About the Society

The American Purchasing Society, Inc. is an organization of buyers, purchasing managers, executives, and others interested in the purchasing profession. We were founded in 1969 and have members from every state and 28 countries worldwide. Our objective is to help people learn about purchasing and improve the business purchasing function through education and our certification program. We were the first organization to establish a certification program for professional buyers and purchasing managers and our Certified Purchasing Professional (CPP) program is unique because we not only measure the competence of the applicants through a written examination, but we conduct reference checks to evaluate the applicant's business reputation. The American Purchasing Society's educational objectives are achieved through training programs and our own educational publications of interest to business and the purchasing community.