Here's the deal... 99% of the time You can't compete directly. You'll loose your shirt. Or you just won't make very much $. There needs to be a reason that customers are going to come to you. And Not go direct. The first step is to understand your (potential) customer. 1. create an empathy map -here's a good resource- 2. Create a customer avatar It's a lot of work. And the two resources will get you started. But it's only a start. Once you do that - find your customer's "pain" Offer them a solution with a twist using your product. What can you offer that your manufacturer's can't? You say you have experience in the industry. How about positing yourself as an expert? Offer your customer a guide to home security. become the expert. Then after you create a relationship with the customer offer a solution. the solution has to really work for the customer - you need to have their best interests in mind. Do that and you'll have the start of a successful business. Cheers, Nick P.S. Shoot me an email and i'll share some more resources that are uber helpful This post was edited to remove links. Please review our Community Best Practices for more information about how best to participate in our online discussions. Thank you.

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Can you make an agreement (legal and in writing) with the distributors that
in order to carry their product, you must have exclusive rights to a certain
territory, such as within 50 miles of your address. If they receive an
inquiry from someone in that area, they would refer the person to you. They
may not initially agree, since this would limit their income, but their
income would be even more limited if you choose not to carry their product if
they continue to compete against you. Another option is to look for
manufacturers/distributors who do not directly compete with their retailers.

Oh thanks for your reply. It seems I did not explain my question clearly
enough. I'm not a manufacturer. I'm an online retailer. Since I do not have
direct access to manufacturers, I have to source products from distributors.
But these distributors are selling both wholesales to retailers and also
directly selling directly to consumers. So my question is how to deal with
this type of situation.

Your distributors I'm assuming are making YOU money...right? So, why does it
matter if they are competing against you? The more they sell, the more you
can make. Maybe I'm not understanding your question completely???