Dismal holiday sales numbers have economist, consumers and execs bracing for a weak 2009 with more businesses closing up shop. Expectations are that this year will see prices dropping as fewer competitors fight for scarce customers’ business. While most of the data and headlines is on the consumer/retail side, the same price erosion is likely to occur on the b2b side as well. So, companies actively managing their product purchases should see some decreases in prices, depending of course on their areas of spend.

However, without an active compliance process, will your corporate buyers be able to take advantage of lower prices?

Without a system to track prices and compliance, it is likely buyers will continue to order based on old catalogs and/or old prices. Furthermore, without an automated check in place, businesses won’t even know where they are losing money or what opportunities exist for price reductions. This means they will leave money on the table compared to competitors who do have active price compliance processes in place.

In this day of real time catalog updates and automated compliance safeguards, there’s no excuse for throwing away money. Not managing every penny going out the front and back door not only threatens a business’ financial health, it is irresponsible. As Ariba’s company President Kevin Costello recently noted in a WallSt TV interview, it requires a “20% increase in sales to create the same profits as a 5% decrease in the cost of goods sold.”

The bottom line is, prices are dropping and you need to ensure that you’re prepared to take advantage of the savings. Don’t rely on luck and audits, or you may never recoup those costs.

John Lark is a Senior Product Marketing Manager with Ariba specializing in the economic and business trends driving emerging procurement technologies.