Suppliers refer to enterprises and their branches and individual industrial and commercial households that directly provide goods and corresponding services to retailers, including manufacturers, distributors and other intermediaries. Or "manufacturer", that is, an individual or legal person who supplies goods.

Suppliers can be farmers, production bases, manufacturers, agents, wholesalers (limited to level 1), importers, etc. Too many intermediate suppliers should be avoided. For example: secondary wholesalers, distributors, leather bag companies (profiteers), or companies run by relatives and friends.

It is not a new concept to put forward customer relationship management in logistics and procurement. The idea of relationship marketing has long been put forward in traditional marketing management, but the customer relationship under the supply chain environment is very different from the traditional customer relationship. In marketing, the customer refers to the user of the final product, and the customer here refers to the supplier, not the end user.

From the supplier's point of view, if JIT procurement is not implemented, due to the lack of cooperation with manufacturers, inventory and delivery batches are relatively large, and quality and demand cannot be effectively controlled. By establishing just-in-time purchasing strategy, the JIT idea of manufacturers is extended to suppliers, and the contact and cooperation between supply and demand sides are strengthened.

Under the open and dynamic information interaction, suppliers can quickly respond to changes in market demand and improve their adaptability. For manufacturers, by establishing cooperative relations with suppliers and implementing just-in-time procurement, the management level can be improved, the manufacturing process and product quality can be effectively controlled, the cost can be reduced, and the agility and flexibility of manufacturing can be increased.

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