Distribution Channels and Sales Areas (Business Area) 
Distribution Channels and Sales Areas (Business Area)
Distribution channels
You assign each plant to a combination of distribution channel and sales organization, so that you can process shipping of materials. You use this assignment to specify the sales organizations that can process the sale of materials from a plant and the distribution channels that you can use to deliver the material. Different sales organizations can use a given distribution channel. Sapo uses three distribution channels: the retail trade, the wholesale trade, and direct sales – except Sapo Ireland, which uses only the wholesale trade.
Sales areas
Each sales area is a specific combination of a sales organization, a distribution channel, and a division. Sales organizations are divided into sales area, so that you can specify responsibility for materials, which are assigned to a particular division and distributed using a particular distribution channel.
(Since business areas and divisions are defined without reference to distribution channels, they are not displayed in the following graphic for the sake of clarity).
In Germany and the Czech Republic, Sapo uses all three distribution channels: retail trade, wholesale trade, and direct sales. However servers from the Munich plant are only delivered through the wholesale trade and direct sales channels, while "no name" PCs from that plant are sold only to the wholesale and retail trade.
Consequently, the following sales areas are generated:
Sapo Germany company code: detailed view:
