Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) are a great way to save money on everything from coffee and office supplies to home appliances. If you’re looking for a way to save money on supplies, GPOs might be the perfect solution.
In fact, GPOs have been saving consumers an estimated $1 billion dollars every year for decades. So if you want to take advantage of these savings, then it’s time to stop paying retail and start shopping wholesale.
Here are just a few of the many reasons why joining a GPO is beneficial:
1. Savings
Since a GPO is able to negotiate better prices through volume buying, its members can take advantage of lower costs and greater savings when they buy from approved suppliers. People who know what is a group purchasing organization stands to gain a lot in terms of savings. Many have been known to save 50 percent or more on items that would be considered luxury items outside the scope of their services.
While many group purchasing organizations focus solely on office supplies and other related products, some larger ones include home appliances such as refrigerators, washers and dryers, air conditioning units, hot water heaters, heating systems, and lighting equipment. Other products associated with these types of savings are tires for cars and trucks; household cleaners; hospital linens; medical equipment including wheelchairs, oxygen supplies, diabetic testing supplies, and more.
Some GPOs are even responsible for negotiating lower prices on pharmaceuticals for their members. This may not seem like much initially, but when you consider all the group’s members represent over 30 million people, that adds up to huge savings for tens of millions of Americans.
2. Networking
Joining a GPO is also an important step in building your professional network of contacts. You can gain access to over 30 million buyers and suppliers who use the group purchasing organization to make deals and save money.
While these established relationships can be invaluable to any business, they are especially beneficial for smaller companies that don’t have the same buying power as larger corporations. For example, since you can buy office supplies at a much cheaper price from a supplier that has been approved by a GPO, it gives your business more capital to invest in other aspects of running your company such as research and development or expansion into new markets.
3. Accessibility
Many people have trouble finding what they want on their own because it can sometimes take a lot of searching to discover the best prices and the most reputable suppliers. Joining a GPO saves you that time because they do all the legwork for you, gathering information on new products, taking note of supplier discounts, and keeping track of prices so that your company doesn’t have to spend unnecessary amounts of time doing these tasks.
The efficiency of group purchasing organizations is another reason why it makes sense to join one. You can save yourself valuable time by delegating these responsibilities to someone else, which allows you to focus on more important tasks, such as planning events or monitoring business goals.
4. Convenience
Another advantage to joining a GPO is increased convenience because you don’t have to spend time searching for the best deals on supplies you need. A GPO does all that legwork for you, and can even help your business avoid common problems such as overpaying or not getting what you ordered at all.
Not only does this save a ton of time, but it also saves money usually about two-thirds of the cost you would normally pay if you were buying from an individual supplier. In other words, members save more than $100 million annually by simply switching from retail purchases to group negotiated prices.
5. Greater Access
In addition to saving hundreds of millions each year, joining a GPO grants you or your business greater access to products and services from several suppliers that are part of the organization. Since suppliers are encouraged to meet the needs of GPO members, they often offer exclusive discounts in an effort to attract more customers.
This not only saves you money, but it also saves you time because when you qualify for special pricing or rebates with certain suppliers, this means that you do not have to go out and research how to take advantage of these incentives. Your group purchase organization has already done this for you, so all you have to do is reap the rewards.
6. Price Accuracy
When you buy through a GPO, you don’t have to worry about pricing errors because the buying company does not sell products at retail. There are no cashiers or check-out counters, so you don’t have to wait in long lines, either. This is one of the main reasons why companies save time by using GPO services because nobody likes waiting in line for thirty minutes just to pay for an item that costs less than twenty bucks.
By allowing a group of people or businesses to purchase items or services together, a Group Purchasing Organization makes it easier for you to get better prices on supplies and other items your business needs without sacrificing quality. The GPO staff consists of experts who regularly monitor suppliers’ prices, terms, conditions, and product availability so that members can be assured that the prices they’re paying are as low as possible.
7. Product and Service Availability
Group purchasing organizations also make it easier for businesses to buy a wider range of products and services since you can purchase things like major medical, legal, accounting, and car rentals through your GPO as well as other supplies as indicated above.
It is recommended that members join at least two or three GPOs which allows them to take advantage of product assortments from other suppliers, which in turn makes it easier to acquire any items they need without having to go out and search for different group buying organizations on their own.
If you want even greater access, consider joining more than two or three GPOs because as a bonus to saving money by taking advantage of group buying, you will also have access to a wider variety of products and services as well as items that you might not have been able to purchase on your own.
8. Better Communication
When you join a GPO, it becomes easier for you to network with other businesses as well as suppliers, which allows you to build stronger business relationships. Members often develop contacts through trade events organized by Group Purchasing Organizations, so if your organization does not host such events, perhaps you should think about joining one that has a track record of putting together successful trade shows and expos.
Keep in mind that the best GPOs put on activities like these as well as webinars and seminars which allow members to network with other businesses without having to leave the comfort of their office or homes.
Joining a Group Purchasing Organization can be beneficial for different reasons. Many of which have been discussed in this article. The bottom line? Joining a GPO could potentially help reduce costs while increasing the quality of life at work by making your business more efficient!