Electronics Component Distributors: what are they, what do they do

Electronic components distributors are a key element in the supply chain for electronic equipment manufacturers. Discover what distributors are and what they do.

From obtaining the components very quickly for new electronic designs to providing the supply of electronic components in a scheduled fashion for large scale production, electronic components distributors fulfil the needs of virtually all companies in the electronics business these days.

These days, component manufacturers rarely deal with equipment manufacturers, preferring to route their sales via distributors who have the expertise to meet the needs of a large number of customers and electronic component suppliers.

By reducing the number of companies they deal with, electronic component manufacturers can better supply the needs of the industry as they are unlikely to be able to focus on all the needs of the large multitude of customers. Electronic component distributors who are set up for this can meet the needs of manufacturers, providing many capabilities that are needed to simplify and ease the manufacturing process.

By obtaining electronic components from a distributor, components from a variety of manufacturers an be obtained. Electronic component distributors are able to aggregate the needs of the different users. In this way they can place large orders with electronic component manufacturers, and having the scale of purchases, they can have more influence on the manufacturers.

Apart from scheduling components for large scale manufacturers and obtaining small quantities for electronic design laboratories, electronic component distributors provide many other functions. They enable designers to have new products - those distributors focussing on New Product Introduction, NPI will have up-to-date information and product from the manufacturers.

Franchised distributors will also give assurance that no counterfeit electronic components enter the supply chain - this very important for all equipment manufacturers, but especially for those supplying government organisations.

As such electronic component distributors provide an essential serve to the electronics industry, aggregating orders, scheduling deliveries and ensuring that electronic equipment designers and manufacturers can obtain the equipment when they want and in the quantities they want and minimising the effects of component shortages as much as is possible.

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[MouserElec]

Glad to participate in this conversation!!

[e-componentsupplier]

i'm an electronic component distributor, but i'm new is this industry, so this episode topic meaningful for me. The most seen issues for me when talk with customers is that they always think distributors' price are expensive. So if they directly buy from manufacturers the price will cheaper right? just a question of information gap. By the way, if all customers directly buy from manufacturers, will the delivery speed lower? Dear author here can point the advantages of distributors in more plain way?

[ytubeleo]

I've found that buying directly from Texas Instruments is almost always much cheaper than buying from a distributor, even when buying just one part. And when you look at their price for 1000 units it is usually a fraction of the price of buying 1000 (or even 10, 000) from a distributor – e.g., a third of the price. (And I'm talking about pre-covid.) Is there a reason why someone would buy from a distributor rather than from TI directly? The distributors also usually have much higher postage and packaging costs. The only real advantage I see if if someone is buying low quantities from several vendors – in which case they only have to pay shipping once. Maybe TI give much better deals when buying directly (or much worse deals to distributors) than other manufacturers?

[SurfinScientist]

Thanks for the video. It is very informative.

[microled]

My main electronic parts supply store is "Mouser", always a good prices, big stock ...

[oluwatobilobaayofe]

Why has Digi-key not supply my order for the last 6months.
Why do they extend the date of a back order to 2022?

[sumitsao]

I need more information about this business