What Are Private Label Products? Find The Best Ones To Sell & Promote!

Private label products are all the rave. Its strategy, potential, and market. It’s just too big of an opportunity to pass on. So you want to join in the fun? But how? Which product can you promote to give you the most profitable advantage? 

In this article, we are going to explore the different products you can try to promote. Check out which ones relate to your best interest and which ones are simply just not for you. 

But before all that, what are private labels? What kinds of products will work for this kind of business? Let’s dive straight in to learn more.

Understanding Private Label Products

In short: A private label is a product that is not manufactured within the company but by a third-party supplier which is then marketed with your brand.

Your role as a private label is to act as a retailer. You control everything else about the product, but you will not be producing the product. In idea and practice, this is a very convenient way to conduct a small business or even a big business. There is no limit to how much private labeling can grow.

You can have multiple suppliers and multiple products within your control. But your main role is to brand, package, and promote the products.

This is a great opportunity for you to dip your toes in the business world. This way you can experiment with a lot of things, while still getting help in the production department.

Advantages

Before we get started on the products, you can sell. Let’s discuss more why you want to start a private label business.

Loyal Customers: When you’re selling with a private label, you will get the chance to build a loyal customer base. They will be familiar with your brand and they will trust your brand. That way, it will be an easy choice for them to keep coming back to you.

More Profit: Because you are branded, you have the luxury to sell your products at a higher price point. Your branding and marketing will also support this. People have an easier time spending more money on a brand. The better you present your brand, the higher the profit margin you can aim for. Of course, the quality also needs to match your price, but even selling generically, you will fail if your product’s quality is all over the place.

Controlling Production: It’s true, you will not be producing your products. But you still play a major role in controlling the production. You can get a sample and monitor each batch. It depends on the relationship you have built with your supplier.

Controlling Pricing: Because you have your own name, you can give your products any price point you want. You just need to make sure that it suits the market and you can complete the number of sales you initially aimed for. You can have a similar product with a competitor and yet they can have an extremely different price point depending on how you present your brand.

Adaptability: Your control over all the aspects of your business gives you adaptability over what you put out in the market. It all depends on how you planned for your private label and the vision you installed in it. If you have a good working relationship with your manufacturer and a great marketing team, you can make anything happen and make it happen quickly. You can adapt to the market or even change your plan anytime you want. Of course, this needs to be backed up by your hard work, because even something as lucrative as a private label needs sweat to succeed.

Controlling The Brand: Your biggest role as a private label is to build the perfect brand. This might seem daunting but this is actually an enormous advantage. You can decide how much of your logo you want to show off, or maybe you want to make it as subtle as possible. You can choose the theme, the feel, the vibe of your product. It’s all up to you, and it really depends on who your target market is.

Wholesale Income: Unlike a retailer, a private label gets products first hand. You have the adaptability to produce as much and as little product as you’d like. If you build a relationship with a retailer who wants to work with you, you can arrange a special price that works for you and your manufacturer. That way, you increase your income and also your marketing means at the same time.

Being Exclusive: This is not just about the customer base. As a private label, you can create one-of-a-kind products that have your signature all over them. That way, people will have to buy from your brand to get your unique product. This ties every other advantage together.

Disadvantages

There are two sides to every story. Now that we’ve discussed the shiny advantages private label products bring, it’s time to look at some of the disadvantages.

Some of these may be a challenge, and it will push you to prepare for it sooner. Or it might even sway you from your intention of starting a private label in the first place. Let’s check it out.

Minimum Order: This is an unfortunate disadvantage for small businesses looking to start a private label. Especially when you’re trying it for the first time. Suppliers or manufacturers usually come with a high number of minimum orders. This is because you get to customize and control many aspects of the production. They need to custom make things for you which will not be covered if you only make a few orders.

Dependent On Manufacturer: The next point is dependency. It will be quite hard to move from one manufacturer to another. Choosing to work with one requires a long process. Not to mention finalizing your product and working on a deal with them. So if anything happens to them, well, it’s going to be really difficult for you to start working with another one.

Overstock: This comes back to the minimum order. We can almost say that most of the disadvantages are really challenges of working with a manufacturer. You may have too much product on your hand. Especially if your product is seasonal, this will be quite the challenge for any business, let alone a newly established business.

