A sales and distribution channel comes about when a company chooses to replace (or sometimes supplement) its direct sales force (i.e. the people who sell straight to the end customer) with indirect organisations. These organisations can be value-added resellers (VARs), managed service providers (MSPs), distributors or partners, and together they create that company’s ‘channel’. The result is that the people who end up selling the product are not employees of the company that makes the product.
The channel I speak of here refers specifically to the IT industry, but you will find that organisations in most product-based industries (e.g. food and drink) sell through distribution channels.