SEMINARS ON CD

While many (including Softletter), have been quick to pronounce the retail markets dead, there’s still some life in the shelfware beast yet (though we stand by...See more » While many (including Softletter), have been quick to pronounce the retail markets dead, there’s still some life in the shelfware beast yet (though we stand by our prediction that the retail market will mostly disappear within five years). But to make the lives of software developers and publishers even more interesting, the last several years have seen the introduction of yet another entity into the channel mix: aggregators. Well known firms in the industry include Channel Sources and Victory Multimedia. Aggregators do exactly what their name implies. They aggregate software companies into product portfolios that they in turn pitch to a distributor with which they have a good relationship. Aggregators have sprung into existence for two reasons. One is that as the desktop software market has undergone consolidation, the new companies appearing tend to be small and unknown. Distributors, who increasingly regard shelfware titles as a side business, are reluctant to extend credit and terms to these firms and also wish to avoid the setup and overhead costs associated with adding vendors into their accounting systems. The other is that in the event that a distributor purchase is not made on consignment terms (an increasingly rare event, as we’ve noted previously) the distributor can stock balance poor selling titles with other products in the aggregators portfolio (the largest aggregators carry hundreds of products). A company that’s a good candidate for aggregators fits the following profile:See less »