In times of price pressure, specialized supplier listing platforms, SMEs and craftsmen are grouping together to make their purchases. The key to these group purchases is to save time, make undeniable savings and improve the quality of services for companies. Here's a closer look at pooled purchasing.
Practice on the rise
Purchasing groups have been around for several years, but the current economic climate has brought them to the forefront. Rising prices have prompted companies to optimize their purchasing management and cut costs.
The main aim of this strategy is to achieve economies of scale by negotiating more advantageous purchasing conditions with suppliers. Pooling purchases can also simplify the purchasing process, improve cost transparency and ensure greater consistency in the quality of products and services purchased.
Many companies have turned to this market, such as HA Plus PME, which offers its 33,000 members advantages and negotiated rates on the purchase of everyday products and services.
"This represents 250,000 companies using group purchasing," explains Anthony Streicher, founder of HA Plus PME, to Les Echos.
Alongside these companies specialized in sourcing and referencing suppliers, small and medium-sized businesses and craftsmen are grouping together to pool their purchases. This practice is becoming increasingly popular, whatever the size of the company.
Small businesses and craftsmen are seduced by group purchasing
Pooling purchases is gaining ground, including among SMEs and craftsmen. This is what 2,000 winegrowers in the Bordeaux vineyards have done to cope with the rising price of "dry materials".
" Before you've even put your wine in, it now costs a winegrower 1.20 euros per bottle, compared with 60 to 80 cents a few years ago," confirms Pierre Chollet, head of Enosens, an oenological consulting center based in Gironde.
At the Union générale des viticulteurs pour l'AOC Cognac, members are making the same observation. Since 2020, nearly 2,000 members have chosen to pool their trellis purchases (wire and stakes) via a collaborative purchasing platform based on Legroupeur software.
These approaches are also more common in the agri-food sector. In Brittany, for example, the Centrale d'achat des artisans alimentaires de l'Ouest boasts over 200 members, a quarter of whom have signed up in the last 12 months. For professionals, who are more interested in general products than strategic ones, this purchasing method enables them to gain 2 to 3% in margin and replenish their pro account. This practice is set to become even more widespread over the next few years.