Make Sourcing Your Competitive Advantage
PurchTips edition #289
How Can Your Sourcing Be More Valuable?
Companies have begun to mention their sourcing practices on their packaging to make their products more attractive to customers. This is a trend that is one of the best things to ever happen to procurement – it gives you the opportunity to be viewed as one of the most valuable contributors to your organization’s success. Here are four sourcing options that your organization may consider to be a competitive advantage:
Sourcing Locally/Domestically. Some consumers prefer products that support local businesses or that invoke a sense of patriotism. If you can find the best – or an equal-to-the-best – supplier in your city or country without inflating the price that your organization would have to charge, that can help your organization have a competitive advantage.
Sourcing Ethically. Some consumers want to know that harm is not imposed on others in order to have access to the product or service for which they are exchanging their money. Therefore, organizations develop ethical sourcing standards to keep their supply chains free from unsafe working conditions, use of child labor, and other unsavory practices in order to appeal to those consumers as well as to simply “do what’s right.”
Sourcing Sustainably. An increasing number of consumers want to ensure that their purchases are not detrimental to the environment. In many cases, you have the option to purchase materials that support environmental sustainability through suppliers’ commitment to reforestation, biological diversity conservation, use of recycled materials, and more. By choosing more environmentally-friendly options, you help your organization appeal more to these consumers.
Sourcing Competitively. Of course, many consumers still choose to buy one product or service instead of others for one reason – because it is the lowest priced option available. That’s not to say that is how those consumers should shop, only that it is a fact that they do. An organization’s ability to compete based on lowest price is constrained by the cost of the product or service. Reducing costs without giving your organization’s products or services a sales-killing disadvantage remains a valued aspect of procurement and a way of keeping your organization’s products and services attractive.
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