Osa Commerce
Updated October 9, 2025
A cohesive supply chain requires functional teamwork to avoid any pitfalls and meet consumer demands—every time. It encapsulates many moving parts to operate effectively, ensuring efficiency and resilience. Each supply chain partner must be aligned, cost-effective, and focused on delivering excellent products into customers’ hands. Everyone must work in unison to ensure quality and avoid bottlenecks down the chain.
But who are these key players and what are their roles? Understanding who the key players are, how their roles are evolving, and how they must collaborate is critical to building a resilient, high-performance supply chain. This guide will unpack each major stakeholder, their current challenges, and how technologies (AI, IoT, blockchain, and visibility platforms) are reshaping the ecosystem.
Manufacturers
Manufacturers are a central component of the supply chain, responsible for transforming raw materials into finished products. This process is part of the manufacturing supply chain, which includes all the steps that turn raw materials into goods ready for sale. Manufacturers are also responsible for managing their supply chain, which includes sourcing materials, coordinating with suppliers, and ensuring their products reach the right destination. Their efficiency and product quality directly affect the entire supply chain.
Role & Responsibilities
- Source raw materials, convert them into components or finished goods
- Maintain quality control, scale production, manage suppliers
- Forecast demand and align with supply planning
Challenges & Trends
- Raw material volatility, supply scarcity, ESG / sustainability pressures
- Pressure to circular models (recycling, remanufacturing)
- Need for digital twins, AI-driven predictive maintenance, smart factories
Best Practice Tip
A consumer electronics manufacturer using IoT sensors to predict machine failures can reduce downtime by 30%.
Distributors/Wholesalers
Distributors and wholesalers are key intermediaries in the supply chain, connecting manufacturers to retailers and consumers. A distributor typically buys products directly from a manufacturer and sells them to wholesalers or retailers, often working closely with the manufacturer to increase sales. Wholesalers, on the other hand, buy large quantities and varieties of products from manufacturers and sell them in bulk to retailers. While the line between the two can be fine, wholesalers often serve many retailers and offer a wider variety of products from various brands, while distributors may work with specific manufacturers and sometimes have exclusive agreements. Both operate in a business-to-business (B2B) context, supplying products to stores or online sellers rather than to the general public.
Distributors can also handle warehouse operations, product movement, and inventory management, and may even be responsible for customer support and post-sales tasks.
Role & Responsibilities
- Bridge between manufacturers and retailers (or sometimes brands)
- Hold buffer inventory, manage order fulfillment, rebalance stock
- Often handle cross-docking, consolidation, reverse logistics
Challenges & Trends
- Balancing inventory risk vs service levels
- Visibility into downstream demand
- Integrations with demand signals, real-time analytics
Best practice tips
- Use collaborative forecasting driven by AI and predictive analytics.
- Integrate with downstream partners, such as VMI (Vendor-Managed Inventory) or CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment), to reduce inventory bloating.
Logistics Providers
Logistics providers, specifically Third-Party Logistics (3PL) and Fourth-Party Logistics (4PL) companies, play a crucial role in managing the movement and storage of products within the supply chain.
The key difference between a 3PL and a 4PL lies in their level of involvement and control. A 3PL provider focuses on handling specific, day-to-day logistics operations such as warehousing, transportation, and fulfillment.
In contrast, a 4PL provider acts as a comprehensive manager of the entire supply chain. They oversee the entire process, including managing other logistics providers (including 3PLs), and take a more strategic, "hands-off" approach to daily operations. A 4PL typically offers a broader range of services, including an extensive network of warehouse and delivery partners.
Role & responsibilities
- Act as orchestrators connecting all many parts of the supply chain
- Transportation, warehousing, distribution, freight management, and inventory tracking
- 4PLs often oversee the entire logistics architecture (tech, operations, financials)
Challenges & Trends
- Managing fragmented networks, cost pressures, and sustainability (green logistics)
- Heavy integration, customizations, and end-to-end visibility
- Scaling last-mile while managing customer and consumer expectations
Best practice tips
- Embrace new, advanced technologies that provide real-time visibility for enhanced orchestration.
- Offer outcome-based contracts (SLAs, penalties & rewards) and track via your platform.
- Act as orchestrators connecting all parties.
Retailers
Retailers play a vital role in the supply chain by selling products directly to the public. This involves managing inventory and selling smaller quantities of goods to consumers. To be successful, retailers need to understand customer trends and preferences to determine the right products, pricing, and accessibility for their target audience. The retail supply chain encompasses the entire process from sourcing raw materials to final delivery to consumers, and it's essential for retailers to develop resilient supply chains to manage potential disruptions. This includes everything from physical goods to digital content, as a content supply chain is the process of creating and distributing digital assets to engage customers.
Role & Responsibilities
- Sell products to end consumers (online, brick-and-mortar, omnichannel)
- Optimize assortment, pricing, inventory allocation across channels
- Return management, customer experience
Challenges and Trends
- Seamless omnichannel experiences (buy online pick up in store, ship from store)
- Real-time inventory visibility, demand sensing, micro-fulfillment
- Personalization, same-day delivery, and sustainability
Best practice tips
- Work closely with logistics partners to gain visibility into inventory, orders, and delivery for full product lifecycle data.
Brands/Direct to Consumers (DTC)
Brands, like retailers, stock inventory to sell in smaller quantities to the public. Some brands are part of a larger entity, like how makeup company AERIN is under the Estee Lauder company. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are companies that sell their products directly to consumers, bypassing traditional retailers. Unlike retailers who sell products from many different brands, a DTC brand focuses on its own products, controlling all aspects of the customer experience from marketing to shipping. A good example of the difference between a retailer and a brand is Glossier versus Sephora.
Many DTC brands have personal relationships with their customers and gather valuable information to drive innovation and more focused marketing efforts—often leveraging digital channels to engage consumers. DTC brands have to be proactive in attracting consumers directly to their own channels rather than relying on a retailer's foot traffic.
Role & Responsibilities
- Own product identity, design, marketing, and often direct sales
- Sometimes bypass traditional retailers (pure DTC)
Challenges and Trends
- Scaling logistics, balancing brand-channel conflicts
- Technical complexity of omnichannel operations and integrations
Best Practice Tips
- Utilized Unified Commerce Platforms to better understand fulfillment, returns, and customer service
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics can help manage and oversee customer data, lifecycle, and margins
Which Key Stakeholder are You?
Each stakeholder in the supply chain plays a distinct—but interdependent—role. In today’s environment, siloed operations won’t suffice. The future is in orchestration, visibility, and resilience to ensure complete collaborative visibility.
Like many supply chain businesses, technology is paving the way for greater visibility between partners — from procurement to the doorstep. However, product visibility is only one part of this multifaceted journey. Data is the most important commodity for supply chain players looking to enhance customer satisfaction. From the moment a product is manufactured, stored, ordered, shipped, and possibly returned, data creates a lifecycle for every supply chain partner. Knowing how to capture that lifecycle is the most important step for today’s chains.
If you’re exploring how to improve alignment, integrate data more deeply, or adopt a unified visibility platform, we’d be happy to help you assess the gaps and build a roadmap tailored to your business.
So, is your business prepared to capture data from every supply chain player?
