The four models in one paragraph each
Hosted catalog: you create and maintain the items, inside the platform. Maximum control, maintenance is yours. Included on every plan.
Supplier global catalog: the supplier publishes to any buyer at list price. Best for discovery and urgent low-value buys.
Supplier/client catalog: the supplier maintains a catalog holding your negotiated prices, visible only to you. Best for anything contracted.
Punchout: the buyer shops in the supplier's own store and returns with a cart. Best for very large or fast-changing assortments.
Decide by category, not by preference
Run each significant category through this test and the answer is usually obvious.
- Stable list of items you buy monthly, price already agreed → hosted catalog
- Contracted category with a supplier willing to maintain it → supplier/client catalog
- Tens of thousands of SKUs, or configurable products → punchout
- Category you do not buy often and have no second source for → supplier global catalog
- Category with no repeat pattern at all → keep it in RFQ, not in a catalog
Who carries the maintenance
This is the question that predicts whether a catalog program survives its first year. Hosted catalogs put the work on your team, which is fine at 50 items and painful at 5,000. Supplier-managed models and punchout move that work to the party that already maintains the data.
If you have no owner for catalog maintenance, do not start with a large hosted catalog.
What does not change between models
In every model the purchase still checks budget availability before commitment, still passes one human approval before the PO and three-way match before payable. Catalogs change where the item and price come from — not whether the purchase is controlled.
