Importing Only - Viable Business?

[glovanator]

Does anyone make a business just importing and selling fish? The fish stores in my area suck (Ottawa). Like really suck. There are no Mom-Pop stores and the chains don't really have the selection that I've seen elsewhere (I am comparing to Toronto, but that's the bar in my mind). I was thinking to make some side money just importing fish you can't get in my area and then selling it on FB Marketplace. I was hoping to find someone with importing contacts (Maybe importing through Montreal?), and I'll probably hold the fish and sell them over a 4-6 month-long period.

I'll probably specialize in 2-4 types of fish to start that I think are most viable and sellable on FB.

Do you think it's viable?

Also does anyone have any Canadian importing contacts? I've never imported myself but I don't mind paying someone a commission.

 

[anitstuk123]

I don't think that many people make too much money from selling fish in a business. You could go to your local fish club and attempt to sell them. You could also put an ad up for them on FaceBook or even Ebay.

 

[tonymofo]

Back when I was into flowerhorns I found out there was a way to import them from Thailand by way of a transhipper. Transhippers have the necessary credentials to import the fish for you. You just have to pay a small fee and shipping and handling from the original location and from the transhippers location to you. You just have to do your research on a good seller and usually want a good transhipper as well as they make sure your fish is healthy enough to ship to you…… you could try to find one that’s in your country.

I’m including a link of the person I used. I have no idea if she is still in business even after all this COVID situation but you’ll get the idea of how it works.

Transhippers.

Does anyone know Linda Olson or Jennifer V tranship flowerhorn? Or there fees? Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[tonymofo]

Oh I forgot I used to go in aquabid and find the flower horn I wanted and I would contact the seller and make sure they could ship to the transhipper of my choice and verify with the transhipper that I would be having an order come in….. seems kinda of a long process but it was worth it in the end…. I probably did this 5-7 different times and have always received what I ordered as well as healthy fish

 

[glovanator]

With a transshipper do you have to do any paperwork? or is that covered in the fees they charge you?

 

[tonymofo]

With a transshipper do you have to do any paperwork? or is that covered in the fees they charge you?

Thats covered in the fees. The hard part for you would be finding a trust worthy dependable transhipper. I found Julie by going to different forums and seen that a lot of people were using her here in the states and I even contacted her for rates and any other question I had. I also paid attention to her response times when I emailed her before I put my order through. When you find a good transhipper they also might have contacts to where you can find the fish you are looking for as well

 

[Hendre]

Like with any business, you need to keep a keen eye on the market because you can import all the fish you want but you only make money selling them. So most fish stores get cheap, easily kept fish because they sell extremely well. A few people want the weird stuff, so you need to target quite effectively. A lot of places like Jeff Rapps, fugupuff etc made a market for niche things and have a large customerbase, that is probably the hardest part of doing this. Good luck!

 

[dogofwar]

It will be very difficult for you to maintain a viable business importing fish. Unless you're willing to eat the costs of whole shipments of fish that arrive dead or die shortly after they arrive - which happens more often than I'd like to say - you shouldn't even consider it.

 

[tonymofo]

The last 2 posts are offering good advice….. it might safer and more cost effective to import or source breeding pairs and then try to breed and sell the offspring….

 

[FLA]

This is a tough business. The things that stand out to me are "specializing in 2-4 types of fish" and "selling in my area". If you are only selling locally you are basically a LFS even if you don't have a storefront. If you only have a handful of types that is pretty difficult. Each box has a fixed cost to get to your pickup point so most people either pack that box as tight as they reasonably can to spread that cost, or buy the most valuable fish they can to overcome that cost (or some combination of the strategies).

Using transhippers is certainly a route to go and probably the best for now, but IME most transhippers don't want to break up and repack fish. Therefore you are going to buy a full bag (300 neon tetras, 100 banjo cats for example or 50 2" Dovii). Then you are stuck holding them until you can get them sold. Mortalities are part of this. Fish are going to show up dead. Who is responsible? If you have a live arrival agreement that is great, but even then if the fish "haven't died yet" you are going to eat that.

The true question is do you live in an underserved community that needs a quality store therefore you should open one and offer a wide range of fish? Or do you live in a community that everyone has analyzed and decided wasn't worth investing in at this time?

The only way I see this having any success with a limited number of varieties is to ship nationally and be the king of a niche. Be the guy to get wildtype bettas, discus, stingrays, or something else in Canada. This requires some good web skills and building a brand. You have to be both the source of knowledge and the source of fish. Ecommerce is a tough business sometimes and you are at the mercy of weather and at times unrealistic expectations of customers.