Supplier vs. Vendor - What is the difference?

[Randy]

In Reply to Parent Post by paciffic

what is the difference between a supplier and a vendor

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[Wes Bucey]

"supplier" as the generic term instead of "vendor" really came into vogue once organizations started considering in-house suppliers also needed to be graded the same way as outside vendors. Previously, "if it was made here, it was sacrosanct and no one could question quality, delivery time, real, calculated cost in place, etc."

As a famous playwright once wrote, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet”

William Shakespeare
Of course, Gertrude Stein famously wrote, "rose is a rose is a rose" - I was never quite sure if she was having a Zen moment or merely twitting Shakespeare

[Rob Nix]

I arose to the smell of rows of roses. And, Moses supposes his toeses are roses... But the question is, did I get the rose from a vendor or a supplier.

I supposes a supplier does not imply payment (as in Wes' internal provider of parts), whereas a "vendor" means "seller".

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter.

[j8h9x]

From a business sense, there is a distinction, as I see it, between Vendor and Supplier.

A supplier provides products/services to customers or business. My business may have multiple suppliers of computer hardware. I may purchase hard drives, for instance, from two different suppliers. These hard drives may be my different manufacturers. The vendor is the actual manufacturer of the hard drive. My warranty will be carried by the vendor.

Another example. CDW, NewEgg, Best Buy all sell Microsoft software--they are suppliers. Microsoft is the vendor.

[Jim Wynne]

In Reply to Parent Post by j8h9x

From a business sense, there is a distinction, as I see it, between Vendor and Supplier.

A supplier provides products/services to customers or business. My business may have multiple suppliers of computer hardware. I may purchase hard drives, for instance, from two different suppliers. These hard drives may be my different manufacturers. The vendor is the actual manufacturer of the hard drive. My warranty will be carried by the vendor.

Another example. CDW, NewEgg, Best Buy all sell Microsoft software--they are suppliers. Microsoft is the vendor.

Welcome to the Cove, j8h9x.

That's a distinction I've never run into before. Usually the manufacturer is referred to as the manufacturer (or sometimes, with software, the developer) or as the OEM. BTW, it appears that Microsoft refers to its suppliers as "vendors."

Nonetheless, if a making a distinction is useful, and everyone who needs to understand the difference does understand, it doesn't matter much.