Archive for July, 2022

Many Oil Company downstream customers are making a fortune.

Friday, July 29th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

So, what happens when the price of oil goes back down, and the price of gas and diesel drop? What if you were not too careful about monitoring your current cost of goods and expense categories. I have no doubt all of your wholesale suppliers have told you that they have supply chain issues. It does not matter whether they really do or not, that is the excuse for raising your prices. So now you have to raise prices to your customer, and they are already hurting. I doubt there is a wholesaler with whom you do business that has not added to their uplift fees over the last two years. You know that percentage they add that covers the cost of their operations that are focused on you. I might have been 8% and is now 10% or even higher. It is easy to absorb when you are making money hand over fist on fuel sales.

Here is the thing, when the fuel benefit goes away and I will, your supplier costs will not drop, you will then have to resource every category you have like store supplies, cleaning services, lawncare and snow removal and all for resale products in order to claw back anything in the name of reduction of cost of goods costs and resulting gross margin improvement or expense items and net profit.

There are great companies out there that are doing both. It is not their fault that they are benefiting from fuel sales, but they still have a business to run, and they are doing it. Here are some things they have sourced this year at much lower costs than you might think possible.

  1. Lawncare
  2. Firewood
  3. Cleaning Services
  4. Bottled Water
  5. Waste Removal
  6. Construction Materials
  7. Rental Equipment
  8. Ice Programs
  9. Coffee
  10. Beer Caves
  11. Doors and Windows
  12. Facia
  13. Lighting
  14. Floor Tiles
  15. Ceiling Tile
  16. Many Proteins related Commodities

It is great when you are making a lot of money and can take your eyes off managing all of your profit centers, but the above examples are making smart companies improve margins and expense and they will continue to win, when things return to normal.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database has over 500,000 suppliers that can reduce your costs today. You are probably paying too much for about everything. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

Order/Demand Capture

Tuesday, July 26th, 2022

 

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

 What type of systems do your vendors and suppliers have in place in order to manage your specific contract utilization and demand once you have awarded them your business. Many large manufacturers may have the capability but what about regional and local suppliers, particularly in the mid markets. Maybe you should ask so you are not caught short. Read on to understand the questions to ask.

The order/demand capture systems obtain information about a specific customer order as it happens. The software aggregates and evaluates customer orders and calculates how much of what product should be made in the future.  There, the information received by these systems would be critical in order to improve the forecasting accuracy, fill rates, and customer satisfaction. If the amount of lost demand is significant, a company would become continuously out of stock of highly requested items, as purchases will never be forecasted to true demand.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database  requires our suppliers to adhere to multiple certifications and are vetted for the tools they use to support your buying habits. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

Travel Industry Forecast

Friday, July 22nd, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Patrick Quinn Sourcing Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

Despite the bleak economic forecasts blared in your face week after week, the world must keep turning. Though many industries might be seeing slowdowns, others are weathering the storm, and even seeing record growth.

Naturally, the travel industry has nowhere to go but up from its effective suspension in 2020 and travel related businesses have been making strides back to expected activity. According to polls, by the end of 2022, nearly two-thirds of Americans will have taken a trip for leisure, and 38% of those trips will be an international trip. The future looks even stronger, as half of Americans intend to take an international trip by the end of 2023 as well. In fact, a quality vacation is a priority over even new vehicles and home improvement projects!

SafeSourcing is an eProcurement offering a full suite of procurement tools. We strive to provide up to date information across multiple industries, and offer the tools to assist your business such as our SafeSourcing Wiki, and SafeSourceIt Global Suppliers Database. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

 

 

 

Prime Day Sale

Thursday, July 21st, 2022

 

 

Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Director of HR, and Administration at SafeSourcing

Amazon has been the powerhouse company for many different fields for the ten years and more with reaches into e-commerce, technology, digital streaming, artificial intelligence, and more. Recently Amazon launched its annual Prime day, where a significant amount of goods, services, and subscriptions are offered at small to large, discounted rates, but only for a short amount of time. It has been estimated that the most recent Prime Day brought in over $10b in e-commerce sales in just a short amount of time.

