vendor

In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms refer to a supplier of any goods or service. Description A vendor is a supply chain management term that means anyone who provides goods or services of experience to another entity. Vendors may sell B2B (business-to-business; i.e., to other companies), B2C (business to consumers or Direct-to-consumer), or B2G (business to government). Some vendors manufacture inventoriable items and then sell those items to customers, while other vendors offer services or experiences. The term vendor and the term supplier are often used indifferently. The difference is that the vendors sells the goods or services while the supplier provides the goods or services. In most of business context, except retail, this difference has no impact and words are interchangeable. Typically vendors are tracked in either a finance system or a warehouse management system. Vendors are often managed with a vendor compliance checklist or vendor quality audits, and these activities can be effectively managed by software tools.