Do You Sell Your Own Private Label Products?

[successfirst]

Hi,

Does anyone manufacture their own products or sell products under their own private label?

Just curious,
Brandon

[minnapple]

I have several clients that manufacture their own products and sell them directly to the consumer.

50% of these sell both retail and wholesale.

Only one of these really "brands" the product line, this clients sells other well known brands with the private label.

[derekwong28]

If you want to become a supplier or distributor eventually, you should have your own brand. One of our greatest competitors took this route.

He started off with his own brand right at the beginning. Although I am certain that we have got up with him in terms of B2C sales. He has now switched almost completely to B2C and now holds US$1-2M worth of products in stock at anytime.

[Raymond]

I started out selling other's products 2 years ago, I am now selling my own label as well. This has dramatically complicated things quite a bit than the webstore I was running 2 years ago. Now I have to deal with finding raw materials, lead time, designing the product, dealing with different factories...etc. But I have also opened up the opportunity in doing export to other countries.

Tough work, but it is the best business decision I made so far. I will never look back.

[successfirst]

Hi everyone, are the products you guys are talking about sold online only? Or are these products also sold in offline retail stores?

[HRoth]

I make and sell some of my own products. These have been some of my best sellers. It's fun, too.

Because of requests from a couple brick-and-mortar stores, I gave selling through them a bit of a try, but I had to lower my price too much. It wasn't worth it to me. It's just too easy to sell retail online.

[Conard]

We make and sell our own products on-line and off, have been for many years.

Most of our sales are on-line now and we do supplement our site with products from others.

I can see a lot of easier ways to make a living but there is still that touch of pride of being able to go out to the shop and produce a product that most people will be able to use for many years to come.

[willybfriendly]

I am on the Board of an Ag Co-op that sells its own label, as well as products from outside vendors. Sales include B2B and B2C, and at distributor, wholesale and retail levels. We also have a licensed Mark avaiable for use by other manufacturers.

We just sold off the last of our in-house manufacturing, having everything outsourced now.

It all gets pretty complicated...

That is why people get paid to be accountants, bookkeepers, production coordinators, customer service reps, etc.

BTW, "Curiosity killed the cat"...

WBF

[sniffer]

We have products made elsewhere exclusively for us, both in country and imported. They usually have better margins, but lead times can be a real headache

[Steelbank]

We originally started an off-line business selling our own brand, the internet just took up to another level. Keep in mind that your brand means everything therefore it is critical to make your choices carefully.

Having your own brand has a lot of positives but along with the benefits comes a lot more responsibilities.

Goodluck!

[successfirst]

If you have your own private label products, you can sell retail directly to the customer, wholesale, or both.

How many of you sell retail and how many of you sell wholesale?

May I ask do you have a preference and why?