While perusing the vast Amazon site, exploring the deals that might be of the greatest use and value, I found that some items were discounted significantly (50-75% off normal prices!) but with price expiration of only 15 minutes. This instinctively triggered the urge to buy now before time expired, but reason kicked in and found that I, and likely many others, was acting exactly as planned by this sale for Prime day. The hope is that buyers will opt to buy now so the sale price is not lost, but this leads to zero time to think about the practicality of the purchase.

This use of psychological tactics in sales in nothing new. We often see the gimmick in our mail, with bold print and deadlines and exclusives to reassure the buyer that their product is the best value for buyers’ money. Another time your see this kind of marketing is during Black Friday Sales after Thanksgiving. Retailers use the holidays as a prime time to push their products using the same one day only sale to get people to buy before the sale ends, pushing the demand higher.

This kind of demand is seen in other industries as well. When the buyer gets to be the one setting the timer on sales, the sellers then complete for their business. This is something that benefits both buyer and seller and finding the right platform is easier than one might think. A procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, can be the expert guiding your company through finding the right suppliers and the right goods for your company’s needs, and having them put in the effort and earn your business while filling all the needs of everyone.

For more information on what the SafeSourcing team can offer you, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

http://safesourcing.com/ContactUs/tabid/60/language/en-US/Default.aspx

 

Food Industry Report

Thursday, July 14th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

How does your company keep abreast of the ever-changing industry landscape in our food industry? What are commodities doing, what are current supply issues and other trending information.

The Food Industry Report is a weekly report on food industry events relevant to producers. The Food Industry Report is written by The Food Institute, which is a nonprofit organization founded in 1928, The American Institute of Food Distribution’s (The Food Institute) purpose is providing information to better equip the food production industry and it’s practices. Below are three articles of interest from this week.

  1. Amazon’s Grubhub+ Offering Signals New Approach to Loyalty
  2. High Food Prices Could Persist for Three More Years
  3. Locavorism’ Trend Gaining Steam Despite Misconceptions

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. We endeavor to act as an additional source of industry information on our website with our SafeSourcing white papers, daily blogs, SafeSourcing Wiki. We also monitor daily Industry Updates and Alerts To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Sources: The Food Institute

Low-Cost Country Sourcing

Wednesday, July 13th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

Is there still such a thing as low-cost country sourcing? Let us hope the last couple of years is not the best example of how this is supposed to work. If so, you will have to not rely so heavily on sole source opportunities.

Low-Cost Country sourcing (LCCS) is a procurement strategy in which a company uses foreign companies with lower wages to produce resources for manufacturing. By finding companies countries with lower labor and production costs that operate on leaner budgets than domestic operations, a company may be able to acquire materials and reduce operational expenses. Low-cost country sourcing is a part of a company’s global sourcing strategy. It is also called outsourcing or international procurement organization (IPO).

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database of over 457,000 suppliers is your source for all EU, Pacific Rim and Americas supplier information. To learn more or have SafeSourcing assist you in your low-cost sourcing, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/low-cost-country-sourcing-LCCS.html#ixzz2BIrG7ujm

 

Humane Raised and Handled

Tuesday, July 12th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

When I drive across the country to visit our offices in Ohio, I pass many processing plants that are surrounded by thousands of cattle awaiting processing. I have even seen bulldozers in use. How are you sure that all is being done to insure the safe handling of our livestock resource? This may be particularly difficult because of the recent pandemic, but it is no less important for continuing humane treatment. Read on about this important program and be kind

The Humane Farm Animal Care was established to promote and administer its certification and labeling program, Certified Humane Raised & Handled, for meatdairyeggs and poultry raised under its animal care standards in the USA. It is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors and retains a Scientific Committee which includes scientists and veterinarians. The organization is endorsed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States.

