We encourage Zimbabweans to follow the forum for business ideas and the good news is that our members are always willing to share information on opportunities. In this post we cover buying shoes from Mozambique for resale in Zimbabwe, and we cover below experiences from Zbinites.
By Tindo: The business is or used to be profitable but due to many people (very high competition)now doing clothes and shoe business here in Harare or rather Zim and also the high rentals of spaces to sell its no longer that attractive. The business nowadays depends on the street you are and position in the shop your table is and also those who buy in bulk from Maputo suppliers enjoy economies of scale as compared to those with little capital and hence they sell their shoes at very lower prices thereby attracting more or almost every customer there is. You also need to be continuously getting the latest stuff on the market and with little capital hence less sales u won’t really cope. The goods are usually smuggled into the country and there is always this risky of losing your capital if the goods are intercepted.
In short it used to be a very good business or still can be if you have enough cash yekutenderedza and also your marketing skills.
By Tinashe: Did that business for two years between 2011-2013. Then taiva vashoma we would take shoes from Beira and Maputo,maputo yairwadza distance.It was wiser kuvhura bhero ikoko wosarudza than kutenga bhero racho rakadaro. We would charge average of 100-200% mark up. Ndakazozvisiya after prices started to fall takuisa ma50-100% mark up. Major challenge was maforeigners todhurisirwa kudarika veko vana amigo,muroad ukaita munyama unogona kunyura or dzikatevera dzaisvika dzimwe dzashota. Major benefit was waisada capital yakawanda coz we would get some new as low as $5 usd apa dzakanaka. Of late I have realized kuti maMozambicans vacho vakuuya nadzo vega.
By Vale: Its a good business its only need links with people in Mozambique because the shoes comes from Vietnam 
by Chinese you you will need someone on ground in Mozambique.
The shoes are very cheap when you buy them in bulk for example a box of high quality airforces its costs $370 with 30 pairs and if you sell them with $20 you get $230 profit per box.The advantage or new shoes from Mozambique is that you are not restricted to import them from Mozambique to Zim they are different from bales which are not allowed 
Transport cost to and from Mozambique is approximately $50. But to start that business it needs about $600 and above so that you will have a variety of shoes.
By Tindo: Price depends on the quality of the material used to make the shoe and the low quality (cheapest ie ma airforce ema $10,$15 mutown), medium, high end which is next to or almost as good as original(has bar codes which can be traced back to the likes of Nike dot com because the manufacturers are given rights by these companies), these ones you find them being sold from around $50 going up muharare. So the bottom line is u need to identify your market muno muZim and that determines the quality of shoes you will be selling. MumaGhetto medu umu vazhinji havana pressure nequality but as long akapfeka airforce boe(result asina irombe coz everyone can afford kumarunner) then kwoitawo those vasingade zvese zvese.
