Thinners Market Procurement Intelligence Report

Business practices within Thinners market are heavily influenced by changing trends across the category as well as within the broader Construction Supplies market. To attract investment and drive long-term value, suppliers are building unique business models and implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and stakeholder engagement programs. Such strategic initiatives are pivotal to acquire a social license to operate, generate consumer awareness, and have easy access to input commodities.

Suppliers across the value chain are increasing their investments in technologies and incorporating systems integrated with IoT, AI, Big data, and data analytics to generate efficiencies and better serve the evolving demand patterns of buyers. This is expected to impact the cost structure of suppliers in the short-term but will help bring down the costs in longer run as suppliers recover the costs of current investment cycles.

Periods of macroeconomic uncertainty and increasing stringency of immigration laws are key contributors to the workforce shortage in the market. Domestic workers in developed countries often choose to pursue higher education and less cyclical employment opportunities while foreign workers return to their home countries due to tough immigration laws and economic conditions. Consequently, suppliers have had to increase labor wages to attract skilled and unskilled labor, which has increased their costs and forced them to increase their pricing.

As a result, category managers need to closely monitor the Thinners procurement trends and identify changes required in their procurement environment for the category.

It has become imperative for category managers to remain as agile as possible in terms of their procurement practices. However, it is not always easy to quickly spot and implement alternative practices in a category like Thinners. To help quick decision making, this report advises on several procurement best practices that have worked well for category managers.

For example, Buyers should invest in benchmarking studies that help them to improve their knowledge of prevalent pricing structures within the industry. This is based on job role and function that allows them to not only save costs but also negotiate better with service providers.

It is highly recommended that buyers prioritize regional suppliers unless the project specifications are extremely sophisticated and require specialized vendors. A regional supplier base enables buyers to have significant negotiation power due to spend consolidation and exhaustive knowledge of the local codes and environmental regulations. It also insulates them from adverse fluctuations in currency exchange rates.

Service providers may outsource certain aspects of the project if they lack the required expertise or to expedite the project progress. If the subcontractor is not covered by a reliable liability insurance or does not abide by the same terms and conditions that were laid down for the main contractors, then it can hinder the main contractor's ability to perform its services. It may also entangle the buyers in legal complications and negative publicity.

Thinners procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Thinners procurement. Some examples include: