Instagram Resellers – How To Shop from Instagram Sellers

With the beauty world changing so drastically, it is getting increasingly difficult to decipher what is happening around us. Invariably, we learn from mistakes and “experience” rather than through someone helping us decipher it. In an endeavour to help you through the maze, I want to start a new series – decoding series. This will hopefully help you figure what you see from what it is. Today’s decoding series is on “Instagram Resellers”. I am taking this up as the first topic in this series because I get at least two to three messages on my instagram where or who to buy products from. For all the people who aren’t living in the US and are constantly trying to figure how to get the newest or most coveted products in their country – end up relying on this new breed of resellers – “Instasellers”. As the name implies, the resellers work with Instagram as their platform of choice. You will hear about them from your friends/contact/beauty bloggers that you follow on Insta. Or some may contact you directly by liking your picture or following you – which is the accepted way to “hint” at a person to go check out their page and follow them.

Real or Fake:
So, the most recurring question when engaging with an Insta resller or looking for one is how to know a whether an insta-seller is genuine or fake. In this context – fake can mean someone selling fake products or someone who has a fake profile. Former is a person who sells fake cosmetics or as they would love to call it – “First Copy”! (i’ll discuss this aspect in detail a little later). The latter is a person who is likely to disappear after taking your money. Most of the time, people write to me asking for names of trusted resellers, whic is easy enough to share. However, I want to share some important pointers with you, on how to identify a genuine re-seller yourself.

1. First one is the easiest and the safest – Recommendation: This refers to you taking recommendation from a trusted source – be it a friend, a trusted beauty influencer (of repute), etc. This is a sure way of identifying a genuine reseller because someone else who has tried their service is recommending them. You will see a number of people sharing their haul pics on Insta and mentioning from whom they bought it. Also, the resellers will make it a point to post these pics (of other people’s hauls through them) to try and build trust with new buyers – that yes, we have so many happy customers. Having said that, do remember that your experience may/may not be 100% similar to that of a beauty influencer. For example – a beauty influencer may get certain freebies or samples with their purchase, which is a goodwill geture or self promotional gesture done by the Insta reseller towards the Beauty Influencer because they know that the Influencer will share this on their post. In turn, it is a way for the Insta Reseller to tap that influencer’s followers. However, you may not get this gesture – irrespective of the size of your order.

2.  Product Pictures: Check the Insta reseller’s profile to see if they post product pics ever – in their posts or in their Insta Stories. Why? You need to identify if the reseller actually sells these products or is just posting pics lifted from the net and does not really have any products in hand to sell. I would be wary of such a scenario.

3.  Pricing: Look at the pricing of the product. For example, if a product like Huda Liquid Lipstick is say $20 and that translates roughly to INR 1360. If the person is selling it to you for INR 1300 – 1400 = there is something wrong somewhere? Why? Why is someone charging you even INR 1400 should seem shady. Because the price of $20 is the net price on Sephora. Add to this, the US State Tax (which can vary from 0 – about 12% depending on the state) and the amount the Insta resller would put in for shipping from US to India and their profit margin (yes, it is business, it isn’t being done for charity!). The landing price of the product to the reseller is gonna be higher than INR 1400. There is no way they can sell an original product at that price. All they are trying to do is cut the market for genuine reseller who may be selling it at say INR 1800. Don’t let yourself get duped. When something seems to good to be true – chances are, it is!

4. Fake/first copy:  While discussing fake products, I would like to elaborate on two different scenarios where you encounter fake products. One, is what I already mentioned in point 3, where in someone is trying to sell you a fake – but tells you that it is an original. So, basically you pay a ransom for crap you wouldn’t use – and shouldn’t use. The other type of fake is the reseller who tells you upfront that it is a fake and prices it accordingly. So, there posts will sell MAC lipsticks at say INR 350. They will sell a Huda highlighting palette for say INR 650. In this scenario – atleast the person is being upfront and isn’t charging you for the original. However, you still see people asking on such posts if these are original and the answers can vary from “no, they are first copies” to “Yes, they are original” or ‘Just like original.” If the price of the reseller is way in variance to the actual product – please understand, it is FAKE! Two, and this gets my blood boiling, there is no such thing as “first copy” in makeup. Actually, there shouldn’t be anything called “First Copy” even in other stuff like bags / shoes / sunglasses, etc. The term is “Fake” not “First Copy”. Instead of thinking that by using a term like “first copy,” it becomes acceptable, no, it is still a wrong practise and illegal. However, when it come to accessories – i say, to each their own, but when it comes to makeup, I would dearly request people to avoid buying fake/“first copy” products because you do not know what ingredients have been used to make these products and how harmful they could be to your skin. Worst, I am given to understand that there is a high demand for these products from two specific areas – Makeup Artists and Beauty Influencers. I don’t think I need to elaborate any further.

5. Followers: Another thing which can help is checking the followers of the page – do you know anyone of their followers? The number of followers there are? (which may not always be a true gauge of things because there are a number of smaller but genuine resellers too).

6. Invoice Sharing: This is a fairly newer trend where the insta reseller shares copies of invoice on their page or through insta stories. So, you may not see the invoice for something you want, but if you are able to see invoice of last purchases made by the reseller as posts and read through comments of the post – you will be able to ascertain if it is a genuine reseller.

