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In this guide, we help you figure out whether reselling is the right business for you and give tips and best practices to help you succeed as a reseller.
Perhaps you have some free time on your hands that you’d like to make some money with, or perhaps you’re bored of your desk job and fancy running your own show. Many people start reselling as a way to earn easy money on their own terms.
Is it really as easy as it seems to start your own reseller business? We’re here with the lowdown on what reselling entails, the types of different reselling models, tips to make money as a reseller, and some questions to help you decide whether reselling or retail is the best option for you.
Overview: What is a reseller?
Generally, a reseller is considered to be someone who purchases goods with the intention of reselling them for a profit. The benefits of reselling include not needing to make or manufacture products yourself and few inventory management requirements.
Levels of reselling sophistication can vary. Anyone can start at home, picking up stock from thrift stores or department stores, storing them at home, and listing them on platforms such as Amazon or social media marketplaces. Other reseller companies are more vast and list products virtually once they’ve sourced products from a wholesaler.
4 types of resellers
There are multiple types of reselling business models, and confusingly, some of them include sales models we explored above. Let’s take a look at four of the most common and explain their role in the reselling world.
1. Retailers
A retailer is technically a reseller, but when it comes to “reseller vs retailer,” what’s the difference?
A retailer owns an established business, either a brick-and-mortar store or an online store, and buys products and sells them directly to the end user.
A reseller, on the other hand, is often the “middle man.” Resellers buy stock and sell products however they see fit. They can sell them to end users, but also sell them to retailers.
Here is a good illustration of the contrasts:
- Retailer: Home Depot sells a barbecue grill, marked down 50% during a sale. Jerry purchases the grill and takes it home that day. Home Depot is the retailer.
- Reseller: Jerry buys a barbecue grill from Home Depot at half price during a sale. Jerry takes the grill home and waits a couple of weeks for the sale to end. Then, Jerry uses Facebook Marketplace to sell the grill for closer to its original …….
Source: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/retail-management/articles/reseller/