Online procurement can mean never using your lunch hour to shop for supplies again. Online procurement means you can select 401(k) plans without so much as a single vendor meeting.

The one sure thing: whatever you want, you can get online—from paper clips to insurance plans. Some sites funnel hundreds of products and services into single Web storefronts, like electronic clearinghouses. Others tempt shoppers by offering a chance to save money through online bidding and bargaining.

Here are a few sites where savvy business shoppers can pick up furniture, time card services, insurance, HR forms, advice, and yes, traditional office supplies, without leaving the computer screen.

The Heavyweights Weigh In: Office Superstores and Online Superstars
Brick and mortar giant, Office Depot has taken its business online. Headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, there are over 1,000 Office Depot stores operating in thirteen countries. Office Depot also owns Viking Office Products, one of the largest direct mail marketers of office products. Like other office superstore sites, OfficeDepot.com sells software and sticky notes next to services such as direct mail, online meetings, book keeping services, and Internet postage.

Shopping on Office Depot’s site is easy, thanks to three new specialized stores— Ink Depot and Tech Depot—located on top of its homepage. In contrast to the advice articles offered by the competition, Office Depot offers a complete Small Business Handbook and myriad downloadable free forms to manage your interactions with OSHA, Workers Comp, and even your own employees. This site can also be accessed in Spanish as well.

Headquartered in Ohio, OfficeMax stocks both the traditional and specialty office accoutrements, housed online and in its stores. Besides copy paper and fax machines, OfficeMax sells business services including human resources and financial services, framing, wireless phone and internet plans, and printing under its CopyMax link. Guaranteed the best value, OfficeMax offers its customers a 115 percent low price guarantee within 14 days on most items, up to $55. Another guarantee swears that customers will find the ink and toner they need in stock. If not, they will get it delivered free with a $10 discount, or they’ll get a compatible or remanufactured cartridge immediately with a $10 discount. Most orders over $50 also receive free delivery.

Founded in 1986, Staples, Inc. is also busy building both online revenue and the familiar customer pull of its stores. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based chain provides similar business services, copy capabilities, and a wide array of office supplies to consumers at competitive rates. The online site also offers access to direct mail lists, and expert help in business areas, such as marketing, legal, and more. Through its Favorite Items link, shoppers can save a list of products that they buy most often for future use.

Staples stands out with savings and rewards for businesses. With the exception of customized computers, all Staples orders over $50 are shipped free, most often within 24 hours. The site has a Clearance Center with great bargains in many categories, and a Rebate Center with additional offers. Staples offers an in-stock toner guarantee that matches OfficeMax’s. Staples 365 Savings ensures that any day you shop, you’ll save with a 110 percent price-match guarantee. Staples Business Rewards are a free and easy way to save more on essentials every time you shop. Business Rewards benefits include up to 2-1/2 percent back on purchases received as a quarterly reward check and 20 percent back in your rewards check when you spend $50 or more at the Staples Copy & Print Center. Gold status is granted when you spend $1,000 with you rewards card in one year, granting you up to 5 percent back, plus free delivery.

Strictly-Click Vendors
Amazon.com is widely regarded as a consumer site. But inside the Amazon jungle lives a good amount of standard supplies and equipment at prices that rival the top dogs in office supplies. Amazon’s prowess at e-business is evident in screen design, navigation niceties, and price comparison listings.

Founded in 1995, eBay has established itself as the World’s Online Marketplace. Shoppers can bid on more than 16 million items from 27,000 different categories, 24-hours a day. In 2002, members transacted nearly $15 billion in gross merchandise sales (GMS). To meet with the growing demands of small businesses, last year eBay launched its new eBay Business Marketplace. More than 500,000 business-related listings are brought together on this new site, from office technology like computers and furniture, to equipment and supplies for vertical markets such as foodservice, laboratories, and commercial printers. EBay Business shoppers can also bid on wholesale lots across a broad range of categories, from electronics to apparel to toys. Marketplace services such as PayPal online payments, shipping services, transaction insurance, and volume selling tools add ease to the buying and selling process.

Officially the world’s most trafficked Internet destination, Sunnyvale, CA-based Yahoo!, Inc. is an optimal site to visit for developing and marketing your small business. Launched in December 2002, the company’s targeted Yahoo! Small Business site makes a business of backing SMBs through their entire online experience. In a four-step system, Yahoo! Small Business helps companies get online, sell online, market online, and manage online. E-Biz Strategies for Small Business Success has found that 65 percent of small businesses do not have a business Web presence.

