In traditional marketing channels, middlemen are an important part. The reason why middlemen play an important role in marketing channels is that they can play the highest efficiency in widely providing products and entering the target market

 In traditional marketing channels, middlemen are an important part. The reason why middlemen play an important role in marketing channels is that they can play the highest efficiency in widely providing products and entering the target market. With their business relationship, experience, specialization and scale operation, marketing intermediaries usually provide higher profits to the company than self operated stores can obtain. However, with the development and commercial application of the Internet, the advantages obtained by traditional marketing intermediaries for geographical reasons have been replaced by the virtuality of the Internet. At the same time, the efficient information exchange of the Internet has changed many links of traditional marketing channels in the past and simplified the complex relationship into a single relationship. The development of the Internet has changed the structure of marketing channels.

Using the information interaction characteristics of the Internet, the online direct selling market has been vigorously developed. Therefore, network marketing channels can be divided into two categories: one is the network direct marketing channels from producers to consumers (users) through the Internet (referred to as online direct sales). At this time, the functions of traditional middlemen have changed from the intermediate force of the past link to the intermediary agency providing services for direct sales channels, Such as professional distribution companies that provide goods transportation and distribution services, online banks that provide online payment settlement services, and ISPs and e-commerce service providers that provide product information release and website construction. The establishment of online direct sales channels enables producers and end consumers to connect and communicate directly.

The other is to provide network indirect marketing channels through intermediaries integrated into Internet technology. Due to the integration of Internet technology, traditional middlemen have greatly improved their transaction efficiency, specialization and economies of scale. At the same time, emerging middlemen also have an impact on traditional middlemen. For example, Wal Mart, an American retail giant, began to open online stores on the Internet in January 2000 in order to resist the erosion of the Internet on its retail market. The new Internet indirect marketing channel based on the Internet is very different from traditional indirect distribution channels. There may be many intermediate links in traditional indirect distribution channels, such as first class wholesalers, two level wholesalers and retailers, while the indirect marketing channel of the Internet needs only one intermediate link.