7.  New Releases:  This is something I subconsciously take into account is the reseller promoting new releases. How does this make a difference? More often than not, there is a lag period before fakes of a certain product come into the market. So, if a person is procuring latest releases for you – it is probably genuine. There can be exceptions to this. I remember, when Huda Beauty launched her highlighing palette, within the same week, fakes were available for INR 650, but chances are that these fakes (which are coming alongside the actual product) would be more easy to tell apart from the originals. Unlike the fakes which are produced once the “fake producing companies” have access to the original product.

8.  Popular/Hyped Brands: Basically, when something is extremely hyped and is likely to have huge demand because of the hype – higher are the chances of fakes coming up! Your radar should be up especially when purchasing MAC Cosmetics, Kylie Cosmetics, Huda products, Urban Decay Naked Palettes, etc.

9.  Recommended by a Beauty Influencer:  Okay, I am not trying to contradict my own first point mentioned under “recommendations,” but I am trying to make you make aware of certain practices. If you have noticed, I mentioned the word “trusted” beauty influencer in point number #1. Be aware of the fact that there are times when a beauty influencer may put up their haul post recommending a reseller. This may not be on the up and up becuse the post may be a sponsored post. What does that mean? Sometimes, Insta Resellers send certain products to the Influencer for them to try the product and recommend their services through a post. In such scenario, the Insta Reseller pays the Beauty Influencer for this recommendation. The renumeration may be in terms of actual money or in terms of the haul products being free. So, in effect, this is not a genuine trial by the Influencer. How will you be able to make this out? Sometimes, the recommendation is over enthusiastic, but honestly, you cannot really know. There are no guidelines/laws in effect which require an Influencer to disclose a sponsored post from a regular post. Needless to say, this gets shady. So, go with the Influencers you trust and not based on the size/popularity of someone’s account.

I know it sounds exhaustive. But honestly, no single point (except probably the first one) is conclusive on its own. You will need to do your due diligence before putting in your money there. The good part is that once you have identified a genuine reseller/s, you can rest assured and continue shopping with them without further issue.

10.  Product Status: Now that you have identified which reseller you want to engage with, the second thing to find out is the status of the product you want to buy. A product will generally fall into 4 categories:
Pre-order – This is a scenario wherein the product is not available for sale with the Reseller. They will purchase the product from a retailer, get it to India and then forward the same to you. The time taken for you to receive the product will be longest in this scenario because post placing the order, the product will be shipped by the brand/retailer to the Insta Reseller’s address in US (or India) and then to India and then to you. This whole process is likely to take around 3 weeks or more. A lot also depends on how the Insta Reseller is getting these products to India. If customs is involved – there may well be further delays. The Reseller may take full payment of the product in advance or may take part payment at the time of placing the order and then the rest before dispatching the product to you.

In-stock – This refers to a scenario, wherein the product is readily available with the reseller in India. The reseller will take full payment from you and dispatch the product to you. This transaction would take the least amount of time as the product just needs to travel from the reseller’s location to India to yours. So, you get the product within 2-5 days depending on your and the reseller’s location.

Booked and available – This is a scenario where a reseller places the product order with the retailer/brand without any specific person requesting for the product. In such a scenario, the product has not been received by them. This is generally done in new-launch scenarios where the reseller books order for customers and simultaneously, books some extra pieces to sell. Post booking the product, the reseller updates their followers that they have ordered extra pieces and you are free to buy. The product will again need to be paid in full before it gets booked under your name. Since the order is already placed and maybe on its way to the reseller (in US or India) – this will take lesser time than the pre-order option, but still, anything from 2-3 weeks.

Customised order – This in effect is again a pre-order. The only difference being that instead of the reseller suggesting the product to you (through their posts), you decide what products you want and share the list with the reseller who then lets you know the price and possibility of getting the order. In terms of duration and payment, the process would remain the same as a “Pre-order” scenario. The only difference is that these orders can sometimes be a bit more expensive. Why? For example, if I want a particular product which is available only on the brand’s side or a particular retailer, and the reseller does not have any other order for it, the reseller has to build in the cost of shipping the product into the cost price of the product quoted to you. The shipping cost does not get split between any other order.

So, now that we know the various types of orders which can be placed, how does it make a difference to us while ordering? Most resellers who are genuine, will update their posts with relevant hashtag like #instock, #pre-order, etc. So, you know upfront what type of time lag will be there before you receive the product. The point I want to highlight is, always make sure you know wether it is a “pre-order’ or an “in stock” product. Personally, I prefer to buy from someone who has the product in stock because there is less wait involved and lesser chances of slip between the cup and the lip. With a pre-order, there can be delays or broken pieces received by Reseller, etc. I do not like taking that chance. During my initial transactions with certain resellers (I faced this issue), I was given to understand that the “product will reach in 3-5 days. I made the payment and post 3 days when I asked for AWB number for tracking the courier, I was updaetd that they meant “received from the retailer to their US address.” And thus began a 1.5 month long followup with the reseller asking status updates and being told – oh, it’s reaching India tomorrow – every week!! So, beware.

So, if you are not fully comfortable with the reseller, how do you ascertain whether the product is actually physically in stock? Ask the Reseller to share a picture of the product, preferably over that day’s newspaper (to ascertain current condition of the product) before you transfer the amount into their account. Most of the genuine resellers will have no problem complying to this request of yours.

Ok, I’m going to stop here before this becomes an 8-page article. Will cover more about pricing of the products by the resellers, service being provided, etc., in part 2. Trust that you enjoyed reading the article and found it helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask through comments, i will try my best to answer these as well.

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