Top 8 Online Reseller Business: Best Ideas for 2024

With over 5 million registered sellers in India and even more customers to serve; it can be said that reselling business is one good way to become successful.

The online reseller business in India is ever-growing. That’s why many enterprises have turned their reselling business into full-time businesses and earned more than a simple living. Resellers earn between 15% and 40% profit on their products. Some reselling businesses require physical inventory and location, while others can be conducted online. With the help of social media, many businesses can run successfully and smoothly.

Now this might have excited you to know more about the reseller business. Well, all the answers are here; so keep reading till the end.

What is a Reseller? What do you understand by Online Reseller Business?

A reseller is a person or entity who buys goods from a manufacturer and sells them to their own customers for profit. Resellers mark up the price they sell or add value by combining related products or repackaging. A reselling chain would see a markup in the price from manufacturers or retailers to clients. All the people in the chain profit from the resale of the goods.

Now, you must be wondering what an online reseller business is. The idea of an online reselling business includes providing a platform to the end consumers with a wide variety of products. However, in the online platform, the reselling model works in the same way as you are not the manufacturer of products, but you resell them by buying from other sellers. Social media has proven to be a plus point for reselling businesses as it provides a platform to find more customers.

Moreover, the reselling business model is easier to start for any average person as it can be made to be highly profitable, especially with niche expertise. For instance, if you have great knowledge of fashion, you could start reselling different clothes in current trends.

Difference between a Reseller and a Distributor

Sometimes the nature of resellers’ business is considered similar to that of wholesale distributors. However, there are certain differences:

Basis	Distributors	Resellers
Relation with Manufacturer	Distributors tend to have a better relation with manufactures, as distributors help them with labelling, marketing, and government permissions. This means they make more effort than simply purchasing a product. Thus, improving the relationship between the two.	Resellers don’t work closely with manufacturers and might never meet them. They purchase goods from retailers or wholesalers with a single motive of selling them to end consumers. In the online reselling business, there is no marketing assistance or any help after the sale to the producers.
Inventory Management	Distributors buy inventory from the suppliers like wholesalers or manufacturers in bulk. This ensures large storage and warehousing capacity for the inventory making them liable to manage the inventory effectively.	Resellers don’t have to invest in holding any sort of inventory. They can sell goods as and when their customers demand. The reselling model is completely demand-based. Which means they would buy only those items for which the consumers have placed the order.

Benefits of Starting Online Reselling Business

Lucrative Business

An online reselling business is a good option for anybody who wants to sell products digitally but doesn’t want to hold inventory. You earn good money by selling products at them marginally high price earning you good profits.

Multiple Product Listings

In reselling business, you could sell as many product types as you wish online. There is no need for the products to be similar or unrelated, you just need to sell in-demand products.

Easy Establishment

In the online reseller business, you must have a platform – social media, WhatsApp, website or blog to connect with consumers. After that, you could easily connect with customers and become available for business.

Low Financial Commitment

There is no need to maintain inventory in the reselling business. That means you don’t have to spend on compliance, warehousing or mass purchases. And the shipping and packaging charges are minimal too.

How to Get a Reseller Business Permit?

In an online reseller business, you need to have a resale permit to resale products. Here are the steps to follow to get your reselling permit.

1. Register the Business

Get a business licence for the place from where your business operates or is incorporated. You might require foreign qualifications for working in states outside of where your business is registered.

2. Research State Laws and Regulations

In many states, you could get an out-of-state reseller’s permit so that you don’t have to pay sales tax on resale items. However, many states won’t allow you with this permit. So before buying products across state lines, it is better to research state laws for online and in-person purchases.

3. Gather your Application Material

Having all the necessary documents to apply for the reseller’s permit is important. Once you have all the necessary documents, it is better to submit your application.

4. Get Resale Permit

In reselling business, you must have various products. Thus, it is important to have a resale permit for every state where you buy and sell goods. You might need to pay the associated fees along with the resale permit. However, many states allow you to have an out-of-state sales tax permit. Thus, it is very important to check the states’ guidelines for which you are getting the resale permit.

How to Start Online Reseller Business?

