A reseller is a company or individual ( merchant) that purchases

goods In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not t ...

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

with the intention of selling them rather than consuming or using them. This is usually done for profit (but can be done at a loss). One example can be found in the industry of

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

s, where companies buy excess amounts of transmission capacity or call time from other carriers and resell it to smaller carriers. According to the

Institute for Partner Education & Development The Channel Company is an American provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. The channel includes high-tech suppliers and solution providers (technology resellers). The Channel Company's ...

, a reseller's product fulfillment–based business model includes a corporate reseller,

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

seller, direct market reseller (DMR), and an

internet retailer The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

(eTailer); less than 10 percent of its revenue comes from services.

Internet

Resellers are known to conduct operations on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

through sites on the web. For example, this occurs where individuals or companies act as

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

s for ICANN accredited

registrar A registrar is an official keeper of records made in a register. The term may refer to: Education * Registrar (education), an official in an academic institution who handles student records * Registrar of the University of Oxford, one of the se ...

s. They either sell on commission or for profit and in most cases, but not all, the purchase from the registrar and the sale to the ultimate buyer occurs in real time. These resellers are not to be confused with speculators, who purchase many domain names with the intention of holding them and selling them at some future time at a profit. Resellers, by the very nature of their business are

retailers Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

, not

wholesalers Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

. It is not unheard of for online

pawn shops A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...

iPawn iPawn is a financial services company serving as an online lender and reseller for luxury goods. The company holds an online pawn shop license with headquarters in Tyler, Texas. iPawn raised over $4 million in investment and has been cited as one ...

to also act as a reseller, and purchase rather than loan against valuables. Online auction and classifieds websites, such as those owned by

eBay Inc eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

. and

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums. Craig Newmark began the ...

provide services for resellers to sell their goods and services. However although resellers are indeed retailers it does not follow that retailers are resellers. Another common example of this is in the web hosting area, where a reseller will purchase bulk hosting from a supplier with the intention of reselling it to a number of consumers at a profit.

Software and ebooks

Software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

and

ebooks An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

are two products that are very easy to obtain by resellers. Their digital format makes them ideal for internet distribution. In many cases, such as

brandable software Brandable software is typically software created by one company for the purpose of allowing other companies to obtain resell rights or giveaway rights to the software, change the brand associated with it, and sell it as if it were their own.{{Cit ...

, the reseller can obtain even the right to change the name of the software and claim it as one's own and resell it on an ebook shop hosting platform. A software reseller is a consultant who sells the software from large companies under a licence. They have no legal employment status with the parent company and generally operate on a freelance basis.

Business model

The companies visited to and pitched to by software resellers are often small and medium enterprises (SMEs), local businesses and niche operators. This benefits the software house as they may not hold the resources for the legwork needed to spread their network on a lower scale. While it benefits the reseller because he/she can build up networks of smaller clients and become a single point of contact for them for every aspect concerned with the software, be it advice, training or updating.

Web resellers

A subcategory of reseller is a web operative who will buy a large amount of hosting space from an

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

(ISP) and then resell some of this space to clients. Their hosting is often managed through a

virtual private server A virtual private server (VPS) is a virtual machine sold as a service by an Internet hosting service. The virtual dedicated server (VDS) also has a similar meaning. A virtual private server runs its own copy of an operating system (OS), and cus ...

(VPS) which allows them, through a control panel, to administer bandwidth, databases, passwords etc, for the client. The popularity of this business model grew with the rise of freelance web designers as it enabled them to be the sole service provider for the client. After an initial consultation with the client they could subsequently design, develop and also host the site as a single operation.

References

External links