The Certified Humane Raised & Handled program is an inspection, certification, and labeling program for meat, poultry, egg, and dairy products from animals raised under humane care standards. Some companies, like Wile Hog Farms, practice none of these. Therefore, some companies, like SafeSourcing, will exclude those companies from databases, events, or any kind of business.

Please visit www.certifiedhumane.org for more information.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database  requires our suppliers to adhere to several certifications including Humane Raised and Handled where appropriate.  To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Source: Wikipedia.com

 

Importers Self-Assessment Program (ISA)

Friday, July 8th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

How do you evaluate your vendor/supplier import partners? Sometimes it is interesting to compare your view to their own. The ISA is a voluntary program that you might suggest for your import partners.

ISA is a voluntary approach to trade compliance that originated from the passage of the Customs Modernization Act (Customs Mod Act) in 1993 as it ushered in an era of new partnership concepts between the importing community and the United States Customs Service (Customs and Border Protection – CBP). The program provides the opportunity for importers who have made a commitment of resources to assume responsibility for monitoring their own compliance in exchange for benefits. The ISA program offers benefits that can be tailored to industry needs and requires that importers demonstrate readiness to assume responsibilities for managing and monitoring their own compliance through self-assessment.

1 Purpose: The ISA program is built on the knowledge, trust, and willingness to maintain an ongoing Customs and Border Protection (CBP)/importer relationship that is mutually beneficial to both parties. CBP’s goal is to partner with importers who can demonstrate their readiness to assume the responsibility to manage and monitor their compliance through self-assessment. Importers who are accepted into the ISA program receive tangible benefits, while allowing CBP to re-direct valuable resources to focus on high-risk and unknown importers.

2 Background: The passage of the Customs Modernization Act (Customs Mod Act) in 1993 ushered in an era of new partnership concepts between the importing community and the United States Customs Service (Customs and Border Protection – CBP). Under the Mod Act, CBP and the importer share the responsibility for compliance with trade laws and regulations. The importer is responsible for using reasonable care when declaring the value, classification, rate of duty applicable to entered merchandise, and CBP is responsible for informing the importer of its rights and responsibilities under the law.

3 Program Overview: The ISA program is a voluntary approach to trade compliance. It is built on knowledge, trust, and a willingness to maintain an ongoing CBP/importer relationship. The ISA program offers meaningful benefits that can be tailored to industry needs and requires that importers demonstrate readiness to assume responsibilities for managing and monitoring their own compliance through self-assessment.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database holds import and supplier vendors accountable to 100’s of certifications. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

References: Http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/trade_programs/importer_self_assessment/isa_hb.ctt/isa_hb.pdf 

 

 

Event Review Time

Thursday, July 7th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

This is step six of the SafeSourceIt™ white glove project plan SaaS offering with the very first item being to Send Vendor Thank You and Customer Survey Links. The reason we return better results that anyone in our space is our thorough and well tested process.

The Event Review Time indicates how much time, beyond the close of the event, that the event host and sourcing partner reserve the right to re-open the event. Also known as the “validation period”, this time is used to review all the details of the event to ensure there were no technical difficulties and /or that the system accepted all quotes, as appropriate. The event review time requires each participant to be available, via telephone, during the event review time. If a participant has not heard from the sourcing partner within this time, then the event is considered closed. The results will be reviewed by the host, who will decide on the award of business.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ white glove project plan continually delivers savings more than 24% greater than you can achieve on your own. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

Organic Certification

Tuesday, July 5th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

So much has happened with local farming and so much sourcing is local. Are your local and national suppliers adhering to the same certifications.

An Organic Certification is given by National Organic Program (NOP) which is a USDA accredited agent. Each of these certifying agents is authorized to issue an Organic Certificate to operations that comply with the USDA organic regulations. The NOP is a regulatory program housed within the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. They are responsible for developing national standards for organically-produced agricultural products. The standards assure consumers that products with the USDA organic seal meet consistent, uniform standards.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database requires our suppliers to adhere to a number of certifications including Organic Certification.  To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Source: usda.gov