Purchasing community
A purchasing community is a cooperation in the form of an association and thus a voluntary association of companies for the purpose of improving their profitability . Buying groups are particularly common in medium-sized retailers . By bundling demand, for example for energy procurement , the individual companies receive improved conditions.
Other terms are also used in the literature for the various forms of purchasing groups in retail, such as integrated trading system, cooperating trading system, trading cooperation, cooperating group, association group, purchasing association, purchasing office, purchasing association, purchasing company, purchasing pool or purchasing cooperative .
Basics
Basically there are two variants of purchasing groups on the market: On the one hand, the so-called pure purchasing groups or pools. And secondly, pure purchasing consultants. In some cases there are also providers who offer pool solutions as well as advice from a single source. However, purchasing associations, purchasing companies and purchasing consultants are not equally suitable for every company, which must be taken into account when making a selection. Every entrepreneur has to decide for himself how much “purchasing quality and depth” he wants.
A very simple way of optimizing purchasing costs at short notice can be to connect to a purchasing pool. The purchasing pool bundles the volume of several members and then negotiates conditions for the members of the purchasing pool on this basis. As a rule, the members of the purchasing pool are not obliged to make purchases, but can decide freely which condition agreements they want to use and which not. There are also other services such as operational purchasing advice, access to digital order and accounts payable management systems or central billing and reimbursement controls.
Depending on the affiliation of the cooperating companies to one or two economic levels or to different industries, purchasing groups are divided into horizontal, vertical and conglomerate cooperations. Horizontal buying groups connect z. B. exclusively retailers or wholesalers among themselves. Connections between wholesalers and retailers are called vertical collaborations. A special case is the horizontally designed purchasing cooperative of retailers. With their cooperative merger, a joint business operation arises at the wholesale level: the cooperative or the cooperative headquarters. The same applies to purchasing cooperatives of craftsmen, restaurateurs or freelancers.
From a macroeconomic point of view, purchasing groups are characterized by numerous competitive characteristics, e. B. through the simultaneity of intra- and inter-organizational individual and group competition. From this it follows that purchasing groups, like any other market participant, have to act in accordance with the conditions of the market and the provisions of antitrust and competition law in their business to cover their needs .
Origin and history
At the end of the 19th century, the competitive situation of small and medium-sized trading companies worsened due to the emerging competition from consumer cooperatives , department stores and branch operations. In order to be able to survive in the long term in competition, the procurement of goods was organized jointly, which lowered the purchase prices of the merchandise. The joint procurement of goods is still of central importance in the operation of purchasing groups.
The majority of purchasing groups were jointly supported by their members ( equity providers ). For this reason, purchasing groups initially chose the legal form of the cooperative (purchasing cooperative ). The cooperative law applies to them.
Since the beginning of the 1920s, purchasing associations have also been established in other legal forms or converted into others. As a result, numerous gradations and mixed forms have emerged that offer numerous other services in addition to joint purchasing .
Goals and tasks of purchasing groups
From a business point of view, purchasing groups represent network organizations whose areas of responsibility include the economization of procurement and internal work processes via internal economies of scale as well as the economization of sales through the progressive effects of sales policy instruments.
When fulfilling the economization in the member companies, purchasing groups address central company areas such as purchasing, marketing, human resources, financing and the legal area.
| Corporate division | service |
|---|---|
| Purchasing | Development of marketing concepts; Cooperative advertising and promotion; Comprehensive market information; Design of the point of sale; Creation of private labels ; Price policy coordination; Generation of a group corporate identity; Pre-structuring the range |
| Education and staff | Education and training; Recruitment; HR consulting |
| Finances | Consultation; Financing and raising capital; Delcredere; Factoring; Central settlement |
| Legal area | consultation |
| marketing | Development of marketing concepts ; Cooperative advertising and promotion; Comprehensive market information; Design of the point of sale; Creation of private labels; Price policy coordination; Generation of a group corporate identity; Pre-structuring the range |
Business effects of purchasing groups
Membership in modern purchasing groups has a positive effect on the risk situation of the member companies, especially when using central services in the areas of sales, management and controlling . A central financial controlling improves the financial conduct of members and the creditworthiness increases. In the context of information networking, merchandise management systems or the exchange of experiences between members, an early warning system is created that serves as the basis for a reduced risk of decision-making.
The strength of the economic effects is clearly related to the degree of cooperation of a company; with greater centralization , the positive effects also increase.
literature
- Klaus Barth: Business Administration in Retail. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 3-409-43326-0 .
- Jochen Oehler, Christian Buer: Power purchasing: power methods for successful purchasing management in the hotel industry . March 2017. ISBN 978-3875153125
- Christoph Grafe: Private labels from purchasing associations in the retail trade. Botermann, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-924361-99-1 .
- Hans-Peter Liebmann, Joachim Zentes, Bernhard Swoboda : Retail management. 2nd Edition. Vahlen, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8006-3539-9 .
- Rüdiger Maas: Procedure for developing internationalization concepts for (purchasing) cooperations in retail. Dissertation. University of Friborg 1999. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-631-35158-5 .
- Hans-Otto Schenk: The specifics of competition in retail and retail cooperation. In: Volker Trommsdorff (Ed.): Handelsforschung 2000/01. Yearbook of the FfH Institute for Market and Economic Research. Cologne 2001, pp. 173–198.
- Theresia Theurl : Association group membership and risk. Research project. CAWM Center for Applied Economic Research, Münster 2004. ( online access )