As savvy online shoppers are aware, yesterday was the day of bargain-hunting bliss the e-commerce world has coined ‘Cyber Monday’. Falling the Monday after Thanksgiving, this day of post-holiday discounts from online retailers reports higher and higher revenue figures each year, with US sales for 2013 expected to hit $2 billion.
And it’s not just America celebrating: Cyber Monday is fast becoming an international diary date, in recent years being marked in the UK, Ireland, China and Canada.
As Paul Teague of Procurement Leaders perceptively puts it, ‘[i]t’s a day when virtually every consumer becomes a [chief procurement officer], meticulously planning buying strategy, even to the point of assigning regions (specific stores) and categories (specific products) for family members to manage.’
This moonlighting of the average consumer as a strategic buyer (of sorts) reminds us that many fundamentals of procurement are based on a common-sense approach. Teague uses his Cyber Monday reflection as an opportunity for us to re-learn four valuable procurement lessons:
– Beware inferior products. Sometimes cheaper products – from online retailers or from potential supplier partners – are that price for a reason.
– Mind the Ts and Cs. With online purchasing as with supplier sourcing, pay full attention to the small print.
– Ignore phony deadlines. Is this really the one-time offer it claims to be?
– Do the math. Use logic rather than letting the discount-led emotional reaction triumph.
Read this enjoyable Procurement Leaders piece in full here.
