How Personable Service Helped Streamline This Retail Company's Procurement in a Big Way This simple change is helping The Paper Store save time, money, and gain valuable insights on ordering supplies.

The team at The Paper Store is well-versed in the power of positive business relationships. By combining one such positive relationship with smart business buying tools and strategies, the company says it is on pace to save thousands of dollars this year.

It all started in 1964 when Bob Anderson opened a small newspaper stand in Maynard, Mass. As the years pressed on and Anderson expanded to selling all sorts of items, The Paper Store was born and grew into one of the largest family-owned and operated specialty gift businesses in the U.S.

In 2020, the company was sold to a private group of investors and the Anderson family, whose members are still leading The Paper Store's day-to-day operations. Selling a mix of fashion apparel, accessories, spa products, home décor, stationery, jewelry, sports, and more, The Paper Store now operates a thriving e-commerce business alongside 100 brick-and-mortar stores throughout the Northeast and Florida.

With such a large footprint, it's no wonder that Operations Manager Rachel Jacobs was looking for a way to streamline The Paper Store's procurement of office supplies across the brand's retail chain, distribution centers, and corporate office. "We had a main supplier for basic supplies but had to order from several suppliers to be able to source all of the items needed to run and outfit our stores," she says. "It became a lot to manage."

A helpful relationship made all the difference.

That was 2023. Fast forward to 2024, The Paper Store streamlined that process by choosing Amazon Business as its sole source of office supplies. Jacobs says making that big decision was easy thanks to the personable and helpful relationships with The Paper Store's Amazon Business account representatives, Tyler Britt and Lillian Korinek.

"Getting to interact with Tyler and Lillian made us realize that Amazon Business is an organization with whom we could build a relationship," Jacobs says. "We are a smaller, family-run business and our relationships are extremely important to us."

From Amazon Business, Jacobs was looking for "a simplified ordering experience for its retail stores, cost-effective options, bar-raising customer service," says Korinek, an Enterprise Account Executive at Amazon Business. "Rachel partnered with us to run cost-analysis against incumbent suppliers, determine the needs of the retail locations, and accounts payable."

"Tyler and Lillian gave Amazon Business a face and a personal feel," Jacobs explains. "They were always available to answer questions and hop on a quick call to review the account and tweak settings. The whole transition took only a few weeks."

Positive results that help save time and thousands of dollars a month.

Among the many tools, Jacobs says she regularly uses Amazon Business Analytics to research, create, save, and download reporting on The Paper Store's Amazon purchasing. "Amazon Business has the most robust reporting system for analyzing and understanding our spend and business, allowing for much less manual analyzation on our part," she says.

Making smarter purchasing decisions is helping The Paper Store save valuable time and money. "We are saving well over $10,000 a month so far," Jacobs says. "Time spent by our stores on ordering and by our corporate partners approving orders and managing the account has gone down significantly, too. We are saving hours in payroll each month."

Click here to learn more about how Amazon Business can help your business save money and operate more efficiently.