The world has as many as 24 million eCommerce stores today. Digital storefronts have brought innovation for both buyers and sellers. With so many digital stores today, it’s easy for a business to get lost in the shuffle. Vendors must do their best to stand out. One way to do this is by using resellers to sell the businesses’ products.

If you haven’t already, engaging resellers is a great way to sell a high volume of goods and expand market reach. And, if you already rely on resellers for more product sales, we want to share a few tips on how you can maximize the value of your relationship with your resellers.

We’ve compiled a list of the best four ways you can empower your resellers to sell more. This way you’ll know where to get started when it comes to establishing and maintaining a strong relationship with your resellers.

1. Provide Marketing Collateral

One of the most important things you can do to provide marketing help to your resellers is to equip them with useful marketing collateral. Forrester reports that 75% of the world’s commerce happens through channels. With this in mind, providing your resellers with marketing collateral makes it easier for them to market your products and build an online presence. 

With custom branded marketing collateral, you give your resellers the tools to promote your products and increase brand exposure, while keeping brand consistency across channels. 

When you provide the marketing collateral, you control how your brand is represented, even through different resellers. Marketing collateral includes, but is not limited to:

• Digital social media designs
• One-pagers for store promotions
• Emails
• Landing pages
• Product descriptions
• Brochures, and more

2. Offer Your Expertise

While your resellers are an extension of your business, they are still separate entities. As such, they need to understand your product and be trained on how it works. 

A key point for better customer service is to inform and educate your resellers through content. You can share your knowledge of your products with your resellers, who can then relay this information to their customer base.

You should include guides that show them how to use your products, what the benefits are, and any other information that could help them sell your product successfully. 

When it comes to reseller support, one of the most common mistakes that businesses make is neglecting to keep their resellers up-to-date on important information. Informing your resellers about product advancements, big sale wins, and helpful resources can help them better engage with customers and nurture leads.

Offer your expertise and share an ongoing stream of fresh information. With the information on your products, resources, and ongoing changes, they’re more likely to act in the same way you do — helping customers find exactly what they need, representing your brand in a positive light, and increasing sales. 

3. Provide the Necessary Tools

An important part of a successful online business is having the right eCommerce tools. These tools can automate and simplify a lot of the tasks for your resellers. The following can serve as a good place to start:

• The right eCommerce Platform
• Online Payment Processors (like NMI,  Stripe, etc.) 
• Email Marketing Solutions (like Pardot, Moosend, GetResponse, etc.)
• CRM Software (like Hubspot, Salesforce, etc.)
• Research Tools (like Semrush or Aherfs)

Your resellers can use tools such as these to monitor and convert leads, automate email marketing, schedule meetings, and more.

So, providing a strong set of eCommerce tools is an integral part of helping your resellers. With the right tools in place, you can empower your resellers to promote the products that your customers need, and ultimately boost your sales.

4. Make Your Products Available Online / No Inventory

The newest kid on the retail block, no inventory stores can certainly save a business a lot of space and money. 

Businesses that choose this method of selling provide products virtually for their resellers and affiliates. This means that resellers and affiliates can completely avoid carrying an inventory of any kind. Resellers and affiliates who use this selling model don’t have to worry about ordering or stocking products — creating an exciting opportunity with little to no financial risk.

Resellers will no longer need to store products and don’t have to worry about predicting demand. Resellers don’t need to buy products beforehand, this means that no investment is necessary. Also, making your products available online makes record-keeping easier for your resellers and affiliates. 

Using no inventory management leads to a number of benefits:

• Reduces storage costs and risks
• Reduces time and labor costs
• It is ideal for start-ups (it costs less, takes less time to get started, and is less risky)

UCX works with businesses to implement the no-inventory model of selling. Businesses that choose to provide their products virtually through UCX, enable their resellers and affiliates to focus on sales, without the hassle of order fulfillment. Businesses can list their products in the UCX Brand Directory, where they can be picked up and sold by affiliates in the UCX Affiliate Network. This way sellers grow the brand’s exposure ーcross-selling products from different providers, without having to store products in-house.

Facilitate Your Resellers’ Success

Building and maintaining strong relationships with resellers can be challenging. With the right information for your resellers, it’ll be easier to stay on top of your channel sales by anticipating and fulfilling reseller needs. And remember, a good relationship between you and your resellers will help increase overall business productivity, loyalty, and engagement.

If you still don’t have a hang of this reseller conundrum, not to worry. The UCX Platform can do all of the heavy lifting for you. With UCX, you manage resellers, distributors, and eCommerce channel sales in one centralized location. The UCX Platform also has you and your resellers covered with marketing collateral, store branding, custom integrations, and more, on-demand.

Want to see how we can transform the way you manage resellers? Talk to our team!