Building Customer Loyalty: Yes, customer loyalty is an advantage. But building it can be a long journey. You don’t become your customer’s first choice overnight. Especially if you’re starting a new brand.

Recommended Products

We’ve covered enough intro for now. Let’s dive into what you were looking for. What kind of products are best for private labels?

Whatever product you choose, it’s important to get the best manufacturer. Because even if you have the highest demanded product, but your product’s quality can’t compete in the market, well that’s not going to do you any good.

Wait, we are getting sidetracked again. When you are choosing your product, it’s important to stick to a niche. You want a strong signature product and still have room to grow your business and your brand. So here are some ideas for you:

Beauty Products

This is a very attractive niche to step into. You already know that people need to buy more when they run out. Sometimes they buy more even when the products don’t run out.

Cosmetics: If you have a passion for cosmetics, you can strive to create something that hasn’t been done before or something few people know about. This is great because there’s just an endless option for customization. You can also do a lot with your brand, and nobody can have enough lipstick. So there’s that.

Bath & Hair Products: Different people have different needs. They have different skin and hair conditions. You can customize the fragrance, or you can let people customize their bottles by printing personalized names on the bottles. You can try something organic, or maybe a homemade recipe that you like and would share with the rest of the world. There’s room for authenticity and growth.

Essential Oils: This will not be everyone’s need. But there are enough people out there to give you a solid market to sell essential oils. You can talk about the health benefits, or simply list the nutrients and the fragrances you will incorporate in your oil. You can sell with a story and there are endless options for this.

Eco-Friendly: The most attractive thing about this niche is that it will never be out of trend. People are drawn to organic and eco-friendly products. Especially if your products prove as good as the ones containing chemical ingredients. It already has a strong selling point, all you need to do is market it cleverly.

Men’s Beauty: Beauty products are not limited to women. We now see that men and women have different face wash. Aside from that, men also use shaving cream and they use different shampoo, deodorant, and so on. You can develop this as a side project, or adopt it as your main selling point. For men, you want to sell them what they need. The main difference would be the aroma of your products.

Food & Beverages

Food is one of the most attractive niches just because most people shop weekly. It’s almost a guarantee that your products will be flying off the shelves. Even though not all food is suitable to be included as a private label product. This is dependent on the food’s production rate.

To be included as a private label product, you need food that is not required to be produced every day, something you can store. Check out some ideas we’ve compiled for you.

Dairy: Dairy products include milk, cheese, cream, and more. This way you can work with a local farm or factory, or even something further away as long as you have an established logistics for it. You can then package their products with your brand and serve. Everyone needs milk. It’s now up to you and how you can make them choose your brand.

Frozen Food: The name gives it away. Frozen food can last weeks, even months. So they’re good to produce in bulk and store it away. You just need to make sure that you package it properly so that it can stay fresh until its expiration date. There’s really no limit to frozen food, from veggies, frozen dinner, frozen pizza, ice cream, well anything really. People may want fresh ingredients, but sometimes frozen food comes in handy.

Sauces, Dressing & Condiments: Sauces have a good shelf life. Just as good as frozen food and they don’t even need to be frozen. You can start with one sauce and move on to another. You can source a factory and choose to privately label one of their products. Or you can work with a local who has a great family recipe.

Beverage: This next one is big. There are a lot, a lot of beverages to choose from. From mineral water to sodas, to energy drinks, to healthy juice. Really just too many beverages to choose from. Take something few people have heard of. Which is amazingly refreshing, repackage it, and you’ve got yourself a winning private label.

Household Products

Redecorating, or decorating has become a hobby. People enjoy getting a new vase or a new plate. Other than that, things in the house constantly require maintenance. You don’t really have to work hard to make something unique. As long as you give people options, you’re good to go.

Check out a few household necessities you can private label:

Cleaning Product: From laundry detergent to dish soap. Anything people need. Especially if you’ve found something better than the generic kind. Start from the bathroom and go all the way to the front porch. Help people keep their house looking squeaky clean.

Containers: Food containers, water bottles, and so on. You might think that this only works for stay-at-home spouses because they need to store away their food. But you’re wrong. Water bottles, or tumblers, have become a trend. People enjoy a stylish water bottle to carry around every day, some even collect it. You can sell things separately or have a set with a certain theme. You can even update your stock every season. It’s as important as fashion.

