Often -,evcra l companies will be competing for sales and the m ar~et share.

A r ommon type is pPrformance competition, wh ere each compan ~ d oes its best to
\ \. in 0 1<,ton-.t:1 , l lec1d- lo-head competition is where a company w ill n o t_~nly seek
t,, d1> bc>ttc.r than it., opponen ts but w ill also try to prevent th ~ _competition from
pc•r form ing \\ ell. La rge companies may use p red a tory competition to assu re their
top p o ::,1 ti o1 1

Suppl ier
Suppliers are p a rty tha t supplies goods or services . A s up plier rr:ia ~ be I
di:, tingu is hed from a contractor or subcontractor, who commonly add s specialized
input to d eli verables. Also called vendo r.
Supplier, is a s upply chain man agement term that m eans anyone who
p rovides goods or services to a company or indiv iduals. A vendor often
manufactures inventoriable item s, and sells those items to a cu stomer.
Suppliers are individuals or businesses tha t prov ide good s or sen' ices to
vendors in return for the agreed upon compensation . As su ch, suppliers d o not
ge nerally interact w ith consumers directly, leaving th at task to vendors or shop
owners . It is n ot unusual for a supplier to provide volume discounts to vendors
w h en they agree to sign long-term contracts or place orders for large quan tities.
There are s uppliers found in just about any type of profession that can be
imagin ed . Wh olesale suppliers are very common in the retail ind us try, where
they are likely to m anufacture and deliver large quantities of pr oducts to their
clie nt. Su p ply companies a lso w ork in niche markets as w ell, s uch as importirlg
I
and exp or ting p ackaged food s, ethnic or cultural goods, or an y other r ange of
products tha t h ave a small but reliable demand. In general, exporters of this type
will handle all the details for shipment and delive ry to the vend or, and include the
associa ted costs in the final charges issued to the clien t.
One of the main strategies of sup plie rs is the creation of v olume discounts
for ve ndors w h o place orders for large quantities of a specific good or service. 1n
many cases, the discounts are s tructured as tiered p ricing . That is, the su pplier
will charge a fixed price p er unit if the order is for up to a tho u sand units, but
o ffer a specific discount if the orde r is for between 1001 and 2000 units . A higher
tier discount is applied if the orde r is b e tween 2001 and 3000 units, followed by an
even higher discount if the order is in the 3001 to 4000 unit range, and so on .
Some suppliers choose to make the discount a little simpler by applying a
fixed discount that applies to any order quantity over a certain number of units.
Other suppliers prefer to go with discounts issued to cus tomers w h o are w illing
to enter into contracts that feature a duration of two to fiv e years and commit
the vendor to ord~~ a minimum number of units between the b eginning d ate and
ending date specified on the contract. Should the vendor fail to p u rchase that
m inimum number of units during the life of the contract, the supplier has the
option o f going back and charging penalties of some type. ·
Sup p liers rarely rely simp ly on competitive pricing in order to secure steady
clients. Along w ith p rice, they also tend to strive for quality, an attractiv e range of
good s and services, q uick resp on se to cu stomer queries, and timely delivery of the
products once the orde r is placed .

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