Setting up a new office or renovating or expanding the existing one, you want to be sure that you don’t miss out on the basic requirements.
At the same time, you must ensure that you are not compromising on the comfort and budget.
Placing an order while sitting on your favorite couch is the easiest and hassle-free way of buying any product.
This saves a lot of time, energy, and money.
As office supplies are directly connected to your productivity which in turn makes the business profitable, one needs to be very careful while buying office supplies online.
Comparing the product quality and price if you’re looking for office space furnishings and supplies before placing an order is the best way of getting a high quality product at the best rate.
As online selling saves a lot of overhead cost of the vendor, they usually pass the benefit in the form of discounts to their clients.
Before you go forward with the research for finding the best vendor, the most important step is to make a checklist of the items required.
This way, you can ensure that you do not miss out on any item.
To that end, make sure that the list is divided into broad headers or categories and the relevant items are listed under those headers or categories.
Mentioned below are few headers for your ready reference:
Computer Hardware and Accessories
This list should contain:
- Monitors
- Mouse
- Printers
- Projection devices
- Photocopier,
- Scanner
- Speaker phones
- Modems
- Extension cords etc.
Computer Software
The choice of software used by a business largely depends on the business’ core competencies.
With that said, most offices will require at least a few softwares from the following list:
- Virus protection software
- Accounting software
- Inventory management software
- Payment processing software
- HRIS software
- Communication tools
Office Furniture and Equipment
This list will include:
- Desks
- Comfortable office chairs
- File cabinets,
- Book cases,
- Work tables,
- Wall-mounted whiteboards, dusters and markers
- Waste baskets
- A safe
- Recycling bin
- Fire extinguishers
- Cleaning material
- Sign boards
General Office Supplies
- Basic day to day activity requires the stationery:
- printing paper,
- pens and pencils
- Notepads
- File folders
- Envelops
- Letterheads
- Business cards
- Printer cartridges
Keep in mind that none of these lists are exhaustive.
These are just for reference to help you get started with building your own shopping lists for buying office supplies.
Once you have finalized the laundry list of items and you are ready to order online, the tips mentioned below can help you ensure you are buying everything you require, without breaching your budget.
Segregate The Stationery Type
Segregation will allow you to find vendors that can supply multiple products.
It is best to keep the number of vendors for your office supplies to a bare minimum.
Only if it is required, place the order to multiple vendors.
Similarly, only one person/employee should be made responsible to gather the requirements and place the order to avoid confusion.
This will also help in ensuring that you don’t end up stocking the items you don’t need and will help you stay within the budget.
This will also make it simpler to maintain the books of accounts.
Check The Applicable Delivery Cost
The competition that e-commerce stores have to face is more fierce than ever before.
However, as a customer, it is an amazing thing as you can get some great deals.
Many online sellers would even bear the cost of the delivery in order to attract more customers.
That’s why, it is worth your time to look around and find a vendor that can either deliver your items for free, or at least give you some sort of discount.
Create A Order And Delivery Schedule
Try ordering the stationery on a monthly or fortnightly basis.
Since there is a good chance that all your vendors will not offer free delivery, this will enable you to reduce the delivery cost wherever it is applicable.
Chances are that even your employees will also end up using the products judicially as they will be aware that if they run out of a certain office supply, it won’t be available until the next delivery date.
Consumable stationery should be ordered in bulk so that you end up ordering less often and you end up getting more savings on bulk orders.
Conclusion:
Buying office supplies may seem like a straightforward task.
However, it is a part of the investment one makes in their business and thus, every aspect of the process should be conducted with absolute diligence.