The kind folks over at Bravisa emailed me to let me know that I’d left something out of my review.
In my comparison between Zlio and Bravisa, I hadn’t realized that they work from slightly different models. Zlio works off the salesperson model, where you get a commission for every item sold from your store. Bravisa works off the wholesale model, where you specify the markup from the wholesale price, and you keep the markup.
Here’s the example they used to illustrate the point:
As an example, the Yankees Toy Box made by Guidecraft is available at Bravisa as well as at Zlio.
Bravisa works directly with Guidecraft (the manufacturer), whereas Zlio works with Buy.com who in turn works with Guidecraft.
At the same sales price ($160) to the customer, for each sale:Bravisa shop owner makes $51.07,
Zlio shop owner makes $ 4.80
The added income from your own store makes Bravisa more attractive, provided you create a store and market it well. Zlio’s referral income makes Zlio more attractive if you primarily want to just recruit others into the program (although someone has to sell products for you to make any money).
Ultimately, if you want to create niche stores online, it’d be worth creating one in Zlio and one in Bravisa, and running a test to see which produced the most income for you.