business selling the product. The company which buys
the product in this stage of life cycle should try to establish
long-term and stable relationship with the supplier
[2]. The growth stage is characterised by rapid sales
growth of the product. At this moment other competitive
companies, called copycats, start to produce the
product. In this situation the buyer has more possibilities
of choosing a supplier. This is the stage where the
buyer starts to dominate. But the company which entered
the market as the fi rst one has established much
better supply network, more effi cient production system
and it is able to keep the price at the similar level. It still
results in maintaining very high profi ts from product
sales. In the maturity stage the market is characterised
by buyer dominance. The sales of the product is stable.
The market saturation for the product is high. Therefore
the sellers must reduce the price and standarise cooperation
procedures with the buyers. In order to increase
their market share the suppliers diversify the range of
available products and increase their competitiveness.
The most basic way to gain competitive advantage by
sellers is the price. The decline stage is characterised by
decrease of the product sales in the market. It is caused
by customers’ tastes and changes of expectations, technological
changes and constant technical development.
The decline of sales brings on withdrawal from cooperation
with suppliers. And the suppliers in order to “get
rid of” ready-made products considerably reduce their
price. The company starts to withdraw the product from
the market, reduces the network and distribution channels.
The way we perceive the purchasing strategies results
not only from the general situation in the market.
The purchasing strategy depends as well on the balance
of power in the market it is in. The bargaining power of
the company allows it to wait and adapt to requirements
and conditions of the cooperation. As we make the bargaining
power bigger we can achieve better and more
competitive conditions of cooperation and they will increase
profi tability of the company.