Channel conflict is often cited as the reason a manufacturer avoids selling direct, but Master B2B’s research found the concern is frequently overstated relative to the actual risk. In one LinkedIn poll the hosts ran, all respondents agreed direct selling can coexist with a healthy distributor network, provided the manufacturer is deliberate about how it prices, positions, and differentiates its own direct channel from what distributors offer. The more common failure mode is not conflict itself but silence, manufacturers going direct without communicating the rationale to their channel partners, which turns a manageable business decision into a trust problem.
Channel conflict
The tension that arises when a manufacturer sells directly to end buyers online while also relying on distributors or dealers to sell the same products, potentially competing with those same partners.