Dive Brief:
- The 250 largest technology distributors drove $389.9 billion in revenue and $34.8 billion in gross profit globally in 2025, with the top 15 capturing up 72.9% of overall revenue, according to the Omdia Global Distributor 250 report released Thursday.
- The North American distribution market was second in revenue at $117.8 billion, but its average gross margin of 8.1% was lowest, reflecting a U.S. business model focused on size and supply chain efficiency.
- Despite rising adoption of cloud marketplaces, distribution revenue was 574.6% larger than the revenue partners put through marketplaces last year. “While we are putting up incredible growth numbers in marketplaces, they currently transact less than 1% of our tech/telco industry,” Omdia Chief Analyst Jay McBain told Channel Dive in a message.
Dive Insight:
Distributors come in all shapes and sizes.
The top three — U.S.-based TD Synnex, Ingram Micro and Arrow Electronics — are typically classified as broadline distributor, a nod to their size, multi-category supplier linecards and segment-agnosticism. They also tend to be global in scope.
Omdia calls these companies “scale distributors” and found they operate with lower gross margins — 7.2% — than their smaller peers. These companies generate value through sheer volume and multi-vendor relationships enabled by vast logistics networks, AI-powered automation platforms, credit programs and global coverage.
“Their value proposition centers on high‑volume, multi‑vendor throughput enabled by large logistics networks, automation (increasingly through sophisticated, AI-powered digital platforms), credit programs, and broad international coverage,” the report said.
North America leans toward scale distributors, while EMEA has a more even mix of scale distributors, local distributors and specialized distributors, according to Omdia. The majority — 61.6% — of the top 250 distributors operated in EMEA, where resellers need help navigating complex regulatory environments and language barriers.
Distributors also have various transactional modes. Tech services distributors, which operate in a brokerage model, were well represented in Omdia’s top 50. Intelisys’ parent company ScanSource was listed at 19, Telarus at 20, Avant at 25, Sandler Partners at 38 and AppDirect at 50.
The report reveals the underlying health of a distribution market under threat from hyperscaler marketplaces for a decade. Partners are active in marketplaces, where channel firms accounted for 37% of revenue in 2025. But the lion’s share of partner transactions traveled the well-worn distribution route.
“Hyperscale marketplaces are still a tiny proportion of the overall marke.” Omdia Chief Analyst Alastair Edwards said in a message. “Distribution covers a much larger addressable market that today is not going through a marketplace, and a large share of which will never go through a hyperscaler marketplace.”
The two worlds maintain relatively friendly relationships. Microsoft recently integrated a handful of large distributors into its marketplace. Distis have returned the favor, urging independent software vendors to loop them into their marketplace offers.
