Help with DIY Store

I am with a project to open a distributor of DIY products in Brazil. We do not have many around here, and the market is growing a lot. I took a look at the fixed topic A Beginner’s Guide To Making The Most Highly-Rated Recipes and I often follow the forum. I would ask for your help on one thing:

Based on the list of the topic I mentioned above, I came up with a list of 50 flavors of brands TPA, FA, FW and CAP and would like to know what you think of this list and if they would change anything.


|Bavarian Cream|CAP|
|Butter Cream|CAP|
|Cinnamon Danish Swirl|CAP|
|French Vanilla|CAP|
|Golden Butter|CAP|
|Golden Pineapple|CAP|
|Marshmallow|CAP|
|New York Cheesecake|CAP|
|Sugar Cookie|CAP|
|Super Sweet Liquid Sucralose|CAP|
|Sweet Cream|CAP|
|Sweet Mango|CAP|
|Sweet Strawberry|CAP|
|Sweet Tangerine|CAP|
|Vanilla Bean Ice Cream|CAP|
|Vanilla Custard V2|CAP|
|Vanilla Custard V1|CAP|
|Hazelnut|FW|
|Yellow Cake|FW|
|Cream Fresh|FA|
|Fuji|FA|
|Marshmallow|FA|
|Meringue|FA|
|Red Touch (Strawberry)|FA|
|Acetyl Pyrazine 5% PG|TPA|
|Bavarian Cream|TPA|
|Blueberry Extra|TPA|
|Blueberry Wild|TPA|
|Brown Sugar|TPA|
|Caramel Original|TPA|
|Cheesecake Graham Crust|TPA|
|Cotton Candy|TPA|
|Berry, Cereal|TPA|
|Dairy Milk|TPA|
|Dragon Fruit|TPA|
|Graham Cracker Clear|TPA|
|Juicy Peach|TPA|
|Kiwi Double|TPA|
|Koolada 10%|TPA|
|Mango|TPA|
|RY4 Double|TPA|
|Strawberry|TPA|
|Strawberry Ripe|TPA|
|Sweet cream|TPA|
|Sweetener|TPA|
|Toasted Almond|TPA|
|Vanilla Bean Ice Cream|TPA|
|Vanilla Swirl|TPA|
|Watermelon|TPA|
|Whipped Cream|TPA|

I did a budget calculation and 4oz of each of those 50 flavors corresponds to 1/4 of my budget dedicated to flavors. Here comes the doubt:

Option 1) Keep 50 flavors and multiply by 4 the quantity, getting a total of 16oz of each flavor.

Option 2) Multiply by 2 the amount of flavors (getting 100) and also multiply the quantity, getting 8oz of each flavor, being 100 flavors

Option 3) Multiply by 4 the amount of flavors (staying with 200) and maintaining the quantity. Getting 4oz of each flavor, being 200 flavors

I await the opinion of you who have more experience than me

Thank you!

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My only advice is that you may need to start with more than 50 flavors and buy in bigger bulk. Beyond that well. I’m sure someone would accept a consulting fee

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@VMancini

IMHO - Look into Whole Sale Accounts the companies may offer. You may find something more suitable for your needs. Research and then reach-out/contact ALL the companies first, don’t limit yourself just yet.

Best of Luck

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Not enough variety for me take notice honestly. It generally takes more than one brand of any flavor to create a whole. For example you need 2-4 different strawberries to get a good strawberry flavor.

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In business, it is better to do something well that you are the only one to do than do something not so well when lots of people are at it.

Why not do a fauk style shop, with only FA/FLV, andoffer ressources on the side like recipes, your own one shots with mixing guidelines.
Nothing stops you from also doing other mixing supplies (bottles, …)

Question is, what is the business going to look like and how is it going to be better than the ones that already ship globally.

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it’s also been said, quite a few times on this board, that the best-rated recipes tend to be the oldest recipes, simply because they’ve had more time to gather ratings , they had much less competition in the early days, and what’s more, the ratings system was quite often abused in the past .

My point is that the flavours used in the most popular recipes from way back when really can’t be expected give an accurate reflection of which flavours are poular nowadays , not following significant hardware changes (which in turn have led to radical changes in many recipes) the rise of superconcentrates and a host of new brands hitting the market. so i really don;t think this is a very good way of choosing which flavours to stock.

