THE 9 MOST PROMINENT DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The distribution channels define and establish the steps through the property of a product from the manufacturer or producer to consumer.

They are made up of a series of people or companies called intermediaries who, starting from the producer, circulate the product until it reaches the consumer or end user. There are two levels of distribution channels: direct and indirect.

Direct or short marketing circuits are those in which the producer or manufacturer places the product or service in the hands of the final consumer, without intermediaries.

Indirect ones, typical of consumer goods, involve one or more intermediaries between the manufacturer and the end user.

Top 9 examples of distribution channels

1- Direct channel

It is prevalent in the service sector and in industrial sales due to high concentration of demand, and it is rare in consumer products.

Examples

Banks, savings banks, insurance companies, industries and vending machines.

2- Short channel

The size of the distribution channels is measured based on the number of intermediaries involved in the product's journey. The short channel has 3 levels: the producer, the retailer or intermediary and the end user.

This channel is frequent in sectors in which the offer is similarly concentrated in both the manufacturer and the retailer.

Examples

E-commerce, the vehicle sector, furniture and department stores.

3- Long channel

It has 4 or more levels: producer, wholesaler, retailer and end user. It is styled in areas in which there is a marked fractionation of supply and demand, mainly in mass consumer products.

In this type of channel, the producer or manufacturer has a sales force through which it contacts intermediaries, who proceed to place the products on the market.

Example

Hospitality, traditional shops and supermarkets.

4- Traditional, conventional or independent channel

It is characterized by not having incorporated technological innovations to carry out commercial exchange operations.

It is also distinguished by the intervention of only two levels of intermediaries between the producer and the final consumer; These are the wholesalers and the retailers.

Example

A clothing brand that markets its products through traditional stores.

5- Automated channel

It is based on the use of advanced technology as the preponderant means of commercial exchange relations.

Example

ATMs.

6- Audiovisual and electronic channel

It combines audiovisual and computer media as disseminating, informing and contact elements for the exchange. Such media are television, telephone communications, and email.

Example

The telemarkets.

7- Managed channel

They are those channels in which some of its members have powers that influence the decisions of the other members of the channel.

Example

Movie industry.

8- Integrated channel

It is characterized by the regrouping of institutions occupying vertical or horizontal levels in the same channel.

Example

The purchasing centers.

9. Associated channel

It is made up of members of the same level of the distribution channel, regularly by wholesalers and retailers.

Example

Consumer cooperatives and multiple branches.

References

1. Distribution channel. (December 5, 2017). In: es.wikipedia.org
2. Channels of Distribution. (sf). Retrieved on December 7, 2017 from: encyclopedia.com
3. Distribution Channels. (sf). Retrieved on December 7, 2017 from: marketingmo.com
4. Longenecker, J. (2009). Small Business Administration.
5. Kotler, P. (2003). Fundamentals of Marketing.