This article was first published on January 17th, 2023, and was last updated February 2024.
White label vs private label… what’s the best choice for your business? While both share similarities, they bring different benefits and customizations that your business might not have realized before choosing one. This article will go into definitions and key differences between the two. We’ll also discuss the benefits between them and which one your business might lean more towards. Let’s get into it!
What is White Label vs Private Label?
White Label
White label products are sold by resellers or multiple retailers with their branding, but produced by a third–party company. The company that produces the product is referred to as the “white label” company. The company that markets and sells the product is referred to as the “reseller”. The goal of a white label partnership is to allow resellers to offer a great product under their own name.
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White label products could be digital, like SEO (search engine optimization), or even an HR software. At Boostability, we partner with SEO resellers to sell our white label SEO services to their customers.
They could also be physical products, like a phone or water bottle. You’re probably more familiar with seeing things like this on Amazon where the product is identical, but it’s offered by different sellers. When executed properly, the customer doesn’t realize that it’s a 3rd party company that creates/services the product.
Private Label
Private label brand products are created, managed, and sold under a specific company’s brand. For example, think of products like the Kirkland Signature brand at Costco. These produce items like food or clothing specifically to be sold under the Costco “Kirkland Signature” brand.
The private label gets more into a niche version of white labeling. These are products still made by an outside company, but are sold exclusively under one label. Essentially they’re the same process, but have slightly different elements that make them different from one another.
Overall, white label products are typically generic and sold to multiple resellers who then brand the products as their own. Private label products are only sold to one unique reseller, allowing for more control and customization.
White Label vs Private Label: Key Differences
The main difference between white label vs private label products falls into generally how they’re sold.
- White label allows for multiple resellers to offer the product, while private label allows for only one reseller.
- Selling private label products allows for more control, while white labeling offers limited customization options.
- White labeling your products is often less expensive than choosing the private label route.
- Private labeling allows you to develop and build your brand, while white labeling saves time on product development.
- White labeling is more common for software, services, and other non-perishable technology. Private labeling is more common for physical products and consumable goods with mass production.
White Label vs Private Label: Key Similarities
White label and private label products are similar in how the product or service is created, sourced, or managed.
- They both use outsourced (3rd party) production to offer their products and services.
- It enables the white or private label company to focus on production while the resellers can focus on reselling.
- Both can create new business for the company through selling products through a reseller framework.
When you choose one of these options as a reseller, you’re choosing to skip all of the trials and testing of the product. This makes it easier for you to focus on marketing and selling the product to your target audience without stretching yourself too thin. While white label vs private label are very similar in nature, it’s important to recognize the difference between them as well.
Benefits of White Labeling Products
Using white labeled products can have several benefits for your business.
- You can add new products and services to your lineup without all the associated production costs.
- White labeled products can end up being less expensive compared to private labeled products because it’s made directly for you.
The same applies to white label marketing, learn if that’s the right fit for your business here!
- You can also have more of an assurance that the white labeled product is reliable. The provider has a lot of experience working on one product, like white label SEO, and they do it really well.
- When you resell a white labeled product, it means you can’t change it. However, you can rebrand that product as your own. This helps you to quickly add in a new product or service to your lineup, giving you a bigger footprint in your industry.
- White labeling could also give your business more time to focus on marketing and advertising efforts.
- Shift your focus onto really expanding and improving your brand for growth. This allows you to focus on your business to improve your revenue.
Ultimately, white labeling benefits your business by helping you stay competitive and stand out from your competition. You can offer new products without a lot of work or a significant cost to implement. It ups the value of your business through the ability to offer more services for your customers.
Benefits of Private Labeling Products
Using private label products vs white label ones also has a variety of advantages your business can benefit from.
- Private labeled products mean they are created specifically for your brand. You can control every aspect and part of the product and how you market it to your targeted audience.
- Your business is in control with the power to customize. You have the ability to modify or create the generic product you envision to help develop a unique brand for your business.
- The process of building your brand takes time. However, it will ultimately help attract the right niche audiences for your business and products.
When you want to experiment with adding new products or services, there are many benefits both white label and private label can offer. The biggest benefit between both of them is ultimately saving you time and money.
White Label vs Private Label Products: What’s Better for My Agency?
Choosing between white label vs private label products can be hard for your business. Especially when they share many similarities. While both have multiple benefits, it all stems back to what works best for your business.
White Label Makes It Easy
If you’re leaning towards choosing a white label for your agency, you’re taking the direction of focusing more on your marketing strategy with comfort and ease. When you already have an established client base, adding products and services is easy to white labeling.
Especially with SEO, these products and services are already tested and known to be effective. So, you won’t have to worry about testing them out for long periods to ensure they’re effective. Working on your marketing strategy is all you’ll have to worry about.
While both options can vary in price, white labeling tends to be the less expensive option between the two. It also has a quicker finished solution for your business needs. All the services, work, and products are completed for you to work on your business strategy and product marketing.
Private Label Gives You Options
Choosing private label products offers your business more opportunities to be unique. If you want to worry less about competition, private label helps ease some worries by having the opportunity to sell an exclusive product.
When you focus on delivering a specific type of product to a specific audience, private label products will be a great option for your business. Especially if your business may not have as much of an established client base. If you have a chosen target niche in mind, private labeling may be a better choice without investing a large amount of money.
Both white label vs private label offer different solutions and options for your business to choose from. If you’re in the digital industry, learn more about how Boostability’s white label partner program can help your business grow.
White Label Marketing at Boostability
Boostability’s white label SEO services greatly benefit resellers all over the world. We work with each business individually to help them with their SEO needs. Our team of experts continues to develop proprietary technology that helps us do SEO at scale and at cost. This means partners of all sizes can bring on a high-value product that will help your business grow.
Our full-service SEO partnership helps 86% of the businesses we work with to reach the top 10 results of Google within 6 months. Get started with Boostability today and talk to one of our experts about how we can help you with white label SEO marketing!