Holding the number two market position as a provider of shared-hosting services, Yahoo! Web Hosting enables companies to gain access to a domain, email, and a site with remarkable ease of use. Yahoo! Vice President and General Manager Rich Riley tells us that since the launch of Yahoo! Web Hosting, the company has seen an average order increase of over 30 percent a day. In March 2003, PC Magazine rated the hosting product with four out of five stars.

With over 237 million unique visitors per month, Yahoo! is a strong source for setting up e-commerce and marketing your company with all services under one roof. Other offerings for SMBs include accounting, recruiting, and payroll tools. Riley shared his excitement options launching recently, including a Sitebuilder tool for simplified creation of non-cookie cutter sites and Yahoo! Merchant Solutions—three new e-commerce packages with extra increased functionality.

New Order of Business
Established in 1999, AllBusiness boasts a rich history in providing products and resources to small and growing businesses. Offering thousands of business and office products, AllBusiness also gets high marks in the free advice category. It offers a hearty selection of free forms, thousands of articles, and advice.

Twelve-year-old Massachusetts company BuyerZone.com went online in 1997. It grew from an offline research firm that created buyers guides focused on providing business to business products and services for small to medium-size companies. "Owners and CEOs (of small businesses) are not purchasing experts, and they need help in purchasing everything from 401(k) plans and insurance to phone systems and computers," explains Sam Zales, BuyerZone.com president. "We quickly realized the Internet was the perfect vehicle to deliver services to small businesses, and for them to be a more effective purchaser of products and services necessary to operate."

Finding an important niche as middleman between small to medium-sized business (SMB) customers and large suppliers, BuyerZone.com abandoned its catalog and direct purchase business in 1999. The company re-positioned itself as an essential link to current business information and an effective tool for browsing for the best price. In September 2002, the company was awarded the prestigious Deloitte and Touche "Technology Fast 50" honor of New England.

Taking advantage of more than 100,000 hours of research BuyerZone has spent compiling buyers guides, services, and targeted information, business owners can research relevant market and product content on the site. The site provides useful guides for people starting a new business, checklists for moving your office, and more. Their bi-weekly newsletter gives 100,000 subscribers updates on new products, tips, and offers.

BuyerZone’s Request for Quote (RFQ) service allows customers to receive competitive bids from multiple companies for products from 115 categories. National suppliers who meets their needs from a list of 15,000 brand name vendors send bids—usually within the same day. RFQ offers a local supplier network, giving SMB owners access to regional vendors, while giving the suppliers inroads to the SMB market. BuyerZone.com’s revenue has grown dramatically over the last few years, with over half a million RFQs processed monthly.

While the competitive bidding nature of the site is designed to save up to 15 percent in spending, Zales says, BuyerZone.com saves shoppers time, as well. Purchasing a high-end product or service like a copy machine or a group health insurance policy might take a typical executive 30 to 40 hours. Zales believes BuyerZone’s RFQ service can reduce the time involved in the shopping experience to 30 percent. "What we've done is streamlined process," he says. "We are helping the small businesses become efficient because we've got a one-stop solution."

Headquartered in Seattle, Onvia.com, Inc., gives access to opportunities from more than 50,000 government agencies, delivering bid notices, proposal requests, and contracting opportunities customized to specific industries and locations.

Collective Bargaining and e-Bartering
Think online procurement is all about speed? At bartering and bargaining sites, good things come to those who are willing to wait.

Other sites are offering shopping comparison features, including NexTag.com and PriceGrabber.com. Available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, PriceGrabber offers free, unbiased comparative information on over three and a half million products. Shoppers can review manufacturer details on tens of thousands of products, find the best competitive pricing, and browse reviews and details about the stores selling the items on PriceGrabber. Pamela Swartwood, Communications Manager for PriceGrabber, states that, "By aggregating information about product costs (including shipping and tax), businesses can be sure they are paying fair prices on all office and computer products."

NexTag.com boasts over five million unique monthly users. Their comparison-shopping engine also offers total price including tax and shipping, store ratings, product reviews, and photos.

