Forum Moderators: buckworks
Obviously I dont want to tell them this, because they'd slice into my business. But sometimes I wonder...
Should I just offer to forward traffic to them and shut down my site? (for a fee of course)
Theoretically, this would work best. They'd have the manufacturer's margins (vs. mine as a reseller) along with the staff to take care of all the tedious tasks that drive me nuts.
Realistically, they will find out how I am selling their products (either by checking me out after i contact them with some sort of proposal, or by figuring out what i'm doing during negotiations) and I could be left out to try. Also realistically, they will ignore/balk at any proposal I give them, since they are quite a large company, and while my sales are quite good, are not a major part of their business.
I am torn on how to handle this situation, as I grow more and more frustrated with the laborious work I do for an average pay-day...especially when I know this could be handled by the larger company to much greater profits and smoother operations.
Well, now that I've vented to the WW posse...any suggestions? similar experiences?
Hubes
It sounds like you want to convert from being a reseller to being an affiliate. Very reasonable.
If they are open to an affiliate program, they should be very open to someone like you with experience selling their product.
The more likely reason they would balk would be if they don't understand or appreciate an affiliate program or don't know how to run one. I don't know that there is much you could do about that except look for a competitor that already has an affiliate program.
I once sold motorized widgets. It was a lot of hassle when I didn't even have very many orders. The website just sat around for a while after I'd turned off ordering. Realizing I still got traffic, I put adsense on there and applied to a few affiliate programs. No problem being accepted even though the site still looked like I was selling them.
Keeping the regular sales going while starting affiliate sales is a good idea, especially if you have inventory.
Remember it costs the supplier to get the products out to wherever you get them from now - that's something they are saving. They may want extra per order for shipping and handling, but that's probably fair - just make sure it's no more than what you've been charging for shipping and handling so far yourself.
If you can buy the widgets from them at the price your paying now, you will cut out all the hassle you are experiencing, but will reap higher rewards than an affiliate scheme, i'm sure.
