Sports South vs Zanders
Both catalogs are synced into one shared vocabulary, so the same UPC can be counted on either side and matched across them. Everything below is what we measured in the two feeds — how much each one lists, how much of it is the same product, and what only one of them carries.
| Sports South | Zanders | |
|---|---|---|
| Active SKUs | 58,977 | 34,449 |
| Distinct UPCs | 58,959 | 34,449 |
| Shared UPCs (both carry) | 22,370 | |
| Only at this distributor | 36,589 | 12,079 |
| Uptime | 99.4% | 99.7% |
| Integration | API | FTP |
| Freshness | ||
What each one lists most of
Sports South 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.
Sports South
- Firearm
- 14,575
- Parts & Components
- 13,209
- Ammunition
- 5,928
- Optic
- 3,480
- Magazine
- 3,277
- Other
- 2,972
- Reloading
- 2,618
- Knife & Tool
- 2,280
Zanders
- Firearm
- 10,275
- Parts & Components
- 5,038
- Ammunition
- 3,252
- Optic
- 2,901
- Magazine
- 2,106
- Hunting & Outdoors
- 1,997
- Reloading
- 1,974
- Tools & Maintenance
- 1,267
Firearm, Parts & Components, Ammunition, Optic, Magazine and Reloading 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.
| Sports South | Zanders | |
|---|---|---|
| Ships to your store | Yes | Yes |
| Offers drop-shipping | Not stated | Yes source |
| Ships to your customer's FFL | Not stated | Not stated |
| Ships to your customer's address | Not stated | Not stated |
| Ships NFA items to a receiving SOT | Not stated | Not stated |
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?
Sports South lists 58,959 distinct UPCs to Zanders's 34,449 — about 1.7× the breadth. 22,370 UPCs are carried by both — 38% of what Sports South lists and 65% of what Zanders lists. Beyond that overlap, 36,589 UPCs appear on Sports South alone and 12,079 on Zanders alone. If you open one account, Sports South is the wider of the two on its own — it leaves 12,079 UPCs unreachable, against 36,589 if you open Zanders instead. Carrying both reaches 71,038 distinct UPCs, 12,079 more than Sports South covers alone. The largest category in both lists is Firearm — Sports South lists 14,575 there to Zanders's 10,275. Over the window we monitor, the Sports South feed answered us 99.4% of the time and the Zanders feed 99.7%.
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.
Sports South
Sports South is one of the deepest catalogs Project Parabellum syncs, spanning firearms, ammunition, optics, reloading components, and outdoor gear through a single dealer web-service connection. Project Parabellum pulls that catalog on the same automated schedule as every other API-connected distributor, so a dealer gets current stock positions across every one of those categories from one account instead of stitching together several narrower feeds.
Zanders
G. Zanders runs one of the larger catalogs Project Parabellum syncs, yet unlike the hub's other deep catalogs it reaches Project Parabellum through scheduled FTP file drops rather than a live API. For a dealer weighing distributor options, that pairing is the notable thing about this account: a substantial assortment delivered on a file-drop cadence instead of the on-demand polling that the other large distributors here use.
Applying for a dealer account
- Apply for a Sports South dealer account — Web-service access is a separate step from the account and is granted per dealer; ask for it when the account is activated. The catalog is large enough that a first full sync takes noticeably longer than for any other distributor.
- 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.