Can an Online Merchant Build a Retail Store Franchise?
Even though an online merchant does not occupy a specific geographic area, it may be possible to create an online retail store franchise. Among other things, if you can prove you are successful a selling a specific product, you can sell the plans for doing so to other business retail store franchise owners. You may also want to limit each new partner to a specific product line in order to create some form of territorial protection for each franchise member. At the same time, if your logo can be trademarked, you can also sell the license to use it to all of the web based merchants in your franchise. While you may not be able to charge as much in royalty fees, chances are this will change as internet based businesses evolve and adapt more traditional business models.
