how vendors work
a vendor also known as a supplier is a person or a business entity that sells something a vendor generally finds somewhere to purchase their goods and services after acquiring the necessary items the vendor markets and sells their wares through whichever method works best for them for example if it is a food truck the vendor ensures there are enough supplies to make items on the menu and feed an expected number of customers then drives to a target area and begins selling food some large retail store chains such as target and walmart generally have a list of vendors from which they purchase goods at wholesale prices in turn they then sell the goods at retail prices to their customers a vendor that supplies one of these large stores would need a much larger operation to plan for acquire and provide the goods and services they are contracted for many vendors act as business to business b2b sales organizations that provide parts of a product to another business to make an end product for example if your small business made widgets out of gadgets you d need to find vendors with all the gadgets you need you might find one vendor that has them all or would need to find multiple vendors to assemble your widgets in turn you could sell your widgets on an online retailer platform becoming a vendor yourself some vendors provide services for entities of all sizes and levels for example a human resources department of a large company might plan a holiday party for its employees many hire outside vendors to supply goods and services for the event sometimes the event is too large to be held in buildings owned by the business so the department must choose a location in which case the event space owner becomes a vendor when the area is reserved and the contract signed states require most vendors to be licensed if you re considering becoming a vendor or using one ensure you check with your state licensing office to learn about the requirements 2after that the human resources department reaches out to decorators which become vendors when they are hired to transform the event space into a themed party after the theme is implemented a catering company is contracted to provide food and beverages for the party when the company delivers its service it becomes a vendor to the company hosting the party types of vendorsthere are several types of vendors but in general they all fall into one or two of four categories special considerationsvendors are found throughout the supply chain which is the sum of all individuals organizations resources activities and technologies used to manufacture and sell a product or service the supply chain starts with the production and delivery of raw source materials it ends with the sale and final delivery of the product manufacturers and retailers try to eliminate as much of the supply chain as possible as they know that the final cost of a product increases with each link in the supply chain typically the supply chain consists of three parts a manufacturer a seller and a reseller or as they are more commonly known a retailer vendors can be cheaper than a traditional supply chain because some of the links in the chain are bypassed 