White Label Online Business Opportunities – Are They Really Worth It?

White label business opportunities allow you to sell existing products and services under your brand. In other words, you resell the product to your customers as if it’s yours.

An online white label business is simply the online version of this business model.

There are numerous reasons why people use white label products. Perhaps the biggest reason is that it’s simpler than developing your own product or service from scratch.

Some leverage the white label business model to expand their existing product line, in a much more efficient manner. They use their existing brand and customer base to sell related products, without investing in product development.

Others build an entire business around selling only white label products. This can work and it’s relatively simple. Focus on getting customers, sell existing products. Assuming you can get customers and the product is of a high quality, there’s definitely money to be made.

In any case, white labelling essentially means outsourcing the ‘product part’ of running your business. Which can save you significant amounts of time and, in some cases, money.

Starting An Online White Label Business

There are many ways to go about starting a white label business online, and there’s no shortage of great products to sell. Whether they be digital or physical products.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what you’re going to sell.

Given the sheer number of possibilities, it pays to consider a niche you are interested in. Considering you are going to be building a brand and (hopefully) a loyal customer base, it stands to reason you’ll want to be knowledgable about and/ or interested in the product.

If you’re looking to sell physical products, a great place to start is Amazon. They’ve got the biggest collection of products on the planet, so there’s no shortage of ideas! The cool thing is you can also see what’s popular on thee ‘Amazon Best Seller’ page this way.

Or here’s some ideas to get you started if you want to sell digital products or services…

  • Web design
  • SEO (search engine optimisation)
  • Copywriting
  • Online dating platform
  • Social media marketing
  • Lead generation
  • PPC advertising
  • Web hosting
  • Background checks
  • Software and app development
  • Email marketing
  • Website analytics
  • Virtual assistants

This is just a handful of white label business ideas that focus on digital products and services. But essentially anything that can be outsourced is a potential white label business opportunity to explore.

Once you know what you want to sell, you then need to find a company that is willing to work with you. The company you decide to work with will depend on what you are selling and what they are offering you. You want to ensure whatever product you sell is of a high quality, the support is good, and there’s a good profit margin.

There are many companies you could work with.

But to give you a quick example, companies like Synergy Wholesale offer people a reasonable white label business opportunity. They allow you to resell their domain names, web hosting and other related products. Or you could go to a trusted site like Alibaba if you want to resell physical products.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you may need to do some leg work. Like contacting the company who’s product or service you want to sell, to see if they’re open to the idea. This will be a lot more tedious than dealing with a company that already has a white label business offer in place, but it can be worthwhile if you find the right company to work with.

Once you’ve settled on a product to resell, you need customers.

Since you’re leaving the ‘product part’ to someone else, your main job is getting customers and building your brand. One of the best ways to do this is by building a simple website and learning how to get traffic to it.

It’s worth learning how to get free through search engines like Google and Bing. Not only is this a powerful strategy, but it can greatly increase your profit potential, since you’re getting high quality traffic (potential customers) without spending a dime. It takes time to develop this, but it’s well worth it.

There’s obviously more to starting a white label business than what we’ve covered here. But that’s an overview of what’s involved.

What I really want to answer here is-  is the white label business model worthwhile?

It might be relatively simple model in comparison to a traditional business, and potentially lucrative. But it does come with a unique set of drawbacks too. So it’s important to consider the pros and cons before diving in.

Good Aspects of a White Label Business

The main reason white label online business opportunities are worthwhile, is because they are simple.

Rather than trying to handle every aspect of your online business, you can focus on what you’re good at it. Whatever that might be. And assuming you can find a reputable company to work with, you are selling a proven product or service.

Which means your customers are going to love what you’re offering. Since the company is solely focussed on the product, they are going to be making sure it performs well. It’s in their best interests to do so.

White label products opportunities also provide businesses with a viable way to expand their current offering. Leveraging the power of their existing brand in the process.

Bad Aspects of a White Label Business

The drawback to this model is that you have less control over your business. It might be easier to slap your brand on someone else’s product, but doing so means you have little or no creative control over the core product.

Your customers will undoubtedly have feedback and requests to improve ‘your’ product or service over time. Depending on the deal you have going with the supplier however, that may not be possible. Meaning you’re not able to give your customers what they really want. In other words, they get what they get.

Remember, just as you look good for selling an awesome product, you will look bad for selling something that doesn’t meet with the customers satisfaction. You may not be directly responsible, but in the customers eyes- you are.

Another important point to consider is that your product is not unique.  You might have a unique brand and customer experience. Cool. But at the end of the day, the underlying product you’re selling is the same as the next guy or gal who’s selling the same thing.

This may never be a problem, but it’s important to understand that this model means you have a lot less to differentiate yourself from competitors. Today’s consumers are savvy, which means if they can get the same product for less price somewhere else, they will.

Are White Label Businesses More Profitable?

The answer to this question depends on a number of factors.

For example, if you decide to resell email marketing services, you are going to save an incredible amount of capital by partnering with an existing company. Developing an email marketing platform from scratch is no easy task, and requires a considerable amount of startup capital and time investment.

However, whether or not this means it will work out more profitable over the longterm, is another story. Safe to say that, unless you have a significant startup capital, this is the smarter approach for this type of product though.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to start an online copywriting business, white label may not be the most profitable way to go about it. If you are able to find talented writers on freelance sites or even hire them in-house, it could work out a lot cheaper than selling people a white label copywriting service. More leg work, but potentially more profits, and no doubt more control over the end product.

So a white label opportunity may be simpler, and can save you a significant amount of money in some cases. But it pays to crunch the numbers to know if it makes sense for your individual circumstances.

A Viable Alternative To Consider

There are some very worthwhile alternatives to a white label online business worth considering.

One such alternative is affiliate marketing. This is even simpler than a white label business, yet equally, if not more, profitable. The idea is similar in that, you don’t need your own product to make money. As an affiliate, you promote other people’s products.

In other words, the companies brand stays the same, you just send customers their way.

Amazon has an affiliate program. Signing up to be an Amazon affiliate is free and gives you access to promote millions of products within their website. They pay you a commission to send buyers to their site.

With affiliate marketing you don’t need to worry about dealing with customers at all. No shipping, warrantees, complaints, staff, or any of the other headaches that come with running a typical business. Your role is essentially building a website, getting traffic, and sending people to buy products you recommend.

It’s simple and it works.

Don’t get me wrong, it does take time. Building a website is pretty easy when you follow the right process. But the ‘getting traffic’ part does take time. In any case, this model absolutely works and it’s how I make a full-time income online myself. Which is why I recommend it.

Conclusion

There are some great opportunities within the white label business world online.

The upside is you can simplify the ‘product part’ of your business, while focussing on whatever you’re good at. Depending on how you go about it, your main role is building your brand and getting customers.

The downside is you have less creative control over the product or service you’re selling. And it may not work out more profitable in the long run all things considered.

Whether or not it makes sense for you is something only you can determine. Hopefully this article has given you some worthwhile insight to help you decide.

2 thoughts on “White Label Online Business Opportunities – Are They Really Worth It?”

  1. Hey Tim, I created a SAAS white label business over the years to a fantastic monthly cash flow. My question is can you sell a white label business just as you would if I had built the software’s myself? or is it not worth as much being a white label?

    Reply
    • Hi Matthew,

      I’m not sure to be honest. I would imagine it depends on the individual white label business you are operating, and the agreement you have with the company you are working with.

      Thanks for commenting.

      Reply

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