What is the difference between a distributor and a retailer?

A retailer sells to consumers. A distributor buys from you and resells to retailers, taking on warehousing, logistics, and often sales coverage. Selling through a distributor reaches many more doors for one relationship, at the cost of a deeper discount and losing direct contact with the retailers who stock you.

Distributors change what you can see. Sell-through data comes back aggregated or not at all, so demand signals from the shelf arrive later and coarser than from a direct account.

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