How to Start an Ukay-Ukay Business in the Philippines

You can never go wrong with starting out an ukay-ukay as your very first business.

It doesn't have a lot of regulations, your inventory won't expire, you can start selling online and in physical stores, and it doesn't take much to get your business started.

Read more: My Personal Story | Ukay-Ukay Business

With these in mind, here's how you can start your own ukay-ukay business in the Philippines. 

#1. Research and Plan

This isn't a tedious process, but this is important when you're only just starting out. 

Research your market. Who are your potential buyers? What's their age range? How will your clothes cater to their needs?

Ukay-ukay suppliers sell their items in large bales which are then categorized into: Women's shirt, men's t-shirts, men's cargo shorts, skinny jeans, denim shorts, household rummage, and other categories.

You need to know the exact market you want to serve so your inventory would be appropriately stocked for them. 

Also, you need to decide whether or not you should have a physical store, online store, or both. 

#2. Finance Your Business and Buy Supplies

You don't have to put tens and thousands of pesos immediately into your business. 

You can even start with 5000 php and you're good to go. 

Like with all things related to making money and business, it all depends on your diskarte as to how you can finance your business.

Tip: Since selling ukay-ukay is basically selling other people's pre-loved items, why not add your own unused pre-loved items to your racks? 

Scout for family members and friends who have a shirt or two that they don't need anymore. 

Better yet, buy it from them at a reasonable price and resell the items at your shop along with other purchases. 

You would need the following when setting up a physical shop:

• Clothing racks
• Cloth hangers
• Papers
• Markers
• Strings
• Fan
• Calculator
• Plastic Cellophane (Small, Medium, and Large)
• Record Book

#3. Look for Reliable Suppliers. 

The safest way would be to look for suppliers in your own town or city. 

However, this way isn't really effective as those ukay-ukay sellers that you usually see are already retailers and most of them wouldn't be exactly thrilled with the idea of sharing trade secrets with strangers. 

Personally, I join Facebook groups that are targeted towards direct suppliers of ukay-ukay. Here's a link to a Facebook group where I scout for my suppliers. 

Feel free to join, look through posts, and contact potential suppliers.

Most of them sale clothes by the bale. 

One bale is usually 90 kilos and costs about 8000-20,000 pesos depending on the category of the clothing and where it's from.

Usually, bales from Korea and Japan tend to be costly. 

You can, however, buy bales that are halved to save up on your purchase. 

Be careful though, as not everyone in the internet is reliable and you have to be very careful with transactions that include sending money. 

Read more: How to Spot an Online Scammer

#4. Count The Actual Cost of Each Item in Your Bale. 

Once you purchased your bale and had it transported to your store, you can now open your bale and count the number of pieces it contains to get its actual cost.

Add all the cost related to purchasing your bale such as cash transfer cost, actual purchase price, and transportation costs. Divide all that by the number of pieces and you'll have your total cost per piece. 

With this, you can now price your items.

Personally, I would suggest pricing them at four times their original cost as most ukay-ukay shoppers will try to haggle and bargain with you. 

When you just opened a bale, you should price them higher than normal because you want to recover your original cost first. 

After two weeks or so, you can now reduce the selling price of your items and reduce it further after a week and so on. 

#5. Be Friendly and Accommodating to Your Customers

Most of them will be repeat customers and they will invaluable for your business.

Treat them with kindness and take note of the kinds of clothes they're looking for.

Take their suggestions as a guide in purchasing your next bales. 

#6 Register Your Business (If You're Setting Up a Physical Store)

Make sure that your business is properly registered with your Local Municipality to avoid any legal complications. 

I included this as number six only because most municipalities aren't really strict and they're cool with you opening up first before registering your business. 

Some of them even need details such as your initial capital, and they would need to inspect your store for fire prevention and safety purposes. 

#7 Advertise Your Store

Once you already have your items displayed and your store is ready, take pictures of your place, edit them out a bit to make them look more appealing, and post those pictures to your local community's business or buy and sell groups.

Add in captions with your photos, stating details like your location, your price range, and the kinds of items that you offer.

Facebook Groups is a great and free way to let people in your community know about your business. 

And there you go! :) 

Those are my top tips on starting out your own ukay-ukay business here in the Philippines. I hope that you find this blog post helpful. Feel free to comment down below any questions that you might have regarding ukay-ukays.