Answer:
Consumer products are usually distributed through four main channels:
- producer ⇒ consumer: the producer directly distributes its products to its final consumers, online sales helped to increase this type of sales.
- producer ⇒ retailer ⇒ consumer: some retailers are large enough to be able to buy in bulk directly from the producers, e.g. Walmart, Target.
- producer ⇒ wholesaler ⇒retailer ⇒ consumer: wholesaler buys in bulk from the producer, then distributes to the retailer who finally sells to the customers.
- producer ⇒ agent ⇒ wholesaler ⇒retailer ⇒ consumer: similar to the previous channel only that an independent sales agent performs the sales from the producer to the wholesaler.