That said, CAP and TPA do seem to have an enduring poularity, mind. so maybe not such a bad choice of brand? It’s just the logic behind chosing those flavours that I’m quibbluing with

I also think that 50 flavours is a pretty pathetic range of choice. Sorry to be so negative, but i honestly think that this whole idea needs a radical re-think, not a little bit of twiddling.

My two cents.

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Are you planning to buy direct from the manufacturers using original labels or are you going to re-label through another source.
I’m not certain on the second one but I believe you have to be licensed by the MFR to re-label .

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Are you planning on rebottling and onlybselking 10ml bottles??? is this a brick and mortar store , or online shopping ? is this for your local area or entire country ? those are a couple questions im wondering … why limit. the mixers you plan on supplying to the most basic flavors ?

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Recipes first. Might want to list recipes and have a some folks pick a number of recipes they would wish to mix if you supplied the flavors. From their recipe selections, the preferences might give you a better sense of how much and which flavors to supply. The whole idea here is to make the neophyte successful in his/hers first attempts. If your customers are successful, you stand a good chance of being successful.
Could look at:

2 Likes

Yeah, I had similar thoughts. Too much critical info missing.

Is the OP planning on simply reselling flavors, or are they wanting to buy for making “house liquids”? Or…

And then, where are the recipes coming from if they already don’t know which flavors to buy if they’re mixing house liquids?

Any “invester” trying to capitalize on a new (or locally untapped) market really needs to know the largest picture possible of what they’re looking at, otherwise the chances of failure (or at least large sums of money being lost) increase dramatically.

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I apologize for the information that was missing. I want to buy bottles of 4oz or more (probably 16oz) and go for smaller bottles of 10ml. My question is just with which choice to take (option 1, 2 or 3). The rest is all right and I’ve already sell vape related products, I just wanted to start with a small DIY hedge in my store

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Yes, i know! In my Strawberry cream recipe I use like 3 strawberry and some creams, so i´s important to have some variety in the store

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I work with vape products for more than a year, but I want to resell some DIY products now. Any problem? If you don´t want to help, please don´t comment.

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Thanks for the comment! I thought of “exclusivity” and some brand, but Vape is starting in Brazil now, so people opt for simpler recipes that mostly only use TPA. The issue of global freight is not a problem, since in Brazil we have a very restricted import policy, so it is practically impossible for an ordinary person to import flavors.

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Thanks for you help! I have already read this topic some time ago and took a lot of information from there!

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Yup… If I had a limited budget, as you seem to, I would defiinitely start with stocking a BUNCH of well- proven one-shots. You would need to get in touch with the mixers and maybe even offer them a royalty based on sales or something. Several online shops do this already, but a brick and mortar, offeriing one-shots, recipes, and mixing supplies, would be a great start!

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It’s a pleasure to see you commenting here on Alisa! I’ve followed all your recipes for some time.

My idea is to expand my e-liquids store for DIY. Many people in Brazil are looking for flavors for DIY and the variety here is very low, and as I mentioned above importing here is always a problem. Based on that top 100 recipes topic, I thought of doing some one-shots and also selling to make life easier for those starting out in DIY. However, my focus is on flavors, I want to have at least a small amount on the site to give the consumer the opportunity to buy from me.

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If you plan on rebottling you have to look into the health codes and possibly be approved. Depends on the regulations there but might involve clean room standards. Regardless what you read i would check with them to make sure you are not hit with fines.

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Sure friend! I have been manufacturing e-liquids in Brazil for some time and I have all the necessary equipment to do everything in the most correct way! Unfortunately the vape is still illegal in Brazil, so there is no body to regulate and oversee all. However we always work in the most correct way, avoiding any kind of physical contact with the product

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My vote is Option 2!

If you go with Option 1, you are very limited in flavor choices and have a “large” quantity of each, but don’t know with practical application which flavors will sell and which might collect dust on the shelf.

Option 3 has perhaps too many flavor options at too small a quantity of each without the practical experience to know which flavors will sell well. You could have many flavors collecting dust while chasing your supply chain around trying to keep the heavy sellers in stock to meet demand.

Option 2 is the Middle Way. More flavor options and enough quantity per flavor to sell comfortably while you gauge your demand. The heavy hitters can be reordered in larger quantities after the first run, and the not-so in-demand flavors in 8 or 16 ounces.

If it works well, next year you can buy the hot commodities in 50 gallon drums for amazing profit margin! Best of luck!

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