Difference between dealer and distributor

Posted By: Sm Adminon: November 18, 2015In: Miscellaneous

Dealer:
Dealer is an individual or firm that buys goods from producer for wholesale and retail reselling. Unlike a distributor, dealer is a principal not an agent. Dealer comes in contact with the end of consumers. They act as the middle man between the manufacturer and the consumer.
Distributor:
Distributor is the one who sells the goods to the retailers in order to sell it to the final consumers. It plays an intermediary role between manufacturer and dealer. They act as the intermediate between the producer and consumer.
Differences:

Basis	Dealer	Distributor
Definition (www.oxforddictionaries.com)	A person who buys and sells goods	An agent who supplies goods to stores and other businesses that sell to consumers
Synonyms	Merchant, retailer, wholesaler, banker and trader	Trader, dealer merchandiser, jobber and salesperson
Antonyms	Customer	Concentrator, assembler, buyer, bearer, aggregator and archivist
Function	Dealer purchases products for their own account and trades them to the customer from his own stock.	Distributor purchase products directly from the company and distributes it in the market to several vendors.
Products can be sell to	They are supposed to sell the products and /or goods only to the specific users.	They can sell the products to many dealers at a time.
Profit margin	Their profit margin is up to the limited range.	Their profit margin is bigger compared to the dealers.
Receive products from	They get the products from the distributors.	They get the products directly from the manufacturers.
Known by	They are known by the product names of their transaction.	They are general distributors who supply all types of products.
Pronunciation	Eng (UK): / ˈdiːlə/ Eng (US): /ˈdēlər /	Eng (UK): /dɪˈstrɪbjʊtə / Eng (US): /dəˈstribyədər /
Advantages		Its advantages are: Established customer base Sales and marketing expertise Storage and logistics Wider distribution channel Quick route to market
Who are they?	Principal	Agent
Distributes	A dealer will normally sell only to retailer or a consumer.	A distributor can sell to a numbers of dealers or to the general public.
Creates link between	Distributor and Consumer	Manufacturer and Dealer
Deals in	Products which fall under a particular category.	Variety of products
Subjective	They do face competition in the market or the area in which they do business.	They are appointed for the specific area and place and they face no competition.
Competition	Extreme	Moderate
Serving area	Limited	Large
Sales	Dealer gets a bigger profit margin than distributors but they sell in retail.	Distributor sells in large numbers.
Contact	Dealer comes in the direct contact with the end of consumers.	A distributor is an intermediary between the manufacturer and the dealer.
Investment	A dealer has to make less investment than a distributor.	A distributor has to make a huge investment than a dealer.
Example in Sentence	You can choose the dealers. The dealer looks at her with surprise.	He is the sole distributor in our local area. The major distributor of tequila is in Europe.