Chances are your business entails a lot of supply of raw materials or stock inventory that you in turn sell to your customers. Smart purchasing can lead to great success and good profits for your business. So here are our top tips to purchasing;
Chances are your business entails a lot of supply of raw materials or stock inventory that you in turn sell to your customers. Smart purchasing can lead to great success and good profits for your business. So here are our top tips to purchasing;
First know exactly all you need in terms of raw materials to make the finished product or the variety of goods you will have in stock. Draw up a list of all the items and differentiate them by seasonal, varieties etc.
A second best practice is to start scouting for potential suppliers, choose the best with these selection criteria; price, quality, delivery mode, delivery times, and then resolve to pick out the best supplier or suppliers you can work with.
Next up create and maintain a close relationship with your suppliers. A good relationship with your suppliers can act as a competitive edge for your business. Imagine that a toy manufacturer has a hot selling product; the manufacturer could easily sell more of the product than it can make. So it puts the product on allocation, limiting how much any particular retailer can buy. Often allocated products go only to the large retailers, but even a small seller with a good relationship could buy them too and sell.
Finally, continuously be on the lookout for alternatives, be it best price, quality or other supplier incentives. Look at what your competitors are doing and where they are sourcing their own inventory from as that could point you in the right direction or even push up your negotiation terms with a supplier.
Author: Chinwe Azikiwe
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