PunchOut Catalog – Do Suppliers have to maintain Multiple Catalogs for Different Customers?

PunchOut, as we know, is a functionality that establishes a direct link between the customer’s procurement application and the supplier’s ecommerce site. It simplifies the procurement process of customers as well as enables suppliers to offer a customized shopping experience.

Considering that there are multiple B2B customers connected to the supplier website via PunchOut, one might think that the supplier is maintaining a separate catalog for each customer, thereby making PunchOut implementation a tedious job. However, the good news is that the supplier is not required to maintain multiple catalogs for various customers.

Although SciQuest PunchOut provides a tailor-made shopping experience for individual B2B customers, there is just one supplier catalog that is maintained. So if the supplier has 20 B2B customers, it doesn’t mean that the supplier will have to maintain 20 separate catalogs. The supplier can support multiple customers using a single catalog.

With SciQuest PunchOut solution, the supplier has the choice of what to show and what not to show to their customers. To put it simply, the supplier has full control over the visibility of his catalog. He can decide what products of the supplier catalog to show to the customer. So depending upon the terms and conditions of the Contract, the supplier will display products from his catalog’s entire product range.

PunchOut is configured in such a way that when the customer logs into the supplier’s website, only the contract (pre-approved) products are visible to him. No wonder, PunchOut is also referred to as a pre-configured catalog that will feature products specific to that customer account only. So it is just that the supplier is maintaining a separate PunchOut connection so that each customer can access his specified products from one single catalog. The supplier can also display upsell and cross-sell opportunities as well as promote products on any specific customer account.