Options for reselling products through Channel manager
Bókun allows two distinct models for reselling products which go through Channel manager. Both of these models are discussed below.
Reselling by multiple configuration instances of Channel manager plugin
Using this model, every vendor has the ability to configure the same plugin using different configuration (most likely having different configuration parameters in order to distinguish between different accounts). The products are then sold by the vendor who owns the plugin configuration and directly passed to the plugin.
Pros of this approach:
- More direct relationship between seller and supplier
- Ability to maintain arbitrary number of configuration options (via plugin configuration)
Cons of this approach:
- Each vendor has to maintain a copy of each original product under their account as well as mapping between Bókun and external system. This means that any changes to the product will have to be manually applied every time for all vendors
Reselling by single configuration instance of Channel manager plugin
Using this model, the vendor would have only one configuration of the Channel manager plugin, typically under their own account. The reselling is done by establishing a number of contracts through the Bókun Marketplace.
Pros of this approach:
- Only one copy of the actual product has to be maintained on Bókun end
- Supplier can benefit from extra reporting done by Bókun (as well as keeping contract agreements in Bókun)
- Supplier can find sellers in a wide market, or can even get offered to resell products without any additional effort
Cons of this approach:
- If the licencing agreements are made outside of Bókun, maintaining them in Bókun is an extra hassle
- Bókun currently allows a limited set of capabilities to distinguish between who has actually sold the product (a custom field under Marketplace contract which is passed onto the plugin)