Launching a Reseller

[bcglf]

I was wondering if anybody out there has any experience launching a website for a company that is a reseller of another product or service.

I'm wondering what is the best strategy for handling the content for product and service descriptions? Pulling the content off of our partners site doesn't seem like it would be the best strategy.

[TakeshiYoung]

Being a reseller on the web is tough. You're basically competing against Amazon.com and every other reseller out there that sells the same thing.

Definitely write unique product and service descriptions for everything if you can afford it, otherwise Google will just filter you out of the search results and display your more established competitors ahead of you. If you don't have time or resources to re-write everything, then focus on the top 10% of products in terms of traffic & profitability, then expand from there (Rand recently did a good whiteboard Friday on the subject).

Try to add value beyond what the manufacturer provides on their website. Getting user reviews is a great way to have user generated unique content that's useful to users. Incentivise reviews by giving out coupons. Create filters and comparisons and other features that differentiate your shopping experience. Think about what you can be the best in the world at, because that's what it will take to compete on a global scale.

[bcglf]

Wow great advice and thanks for sharing Rand's post. Very timely indeed!