The industry of resellers is growing each day, and that is a term that can have several meanings. In this instance, a reseller is a group that purchases items in large quantities from a manufacturer, usually in a volume that is much greater than what a local commercial outfit can afford, and then sells that inventory to specialized groups from branding and distribution as they see fit.
Resellers serve the function of taking on inventory from the manufacturer, and this means that a plant, farm or even digital server hosting group can find a sale for their goods once they have been made. Since the cost of high-volume manufacturing is so high, most manufacturing companies will only try to sell their goods directly to a commercial company for a short window of time before they seek a large purchase from resellers. Once the purchase is made by a reselling group, they seek out smaller clients who do not have a need, or often a budget, for the big order, then package the goods for a smaller sale more appropriate to their need and inventory capacity.
For example, a bottle-making company will invest the money and time to manufacturing one million beer bottles, but rather than try to sell these bottles to a local brewery for their full value, which most local breweries are not going to pay, and the cost of warehousing these bottles is not cheap, they seek resellers who pay at wholesale cost in order to recoup the investment made toward the machinery and staff that made the bottles. Resellers can then ship a smaller volume to the brewery, like a few hundred for a seasonal brew for example, at a higher price than they paid for the full order.
Resellers in the web business function in a similar capacity. They will purchase the rights to digitally publish materials for users to enjoy, such as a book that gets converted from its physical page format into something that will work on an ebook reader or tablet, two consumer markets that are growing rather steadily.
Overall, resellers make it easy for a customer to connect with the goods or material they seek without being involved in the manufacture of those goods and materials. There are several reselling business active today that make it possible to transport or digitally prepare the things used every day, things that are so common and easily accessed that the end user may never know how much work went into getting it to them!