Relationships of a Trade Organization with Suppliers: How to Achieve a Competitive Advantage

The article presents the author’s vision of supplier relationship management in the logistics system of a trade organization to ensure competitive advantages. Supplier selection is an actual and important stage in the implementation of procurement management functions. Effective management of this aspect of activity contributes to the establishment of ways of interaction with companies that provide logistics to the organization. Finding suitable suppliers and establishing long-term relationships with them can help companies provide customers with quality products and services at competitive prices and without interruption. The “right” suppliers will reduce the risks associated with instability in the supply chain. The authors have given a new interpretation of the term “Supplier relationship Management”. Supplier relationship management is decision-making to improve the ways of interaction in the procurement process between counterparties of trade and logistics activities. At the same time, the authors consider the effectiveness of interaction with suppliers in the procurement process as an internal competitive advantage. In addition, the authors identified the connection, commonality and difference between the concepts of “value chain” and “supply chain”. The work analyzed the stages of the procurement process, identified problems in the organization of procurement management. The results of the study and the proposed recommendations can serve as a basis for improving the organization and management of logistics, procurement activities of a trade organization to ensure competitive advantages. New parameters for determining the order of purchases, criteria for evaluating the supplier, and effective work on his choice will reduce costs, save on reducing the number of defects, etc. Research results: criteria have been developed according to which it is necessary to take into account: price, supply discipline, quality, payment terms, territorial remoteness, cooperation experience, satisfaction of complaints, order execution time; the algorithm of interaction between supplier and consumer in the supplier relationship management system is presented; new parameters for determining the procurement procedure and supplier evaluation criteria are defined.