# Reselling MAC in NZ



## cmys001 (Jul 21, 2014)

Hi Guys I am Chai and Im new here so I wanted to throw out a topic and get some feed back. I am 27 and from New Zealand.

  I have been thinking about going in cosmetics business for some time now (MAC being one of them the items I wanted to sell) and I wanted to buy small quantities of MAC make up from USA and sell it here in NZ. I have a few concerns with this mostly to see if its illegal.

  Just a bit of background info MAC cosmetics mark up in NZ is HUGE. for example a lipstick as advertised on MAC USA site is $16 however the same one here is $40. I have friends in USA who would could send me some stuff from USA nothing in bulk order just a few lispticks etc and I would then sell it here.


  what I wanted to know is: is it illegal? I will only be buying from legit MAC stores either online or in stores. 

  any feedback will be a huge favour... thank you in advance.


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## anita22 (Jul 25, 2014)

Hi, fellow Kiwi here. Agree the prices of MAC are outrageous here. From a legal perspective, you would firstly need to be mindful that if you're importing goods for the purposes of reselling, you would potentially be liable for customs and duty charges. You can find an overview of the importing regulations here: http://www.business.govt.nz/laws-an...g/overview-of-importing-exporting-regulations

  Secondly, I believe Estee Lauder (MAC's owner) only grants distribution rights for MAC in NZ to selected retailers (e.g. Smith & Caughey's). So you would be an unauthorised seller. If you were only selling small volumes on TradeMe (e.g. the odd lipstick here and there) I doubt it would be noticed, but if you are thinking of bulk volumes then you should be mindful of this. There's a reason why no one is selling large volumes of unauthorised MAC here and that's because EL would crack down on it.

  Lastly, I should add that I personally avoid purchasing MAC from resellers in NZ as there are too many fakes out there. Although you would be selling genuine product, it's hard for people to tell the real from the fakes. I buy a lot of my cosmetics from the US now using NZ Post's YouShop service, as I save money by not paying NZ retail prices, but have the reassurance that I'm getting authentic product.

I don't want to put you off, but hopefully this gives you some things to consider.


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## cmys001 (Jul 25, 2014)

Hi Anita, thank you so much for the feed back. Yes you definitely gave me a few things to think about  How does YouShop work as such?


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## anita22 (Jul 26, 2014)

Hey,

  YouShop is a service run by New Zealand Post to assist New Zealanders in purchasing goods from the USA and Europe. The website is here: https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop

  Basically it is a parcel forwarding service. So you purchase your goods online from the USA or Europe, and use the YouShop delivery addresses (either USA or UK, depending where you're buying from) as your delivery address. Once your parcel arrives at the YouShop warehouse in the USA/UK, they notify you, and you then just pay for them to forward it on to your New Zealand address. The delivery costs aren't too bad - certainly much less than many of the department stores in the US/UK would charge for international shipping. It also means you can buy from retailers that don't ship at all to NZ (so long as they're OK to accept payment from an international credit card).  You also get a discount for multiple parcels.

  The only thing to be mindful of is that parcels from overseas will attract duty if they are over a certain value (the value depends on the type of product). Before you shop, you can easily work out whether or not your parcel will attract duty or not using this calculator: http://www.whatsmyduty.org.nz/)

  I've just used YouShop to shop the Nordstrom Anniversary sale in the US, I've bought a Bobbi Brown eyeshadow palette which won't be launching here, plus a Trish McEvoy makeup set (Trish isn't sold at all here). So it's a pretty great service. It hasn't cost that much for postage either, as Nordstrom ship for free within the US, so I've only had to pay the YouShop fee to forward the parcel.

  HTH!


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## cmys001 (Jul 26, 2014)

Thank you that's so helpful and very kind of you to explain


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## anita22 (Jul 27, 2014)

No worries


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