Buy Wholesale, Sell Retail – Without a Website

Many Internet-based retailers offer an interesting type of program to help sell their products and services. It's a modern version of "buy wholesale, sell retail" except that you don't actually have to buy and stock inventory, or ship anything. In fact, you don't even have to have a web site.

How Does it Work?
A couple of examples might be of help in explaining how this business concept works.

Shutterfly.com is a company that prints digital photographs that are uploaded to their site. Members who upload pictures can also share them with friends and family. However, Shutterfly also has a service called Shutterfly Pro Galleries that allows you to sell your photographs. You set up your gallery with thumbnail versions of your photos. You can promote your gallery in any way you want. If you have a web site, you can integrate your gallery into your site. When a visitor buys some of your works (requests printed copies), Shutterfly deducts the wholesale price from the retail price paid by the customer. The difference is your profit. This is a terrific concept for professional photographers or anyone who takes interesting photographs.

Another example, is CafePress.com. Got an idea for a clever tee-shirt slogan? Got the perfect bumper sticker idea? Do you create artwork or posters? Want to publish a custom book or CD design? This unique company allows you set up your own mini-store on their web site from which you can sell your own custom-designed products. The products are actually made at the time the customers buy them, so you have no inventory, no handling of orders, and no shipping. You sell the products for retail prices, the company deducts their wholesale charge and sends you the profit.

These are only two of the companies that offer this kind of extra money opportunity. Search for others that may better fit your interests.

What to Expect
Generally, the profit margins on the kinds of products and services that are offered by these kinds of companies can be relatively small when viewed on a per-sale basis. However, with good traffic created by your promotion and advertising efforts, the money can quickly add up. Since you do not have to spend any time running the business after it has been set up, you can use the time to market your mini-store. It helps if you have a web site or blog to help with marketing, but it's not necessary. Some of these companies will promote your product for you.

Let's review the advantages of web-based buy-wholesale, sell-retail programs:

Zero cost
Create your own unique products
No need for inventory
No need for employees
No shipping or handling of product
No customer contact required
No need to run the business
No limit to potential income
Worldwide market
Low risk factor
Business works 24 hours a day, seven days a week

How to Get Started
Go to the web sites that offer the kind of program you like and register. You'll then be told how to set up your mini-store, create your products, and how to promote the store. And it doesn't cost you anything but some time.

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