White-label businesses come in many forms – a notable entry to the industry being white-label app builders.
What exactly are they? And are they better than other white-label opportunities?
That’s exactly what we’re going to ascertain in this blog post. Read on to reveal the answers. 😉
What Is A White Label App Builder?
A business app builder – also known as a mobile form builder – is a tool for creating mobile apps and forms for your workers. It allows you to mobilize your workforce and make a substantial shift towards paperless operations. Some industry-leading solutions also offer task management, offline capability, and other powerful features that help businesses streamline their processes.
A white-label app builder allows you to add your branding to the solution and present it as your product.
There are many different types of app builders – low-code, no-code, specialized to a specific industry, etc. For this post, we focus specifically on no-code business app builders that offer white-label programs.
The Risks Involved
There are risks in everything – and white labelling an app builder is no exception. Let’s explore a few of these risks so that when the time comes to select a platform, you can make an informed decision.
Customer Poaching
So you’ve found a good app builder and want to sell it to your clients. It’s a success and now you have many customers on your ‘new’ app builder. You’ve put your markup on and there’s a healthy profit.
Suddenly, your customers start leaving. You investigate and find they’ve gone over to your provider. Turns out the provider is not quite as ‘invisible’ as they promised – and your customers noticed that they could save money by switching.
What do you do?
You could take legal action, but I’m sure you’ll agree with me that in this case, prevention is better than lengthy court cases.
That’s why we contractually bind ourselves to be entirely invisible, with a zero contact policy with your customers. So even if they find us organically, we’ll pick it up and handle the situation so you can keep your hard-won customers. 🙂
Data Privacy Laws
If you’re dealing with any industry that captures and uses personal information, you could be held liable for data breaches.
This means that when selecting an app builder solution, be sure that it complies with strict laws such as the GDPR. If not, you could face some hefty fines.
Don’t take this lightly. In 2021, an 823.9 million dollar fine was issued to online retail giant Amazon. Big brands like WhatsApp, Google and Facebook have all been issued massive fines for alleged GDPR infringements. That’s why you have to be extra careful when selecting a provider.
In case you’re wondering, Appenate allows you to specify which fields capture personal data. This helps you to safeguard sensitive information and stay on the right side of data privacy laws on a platform level.
Poor Customer Support
When your customer has an issue you can’t solve, the last thing you want is a lack of customer support on your white label provider’s side.
This point cannot be emphasized enough. We get converts ALL THE TIME – their main complaint about their current providers? Paying for poor support. (Our support is both good and free)
When hunting for a perfect solution to present to your customers as your own, make sure the support is at a level you expect and deserve. All companies get occasional complaints – but if you see a trend amongst reviews, run while you can!
Stagnant Solutions
The world is a competitive place. To stay in the race and remain one of the best solutions out there, consistent updates are critical.
So if you’re considering a solution that hasn’t had a decent update in years, stop. Don’t even think about it – they’ve already fallen behind and will continue to do so until they’re obsolete.
Make sure your chosen provider commits to regular updates – preferably guided by a user-led roadmap. It’s one thing to guess what customers want and make it – but to actually listen and react to the real market need; that’s where true progress lies.
Is An App-Led White Label Business Sustainable?
Absolutely.
Many of our white-label customers have built large businesses in all different parts of the world. Some of these businesses have even created their own solutions on top of Appenate, but keep using the platform as a base.
As the world becomes more inclined to shun paper, the demand for paperless solutions continues to rise. This demand isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
What You’re Getting Into
When you’re ready to sign up with a white-label app builder, here’s what you can expect.
Become A Pro & Provide Basic Support
You or someone in your team will have to become proficient at using your chosen software. When your customers approach you with a problem, you can’t exactly point them toward your provider (for obvious reasons).
You could contact your provider on the customer’s behalf – but this does slow down your support response time. So it’s best to get familiar and assist with smaller issues on your side.
If there’s anything serious, you’ll be in good hands if you’ve picked the right provider.
Handle Your Own Billing
It’s your business and your customers – so be prepared to handle your own billing. You can set your prices to whatever you think is suitable for your target market.
We place no restrictions on this, so you can apply whatever profit margin you want.
Success Stories
We have many success stories from both enterprise and white-label customers on Appenate. We make it a point to keep our white-label reseller’s identities a secret.
Thankfully, two of our most successful partners have agreed to do case studies for us anonymously.
Here’s how a reseller built an entire platform on top of Appenate.
And here’s how a reseller helped thousands of businesses face the challenges that 2020 brought.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Starting your own business on a white label app builder can be wildly successful – there’s plenty of proof among our customers. If you’d like to explore building your own successful business on Appenate software, click here.
A word of warning: we’ve also seen businesses fail to launch. The positive of this is that the required investment is tiny when compared to other opportunities. If you’d like to learn more before pulling the trigger, give our blog post a read on what to look out for in white-label opportunities. Or learn more about mobile form builders in general.