When Purchasing Pays Back: The Active Advantage Program

With the pandemic waning and budgets finally beginning to get funded, procurement managers are challenged with unprecedented purchasing demands. As they seek to accommodate employee and customer safety guidelines – from implementing new hygiene protocols to acquiring technology and other products to support the post-COVID work environment – they are met with global supply chain disruptions, inventory scarcity and pricing instability/spikes.

Active International has kept pace with shifts in purchasing demands by expanding the goods and services available through our Corporate Trade solutions. Known as the Active Advantage Program, our portfolio of products now includes hand sanitizers, HEPA H13 grade air purifiers, thermal scanners, outdoor furniture, and electronics suitable for a remote workforce.

To meet the supply chain and pricing challenges for the products available in our portfolio, our Advantage team works closely with partner suppliers to manage inventory ability and monitor pricing changes.  We have also worked aggressively to restructure our trading arrangements with suppliers to ensure we continue to provide the additional value offered to our purchasers. Specifically, making purchases through Active’s Advantage Program secures products and services at a client’s normal negotiated/direct pricing while delivering a reciprocal value equal to a percentage of the total purchase.

For instance, many of our purchasing clients are in the hotel industry (e.g. hotel owners and REITS), and when they purchased goods from us, at their normal benchmark prices, we provide reciprocal value in the form of a commitment to make cash bookings in their hotels.  This delivers revenue to the hotels as added value for purchasing through the Active Advantage Program. For Samsung products alone, we have sold over $100 million in commercial TVs to hotel clients while delivering well over $25 million in room-stays at these clients’ hotels. One of our long time Advantage clients, Dave Johnson, Executive Chairman at Aimbridge Hospitality, says, “Active has a unique trading model that delivers the goods we need, at the same price we would pay, but with a unique revenue benefit in cash business to our hotels. To date we’ve made millions in capex purchases through Active and they’ve driven millions in cash business into our hotels.”

While the Active Advantage Program started as a program for our hotel clients, we have expanded it to accommodate other non-hotel clients wishing to make purchases, For those clients, we deliver Trade Credits as reciprocal value, which they can use towards the purchase of future media placement, which we buy on their behalf at their benchmark pricing and specifications.

No matter what industry, we work with our clients and their procuring agents to create a customized program that helps them acquire the products and services they seek at their benchmark/competitive pricing under our Active Advantage Program. It’s a transparent transaction that clearly demonstrates clients are receiving their benchmark or best price for the goods we have available and delineates the reciprocal value we commit to as 100% incremental.

Our Active Advantage Program includes many national and well-known suppliers, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Jamison Bedding, Friedrich PTACs, Peerless mounts, Medify Air to name a few. To hear more about the Active Advantage Program, contact me at: 

Elizabeth.Topazio@activeinternational.com

Office: 845.732.8842

Elizabeth A. Topazio is President and CLO, Travel at Active International. Liz brings more than 25 years of business and legal experience in customizing corporate trading programs and other business solutions for hospitality brands, suppliers and vendors, tourist boards and Active’s media and corporate clients.