Taking Stock: 5 Ways to Optimize Office Supply Ordering

Save time & money on must-haves

Keeping your workplace stocked with office supplies helps your team stay productive. Here are five strategies to help you avoid overspending and keep your essentials on hand.

Looking for a roundup of items to keep in stock? Our list of office supplies is a great first stop.

1. Analyze your usage & spending

Start by reviewing what you’ve purchased, when and why. If your business usually restocks staples like printer paper or cleaning wipes only when you run out of them, your purchase history is the easiest way to track usage.

Here are a few tips to help your analysis:

• Centralizing your office supply orders on one purchasing platform will make it easy to tell what you restocked and when. For example, when you upgrade to Walmart Business+, you’ll get access to Spend Analytics that let you track all your Walmart Business purchases in one place.

• Look for patterns in office supply purchases that correlate with other parts of your business, such as hiring, departures or special events. Use this information to plan for future needs.

• Ask employees for feedback on whether they feel they have access to the necessary supplies and whether the supplies themselves are satisfactory. This will provide a practical view of office supply ordering that could otherwise be easy to miss.

Not sure where to look to find the items your business needs? Read The Office Manager’s Guide to Finding Reliable Business Office Supplies.

2. Consolidate purchases

Once you have a good idea of how and when your business buys and uses office supplies, it’s time to start ordering them more efficiently. Consolidating your small, recurring purchases will help you save time and money.

Bulk ordering helps you lock in low prices and ensures you have plenty of commonly used items on hand. But bulk buys aren’t the only way to consolidate purchases.

Set up automatic deliveries for high-use items that expire or take up too much space to store in bulk. This way, you keep a steady supply without needing to repeat the order process again and again.

3. Delegate responsibility

Different teams rely on different supplies. Front desk staff will likely go through a lot of pens as they offer them to customers to fill out forms, project managers may use stacks of sticky notes as they track tasks and so on.

Rather than adding an extra step to your office supply ordering workflow to check in with various parts of your business, empower them to order what they need. Walmart Business offers multi-user accounts with shared payment options to streamline the process while retaining accountability.

Need help keeping your business must-haves out of the way but readily available? Read 5 Quick & Easy Ways to Organize Office Supplies.

4. Prioritize fast delivery & pickup

It’s tough to optimize your supply ordering if you have to wait weeks to get what you need. Reducing the wait between “order placed” and “order received” will help you make more predictable ordering decisions and minimize potential complications. That said, sometimes you don’t know you’ll need fresh printer toner this afternoon until it runs out this morning.

Online ordering options that include same-day pickup or delivery from a local store will help you address these last-minute needs without breaking your workflow or your budget.

5. Look for membership rewards

Office supplies are a necessary expense to keep your business running smoothly, so why not earn rewards for buying them? Familiarize yourself with your suppliers’ requirements to earn rewards, such as minimum spending per purchase, then build those considerations into your supply plan. It may not be long before your optimized ordering strategy starts to pay for itself.

Looking for more ways to stretch your budget further? Read 6 Tips for Finding the Best Value in Office Supplies.

Make office supply ordering easier

Here’s the best part: you don’t have to look far to find an office supply ordering solution that supports all those strategies and more. Walmart Business helps you keep your business stocked with everything you need. We help you save time and money so you can focus on growing your business.

Sign up for a Walmart Business account to unlock access to low prices, bulk buys and automatic deliveries,¹ all while empowering distributed purchasing through multi-user accounts with shared payment options.

Your office supply budget can go even further when you join Walmart Business+. Choose from our Core, Premium and Enterprise plans to unlock a range of benefits, including free shipping, no order minimum,² and free delivery with a $35 minimum.³ You’ll start earning 2% in Walmart Business Rewards on orders $250 or more.⁴ And you’ll even unlock Spend Analytics to help you plan for more smart office supply shopping in the future.

Explore our membership tiers today.

¹ Shipping, delivery, and minimum order fees may apply. Eligible items only. Terms apply.

² Excludes most marketplace items. Freight & location surcharges may apply.

³ Restrictions apply. 

⁴ Rewards can only be used toward future purchases on Walmart Business. Additional terms apply.