Decorations: Vases, that’s a big thing, right? But now people get floating lights, and butterfly night lights for themselves, not just their children. You can have a unique cookie jar. You’re not even limited to the item itself, you can even provide labels for their jars. You can market chairs, which are not just for decorations but also functional. Anything can be included as a “decoration”. It can be an indoor or outdoor decoration. Whichever you are most passionate about.

Kitchenware: People get established brands for their important kitchen appliances or generic brands for things that they need every day, like utensils. You can start with utensils. Like a unique silicone spatula or whisk. You can also go with stainless steel. Attractive branding is required for this one. But this is where you can be creative and explore your potential. There is no end to kitchen utensils. You can even promote something completely out of the box, like a sushi roller.

Eco-Friendly: Well, we can’t leave this one behind. Eco-friendly can be your brand. Your products can vary. It can clean products, food containers, decorations, and even kitchenware. So it’s all about how you adapt and what you think is best for the market you can reach.

Stationery

Stationery is generally stored at home, but so is everything else. Stationary is a big niche on its own, that’s why it’s separated from all the rest. It can range from pencils, notebooks, to building blocks and educational toys. You don’t even need to go from one kind to a different kind in order to grow. You can just stick with one and there’s a big option of products to develop and market. Let’s take a pencil as an example. You can start with one, and there are different pencils. You can have mechanic ones. You can develop different colors or different lengths. You can make glitter pencils. You can even do coloring pencils. And that’s just a pencil. You can do notebooks. With all kinds of papers and covers. For day-to-day notes, or professional sketches.

Stationeries are not limited to households. You can create stationeries for weddings, or for offices. That’s the great thing about being a private label. You can work with your supplier to create what your customers are asking for.

You can also market it anywhere. You can set up an online shop, or work with a local store. You can try to display it in supermarkets or coffee shops. This comes down to your imagination, and how much work you want to invest in the project.

Clothing & Accessories

We’re not going to discuss the clothes and accessories here. Just because it’s really obvious and you have too much selection already. It’s a great private label because even though you do have a lot of competitors to push you, you still have a great market that will always look for more.

Instead, we are going to discuss a couple of other niches in this which can be an incredible opportunity for you.

Bags: Bags are fashionable, but they can also count as something you need. You can grow by changing your colors and keeping the same type of bag. You can also do school bags, work bags, shopping bags, reusable tote bags. You can stick to one and just explore all the patterns and styles out there. You can do all kinds of bags. For this product, you want to stick with something that has a good price range. So let’s say you’re selling a reusable shopping bag, and then you want to appeal to workers and start promoting bags for offices. You can still do this as long as they cost around the same. If your price range is too far away from one another, you will have a hard time. Because this means that you also need to grow your market, and therefore change your marketing strategy. Keep that in mind

Phone Accessories: This can be included in the tools & gadget niche, or even stationary. But fashion-wise, phone accessories are important. Especially phone cases. Phones have become a huge part of everyone’s life, and the functionality is almost complete. You can live if you forgot your wallet, but everyone turns around if they forgot their phone. You can create something that matches their outfit. Or even showcase their interest. You can work with local manufacturers to create custom phone cases. Not just cases, there are also phone sling bags, phone stands, and so on.

Eyewear: Sunglasses is the obvious option here. But glasses make people inclined to buy. You don’t even have to stick to the frames and limit yourself to black sunglasses. You can even do colored fun glasses. You can work with your local optics to provide the frames and let them provide professionally built lenses. Or you can let your customers find their own optics. Eyewear may not seem like a first option, but it’s certainly a strong contender.

Pet’s Needs

This is where you need to broaden your mind. Private labels are not limited to human needs. You can fulfill the needs of human furry friends, or slimy, or scaly, or just wet. The most common pets are dogs and cats, but some people love fish, and snakes, and even salamanders & frogs. People with a lot of love will look for branded and trusted products, and this is where you come in.

Pet Food: Obviously. List the nutrients and why you’re better than the generic kind. Maybe offer a solution to a problem pets usually have in response to their generic food. You can stick to one type of animal, start with a staple feed, and progress to treats. Or you can also grow and feed all the different pets.

