Reseller Margin Compression Curve

Every white-label platform sets a wholesale price, and that price becomes the hard ceiling on what an agency can earn per client seat. The framework asks one question before signing: how much of the retail price does the vendor keep, and how often can they raise it? Platforms sold as lifetime deals, such as WorkDo's source-code-included suite, shift the risk to the vendor and let an agency hold margin for years. Subscription-only platforms, by contrast, reprice whenever infrastructure costs move. Forrester's 2027 predictions flag compute and energy constraints as a direct driver of API-dependent tool price increases, which compresses margins on AI-inclusive retainers. An agency reselling a rebrandable builder at $49 per client per month against a $29 wholesale cost keeps $20; a vendor price hike to $39 cuts that to $10 without any change in delivery effort. Model the spread before the contract, not after the first renewal notice.