn’t tell you all the steps that were involved in making a dish or how hot the kitchen was or how scalding it was to stand at the burner. You get where I am coming from. It is part and parcel of the job. Reference to it is fine but you cannot possibly constantly be cribbing about it.

Pricing Issues

Or what I would term as ‘Pricing Stupidity’. I know I’m being brutal but don’t expect anything else from me. I have discussed the pricing aspect in part 2 of the series in detail. Also, having purchased products directly from brands and shipped through email forwarding services myself, I know the physical, mental and emotional effort which goes into a single transaction. I do not discount the resellers efforts at all. However, the pricing aspect is so skewed that it does need to be discussed.

On an average, resellers charge you about INR 100 for every $1 spent. Meaning, a $40 palette costs about INR 3600 to INR 4200. So, you pay anything from INR 600 – INR 1200 over the cost of the product (including taxes). So, basically, you are paying an average of about INR 900 extra per product for a mid-range product. Now, if you buying a single mid-range product you might be okay with it. However, if you are planning to buy a lower range or higher range product or multiple products at a time, the mark up becomes so skewed and beyond ridiculous.

cosmetics collection

Here are the issues are:

For a low range product – Resellers still use the same markup which skews the pricing into stupidity. Let me explain. People love the Makeup Geek or Colourpop eyeshadow singles. Why? Because they are good quality for a low price, right? Say the eyeshadow is $5 – that’s about INR 350. Getting a good quality eyeshadow at INR 350 is fantastic. But with the reseller markup of INR 450-500 (which, ironically, is higher than the actual cost of the shadow) the pricing of each shadow comes to about INR 800-900.

To add insult to injury, add shipping charges to it for it is a low ticket item and will generally be priced exclusive of shipping. Now tell me, why would someone pay INR 800-1000 for a MUG shadow refill. Would it not make sense to just buy a MAC refill instead? Pricing for a low-end product has to be in perspective. So a $5 shadow ends up costing not even INR 500 (the normal rate of INR 100 = $1) but way beyond.

For a high range product – Again, say a product is $80, the reseller will charge you anything from INR 7200 to INR 8000. Well, there are some who will even quote about INR 8000, which is beyond ridiculous. What is the issue here? The product price is actually about INR 5800 (including taxes). But the markup has gone from the average of INR 900 to about INR 1800. Which would be a big deterrent for someone who wants to buy a high-end product from a reseller.

The worst case scenario is when you want to place multiple orders. If I use the same example of Colourpop eyeshadow – if someone wanted to buy one shadow – fine. If someone wanted to buy 7-8 shadows – this pricing is just too stupid. It would make more sense to ship through a mail forwarding service instead. Similarly, if someone wanted to place an order with say 4 mid-price to high-end products, they would probably end up paying INR 6000-7000 (only on markup). Again, would make sense for the customer to use a mail forwarding service instead.

Bottomline is, the reseller has to evaluate this aspect and figure what pricing works. Does it make sense for them to do an order of one product with a markup of INR 900? Or is there more business sense in an order of say 5 products and get a total markup of INR 2500 (with reducing markup of each product to INR 500 instead). This is just an example. But this is exactly how business and turnover works.

Innovation

The reseller market is getting extremely saturated. Even if you weed out the resellers with shady business practices, there are umpteen genuine sellers selling the same product, at about the same price, in about the same time frame. There has to be something which sets one apart from the herd. It could be customer service and professionalism but also it is time the resellers looked at innovativeness. One option is obviously if you can manage to reduce the delivery time. There are some sellers who recently gave the customers an option of delivery within a week for customised orders as they were travelling from US/Singapore.

This is fantastic because it eliminates the wait time for the customer. What would have helped further if they had also provided competitive pricing since there was no outflow towards customs or shipping to India – some did do that and were able to garner bigger orders. Also, it is time that resellers thought of innovativeness in pricing too. Say, order anything worth $50 or $100 and pay only X amount total (one clean markup). Whether person orders 1 item or 5 it doesn’t make a difference as long as the actual cost of items is the said defined amount. That could prove interesting.

Deciding Factor

So with so many genuine Insta-sellers around, how does one decide who to place their order with? For me, it is ease of transaction along with the price point. Price obviously plays a crucial role because the money is ultimately going out of your pocket. So, you would want the product at the least possible outflow. Having said that, what also makes a difference to me is the professional vibe I get from a reseller; someone who communicates clearly, their Insta posts will tell you price, shipping charges, pre-order/in stock information upfront; someone who understands that they need to get back to the customer and within a decent time frame; someone who is able to understand when they need to handhold a customer. If buying makeup is going to cause you stress, then what is the point?

Trust you all enjoyed this series!

Do’s and Don’ts of Ordering from Instagram Sellers – Part 4
All You Need To Know about Instagram Resellers
A Guide To Online Shopping
Online Shopping: How to Secure Your Credit Card
Instagram Resellers – How To Shop from Instagram Sellers
How To Shop Cosmetics from Instagram Sellers – Part 2
Top 5 Lipsticks For Winters
7 Scary Things That Happen When You Don’t Moisturise Your Face
Differences Between BB and CC Creams and How to Use Them

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