The General Services Administration (GSA) said today it selected three companies to test their e-commerce portals for up to a three-year period in an effort to increase transparency of government purchases and make it easier for agencies to make purchases of less than $10,000.
Amazon Business, Fisher Scientific, and Overstock.com, Inc. were awarded no-cost contracts to test their platforms by GSA. “Open market purchases on government purchase cards represent an addressable market of $6 billion annually,” according to the GSA press release.
“The e-commerce portals proof-of-concept is an important step in offering a solution for purchasing commercial products online that protects our federal supply chain against malicious and counterfeit goods, furthering our national security,” said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, adding that the change can led to “better security practices, better data, and better pricing.”
GSA expects the e-marketplace platforms will be available for use in the next 30 days, according to the release.
