How punchout works, step by step
It looks like leaving the system, but the buyer never leaves the process.
- The buyer selects the supplier from a punchout catalog entry
- A session opens in the supplier's own e-commerce store, already identified as your organization
- The buyer builds a cart at the pricing agreed for your account
- The cart returns into the procurement system as a requisition
- Budget check and approval routing apply before a purchase order is issued
The benefits
Punchout wins on scale and on maintenance — the two places hosted catalogs struggle.
- Full assortment and live pricing without importing a single item file
- Configurable and made-to-order products behave correctly, because the supplier's own site configures them
- Zero catalog maintenance on either side, forever
- Stock and lead-time information comes from the source
- Controls stay intact — the cart still passes budget check and approval before becoming an order
The trade-offs to plan for
Punchout is not free of friction. The supplier has to support it, and the shopping experience is theirs, not yours, which means item descriptions and categorization follow their conventions.
That matters for spend reporting: agree on category mapping up front, or your analytics will show one giant line called 'distributor'.
How to combine catalog types
Punchout is not an either/or choice. A common setup is a hosted catalog for recurring consumables, supplier/client catalogs for contracted categories, and punchout for the one or two large distributors that cover everything else.
