What is the difference between distribution and supply?

Answer 1

A supplier is simply someone that regularly sells certain goods to you. Usually goods that are used for the business, not sold by it. So someone that sells the raw materials to manufacture whatever you make. A business may buy office supplies from Office Depot. In that instance- Office Depot is their supplier for those goods.

A distributor is someone that sends the product to other resalers. So- this would be someone that buys from various manufacturers direct, then offers that product line, below retail but for a profit, to retail stores. Picture a distributor like the hub- and the stores that they distribute to like the spokes. They serve as a central source for products that a company would otherwise have to deal with several manufacturer's to obtain product from. For example: my wife worked as a purchasing agent for a pet store like Petsmart (it was called Premium Pet in CA). Their distributor for a large portion of the inventory was Central Pet. Central Pet bought products from dozens if not hundreds of different manufacturers but sell to the store. Makes it easier on the store's end to only deal with a few distributors rather than many many wholesalers.

A wholesaler is similar to a distributor but they may or may not buy from various manufacturers. They sell products at wholesale to other companies for retail. Costco might come to mind. A company that directly sells their product to retail stores may be a wholesaler.

You may or may not have to have a resale license for buying from a wholesaler, but typically you do from a distributor and you may need a business license- not necessarily a resale license- to buy from a supplier. Even when documentation isn't necessary, usually the quantities required for a minimum order or cost prohibitive to the "lay" public.

P.S. Distributor means something different when referring to direct sale marketing. Don't be confused by that. Entirely different ball game.