Orion vs Zanders

What each one lists most of

Orion and Zanders describe their catalogs in their own words, and we resolve both against one shared product vocabulary before counting. A category below therefore means the same thing on either side. Each list is that distributor’s own largest categories, counted in active listings.

Firearm, Parts & Components, Ammunition, Optic and Magazine appear in both lists, so those counts can be read against each other directly.

Each list stops at that distributor’s eight largest categories. A category on one list and not the other is one we have not counted here, not one that distributor does not carry.

Where each one will ship it

Taken from each company’s own site on the dates shown on their individual pages. Running a drop-ship programme and naming where the parcel goes are separate questions, and most distributors answer only the first — so “Not stated” below means they have not published it, not that they refuse.

Zanders says they drop-ship but does not publish where the parcel goes. Ask them before you promise a customer a delivery address.

Every distributor here ships to your own licensed premises — that is what a wholesale account is, not a policy any one of them publishes. Confirm anything you will act on directly with the distributor.

Which should you open?

Zanders lists 34,893 distinct UPCs to Orion's 15,418 — about 2.3× the breadth. 6,928 UPCs are carried by both — 45% of what Orion lists and 20% of what Zanders lists. Beyond that overlap, 8,490 UPCs appear on Orion alone and 27,965 on Zanders alone. If you open one account, Zanders is the wider of the two on its own — it leaves 8,490 UPCs unreachable, against 27,965 if you open Orion instead. Carrying both reaches 43,383 distinct UPCs, 8,490 more than Zanders covers alone. The largest category in both lists is Firearm — Zanders lists 10,298 there to Orion's 8,407. Over the window we monitor, the Orion feed answered us 99.9% of the time and the Zanders feed 100%.

This is arithmetic on the counts above, not a recommendation of one company over the other. Which account is worth opening also depends on terms and on what your customers ask for, neither of which is in the catalog data we measure. What each company publishes about shipping destinations is in the table above it.

Applying for a dealer account

• Apply for a Orion dealer account — The general-line catalog makes this a reasonable single account for a dealer not chasing a specific specialty.
• Apply for a Zanders dealer account — As an FTP file drop, catalog and stock updates arrive on Zanders' schedule rather than on demand. The catalog's size means the first full sync after connecting an account takes noticeably longer than for a smaller distributor, even though updates still arrive as scheduled FTP files rather than on demand.

Both links leave this site. Applications are submitted to, reviewed by, and approved by the distributor themselves — Project Parabellum is not part of that process and cannot speed it up or vouch for you.