Start a reseller business

A reseller business.hand with money

Starting a reseller business could be a lot easier and cheaper than you think! Traditional resellers or retail businesses require stock and premises to store and perhaps sell the stock.

These days with the evolution of the internet it’s possible to run a reseller or marketer business entirely online and without having to purchase any stock. Hence, it is possible to start a business as a marketer quickly and with very little or no investment.

The basic idea is to buy a product at a certain price and resell it at a higher price. Obviously, the profit you make depends on the price you pay, how popular the product is, the competition, and the demand for the product.

Before starting you should plan your business, do you want to start a reseller business to work full-time or part-time as a secondary source of income. This article will give you an idea of some of the things you should think about before starting.

 

Let’s start with a few definitions.

Reseller is actually a very broad term and covers many different methods of earning revenue from a product or service that is not owned or made by you. Here are a few examples of the most common.

Value Added Reseller
An individual or company actively selling a product or service owned or provided by another company for a profit or commission. Resellers may buy stock from the supplier and ship the products themselves or they may simply process orders through a website or by phone.

Affiliate
An affiliate drives web traffic from his own website to another by links and is remunerated on any sales made via those links.

Retailer
A retailer may be online or offline (shop). The retailer purchases a number of products and resells them through a shop or website for a profit.

Dropshipping
A drop shipper is a retailer who sells products without physically handling the stock. For example, an online store can easily take an order through their website and then forward the details to the manufacturer or vendor to ship the product directly to the customer.

 

Different people use different methods to buy and resell online.

There are a number of different ways to buy and resell stuff online. Some people may start offline buying products at garage sales, car boot sales, jumble sales, or flea markets. These products are then sold online for a profit.

Other people may start online, buying products directly from a wholesaler or manufacturer and they then resell those very products via their own website.

Resellers can generate sales with their website and refer the clients to the suppliers who in return pay a commission. You can choose any way you like, your decision will depend on the capital you have, what you are selling, and also the amount of work you wish to do – packaging and posting, etc.

 

Make a planKONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

There are several things you should consider when planning to buy and resell online.

  • Decide if you want just a little additional income or if you are looking at buying and reselling online to become your main source of income.
  • How much time do you have to commit to this project?
  • Do you intend to do this for a long time?
  • How much can you invest?
  • Be realistic, remember this is a business, and if it was that simple to earn good money everyone would be doing it.

 

What do you intend to sell?

It’s an advantage to have some knowledge of the products and industry before starting as a reseller. This is particularly true if you are counting on referring the sales to the supplier. You should also try to sell products that interest you and that you are sure of. This should be within a market that is not oversaturated and not too competitive.

Before starting, you must research the products you intend to sell – you must know if there is a demand, the profit margin, can the supplier match the demand?

After you have investigated the market a little, it will be easier to decide which products you should sell online.

 

What will you need to run your business?

When running a business from your own home the list of things you will need is much reduced. The basic things you will need are a computer, a printer, internet access, an email address, and a few bits of stationery.

A digital camera might be useful for taking photos of products. If you intend shipping yourself you will need boxes, tape, etc. Probably you already have the majority of these items!

 

Who are your customers going to be?

After you have done your research and you know what you are going to sell, you need to consider who will be your customers and their location. Are you going to need to ship the goods to them? How will you promote your products?

 

How much competition will you have?

The less competition you have to sell your product the easier it will be to sell and you will be able to make more profit. You person question markshould consider the price your competitors charge and the price you can charge to make a profit and stay competitive.

The price is one criteria perhaps the most important, but not the only criteria. For instance, you may have better marketing – photos and a full description, you could give away extra products, your service may be better.

 

Verify that your reseller business is feasible

Once you have researched your product and found a supplier, you will know how much it will cost to purchase your product, the cost of shipping (if you go down that road), and how much you will sell it for.

You will need to do some simple calculations to see if your business is viable. Sure you can consider the best-case scenario, but always also consider also the worst scenario. It’s always better to start small and expand when you have some experience and you know what you’re doing.

 

Test on a small-scale

One good thing about reselling online is that you can test the business on a small-scale. Buy one or two products and try to sell them online via auction sites or on your own website, however, you like. You can see how you like it and also learn about reselling by the methods you have chosen. Like this, you will have a better idea of how you want to proceed without having to spend much money.

 

You are ready to start!

When everything is checked you are ready to start your reseller business. As an online reseller, you will need a domain and a website. You can choose and register a domain name online easily and cheaply. It is even possible to create a website for free, if necessary you can build your site so that it is possible to accept payments online and process orders online.

All you need to do now is order your products, put them on your website, and hopefully start selling!!

If you don’t want a website you can always sell on an auction site.

To learn about starting an online reseller business you could go to Wealthy Affiliate, my number one choice, for more information, see my review.

8 Comments

  1. Ernest October 15, 2017
    • Peter October 18, 2017
  2. Kavya September 29, 2017
    • Peter October 1, 2017
  3. Scott January 31, 2017
    • Peter February 1, 2017
  4. Ncedo July 20, 2016
    • Peter July 21, 2016

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