What is a good product to sell for profit?

What are examples of "give away the razor, sell the razor blades" type of businesses where companies sell the initial product at a loss and hope to make their profit on subsequent recurring purchases?

  • Printers would be another where companies don't make much/any margin on the printer but the recurring ink cartridge purchases are highly profitable.

  • Answer:

    Water-filtration systems by brands like Brita and Pur. Once you buy the pitcher or faucet-mount, you're encouraged to buy replacement filters for the lifetime of the system.

Bob Hillman at Quora Visit the source

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Although I don't know enough about the sector to say that first product is sold at a loss, a lot of Business Intelligence software such as SAP, BPCS etc come to mind. The initial purchase of the software is only the beginning. Then follows the constant flow of licenses and, most depressingly, the hired consultants to customize the software to you particular business.

Lykle de Vries

How about lawyers who will draft a will for $100, hoping that they can later charge much more to do the probate?

Stephen Graham

I believe the opertative term is "installed base businesses" Microsoft's strategy was to price low, set the standard, achieve ubiquity and then harvest profits from upgrade/ revision revenue.

Philip Terry

One could argue that Amazon Prime is an example. Stapler : Staples

Joseph Cohen

Nespresso is doing great at selling the razor and selling the razor blades with their capsules.

Antoine Meunier

Anti-virus Software Subscriptions. Braun Electric Shavers with their cleaning cartridge. Pneumatic Nail Guns.

Scott Shelerud

Some on line advertising companies will build you a 15 page web site with custom copy and do SEO without a contract for 250$/per month, or less. The lower you go from 250 the more it looks like a directory listing.

Joe Poole

Lexis, Westlaw, and BloombergLaw all make full-access research accounts available at no cost to law school students, and even offer rewards points to students for using their product, an embedded employee at our school called an "Account Manager" and each also employs student workers to be available as a resource, all in the hopes that after law school the new lawyer's preferred research tool will be their product, so that they can make money off the lawyer's future use of the product.

David Rowan Armor

Starbucks. They give away quiet, hip space in places with lots of foot traffic, but sell marked-up coffee.

Byrne Hobart

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