Bandages Market Procurement Intelligence Report

The market for Medical and Surgical Consumables and its sub-segments such as Bandages are at an interesting intersection. Companies that serve multiple markets are increasingly facing the dynamism in regulatory frameworks across countries. Coupled with increased costs across the value chain, suppliers are hard pressed to alter their business models and pricing structures to remain relevant in the market.

Despite increasing costs on almost all fronts, suppliers are resisting a drastic price increase due to intense competition where market players are willing to increase their market share at the cost of profitability. Therefore, buyers can expect pricing status quo in most cases, or only negligible to marginal price increases in some cases.

New locations and vendors are emerging as cost effective suppliers of Bandages, offering an opportunity to widen the supplier base and gain further negotiation leverage with incumbent suppliers.

Trends like these and many others discussed in this report are necessitating a relook at the way Bandages is procured and the procurement cost saving opportunities that exist.

As market conditions become more dynamic and procurement practices get more sophisticated, category managers need to be cognizant of the best practices that work for their Bandages category procurement. The report offers a succinct analysis of Bandages procurement best practices.

For example, Buyers should look to minimize the contract-related risks where unfavorable credit terms may severly penalize buyers for delayed payments or entitle the supplier to demand pre-payments or shorten the payment terms. Although these clauses are not very common in the category, suppliers may still insist on them, especially in situations where buyers' liquidity or financial health is in question.

Large organizational buyers can leverage their scale of operations to initiate competitive bidding between suppliers. Competitive bidding would enable buyers to have a better visibility of the market prices and may help identify suppliers that offer the most competitive price offering viz-a-viz other players.

Category buyers should invite bids from all potential service providers that have the ability to meet the overall requirements. Bids must be evaluated based on pre-defined parameters such as financial strength, reputation, offerings, geographical presence, and track record. Buyers can use standard scorecards to evaluate service providers and provide necessary feedback to rationalize the given scores. This helps in the effective documentation of decision-making processes.

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