At some point, most US digital agencies come to the same place. A client wants a website and requests a site. No developer is on staff. You either reject the project or go through the roof to find someone who will do it. In any case, you lose time, money, or the client's trust. There …
At some point, most US digital agencies come to the same place. A client wants a website and requests a site. No developer is on staff. You either reject the project or go through the roof to find someone who will do it. In any case, you lose time, money, or the client’s trust.
There are better methods to do this. If you can say yes to every web design job, provide good quality work that’s under your name, and maintain a nice margin without bringing one more individual onto your team, then you’re a white-label website design reseller.
This guide will explain exactly how it works, what it means for your agency’s growth, and what to look for in a white-label website development agency.
What Does It Mean to Be a White Label Website Design Reseller?
A white-label website design reseller is an agency that resells website design and development services developed completely by a reseller partner. The end client gets a complete website brand with your name on it. The name of your partner is not used throughout the process.
It’s similar to the store-brand version of something at a grocery store. A store’s name is listed on the label on the shelf, but the product was made by a manufacturer. The customer is not the factory; he or she is the store. The white-label web design reseller model is similar.
Your agency does the briefing, establishes the project goals, manages the communication, and produces the final website. The actual design and coding are performed by a white-label website development agency. You mark up the price, charge what you want, and you get the profit.
Why US Agencies Are Moving to the Reseller Model?
The need for professional websites in the United States continues to grow. Whether you are a small business, startup, healthcare, real estate agent, law firm, or ecommerce brand, you need a great online presence. A lot of them opt to have a digital marketing agency take care of this.
However, the majority of small to medium-sized agencies were not founded on web development. They focus on SEO, paid ads, social media, or content. If the client requests a website in addition to those services, the agency will have to make a decision: either expand the development team or find another solution.
It is costly to build a development team in the USA. The yearly salary of a single mid-level WordPress developer or Shopify developer ranges from $70,000 to $100,000 before tax and benefits. That investment isn’t without risk for an agency that has a fairly solid revenue stream but isn’t at an enterprise scale.
Agencies can eliminate that risk by using white-label website design and development. There is a fee for each project. There is no set salary for development. And the partner scales with you when you get more projects.
The Real Profit Opportunity for Resellers
Here is where the business case becomes clear.
The price of a professional website project in the US can vary from $2,500 to $15,000, depending on the complexity of the project, industry, and the client’s size. The multi-page business site, healthcare portal, and e-commerce build fall at the high end. Simple informational websites and service-based websites for business are on the lower end.
By working with a white-label web design reseller program, your cost per project is much less than your market rate. Margin is yours to own. If a reseller has a good white-label partner, then realistically, if they are selling it for $5,000, they can expect to make 40-60% profit on it after paying the production costs to the partner.
But that margin can really add up across 10 projects in a month without having to manage a development team, developers, software licenses, etc.
In addition to the direct margin, there’s another margin of value: Client retention. If your agency has the power to do SEO, content, social media, and now web design, it’s hard for clients to go elsewhere. The best white-label website design reseller programs enable agencies to be one-stop shops without having to spend the money to develop all the skills themselves.
What a White Label Website Development Agency Actually Handles?
By working with a trusted white-label website development company, you’re able to put the technical aspects of each website assignment in their hands and maintain control of the client aspect of the job. Let’s take a realistic look at what that partnership would entail.
Discovery and scoping are your responsibility. You sit with the client, listen to their objectives, collect their brand assets, plan out the pages and features they want, and clearly record it all. That information is their short story for the white label partner.
Design and wireframing are handled by the partner. They will make wireframes or design mockups for you to check. You present those to your client and get their feedback as if your team created them.
Development is handled by the partner. This involves writing clean code, installing the CMS (typically WordPress, Shopify, or Magento for US clients), and setting up any third-party tools, as well as creating all of your client’s pages and functionality.
Quality assurance is handled by the partner before delivery. The best white-label website development company performs cross-device testing, speed testing, security audits, and functional testing before sending anything your way.
Delivery and launch happen under your brand. You show your client the completed website, take them through the back end, and manage the go-live. The partner remains hidden all the way through.
