Producers normally use a number of marketing intermediaries for taking their products to market. It is more significant in the case of small business inventory software. Marketing intermediaries bear a variety of names such as sole selling agents, marketers, wholesalers, distributors, stockists, franchised dealers, retailers, authorized representatives, broker, commission agents and jobbers. All intermediaries constitute the distribution channel in small business inventory software.

Distribution channels play a pivotal role in the successful marketing of most products, especially consumer products. Distribution channels bring together the makers and the users in an efficient and economic manner. It is not practical for any manufacturer to organize a network of his own selling points and sell his products directly to consumers totally avoiding outside distribution channels. Just like mass manufacturing, mass distribution needs resources in like money, materials and men.

No manufacturer can easily command these resources. Assuming that the resources can be found, the question arises whether it would be advantageous for the manufacturer to carry out the distribution function himself and totally avoiding marketing intermediaries. Analysis shows that there are more disadvantages than advantages to working independently. If intermediaries are not there, the firm will have to make direct contacts with far too many customers. Marketing intermediaries minimize the number of contacts the firm has to make to sell its products.

In other words, intermediaries offer a firm the vital advantage of distributional efficiency. Distribution channels at small business inventory software combine the products and components manufactured by different firms and offer them in an assortment that are convenient to final users. The final users, in most cases, prefer an assortment of items, and they do not prefer to shop at outlets that fail to provide an assortment of all the products that they require.