White-Label E-commerce: What It Is, How to Use It, And Its Advantages

Learn what white-label e-commerce is, and how it may help you save money or potentially increase your revenue streams by using a white-label platform.

White-label e-commerce is a virtual store platform with a "white label," that is, a ready-to-use template for the company that can also be resold to other brands.

White labeling is a term used to describe the outsourcing of products and services. Essentially, the business model entails creating solutions that can be tweaked and sold by other retailers.

Anyone who has ever bought a store-brand product in a supermarket is already familiar with the white label concept, even if they don't know it. But it’s not just in physical retail that it’s present. White-label e-commerce has been a trend for a few years now, which has transformed digital businesses.

In this post, we will explain white-label e-commerce, its advantages, and how you can use the model in your company.

But first, know what e-commerce is and how it works, if you’re still unsure.

What is white label?

In a nutshell, white-label e-commerce is a virtual shop platform that you can use in a business (services, retail, business to business, and other industries) or resell under your brand.

The term "white label" indicates items designed by a specialized company and offered as a standard model without a logo, adaptable to a variety of businesses.

The companies that acquire (or outsource) can customize the mold according to their needs and insert their own brand.

This is the case, for example, of a textile factory producing identical white t-shirts and reselling them to several clothing stores, which insert their label and start selling them as if they produced them. But this is now applied to the digital and IT universe with the white-label virtual store.

Data on e-commerce and white label

White-label platforms represent excellent business opportunities.

E-commerce has been going through a growth phase for a few years now, but the pandemic and new consumption habits have accelerated certain trends.

Emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, and South Africa are coming out ahead as the future of e-commerce. It’s estimated that more than 3 billion people will have access to the internet by 2022 and will be new potential buyers.

Investing in e-commerce is strategically important, and white label represents a great digital insertion opportunity for brands.

Expanding earnings with white-label e-commerce

The main benefit of a white-label business is that it eliminates the need for your firm to invest time and money in e-commerce development. You make use of a white-label platform developed by a software development company.

Simply tailor the platform to your firm and add your brand, items for sale, contacts, and other information to begin selling your products and services.

In addition to serving as a foundation for your brand, you can also become a white label reseller, which means you can use third-party technology but resell it to other companies (B2B) as if it were their own, charging a fee based on the amount paid for the product.

Thus, a company can expand its business operations and increase its profitability, even if it doesn’t have much development savvy.

However, it also has the disadvantage of not having rights over the e-commerce platform license and not having any influence during its creation. It’s therefore important to choose a reliable supplier and test before purchasing.

How does white label work?

Both a request from a business to purchase the platform as well as a developer of tech solutions are required for white-label e-commerce to happen successfully.

The developer will build an e-commerce model that will be sold to the contracting firm. If there’s an interest in reselling the platform, a third party, the end customer, may still be present at this junction.

With this trio, the developer creates the same system that can be sold to several different companies, increasing their sales.

The contracting firm gets a platform to place its products and services and can still increase its profit margin through resale, without having to pay royalties or percentages on the transfer, as would be the case with a franchise.

The end customer uses a service from a company they trust, without having to spend on development costs.

White-label platforms

White-label platforms' major goal is to be a flexible system that can adapt to different sorts of businesses. The software model is based on prevalent e-commerce characteristics.

Billing systems, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), insertion of digital content, marketplace functionality, integration with marketing and logistics systems: all can be developed and sold to different companies, with little need for customization. Those who buy the platform can simply personalize the interface and insert their brand.

What are the main advantages of white-label e-commerce?

By using this platform model, companies get:

• Cost and time reduction, since software development, web design, digital marketing, platform maintenance, and support, among others, will be the responsibilities of the developer partner.
• In addition to saving money, the white-label e-commerce platform can still be resold, being another source of revenue and business growth.
• The team can focus on what the organization’s business is, its core business. By improving the quality processes of sales, after-sales, marketing, and production, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and market competitiveness can all be heightened.

The future of e-commerce and white-label platforms

When it comes to the future of brands, it's practically impossible to avoid considering digital presence strategies.

Physical establishments that don’t embrace e-commerce risk losing customers and space. After all, e-commerce provides benefits to both the business and the consumer.

In addition to traditional sales models, brands must increasingly invest in omnichannel strategies, online consulting, Augmented Reality (AR) solutions, and process automation, to streamline transactions and logistics.

White-label platforms also strengthen companies by offering customized user experiences while ensuring scalability for the business.

Tips for succeeding with white label

For businesses looking to invest in e-commerce, white label can be an innovative and results-oriented alternative. However, before you start an electronic business based on outsourced models, bear the following in mind:

• Research the history of the developer company. A digital store must be based on a reliable solution!
• Define partnership rules in a transparent contract.
• Know in-depth the features the platform offers. It must be customized according to your brand’s needs and be compatible with what you want to offer to the end customer.
• Invest in your company’s branding. After all, the final platform must look like your business!
• Define KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure results and develop improvements.

Complete and all-in-one digital solution

If you want to have a white-label e-commerce in your business, you can invest in a strong digital platform that incorporates not only a virtual store but also other corporate solutions relevant to your firm.

Using an all-in-one platform enables you to create an e-commerce business from end to end, optimizing your processes so you reach the end consumer with the highest quality possible. In addition to e-commerce, the following can be integrated:

• CRM and Service Desk, to automate customer service interfaces and provide a better sales and after-sales experience to the customer;
• Billing as a complete invoicing solution within your e-commerce, whether for the sale of products, services, or subscriptions;
• BPM (Business Process Management), for process optimization and a focus on continuous improvement;
• ECM (Enterprise Content Management), for managing information and documents generated by processes and sales in your e-commerce business;
• Analytics, for data analysis and generating valuable insights for the business.