The reseller model, selling panels from a panel

A retail customer places one order and leaves. A reseller buys every month, manages their own customers and puts no support load on you. That is why reselling is the fastest growing revenue channel in the panel business.

What exactly is a reseller buying?

There are two different models and they get confused:

The discounted price model. The reseller is a normal user on your panel who simply sees a cheaper price list. Easy to set up, simple to manage.

The child panel model. You give the reseller a panel on their own domain, under their own brand. That panel is fed by you in the background, and the reseller's customers never see you. The reseller sets their own prices and manages their own customers.

The second is worth more because it gives the reseller the chance to build their own business. In return, charging a monthly fee becomes possible.

Pricing

Model	Revenue	Note
Discounted price	Lower margin, high volume	Tiered discount table
Child panel plus monthly fee	Fixed revenue plus service margin	The most predictable model
Child panel, free	Service margin only	An entry offer to win resellers

The tiered discount table has to be transparent, whoever has monthly revenue in this band gets this discount. Special prices settled by negotiation become unmanageable very quickly.

What to watch in reseller management

Balance discipline. Do not extend credit to resellers. A prepaid balance model removes the collection problem from the start. Relationships that begin with "let me pay you this month" usually end badly.

Draw a support line. Your reseller's customer is not your customer. The reseller supports their own customers and only passes technical problems to you. If that line is not agreed upfront, your support load multiplies.

Price competition. Your reseller can sell to the same audience you do, cheaper than you. To prevent that, keep the reseller discount at a level where they cannot compete with you, or steer them toward different markets.

Risks

1. A reseller's poor service lands on your provider cost. If a reseller sells aggressively and generates refund requests, the bill comes to you.
2. A reseller can grow and move to their own provider. That is natural. Rather than trying to prevent it, raise the cost of switching with service quality.
3. Dependence on a single reseller. If half your revenue comes from one reseller, your business model shakes when they leave.

Where should you start?

Choose your first resellers from your existing customers. Offer a child panel to the customers who buy regularly and in high amounts, they already know the business and they trust you. The easiest reseller is a happy customer.