White label ecommerce is a business model that allows businesses to build online stores on third-party ecommerce platforms. It’s a white label model because you get to rebrand and customize the platform to reflect your unique brand identity.
White label ecommerce is perfect for businesses looking to sell unique products or services online without spending huge capital on the design, development, and maintenance of an ecommerce website. In this article, we’ll explore the white label ecommerce model, how it works, and the benefits it provides to businesses.
- White label ecommerce providers allow businesses to customize and rebrand their platform to create unique online stores.
- The benefits of white label ecommerce include cost-effectiveness, customization, scalability, and technical support.
- The most important factors to consider before picking a white label ecommerce partner include pricing policy, user-friendliness, branding options, and tools integration.
- Shopify, PrestaShop, and CS-Cart are popular white label ecommerce providers
- Some successful white label ecommerce businesses include Kylie’s Cosmetics, GymShark, and FashionNova.
What Is White Label Ecommerce?
White label ecommerce is a business model that allows online entrepreneurs to build and host business-branded online stores on ready-made ecommerce platforms. Here, the white label provider offers a pre-built ecommerce platform that other businesses can customize and rebrand to reflect their own unique brand identity.
With the white label ecommerce model, you can create your own branded online store, sell products, set your prices, and promote your brand all while using a third-party web infrastructure. This means you can focus your resources on marketing since you don’t need to design, develop and maintain your own site.
How Does White Label Ecommerce Work?
White label ecommerce involves two parties – the ecommerce platform (sellers) and the businesses (buyers). The white label ecommerce provider provides infrastructure, technical, and customer support to hosted online stores for a fee. They allow them to add products and services to the platform under their brand name, identity, and pricing.
Businesses can rebrand and customize the platform as they wish to build their perfect online store. Instead of worrying about the development and maintenance of a fully functioning ecommerce website, you can channel that energy into marketing and promoting your brand.
If you want to take advantage of this lucrative ecommerce model, here are the basic steps for how white label ecommerce works:
Step 1: Choose a white label ecommerce provider
If you are ready to start a white label online store, the first step is to pick the perfect white label ecommerce provider and sign up for their service. You need to look out for customization and branding options, technical expertise, support, scalability, user-friendliness, pricing, and other factors. You will learn more about how to choose the right white label ecommerce partner later in this guide.
Step 2: Create and brand your online store
Once you have signed up on the white label provider, you need to customize and rebrand the platform to your liking. You may need to employ the services of a graphics designer or a specialized store optimizer to help you out. However, if you picked a white label customer provider with intuitive branding options, you can easily get it done yourself.
Step 3: Outline products, payment, and shipping options
After you have set up your online store and customized it to your liking, you should add your products, their prices, shipping dates, and other necessary details. At this point, you are running a fully functioning online store, and you need to make your offer appealing to your customers.
Step 4: Promote your online store
Marketing is the most important part of your business. White label online stores are easy to set up and you will always have competitors in the market. You can get ahead by finding out where your customers are and displaying your products. Social media ads, SEO, and Google ads are perfect options for companies with a large marketing budget.
However, personalized marketing works best for branded online stores if you are on a budget. You can slowly grow your own social media channels and attract customers organically. The customers in this category will trust your brand more and will be eager to sell to you. We will talk more about how to sell white label ecommerce products later in this guide.
Step 5: Sell your products and make a profit
If you did your marketing right, customers will visit your online store and some of them will make purchases before long. Ideally, your white label ecommerce provider should handle the sales process and all technical aspects of the order.
After you have sold your products, the provider is also responsible for remitting your money back to you. You may need to pay processing and/or commission fees depending on your white label provider.
Choosing the Right White Label Ecommerce Partner
If you want to run a successful white label store, the first step is to choose the right white label ecommerce partner. Although there are a lot of things to look out for when choosing a partner, the right platform should tick some important boxes. It should have many customization options, and favorable contract terms, and should be easily scalable.
Here are some important features to look out for when choosing a white label ecommerce provider.
Customization and Branding Options
The most important feature of white label ecommerce is that businesses can customize the platform to reflect their own unique brand identity. When selecting a white label ecommerce provider, make sure that they have a lot of customization and branding options so you can easily design your perfect online store.