Warehouse Clubs Are Jumping Online
The wholesale club concept, wildly popular through the mid-eighties and mid-ninety’s, is just beginning to make its mark in the plugged-in shopping community. Industry leaders Costco and Sam's Club (a division of Wal-Mart) are offering online commerce and targeted features for businesses, while BJ’s Warehouse has yet to step away from its brick-and-mortar business.

Now the sixth largest retailer in the United States, Costco offers its online shoppers credit card and payroll processing, health insurance, medical savings cards, new small business loans, and retirement plans. For some West Coast orders over $250, customers receive next-business-day deliver from their local store. Although the economy seems to be in a lull, the company’s net sales for fiscal year 2003 were up 10 percent over the prior year.

Sam’s Club is making headway with online options focused on convenience and savings. The popular Click ‘n’ Pull online feature allows members to shop their local club’s inventory from their home or business and pick up merchandise at the warehouse within three business days of order confirmation with orders $50 and over. Sam’s Club Auction link gives shoppers the opportunity to bid on thousands of items, 24-hours a day, very often to make purchases at below cost. Customers can also request that they be alerted, through the Plunging Prices feature, when auction prices make last minute drops. Sam's Club offers credit processing, custom imprinted merchandise, payroll processing, retirement plans, postal meters, and live online customer service chats. Additionally, convenient in-store shopping hours are available for business members.

Spotlight on Service
Staples.com leverages its physical store locations for customers who need to return any online purchases. The company also picks up returns, so customers avoid the hassle of making arrangements for a third party to deliver returned merchandise. OfficeMax.com also allows customers to return items purchased online to any OfficeMax store for credit.

Many online retailers offer free shipping on orders over an indicated dollar amount, and often run weekly specials, provide manufacturer and store rebates, and host private sales for frequent shoppers.

Service-oriented how-to articles on business topics are a popular ploy to keep customers at a site longer, and coming back for information when new buying needs surface. Other sites also offer informative content designed to assist online purchasers.

Even better, free forms abound online. Users can find forms and tools like cash flow budget worksheets, present value tables, and sample collection letters, as well as sample HR policies on smoking and sexual harassment.

The mother of all libraries lives on the AllBusiness site, which offers over 2,000 articles, forms, agreements, solutions, and services. "The Free Forms section is one of the most popular areas of the site. At one point we considered charging for them, but we decided that they satisfied a core customer need at a relatively low incremental cost to us," says AllBusiness’ VP of marketing, Tom Bennett. "We're looking to make the customer more comfortable engaging in more complex, pay transactions on the site," he says.

"I had to buy a tape refill for a label maker last week, something I’d never bought before. I looked online for it, found the tape I needed for that model, then bought it at the Staples down the road," Hightower said. There are two OfficeMax stores and one Staples store within five miles of his office.

Elizabeth Brent, owner of Sweet Dream Booties, has sold her handcrafted fleece and wool booties from Idaho into Australia, British Columbia, and Holland. Brent emphasizes the importance of the Internet for small businesses. "Without it, I am limited to a small rural area and market," she says. At the same time, she has a strong preference for shopping locally when she can. Yet, "I do buy a lot of fabric online," she says, largely because of the selection available. She recently made a major purchase online. "I bought a new sewing machine at AllBrands.com. I saved $600! I like to shop locally, but that was just too much (savings) to ignore," she says.

Baisden and Zales agree that site design, product offerings, and customer service terms are always under review. BuyerZone.com keeps on top of its performance through ongoing buyer surveys in market research. "Any company that's trying to win in the Internet marketplace needs to survey customers to find out what they're doing well, and what they can do better," Zales says.

Sam’s Club Director of Corporate Communications, Jolanda Stewart says that their company aims to identify their business members’ needs and stock those products and services at significant savings. "Our primary strategies for accomplishing this goal are to listen to our members, constantly explore new product possibilities, and alert our members to new products and prices through our Web site, email campaigns, as well as postings in the clubs."

That means shoppers—you—are driving online procurement opportunities as much as the sites' owners. The question is, where do you want to go?

Let online procurement sites know of your preferences while the market is still in its formative stage. Site designers and marketing gurus are listening. As with any new business segment, price, selection, and service are jostling for position in the final mix. If you want to be able to manage your company's investments, make policies, select vendors, and order lunch at a single site, it could be only a click away.

Spring2004, Business TechEdge