According to (Baker & Edwards, 2018), distribution channels are how companies distribute their products or services; there are two directions of distribution: direct and indirect, and mixed or hybrid distribution.
Direct Selling
In this direction, companies sell their products and services directly to customers without an intermediary; this includes (shops, commercial markets, and websites).
Pros and Cons: Direct selling companies have complete control over the customer experience, such as collecting and responding to their data and feedback, building direct relationships with them, and not sharing profits with brokers. On the other side, the disadvantages of this method are the high storage and distribution costs and the difficulty of reaching customers at the beginning without authorized distributors (Charoensukmongkol & Suthatorn, 2021).
Indirect Selling
In this direction, companies sell through intermediaries and commercial agents, such as supermarkets and electronic stores, the most important of which is Amazon.
Pros and Cons: One of the essential advantages of this method is the presence of a broad customer base that can be easily targeted by distributors; in addition to not bearing the costs of shipping and distribution, or at least sharing them with intermediaries, the disadvantage of this trend is the difficulty in creating brand loyalty through intermediaries (Bergemann & Bonatti, 2019), this is of course if the brand is in the beginning since customer loyalty will be to the same distributor as customer loyalty to Amazon, not to its products, every rule has an exception.
Mixed/hybrid Selling
In contemporary marketing, we find many companies use this approach, as it is a mixture of direct and indirect sales; for example, a company like Apple has its own sales outlets, and we also find it distributes its products to intermediaries such as shops, retailers, websites, and later telecom companies' offers on mobiles (Li, Wang & Song, 2019). This method is the best of the two methods. Through this, the best results can be achieved as it avoids direct and indirect Selling defects.
Weak Distribution Channels
Because of the previous defects in direct and indirect Selling, such as inventory management, distribution, and customer loyalty, there is always a defect that must be fixed, or strategic plans must be put in place to avoid these defects from the beginning; the most important of these strategies is to increase the number of intermediaries, choose them carefully, and work to establish an ideal supply chain management (Yaghoobi, Abdullah, Kumar, Zare & Soltani, 2019). Finally, the many distribution channels can be combined into several powerful channels, such as what Amazon did in its central warehouses in American cities.
Conclusion
Distribution channels are among the essential marketing elements that ensure the success and failure of selling products and services. Taking care of distribution channels and making optimal use of them ensures that the product and service reach the customer smoothly and without obstacles, which provides an ideal customer experience.
References
Baker, B. L., & Edwards, C. J. (2018). Bad Actors in the Distribution Channels: Conceptual Clarity, Demarcation & Antecedents of Abuse. International Journal of the Academic Business World, 12(1), 1–8. Retrieved from EBSCO Multi-search.
Bergemann, D., & Bonatti, A. (2019). Information markets: An introduction. Annual Review of Economics, 11, 85-107.
Charoensukmongkol, P., & Suthatorn, P. (2021). Linking improvisational behavior, adaptive selling behavior, and sales performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 70(7), 1582-1603.
Li, Q., Wang, Q., & Song, P. (2019). The effects of agency selling on reselling on hybrid retail platforms. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 23(4), 524-556.
Yaghoobi, J., Abdullah, A., Kumar, D., Zare, F., & Soltani, H. (2019). A review of power quality issues of distorted and weak distribution networks in the mining industry. IEEE Access, 7, 162500-162518.