What is a GPO?
A GPO, or A group purchasing organization. Many businesses buy together to get lower prices, like a warehouse club for companies., is an organization that pools the purchasing power of many businesses so they can negotiate prices as one large account instead of many small ones. Members keep buying what they already buy. The group's combined volume is what wins the lower price.
It is one of the oldest ideas in business. Hospitals, grocers, and hotels have bought this way for a century. Independent Amazon sellers never had a group of their own. Local Margin is that group.
How a group purchasing organization works
Suppliers price by account size. A business buying a thousand units a month pays less per unit than a business buying fifty, for the identical product. That is not a trick or a loophole. It is how volume pricing has always worked.
A group purchasing organization takes many small buyers and presents their combined spend as one account. The supplier gets one relationship instead of two hundred. The buyers get the price that volume earns. The GPO never owns the inventory and never resells it. It negotiates, and members decide.
Many small accounts
Higher price per unit
One pooled account
Lower price per unit
The bars are illustrative — a schematic of how the model works, not a result we have measured.
What GPOs save, by the numbers
The model is most studied in healthcare, where it is close to universal. None of these figures are Local Margin results. They are what group purchasing achieves in industries where it is established, from sources you can check.
Hospitals save 10 to 18 percent buying through GPOs, per an analysis by former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. Healthcare Supply Chain Association
Virtually all of America's 7,000-plus hospitals belong to at least one GPO. Healthcare Supply Chain Association
Group purchasing cuts US healthcare costs by up to $55 billion a year. Healthcare Supply Chain Association
Amazon's cut of a typical seller's revenue passed 50 percent in 2022, combining referral fees, fulfillment, and advertising. Marketplace Pulse
Figures checked August 2026.
Why Amazon sellers never had a GPO
Independent sellers are more than 60 percent of everything sold in Amazon's store, by Amazon's own count. That is hundreds of thousands of small businesses buying the same freight lanes, the same prep services, the same software, and often the same inventory, each negotiating alone against suppliers who see a small account and quote accordingly.
In Jungle Scout's 2025 seller survey, the top challenges sellers named were the costs that pile up when you buy alone: shipping, cost of goods, and advertising. The buying power was always there. It was just never collected.
If you want the long version of why, we wrote up the hundred-year history of group purchasing and why it skipped this industry.
How Local Margin's GPO works
You ask for a price on something you want to buy. Paste an Amazon link into the Wholesale Finder and it finds wholesalers that actually carry the product.
Pick one and request a quote. We take it to the wholesaler and negotiate as the The named customer on a purchase. Local Margin approaches the supplier as the buyer, so your store and volumes stay private., a purchasing term that means we are the named customer, not you. They never learn who you are, your store, or your volumes.
The price comes back to you, and you decide whether to take it. Your identity stays with us the entire time, and the wholesaler's details stay with us too.
A person here still reads and works every quote request personally. That is slower than pure software, and it is also why the answers are real.
Seller
Local Margin
Wholesaler
What buying together saves, by category
Published figures for what negotiated and group buying save in each area, each linked to its source. Only packaging is a group purchasing figure; the others are what volume and negotiated pricing achieve. These are the model's results across industries, not ours.
What membership costs
A flat subscription, never a percentage. Membership is $19.99 a month at the founding price, after a 45-day free trial with no credit card. Your plan includes a monthly credit balance, and each action spends credits: a Retail Finder search, a Wholesale Finder search, a sourcing quote request. The Margin Calculator is free for everyone, member or not.
We do not take a cut of what you buy or what you save. If we negotiate a price and you take it, the savings are yours. See everything included on the pricing page.
Being straight with you
Local Margin is early and the group is still growing. Every savings figure on this page is a published industry benchmark for what negotiated and group buying achieve elsewhere, with the source linked next to it. They are not our results, because we are not old enough to have results worth publishing yet.
We would rather tell you that than borrow someone else's numbers and let you assume they are ours.
Frequently asked questions
- What does GPO stand for?
- GPO stands for group purchasing organization: an organization that combines the purchasing volume of many businesses to negotiate better prices than any member could get alone.
- What is a GPO in simple terms?
- Many small businesses buy together so suppliers treat them like one big customer. Think of it as a warehouse club for companies: the group's combined volume earns the discount, and each member keeps buying only what it needs.
- How much do GPOs typically save their members?
- In healthcare, where the model is most documented, an analysis by former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz found hospitals save 10 to 18 percent buying through GPOs. Savings vary by industry and category. Local Margin is early and does not publish savings claims of its own yet.
- Is a GPO a middleman?
- No. A middleman buys goods and resells them with a markup. A GPO negotiates prices on members' behalf but never owns the inventory, and members always decide whether to take a negotiated price. Local Margin charges a flat membership fee and takes no percentage of your purchases or savings.
- Is there a GPO for Amazon sellers?
- Yes. Local Margin is a group purchasing organization for independent Amazon sellers. It pools members' buying power to negotiate inventory and service prices, and it approaches suppliers as the buyer of record so a seller's store and volumes stay private.
- How does Local Margin make money?
- A flat $19.99 per month membership after a 45-day free trial. We never take a percentage of what you buy or what you save, so you keep all of the savings we negotiate.
- Will suppliers know who I am?
- No. Local Margin negotiates as the buyer of record, so the supplier deals with us, not you. They never learn your store, your volumes, or your position, and the supplier's details stay with us until you take a quote.
- What does it cost to join?
- Nothing up front. The 45-day free trial requires no credit card and includes the full tools. After the trial it is $19.99 a month at the founding price, and you can cancel anytime.
Or try the free Margin Calculator
45-day free trial, no credit card. $19.99/mo after, cancel anytime.