Most white label providers offer no-code website/store builders. However, you also need to make sure the branding tools are pretty intuitive so you won’t waste too much time or effort figuring out the design process.
Technical Expertise and Support
Once you have signed up with the provider, they are expected to provide you with the best support and technical expertise. The white label provider handles all technical aspects (hosting, security, customer support) of your store and if it is not well managed, can affect your business. You should pick a white label ecommerce provider with a proven track record of website performance, excellent customer support, and knowledgeable technical staff.
Scalability
If your white label provider has extensive branding options and excellent support, then you have to make sure they are scalable. Your business will grow with time and you need a platform that can handle the traffic and process the orders. All white label ecommerce providers allow for scalability to a degree. However, if you already have a growing audience ready to buy, you should look for a white label ecommerce provider with a strong web infrastructure.
User-Friendly Platform
User experience cannot be ignored in today’s online business world. Customers have a short attention span and they will shop where they feel most comfortable. Sometimes, creating and maintaining a user-friendly platform can be the difference between profitability and business failure.
When you want to select a white label ecommerce provider, you should select one with a user-friendly platform. It must be easy to locate your online store and the shopping process should be as smooth as possible.
Integration With Other Tools and Systems
Does your white label ecommerce provider incorporate useful external tools? Running an online store and a provider with multiple CRM, marketing, and payment tools is preferable to one with limited integrated tools. Several external systems can make it easier to run an online business, and you should opt for a provider that offers more of these systems.
Pricing And Contract Terms
This is perhaps the most important factor to consider when choosing a white label ecommerce provider. The pricing and contract terms reflect how much you pay in fees and commissions.
Most white label providers charge a monthly fee for using their platform, while a few of them charge commission on the products you sell. You can only decide if the pricing terms are ideal for you based on their offer. Generally, top white label ecommerce providers offer affordable pricing plans.
Top 5 White Label Ecommerce Providers
White label ecommerce providers are not in short supply. However, these are some of the more popular platforms. They have the best website builders along with affordable pricing plans and technical tools. Here are the top 5 white label ecommerce providers.
1. Shopify
Shopify is the largest white label ecommerce provider in the world. The platform hosts 10% of US ecommerce retailers and it handles $444B+ worth of transactions per year. As of 2021, the Canadian company handles around 1.7M websites with customers in over 175 countries. Shopify has many features like Shop Pay, Shopify POS, and a fully equipped marketing suite to help you sell more products faster.
Starting at $24/month, they are one of the most affordable white label providers available. You can try Shopify for free for 3 days (No CC required) to see if it is perfect for you.
2. CS-Cart
CS-Cart allows you to start white label businesses of all sizes. You can start a small business like a niche ecommerce shop or a large enterprise like an ecommerce marketplace. This platform offers you 500+ marketplace features, a mobile app, and multiple storefronts. Customer support is always available to help and they are operational in over 170 countries.
3. PrestaShop
PrestaShop provides you with everything you need to sell products online. They have multiple branding and customization options along with specific features for your online store. Online entrepreneurs that want to have complete control over their business processes will like this platform. You can organize your product catalog, take orders, clear payments and launch multiple marketing campaigns.
4. ShopBase
ShopBase is perfect for drop shippers and new online entrepreneurs. You can easily create a high-quality, fully functional store with just one click. If you don’t know what to sell yet, the platform sends you a list of trending products every month. ShopBase also educates you on proven advertising strategies and they have multiple marketing tools to help you reach your target revenue. The payment gateways work for countries all over the world so you can sell to a global audience.
5. StoreHippo
StoreHippo is perfect for B2B businesses and online entrepreneurs with a global target in mind. It has around 300 enterprise-grade features, 120 integrations, and a multi-currency payment option. This platform is built for performance and online stores hosted on its infrastructure are super fast and efficient. StoreHippo has expensive pricing plans. However, you get a lot of added technical and marketing features including SEO, reports & analytics, free SSL, affiliate management, and so on. You can easily build your online store and sell white label products on these ecommerce platforms.
What are White Label Ecommerce Products?
White label ecommerce products are manufactured by a company and sold under the branding and logo of another business. Retailers buy white label products in bulk and then sell them to their customers as if they were their own.
