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The Commercial Platforms Program (CPP), also known as GSA’s Commercial Platforms Program, streamlines the federal purchase cardholder buying process by providing access to eight commercial online platforms that support federal and agency purchasing rules. The program aims for modern, streamlined, and mission-focused purchasing. It was established in response to Section 846 of the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.
The program’s platforms offer users a modern, intuitive, and familiar online purchasing experience with added features that support federal and agency purchasing guidelines.
The eight awarded platforms in the program are:
- Amazon Business: Leverages a global logistics network for an efficient and familiar shopping experience. It provides access to mandatory sources of supply, federally certified sellers, and robust reporting and analytics.
- e-Procurement Services: Offers an eMarketplace primarily featuring U.S.-based small business suppliers (98%). It stocks over five million commercial products across key government categories and includes intuitive features to simplify cardholder purchasing processes that are federal or agency-mandated.
- Fisher Scientific: Provides products in multiple categories, including laboratory equipment, instruments, consumables, furniture, storage, and chemicals, as well as safety, PPE, and life science products.
- G-Commerce: Offered by Social Glass, this is an intelligent e-commerce platform. It features compliant small businesses, offers same-day delivery, supports socio-economic tracking, and provides a 24/7 Procurement Concierge for IT, industrial, and general equipment needs.
- Grainger: Offers over one million products, both on schedule and open market, from thousands of MRO suppliers. Its platform allows customers to order and manage MRO equipment and accounts.
- NOBLE: A small business that provides mission support to the U.S. government and allies. It features industrial and office management products from 15,000 suppliers.
- Pacific Ink: This business is both a Women-Owned Small Business and an Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business. With over 20 years of supporting government buyers, it offers office, facility, and industrial supplies through a platform designed with knowledge of the buyer’s experience.
- Staples: Offers a broad assortment of products, a best-in-class supply chain, and mission-oriented compliance. Products include office, janitorial, furniture, print, technology, shipping, and safety supplies, including environmentally preferred options.
Buying through these awarded platforms offers several advantages:
- Ordering advantages: Access to commercial product catalogs, B2B pricing benefits like volume discounts and tiered pricing, no minimum order quantities, automatic tax exemption, product availability, speedy delivery, clear order tracking, and order history reports with printable invoices for credit card reconciliation.
- Compliance advantages: Elimination of restricted items and excluded vendors, tools to facilitate Section 889 compliance, search filters to quickly locate small business sellers and products, and access to mandatory source programs such as AbilityOne.
All awarded platforms are Section 889 certified. Information is also available regarding whether third-party sellers participating on these platforms are Section 889 certified. The program aligns with micro-purchase compliance and streamlines processes to identify mandatory sources like AbilityOne and preferred sources like small businesses. Supply chain risk management and access to Section 889 certifications are built into the purchasing process. Additional program benefits include small business credit and higher FAR priority.
Agencies can choose the awarded platforms that best suit their mission needs.
For suppliers or distributors interested in selling through the program, they are encouraged to proactively reach out to the participating platforms to become sellers or distributors. The Commercial Platforms Program itself does not have the ability to influence the platforms’ seller or supplier-related decisions, as it relies exclusively on the platforms to manage their supply chain and fulfillment according to their commercial practices and contracts. Suppliers should review the terms and conditions of each platform.
To learn more about the platforms, tools, and features, training is available, including virtual demos. For additional questions or feedback on the supplier experience, you can email CommercialPlatforms@gsa.gov.