What does a vendor do?
A vendor's role is to sell goods and services to individuals, business entities, and stores. It is their responsibility to maintain the supply flow of products, coordinate with business partners, and maintain positive relationships with customers to strengthen the client base. As a vendor, it is vital to ensure that the products adhere to quality standards, monitor inventory, and implement deliveries to various stores. There are also instances where a vendor must advertise products on different platforms to improve brand awareness and boost sales.
Vendor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real vendor resumes:
- Attain prime floor display space and provide point of sale (POS) signage.
- Handle various tasks from cashier, managing supply and back-stock, responsible for ordering merchandise for cereal department.
- Work directly with local and national retailers to negotiate sales, places orders, and manage deliveries of wine and spirits.
- Operate hand-held and truck mount RF scanning guns.
- Stock home depot trees and keep it looking organize.
- Have also work in the depot loading bread and cake trucks overnight
- Work the register, assist customers, bag groceries, build displays, stock the produce and perishable items
- Serve and assist customers, work on the cash register, stock groceries and opening and closing the store.
- Conceive and build new employee-only, retail store concept, including planning, analysis, design, project management and merchandising.
- Stock grocery shelves -Delivered groceries within community -assist customers -conduct quarterly inventory -maintain store cleanliness
- Collaborate with board members to prepare PowerPoint presentations and other written reports and present concepts to management.
Vendor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 26% of Vendors are proficient in Product Knowledge, Customer Service, and Stock Merchandise. They’re also known for soft skills such as Math skills, Selling skills, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Vendors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Product Knowledge, 26%
Conducted training and product knowledge classes; demonstrating to customers and employees of Home Depot.
- Customer Service, 26%
Increased company profit by up-selling, while maintaining customer satisfaction through an exceptional level of customer service.
- Stock Merchandise, 9%
Stock merchandise within the store: assigned product do to the account for that job.
- Purchase Orders, 5%
Maintained communication with Project Vendor representatives on Purchase Order agreed to document contractual deadlines and the return of marked-up documents.
- End Caps, 5%
Install and rearrange shelving to build end caps to display merchandise for the customer.
- Excellent Guest, 5%
Provided excellent guest service and customer relations * Insured supplies adequately stocked * Responsible for operating cash register
Most vendors use their skills in "product knowledge," "customer service," and "stock merchandise" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential vendor responsibilities here:
Math skills. The most essential soft skill for a vendor to carry out their responsibilities is math skills. This skill is important for the role because "retail sales workers must have the ability to calculate price totals, discounts, and change owed to customers." Additionally, a vendor resume shows how their duties depend on math skills: "provide guests with in-seat customer service handle cash transactions perform quick mental math give directions and offer assistance to guests when asked"
Selling skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling vendor duties is selling skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "retail sales workers must be persuasive when interacting with customers." According to a vendor resume, here's how vendors can utilize selling skills in their job responsibilities: "worked with the department store management to ensure product is consistently selling. "
Interpersonal skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of vendors is interpersonal skills. This skill is critical to many everyday vendor duties, as "a friendly and outgoing personality is important for these workers because the job requires almost constant interaction with people." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "provided excellent customer service using excellent interpersonal skills"
Customer-service skills. A big part of what vendors do relies on "customer-service skills." You can see how essential it is to vendor responsibilities because "retail sales workers must be responsive to the wants and needs of customers." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical vendor tasks: "act as liaison between vendors and store management, also between vendors and customers. "
The three companies that hire the most vendors are:
- Regions Bank54 vendors jobs
- Splunk20 vendors jobs
- Aramark16 vendors jobs
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Compare different vendors
Vendor vs. Retail specialist
A retail specialist is primarily in charge of securing sales and assisting customers on a sales floor, ensuring to meet the daily sales targets and client satisfaction. Their responsibilities include greeting clients and answering inquiries, locating products, offering recommendations and promotions, and processing payments. They may also address issues or concerns, resolving them promptly and professionally. Furthermore, as a retail specialist, it is essential to maintain the cleanliness of the sales floor and arrange displays properly to attract customers.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, vendor responsibilities require skills like "stock merchandise," "purchase orders," "end caps," and "excellent guest." Meanwhile a typical retail specialist has skills in areas such as "retail environment," "store associates," "dependability," and "hudson." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Retail specialists tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $37,027. In contrast, vendors make the biggest average salary, $51,084, in the manufacturing industry.The education levels that retail specialists earn slightly differ from vendors. In particular, retail specialists are 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a vendor. Additionally, they're 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Vendor vs. Merchandising representative
Merchandising representatives are professionals who are responsible for providing point-of-purchase and shelf management services to produce sales. These representatives are required to plan and develop merchandising strategies so that they can balance the expectations of customers and the organization's objectives. They must maintain store shelves and display products appropriately so that they can maximize the interest of customers and sales levels. Merchandising representatives must also analyze sales figures, the reactions of customers, and market trends to anticipate their product needs and plan product stock.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, vendor responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "purchase orders," "end caps," "excellent guest," and "alcoholic beverages." Meanwhile, a merchandising representative has duties that require skills in areas such as "little supervision," "plan-o-grams," "working independently," and "sales associates." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, merchandising representatives earn a lower salary than vendors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, merchandising representatives earn the most pay in the manufacturing industry with an average salary of $32,143. Whereas vendors have higher pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $51,084.In general, merchandising representatives achieve similar levels of education than vendors. They're 0.4% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Vendor vs. Door to door sales person
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a vendor is likely to be skilled in "stock merchandise," "purchase orders," "end caps," and "excellent guest," while a typical door to door sales person is skilled in "product samples," "door-to-door sales," "sales," and "security systems."
Doors to doors sales person typically earn similar educational levels compared to vendors. Specifically, they're 1.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Vendor vs. Newspaper carrier
Types of vendor
Updated January 8, 2025