Ongoing support and maintenance can also be handled through the white-label arrangement. Regular website maintenance contracts are a great source of repeat income for resellers.
Choosing the Right White Label Web Design Reseller Partner
Not all white-label partners are created equal. A poor partner will be late, provide substandard coding, and endanger your agency’s reputation with an unhappy client. Let’s take a look at a few things to consider before you choose your white-label partner.
Proven Track Record with US Clients
The US market has certain expectations with regard to site speed, ADA compliance, mobile responsiveness, clean UI, etc. A partner who is mainly based outside of the US may not be familiar with those standards. Seek out a partner who has worked on a considerable number of US projects and has examples or case studies to provide.
We’ve executed more than 450 projects in the United States in a variety of industries, from e-commerce to real estate, healthcare to legal and tech. We know what is expected from a website by US businesses and their customers.
Platform Depth
The best white-label website design reseller partners don’t just focus on a single platform. Each client will have their own requirements. Some require a site for publishing content and blogs, and a WordPress website is one solution that will help them achieve their goal.
Some require a Shopify store to sell products. Certain enterprise clients require a Magento build for more intricate e-commerce functions. For SaaS products and web applications, it is common to have custom builds based on modern frameworks.
If you have only one platform, you won’t be able to agree to all projects.
Clean Code and Performance Standards
This is because websites with bloated and poorly structured code cause issues down the road. They take time to load, fragment, and cause headaches for clients. Request that any would-be white-label partner provide some examples of websites they have created and tested with Google Page Speed Insights or GTmetrix. If the score is over 85, both on mobile and desktop, that’s a good indication of a quality build.
Fully Branded Deliverables
All the partner’s work should be attributed to your agency when it arrives at your client. All reports, project updates, staging links, and final handover documents must be white-labeled. A white-label service shouldn’t let its partners brand it either.
Clear Communication Systems
One of the most frequent grievances agencies have against white-label partners is late responses and status updates. Ask them how they keep you updated on the project before you sign up. Is there an account manager for reseller partners? What project management tools do they employ? What is the average business hours response time?
Scalable Capacity
You can’t grow without your partner. As you start closing more business, a white-label partner with a capacity of 3–5 projects will soon become a bottleneck. Before signing up, ask about their team size and their max project capacity.
How to Price Your White Label Website Projects?
Many resellers undervalue their job when they compare it with the market rate instead of considering the total value that they provide. You’re not merely selling a website. You’re responsible for the whole process, the ultimate single point of contact, revisions, expectations, and the final product. That service is of value beyond its production cost.
A viable US pricing model is:
- Basic informational sites (5-7 pages): $2,500 to $4,500 to the client
- Business or service sites with lead generation: $4,500 – $8,000
- Others, such as ecommerce stores on Shopify or Magento: $7,000 to $20,000, depending on the number of products and integrations.
- Custom builds / web applications: Quote-based, generally $15,000 or more
The pricing depends on the client industry, the client’s revenue, the complexity of the project, and what the local market will bear. Don’t rush to the bottom to earn the business. The clients who opt for the most affordable rate tend to be the ones who are the most challenging to work with, and the least likely to referee.
Retainers for monthly maintenance are good to include on all projects. In the USA, the prices of typical retainers are between $150 and $500 monthly and cover fundamental maintenance, security surveillance, and minor improvements. Scale it up to the number of customers you have, and you have a substantial recurring revenue source that demands little work from you if you have the right white-label partner to do the heavy lifting.
Types of Agencies That Benefit Most from the Reseller Model
White-label website design and development for agencies are suitable for all kinds of agencies. The following are the most frequently occurring fits.
- SEO agencies fit in perfectly. Most of their clients will require websites, and a lot of SEO practitioners are not developers. A white-label web design service gives SEO companies more control over the technical backbone of the websites they attempt to rank, resulting in more favorable results as well.
- Social media marketing agencies frequently work with small business clients who have outdated or non-existent websites. Adding white-label web design to their service list gives them a natural upsell that complements what they already do.
- PPC and paid advertising agencies know better than anyone that a poorly designed landing page wastes ad spend. Having the ability to create landing pages and websites for their clients that they send traffic to gives them more budget control and better ROI for their clients.