For example, a rubber processing company can manufacture phone cases and sell them to phone shops that will brand them with their logo.
Most phone shops rebrand these pouches into cool designs (movie-themed, anime, GoT), and sell them to customers for a much higher price. If you want to profit from white label ecommerce, the best products to sell are personal items.
5 White Label Ecommerce Products/Services you can Sell Online
1. Web Hosting
White label hosting is a business model that lets you buy hosting services from established hosting providers and resell them to your clients under your brand name. This is also known as reseller hosting (although not all reseller hosting plans are white label). This is a great option if you are a web developer or designer as it allows you to expand your web development offerings.
Recommended Reseller Hosting Providers
2. Makeup and Makeup Accessories
Most makeup products are produced by a few brands. Their composition is mostly the same and only a few companies produce them in bulk. Most makeup influencers and fashion brands order their products from ecommerce companies and then repackage them and sell them to you. Products like lip balm, lipsticks, and hair brushes are perfect white label products.
3. Plain Water Bottles
Plain water bottles (Plastic and stainless steel) are mass-produced by a company and then sold out to innovative entrepreneurs who rebrand them and then sell them at higher prices. The bottles are repackaged in a ‘cool’ design that makes them more appealing to the final user. If you can find a company to order plain water bottles from and another to redesign them, you could hit your revenue targets with water bottles alone.
4. Pet care Items
Pet care items like leashes, muzzles and other accessories are in more demand now than ever. The pandemic pushed a lot of people into adopting pets and dog influencers have tapped into that market to sell dog items. If you are an online entrepreneur in the pet space, you can start selling dog items produced by other companies under your brand name.
5. Medical Supplements
Medical supplements are private-label products but they can still be classified as white label products. This is because manufacturers of drugs only give exclusive licenses to certified pharmaceutical companies to resell their drugs. For example, if a pharmaceutical company develops a high-performance supplement, it can manufacture a batch with the same product but different branding for the retail company.
How to Sell White Label Ecommerce Products?
Create a niche
Customers buy from brands they trust. You must work hard to carve out a niche for your online store if you want customers to notice you. As a fashion influencer looking to sell branded tote bags, you cannot just brand and go to the market. You have to build an audience that sees you as a fashion expert. Creating a niche is the hardest part of marketing because it takes time to build and maintain. Once this is done, the selling process becomes way easier.
Find your target audience
Once you have chosen a niche, you need to find your target audience. These are the people that will form the bulk of your audience and the people who will eventually buy your products. As a fashion influencer, it is advisable to reach out to your target audience on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Twitter or LinkedIn might not be the perfect place for your brand.
Once you have found your target audience, keep nurturing leads and growing your follower base. You should know that this process is all part of your overall branding and it will take time.
Sell Yourself
Nope, I’m not talking about funnels, slam dunk copies, and email sequences. All those are good but they will only buy you attention for a time. You need to make sure that customers have a connection to your brand and to you as the owner. The 21st Century marketing game has changed. People only trust entrepreneurs that are often seen and devoted to their brand. Elon Musk is a good example.
You need to put yourself out there and share knowledge that will benefit your followers. When you finally ask them to buy a tote bag or dog item from your collection, they will gladly do it because they believe it is for their good. Another good reason to sell yourself is that the people that buy from you and engage with your brand are far less likely to buy from someone else.
Stay consistent
If your brand is finally strong and you can now sell products easily, make sure you stay consistent. That’s the only way you remain relevant in the market and your niche. Any gap period can undo all the hard work you’ve put in previously. Stay consistent so you can scale and enjoy leverage through referrals.
Real-Life Examples of White Label Ecommerce Success
Many online entrepreneurs have successfully built profitable online stores through white label ecommerce. The business model allows for scalability and there is no limit to your growth or revenue potential. In this section, we want to look at real-life examples of successful white label ecommerce businesses.
GetCoffee
GetCoffee is a white label online store built on the CS-Cart platform. This store serves the best freshly roasted coffee beans to customers in Poland. They also sell coffee accessories, coffee sets, and training for folks who want to become brewing masters. The company started in 2017 and it has grown rapidly in the last five years thanks to white labeling. As a new online entrepreneur, you can start small and serve the customers in your environment while eyeing your expansion.
