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I'm trying to understand what the nuances of the term 代理店 as it is used in
business communications. For example, if a 卸会社 tells a 販売店 their products are
available for resale, however they are not looking for a 代理店, what is the
difference between those two types of business relationships?

Most dictionaries I've seen translate 代理店 as "agency", but that term doesn't
seem to fit regarding product distribution.

Is being a 代理店 for a company's products something like "an authorized dealer"?
Does it typically imply an exclusive contract, so that other companies cannot
compete selling the same products?
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2016-04-27T13:03:22.510
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2016-05-03T20:46:38.333
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question
business-japanese
The finer points of the word 代理店
代理店(agent) is that, sellers entrust 代理店 to sell their products, 代理店 sell them
to customers. The agreement of sale is contracted between sellers and
customers and 代理店 only broker them.

販売店(distributor) is that, sellers sell their products to 販売店, 販売店 sell them to
customers. The agreement of sale is contracted between sellers and 販売店, also
between 販売店 and customers.

It may help you. <http://www.english-agreement.com/article/14847232.html>
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2016-04-27T18:45:46.083
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2016-04-27T22:25:46.557
2016-04-27T22:25:46.557
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answer
When you say 代理店, there are many types of 代理店, for example, 販売代理店 meaning
sales distributor, 取次（とりつぎ）代理店 - agent, jobber, 生命 / 海上火災保険代理店 – life
insurance / fire & marine Insurance agency / agent, and notably 広告代理店, ad
agency known by "Mad Men."

Even Dentsu, the world's largest ad agency that handles more than ￥4,642
billion (US$43.6 billion) ad expenditures a year (2015), dictates, and
virtually monopolizes whole the Olympic Games-related business in Japan is
simply calld a 代理店 in ad world, because their business is essentialily a
broker of time and space between mass media and advertisers.

代理店 is also called as 取次（とりつぎ）店 and 中継（なかつぎ）店.

We even call a wholesaler as 一次卸代理店 (primary wholeseller) or 二次卸代理店 (secondary
wholeseller). When you say 販売代理店, it can be a retailer who sells the products
of a particular maker. So the scope of the functions and meaning of 代理店 are
very broad.

“Authorized dealer” can be translated as 特約販売代理店. Electric /electronic
products makers such as Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Sharp used to
organize their sales channels under the umbrella of this name until a couple
of decades ago, but this system is almost extinct today along with the rise of
large scale electric / electronic products distributors like Big Camera,
Yamada-Denki, and Yodobashi Camera.
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2016-05-02T23:25:18.027
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answer