Now that you have got your permit to resale products, you must want to know what next. How would you start your online resale business? Here’s how:

1. Finalising the Business Specifics

The one benefit of starting an online reselling business is that one could choose to deal in a variety of products. It is a vast area of selling. Before finalising the business specifics, you could decide on a few options, like:

• Reseller Industry

The product line or area your reselling business will focus on is the reseller industry. However, the reselling business gives you the option to sell products that may or may not be related, but maintaining uniformity is advisable. For example, your reseller industry could be apparel. Under this, you could easily sell bed covers, curtains, suits, and dresses. If you maintain uniformity in the reselling industry, you are likely to attract more customers.

• Target Audience

If you plan to become a reseller, you should know your target audience. A good customer profile helps you in deciding the marketing strategy, and communication channel and even you could make pricing decisions.

• Competition Analysis

Every businessperson should have a thorough understanding of the current business practices and competition. In reselling business, there is a slight difference. It is better to examine the competitors to set the business policies accordingly closely.

2. Sourcing the Products

Like every business, reselling also requires various products to sell to the right customers. One of the important steps in launching the online reseller business is finding the product source. The two primary sources for resellers to get their merchandise:

• Reseller Apps

There are various social commerce platforms in India that have a variety of products that are available for reselling. These apps have gained popularity over the past few years. The reseller apps help the reseller source materials for their business. The reselling apps are Meesho, eBay, OLX, and cartlay.com. The apps help people to share the selected catalogue with customers after adding the margin to their price.

Also Read: 20 Best Reselling Apps in India

• Local Sourcing Channel

Resellers often don’t source products through online channels via the app. They find the merchandise through locals and ensure it is effectively resold. Local sourcing provides resellers with higher margins and does not involve any other party in the sourcing. Some of the local sourcing channels are flea markets, antique malls, garage Sales, Facebook groups etc.

3. Setting up Communication Channel

If you want to be successful you need to have clear communication with your customers. Like in any other business, communication is crucial for online reseller business.             

• Social Media Channels

An effective way to set up a reselling business is by leveraging social media. Being a reseller, you could have personal or business accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp to showcase the product range. This way, you could receive orders directly and connect with customers.

• Blogs

To set up an online reselling platform, resellers can create blogs on WordPress or any other similar site. People can place orders directly on the blog itself. After that, resellers can post images of the merchandise, product details and other needed information on the blog.

• Mini Websites

 Various websites offer themes and templates to make a small-scale website quickly. These websites act as an e-commerce platform when you start a reselling business.

4. Marketing it Right

Every business needs effective marketing to generate leads. Targeted marketing strategies are important in increasing sales in online reseller businesses. It is entirely the reseller’s decision on how they want to market their products. Common marketing strategies used in reselling business are:

• Reasonable Pricing

Make sure you price your products reasonably, this way you will attract the right customers and can earn profits too.

• Free delivery

Provide free delivery options to customers ordering products above a certain range. This way customers will be prompted to buy more to get free delivery.

• Provide Offers

Give festive offers and stock clearance offers from time to time attracting more customers.

5. Finalising Payment Channels

To complete the online reseller business model, you need to have a gateway to process payments. There are various online payment methods which you can choose

• Cash

Ask the customers to pay in cash, in case you are selling offline then settling payment immediately is good. Nowadays this method is also used in online product reselling, you can give cash-on-delivery options to customers.

• Online Payment Channels

When you are reselling on online platforms like your own business website, Amazon, Flipkart etc. Then you need to have this option of receiving online payments. Accepting payments through channels like GPay, PayTm, debit/credit cards etc. Right choice.

Also Read:
How to Sell Products Online and Start an Online Store?
Steps for Creating Online Business Plan

Best Places to Find Suppliers for Resale Business

Finding the supplier for your resale business is one crucial step to take. Your sales depend on the quality of products your supplier provides you. This makes it necessary that you choose a good supplier for your online reseller business. Some of the best supplier platforms for reseller business are.

Alibaba

Alibaba is one of the largest wholesale marketplaces for online reseller business. With millions of users and more than 40 product categories to choose from you can get any product for your reselling business. Alibaba aims to provide only the best products to its customers.

Costco

If you want to become a reseller of office supplies then you can consider Costco as a good supplier for your products. Although it became famous for grocery delivery services Costco also deals with bulk delivery supplies of office products like paper, plastic bands, stapler pins etc.

