Difference between Retailer and Reseller

Key difference: Retailer and Reseller are basically sellers. Retailers sell the manufactured product to the end-users, while resellers sell the sold products back to any respective authority in a trade cycle.

Retailers Retailer is a 'business or person that sells goods to the consumer, as opposed to a wholesaler or supplier, who normally sells their goods to another business'. They are basically, sellers who are at the end position of any business management system. They are direct representative of the consumers, that is, they help manufacturers to know about the need and requirements of the consumer.

They purchase the products at a competitive prize from the suppliers and market them according to their benefits. A retailer buys small quantity of items from a distributor or a wholesaler in order to gain profit, which would coincide with their business objectives. They are generally shopkeepers, who make the product available to the consumers.

Resellers are generally VAR (Value Added Resellers). It is ‘a company or individual that purchases goods or services with the intention of reselling them rather than consuming or using them’.

The term ‘reseller’ broadly covers many different methods of earning revenue off the back of a product or service which is not owned or manufactured by the respective user. They probably resell the product by changing its appearance into a newer format, to acquire profit. The products are sold back to any respective seeker.

Comparison between Retailer and Reseller:

	Retailer	Reseller
Who are they?	A retailer is basically a store where customers come in and buy products, the most common type of business.	A reseller is a person or company who simply buys products and tries to sell it to people without necessarily having an establishment.
Receives goods from	They generally receive the goods from a wholesaler or producer which directly manufactures the goods.	They generally buy products from a retailer or a person and then sell them to someone else at a profit.
Goods sold to	They sell the goods to the end-user.	They may resell the products to any-one including the retailer, wholesaler, consumer, etc.
Product type	Here there is no change in the quality of the product as it is of manufactured level.	Here the product may be used, with the change in the quality.
Link between	They are link between the distributor and the consumer in a trade cycle.	They can be link between anyone in a trade cycle.
Directly relate to	They are in direct contact with the customers.	They may/may not be in direct contact with the customers.