[thelist] Online Shop with 3rd party provisioning
Luther, Ron
Ron.Luther at hp.com
Mon Oct 19 14:18:03 CDT 2009
Hi Simon,
As others have pointed out; this is a very common business model.
The basic concept is that as a 'demand aggregator' a middleman like your client can negotiate a lower price with the suppliers, pass some of that savings on to his customers and make his living off the remainder.
Yes - there are certainly ways to turn this into a scam. But the basic business proposition appears to be on the up and up.
Good Luck,
RonL.
Who sees a fair amount of this kind of thing from several different sides. ;-)
[Here is a tip for you and your client: Pay very close attention to how you handle expectations on product returns. I suspect most of your client's customers will purchase with the expectation of being able to return goods directly to your client - rather than to the original manufacturer. That's an especially important thing to consider in places like EMEA (or even the Tex/Mex border) where an international return may require export licensing paperwork that your average end-customer may not be equipped to deal with.]
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