SaleHoo

SaleHoo is another supplier platform that you can choose to get your product supplies. This platform has an advanced search feature to search from its over million products to make your journey easier. Not only this, SaleHoo offer a 24/7 live chat service to answer your questions and problems regarding anything related to the order.

WorldWide Brands

WorldWide Brands is one of the oldest suppliers of over more than 10 million product categories. You can choose them as your online reseller business supplier without any worry. As they have a very strict policy regarding registration to fulfilling orders which guarantees that you only get quality products for reselling. 

Best Online Reseller Business Opportunities

If you are looking forward to reselling products online, many business opportunities are open for you. Here are a few reselling business opportunities that you could think about:

1. Drop shipping Business

To start an online reseller business, dropshipping is the best business opportunity. In drop shipping, you could offer a wide range of products without having to stock inventory. The dropshipping business model requires you to market and sell the products. Drop shipping suppliers have to handle everything from products related to product development to warehousing and tracking.  It is an ideal low-risk business model because no investment in inventory is required.

2. Sneaker Business

The sneaker reselling business is based on simple things: buy low, sell high. The limited-edition sneaker business is coming, and you could easily run from home. If you are a sneaker enthusiast, you could connect with the customer’s passion for fashion. Reselling sneakers is quite a profitable industry. There is a wide variety of niches in the shoe business, from athletic shoes to stylish heels to trendy sneakers. Everybody needs shoes. Thus, you can keep things fresh by launching seasonal sneaker designs.

3. Vintage Boutique

A vintage boutique is a great reselling business idea to take advantage of the online reseller business opportunity. There are multiple ways in which you could take it. The goods in the vintage boutique are older than 50 years and younger than 100 years. Else there is always inspiration from vintage trends. You could sell multiple things in a vintage boutique, like vintage clothing, knick-knacks or antique furniture.

The key to a successful vintage boutique is knowing what items people are looking for. For instance, there is always a high demand for Vintage Corningware for a niche market of customers.

4. Consignment

A consignment store is a resale shop selling goods for a percentage of the sale price. Similar to the opportunities with a vintage boutique, you could always open a consignment shop. The consignment shops generally sell upscaled luxury goods, and not everything is vintage or antique.

Consignment stores allow the consignor the convenience of earning money while getting rid of unwanted things. Thus, if you are buying an item from a consignment store, that means you are buying on resale. The sale’s money would be split between the store and the person who sold the product to the store.

5. Subscription Box

A subscription box is an online reseller business where multiple products are shipped to customers repeatedly. It is considered a form of product kit, and there are a lot of variations between different industries. It is a flexible reselling model and lends itself well to a reseller.

 You can always curate an assortment of goods and package them into a single box. You can assemble the goods into the themed box and launch a new box every week, quarter, month or whatever suits your business needs.

6. Jewlery Reseller

Jewellery reselling business is one of the good online reselling business ideas that can be profitable. You can collect old antique jewellery, rare crystals and high-priced diamonds and sell them online. Etsy is one good platform to sell online from where you can ship the products to your national and international clients.

It is recommended while dealing with jewellery that you check their authenticity; you can get them checked with jewellery with an expert before selling them to the customers. This saves you from getting bad reviews and builds trust among customers.

7. Refurbished Tech Gadgets

The market for refurbished tech devices is quite large, there are several people who are in need of second-hand devices or couldn’t buy new ones. You can open an online reseller store for selling such tech gadgets that have been returned because of minor defects or in exchange and can earn considerable profits.

8. Luxury Handbags Reselling

Reselling products such as luxury handbags is a profitable business. There is also a high demand for luxury bags among people, some buy them for collections and others for use. All-in-all you can make quite good money if you sell them online.

Recommended Read: Ultimate Online Business Ideas in India

Start your Online Reseller Business Today

Starting any business might seem like one risky move, but a business-like online reseller business is a low-risk, high-profit-yielding business model. In today’s times of high inflation and stagnant paychecks, it becomes necessary to have the means to earn more money.

Choosing to become a reseller you not only open doors to better income but a sense of independence too. And as it doesn’t require much investment or inventory to hold you can start reselling business today from the comfort of your home and start earning.

With our Business guide, discover unique business ideas, build a successful business from scratch, and learn effective business growth strategies.

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