How Hospitality and Food Businesses Can Thrive in Any Economy

Recent economic disruptions have resulted in uncertain supply chains and rising costs, forcing procurement professionals from hotels, restaurants, and hospitality businesses to seek new opportunities to cut costs and optimize operational spend.

Purchasing departments within the hospitality and food service industry are looking for value beyond direct savings from product purchases and focusing on cost optimization to help drive business growth. While suppliers are not typically seen as a potential source for cost optimization, many leading organizations are now systematically approaching their supply base to find new ways of working that can help optimize cost and cash.

Exploring the cost optimization cycle shows areas where businesses in the hospitality and food service industry can benefit from a digital optimization procurement strategy that extends beyond the cost savings and purchasing products to spend visibility, streamlined procurement, and product selection.

Spend Visibility

Hospitality businesses of any size could benefit from spend visibility and virtual dashboards to find value beyond cost savings. For example, procurement leaders are looking to develop benchmarking data to compare performance along key areas, and identify opportunities to reevaluate supplier relationships as supply chains remain vulnerable.

Leading procure-to-pay solutions offer buyers a view of spend that includes themes, trends, and habits related to the purchasing process, which can help uncover opportunities for savings across all purchase categories. However, digital procurement solutions harness the power of machine learning to improve overall spend visibility for more agile decision making, helping to elevate them to strategic sourcing experts.

Streamlined Procurement

Amazon Business’s latest innovations in procurement technology now allow buyers access to their favorite vendors – and alternative vendors, in case their favorites are experiencing shortages and delays – all in one location with seamless integrations across all major e-procurement solutions.

Digital procurement solutions offer value beyond cost savings on products, where buyers get a smooth and streamlined purchasing process that reduces complexity and saves time, creating opportunities for operational efficiencies in an industry still struggling with staffing shortages. Hospitality businesses of all sizes could benefit from the improved experience and intuitive buying process.

For example, restaurants, hotels, and hospitality businesses with multiple locations can centralize procurement processes while still delivering supplies to multiple locations to help manage cash flow more efficiently. Buyers can also avoid negotiating with multiple suppliers and access a built-for-business selection of products from pre-vetted suppliers, which helps consolidate and streamline purchasing across all product categories. And where businesses have certain affiliations or require specific brands, Amazon Business can help identify exact product matches and provide alternative product recommendations from pre-vetted suppliers. Beyond the value of direct savings from product purchases, digital procurement solutions can help businesses automate recurring deliveries and deliver products in frustration-free packaging to save space in the supply room

Finally, along with a variety of delivery options, leading procure-to-pay solutions can help with tax compliance and (related) tax exemption on specific product purchases with respect to multiple locations and/or many locations, nationwide.

Product Selection

As market dynamics shift, it is critical that cost optimization goals remain aligned to other value-adding initiatives. Value beyond cost savings means reducing risks and increasing supply chain reliability so that procurement professionals can enjoy peace of mind, whether they are focused on wining, dining, or travel. To that end, buyers need access to multiple sellers across key categories ensure price competition and product availability.

As procurement professionals look at cost optimization, leading procure-to-pay solutions can help simplify procurement with improved spend visibility, an intuitive customer experience, and a seamless purchasing process across a built-for-business selection of products.

Propel digital purchasing innovation and pinpoint new savings opportunities with a seamless purchasing experience and dynamic pricing across business-relevant product categories, complemented with built-in tools to support organizational purchasing goals.