Pet Accessories: Accessories that sound like leashes, collars, and food bowls. But a fish can use a lot of accessories. A fish house, an underwater plant, wallpaper for the aquarium, you name it. You can even do fences for bunnies to play so that they don’t runoff. It is an especially great private label if you’re also a pet lover. That way, your imagination can be better than this initial idea.

Games & Toys

You may think that this has been defeated by the times. People play online games now, they play on the phones and on their PCs. But this is not the case. There is still some potential for you in this field. This may not be a top pick for you to start your private label. You can always do this as a part of your growth. But there is still an opportunity to make this your signature product. Here’s how.

Children’s Toys: Time and time again, it has been mentioned that physical stimulation is very important for a child’s growth. Something as simple as wooden blocks or even hanging crib toys. The point is children need physical toys. Not just younger children. Older children can still enjoy toys. It may be a football or a basketball ring, or maybe they like to build rocket models. The point is, you have an opportunity here, you also have room to grow. You can grow by age, but that seems like a lot. You can stick to wood, and develop modern trains, wooden blocks, wooden alphabets, and numbers. What age would you like to start with?

Novelty Games: This one is for adults. The idea can come from you, or from a friend. But you still need to work with a manufacturer to produce it. Maybe you need them to print cards for you or create plastic figurines. Point is, you’re not going to be making it yourself, you will only control it. This is exactly why this is a private label. For the growth department, this can be a little challenging. You grow with each new idea you have. The limitation for growth is you. Go ahead, experiment.

Tools & Gadgets

This is a big niche. As big as the fashion and household niche. You can do garage tools, or technological tools, medical tools, and so on. Gadgets can start from simple toys with just a few buttons, to something that can track your lights and monitor your house. There are just simply too many items to list. So we’ll discuss a couple of simple ones to give you a clear idea of why it’s a good private label product and how it can grow.

Tracking Devices: You can track a lot of things. You can track cars, your pet, and even random personal items. Tracking a car may sound like an invasion of privacy, but there are rentals that benefit from this technology. You can track your keys. The idea probably came from a frustrated person because they couldn’t call their keys whenever it was lost somewhere on the sofa. Oh wait, your TV remote also often gets lost. Yeah, so basically anything. This is a niche on its own and it grows on its own. You can think of other things like this and start your project.

LED Lights: LED lights are needed in some parts of your home, but other than that, it’s also a trend. People enjoy having their bedroom a certain color and you can do that with LED lights. Lights can also decorate places of business. The message here is that you should never be afraid that something you sell will not have a big market. All you need is to put in the work to go through in-depth research before planning your marketing strategy. The product itself should not be holding you back.

Health & Fitness

With a private label, there’s a lot to explore, but you want to choose something that has become a lifestyle, and not just a trend. Some people take health & fitness as a trend. Usually around New Year, when people like to say that they will start joining a gym. However, health & fitness has become a thriving industry. If all the other suggestions above have not been appealing to you, this might. Let’s get into it.

Yoga Accessories: Of course this is just an example, but this is an excellent example. Why? Because they say that you can do yoga with basically nothing, they suggest a mat. But even without a mattress, you can still do yoga. Yet, there are so many products you can sell to yogis. Starting from apparel, to mat, to bags, to decorations to keep the zen. Endless accessories if you just look deeper.

Workout Equipment: The gym isn’t for everyone. But even if somebody joins the gym, they may want something at home, so they can work out whenever they want. A lighter dumbbell and resistance bands. Think practical. Something they can carry on business trips. Even a step-for-step workout, yes that’s a thing. For marketing you can collaborate with gyms and trainers, you can create workout videos or blog about workout tips. It’s the complete package right here.

Sports Accessories: If you are not too excited to spend all your creativity on the product and you want to save some effort for your marketing plan. You can think simply. Balls, rackets, rings. If you think simple, your marketing has to be spectacular. It’s all about balance, really. Here’s another idea: different towels. That’s a fun niche.

Promote Your Products

Promote, promote, and promote! That’s all there is to private labels. Choose your niche and never tire of promoting your products. Be it by word of mouth, through weekly ads, or major marketing campaigns. Failure is just a small step to success. And success is the doorway to growth.

Never stop trying and never stop learning about private labels and private label products you want to pursue.

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Bhushan Lele

Bhushan spent the last 15+ years building businesses and learning what really matters to customers. At Custom Logo Cases, we help brands turn everyday tech accessories into high-quality, on-brand marketing tools.