Merchants have been operating for as long as commerce and industry have existed. In 16th-century Europe, two different terms emerged: meerseniers referred to local traders (such as bakers and grocers) while koopman referred to merchants who operated on a global stage, importing and exporting across vast distances and offering value-added services like credit and finance.
Types of Merchants
The first type of merchant is a wholesale merchant account comparison, which purchases goods in bulk from one or more suppliers and sells them in smaller quantities to retailers for a profit. Examples of this are warehouse retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club. Wholesale merchants usually buy from manufacturers or importers, but may also purchase from other wholesalers.
Retail merchants, on the other hand, act as middle-men between suppliers and end customers. They take products from a wholesaler or manufacturer, market and advertise them, and then sell them to consumers for a profit. This includes online retail businesses such as Amazon and eBay.
A third type of merchant is an ecommerce merchant, which sells goods and services exclusively online. These businesses are typically small, and focus on building their brand, marketing their products, and taking care of things like bookkeeping and payment processing.
The fourth and final type of merchant is an affiliate merchant, which makes money by referring people to other merchants (usually ecommerce merchants). For example, a travel website might have links to hotels, flights, or car rentals that earn it commissions when people book through them.