FashionNova
FashionNova is an ecommerce store hosted on Shopify and it’s not an exaggeration to say that it is one of the leading fashion stores in the world. They offer affordable fashionable clothes to men and women of all body sizes. This business was founded in 2006 and with over $500M in sales in 2021, the company has achieved all metrics for success. FashionNova is a good example of the scalability benefit offered by white label providers.
ComfortCar Rental
ComfortCar Rental is another white label online service store built on the CS-Cart system. They offer affordable car rentals and you can enjoy luxury regardless of your budget. They also offer attractive terms of service such as no advance deposit, no kilometer limit, free booking cancellation, delivery to the place of choice, and so on. Without their online store, ComfortCar Rental will have limited customer reach and might find it difficult to process payments digitally. Again, white label ecommerce solutions came to the rescue.
Gymshark
Gymshark is built and hosted on the Shopify platform and it is one of the largest gym clothing stores in the world. They sell all kinds of gym wear for both men and women and they generated over E261M in 2021. The store was opened in 2012 and it has grown rapidly since then. Time and Marketing are the two major factors that affect the success of a white label ecommerce store.
Kylie cosmetics
Earlier, we said one of the best ways to succeed with an online store is to create a name for yourself and sell to your audience based on trust. Kylie Jenner is a perfect example of this strategy. She took advantage of her immense family popularity to start a white label cosmetics store that was once valued at over $1B. Kylie cosmetics is hosted on Shopify and it sells high-quality skin and makeup products to customers in US and Europe. If you take personal branding and marketing seriously, you will find it easier to drive your online store to success.
The Benefits of White Label Ecommerce
Time and Cost Savings
An ecommerce store requires a lot of variables for it to function. You need to hire developers to build the website, integrate secure payment structures, host the website on reliable servers, hire technical support to manage the site, and so on. The capital involved is huge and the process will take time.
White label ecommerce saves you time and money and that’s why it’s a top choice among online entrepreneurs and businesses. Why waste resources when you can easily sign up on Shopify and have your online store up and running in less than a day? Your resources are better spent on marketing.
Technical Expertise and Support
If you plan on building your ecommerce site yourself, you need to hire a technical team. They will make sure your online store operates smoothly and runs without downtime.
White label ecommerce partners already provide technical and customer support which means fewer expenses for businesses. You don’t need to worry about the business size or traffic once you pick a trusted white label provider. You can rely on them to keep your online stores up and running.
Scalability
Even if you are starting as a small business, the plan is to win over enough customers and grow into a large enterprise. If you are managing your ecommerce website, this might mean rehosting your website to allow for greater traffic as time goes on.
White label providers can handle any business regardless of the size or the traffic that comes with it. This makes it easier for smaller businesses to scale and grow their businesses.
Customization and Branding
When you sign up with a white label ecommerce provider, you get to create and customize your unique online store. You can rebrand the platform as you like and promote your brand name and identity. Most white label providers focus on giving you themes and other website support tools in case you don’t yet have your brand logo.
Access to Advanced Features
Most white label ecommerce partners will offer you advanced features and tools to make it easier to manage your store. These tools can cover anything from marketing to analytics, CRM, emails, or payment setup. An independent website will have to acquire these tools one by one and pay the full price for them. However, White label providers offer them in their packages and they are usually much cheaper.
Rapid Growth and Profitability
With white label ecommerce, you are saving money on the development of a fully functioning ecommerce website. This will allow you to appropriate more funds to marketing which will lead to rapid growth and profitability.
Conclusion: Find Out More About White Label Ecommerce with Host Advice
White label ecommerce is the perfect solution for businesses looking to expand their online presence without breaking the bank. This business model works for all businesses that want an online store without the accompanying expenses.
Whether you are a small business owner, an established retail brand, a startup looking to launch services, or a large company looking to sell online, white label ecommerce is a great way to save cost, promote your brand, and generate revenue.
Next Steps: What now?
- Choose a white label product/service
- Register with a white label ecommerce provider
- Build your website/online store
- Market your product/service
- Make profit
