Compared to traditional wholesaling, the new wholesale system today has very different characteristics.

• Diversified ownership structure. Nowadays wholesalers can be incorporated as collectively-owned, individually-owned, private, joint-stock, and Sino-foreign equity or contractual joint venture. Among these, private wholesale enterprises are growing rapidly.
  
  
• Diversified players. Three types of enterprises have become key players in the wholesale sector: first, manufacturers which also act as wholesalers; second, former specialised wholesale enterprises which have developed into wholesale agents or wholesale dealers representing brands; and third, large supermarket chains and hypermarket enterprises which are commanding an increasingly larger share of the wholesale market.
  
  
• Diversified forms. There are four major forms of wholesaling: first, manufacturers which wholesale through agents or brokers, or directly wholesale to wholesalers and retailers by means of contract; second, wholesale marts which often deal in both wholesale and retail, they are currently a major wholesale channel for a wide variety of goods especially agricultural sideline products and certain daily-use industrial goods; third, trade fairs where wholesale transactions can take place, these fairs -- which can be general, specialised, national or regional in scale -- are becoming an important platform for wholesale transactions; fourth, online wholesale transactions.

Nowadays, wholesalers/distributors operate in tiers. For instance, a first-tier wholesaler supplies to a large number of second-tier wholesalers, and a second-tier wholesaler may deal with many third-tier wholesalers. Alternatively, a sole distributor may work with agents, or a sole agent may be appointed alongside a sole distributor. Hence, the wholesale chain can be rather long, involving a large number of intermediaries.

In terms of operation scale, level of development and efficiency, the mainland wholesale sector remains at an early stage of development. A typical wholesale mart in China is made up of rows of booths, has a relatively small operation scale, and hardly attracts any large-scale wholesaler. As China further liberalises its wholesale sector, the entry of large-scale foreign wholesalers is set to stimulate the development of the wholesale sector. Transforming the small-scale "sales booth" model into large-scale wholesaling is a development direction for the sector. Another growing trend is for general markets to develop along the lines of specialised, brand-driven markets comprised primarily of sole agents and sole distributors of domestic and foreign brands.