- Branding and design studios often create logos, visual identities, and brand guidelines without building the website. White-label web design does just that and transforms a one-time branding project into a permanent client relationship.
- Freelancers growing into agencies use the white-label model to punch above their weight. You can sell website projects as a whole to a customer, provide professional work, and create an agency reputation without having to employ a team of people.
Common Mistakes Resellers Make (And How to Avoid Them)
- Selecting the “lowest common denominator” partner rather than the “best value” partner. The white-label web design reseller who charges the least will surely end up costing you more in the long run because of revisions, delays, and client dissatisfaction. Assess partners based on quality, communication, and reliability.
- Not having a written agreement with the partner. Before the beginning of the first project, ensure you have a signed contract that includes ownership of deliverables, revision policies, turnaround time, confidentiality, and pricing. There must be a written agreement.
- Overpromising timelines to clients. It takes time to set up a professional website. Giving a guarantee to deliver a complete website in a week is a recipe for a stressful experience. Be realistic with the timeline with clients, leave room for revisions, and be proactive about communicating if it changes.
- Ignoring post-launch support. Many resellers are just concerned with getting the project off the ground and out the door and do not consider what comes after the launch. There are updates, security patches, and sometimes fixes to be made to websites. At the end of each project, you can offer to include a maintenance retainer as a service to your client and a revenue stream for your agency.
- Forgetting to vet the brief before sending it to the partner. The quality of what you’re going to get is going to be based on the brief that you send to a white-label website development agency. A vague and incomplete brief results in a build that is not conducive to the client’s vision. Before passing it to your partner, make sure to make all needs very clear.
How 360 White Label Agency Supports Resellers in the US?
We’ve designed everything at 360 White Label Agency to support US digital agencies in their growth and success with reliable white-label fulfillment. We offer a variety of white-label web development options, including WordPress, Shopify, Magento, and anything custom, for clients in all industries from ecommerce, healthcare, real estate, legal, education, finance, and technology sectors.
All projects we deliver are 100% branded under your agency’s name. We adhere to clean coding standards, conduct thorough QA checks before delivering, and consistently meet our agreed deadlines. We assign dedicated account support to each agency partner, so you always have a direct line when you need updates or have questions.
We have collaborated with more than 2,000 agency partners and completed more than 450 projects in the United States. We have a proven track record in the design standards, performance expectations, and platform requirements that US clients look for.
Our white-label website design and development program is designed to work for freelancers who are looking to scale or agencies who want to expand their service offerings to include web design.
Ready to Grow Your Agency with White Label Web Design?
You don’t need to be a coder or hire developers to add web design services to your agency’s services. It involves identifying the right white-label partner, establishing a process, and pricing your services accordingly.
When you’re just ready to begin closing website projects with confidence, 360 White Label Agency is here to assist. We do the development. You take care of the expansion.
Get your web design revenue growing on the back of 360 White Label Agency today and see how easy it is to scale your agency’s web design revenue.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do I need any technical knowledge to become a white-label web design reseller?
No. You’re the one responsible for maintaining the client relationship, collecting requirements, and delivering the completed product. Your white-label partner takes care of all the technical aspects. In this model, the importance of strong communication skills outweighs technical skills.
2. Can I set my own prices when reselling white-label web design services?
Yes. You cover your partner’s production expenses and bill your client depending on your market, your value, and your relationship. No need for a “markup,” and no client should know or be affected by what your partner charges your clients.
3. What happens if a client asks technical questions I cannot answer?
You do not have to answer all the technical questions. You can tell a client you will review with your team and let them know. Your white-label partner can provide the answer, and you pass it on to the client as your service.
4. How long does a typical white-label website project take?
The time it takes for most professional business websites to go from a brief to delivery is between 2 and 4 weeks. Building and custom projects for E-commerce are normally 2-4 weeks. The timelines are dependent on the complexity of the project and the client’s review process, which is also dependent on the client’s feedback time.
5. Is there a minimum number of projects required to work with a white-label partner?
Unlike most white-label agencies, 360 White Label Agency does not have a minimum requirement. You pay on a per-project basis, which lowers the risk of you starting and is flexible as you increase your volume.
