Regardless of what industry you’re in, today’s modern marketplace is a competitive one. Competition is fierce, meaning you need to do everything you can to set your business apart. Even slight changes to your business can lead to massive gains when it comes to customers, sales, and brand recognition.
If you’re looking for a way to make a major impact on both your customers and your market, a streamlined punchout catalog may be the way to go.
A punchout catalog allows a buyer, usually a business customer, to purchase from your business using their own internal e-procurement systems. Rather than shopping directly from your site, you’ll have the opportunity to create a custom catalog of products that are available in your client’s internal shopping system.
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Win Larger Customers
First and foremost, a punchout catalog is going to attract large corporate customers. Businesses that require regular purchases from vendors prefer vendors that use punchout catalog technology. The simple integration and customized catalog of options makes it much easier than managing a list of external accounts for your purchasing site.
If your business doesn’t use a punchout catalog system, you may be missing out on large corporate customers. Punchout catalogs make is easier for businesses to acquire materials and inventory, creating a consistent stream of income for your business through a punchout system.
Integrate Your Catalog With Client Systems
One of the primary benefits of a punchout catalog is the ability to integrate the punchout system into your clients’ internal purchasing software. Most punchout catalog systems can be integrated into most major e-commerce platforms, meaning a high-quality catalog provides a versatile approach to integration.
This seamless integration makes purchasing inventory and supplies extremely simple, allowing businesses to manage spend and track all purchases internally without needing additional systems and purchase entries. With so many business e-procurement systems available today, it’s important to choose a punchout catalog that is designed to adapt to a wide range of e-procurement platforms.
Streamline the Buying Experience
Punchout catalogs are all about streamlining the purchasing process. When businesses can keep the purchasing process within the internal software that’s already available, it creates an easier shopping experience for everyone involved. By allowing businesses to shop directly from you through a punchout catalog system, you’re going to create long-lasting customer loyalty.
When a customer begins the purchasing process, they will access their own internal e-procurement site. The site connects to your own site and offers a customized catalog (which we will review later in the article). After selecting the products needed, the checkout process allows the buyer to either purchase directly from the e-procurement site or send the purchase through a hierarchical approval before the purchase is finalized.
This streamlined purchasing process not only makes it easier for your customers to make purchases, but it also makes it easier for your business to get paid. Punchout catalogs allow businesses to closely control and monitor spending without long delays in the approval process. When products and prices are pre-approved and uploaded into the catalog, the approval process goes much quicker.
Increase Sales Volume
When you implement a punchout catalog into your business and begin securing large corporate clients, you’re going to notice a drastic increase in sales volume. Rather than relying on your brick and mortar store, sales representatives, or external online store, a dedicated punchout catalog with tailored products and prices for your business clients creates that long-lasting loyalty that we mentioned earlier.
A client that uses your punchout catalog in their e-procurement system is choosing you as one of their trusted suppliers. That means that whenever the business needs to make a purchase, whether that’s inventory, materials, or supplies, they’re going to purchase from you because you’re already integrated with their internal purchasing site. Just by offering a punchout catalog as an option, you can start growing your business.
Customised Catalogs
What makes a punchout catalog even better when trying to stand out among the competition is the fact that you can create a customized product list for each of your clients. Rather than having a generic product and pricing list that everyone has to abide by, you can adjust your product offerings as well as the pricing for your products. The ability to customize your catalog list gives you leverage when trying to secure new clients.
If a potential customer isn’t happy with the prices on your website, you can quickly reassure them that you can adjust your pricing based on their needs, the volume of the orders they are going to place, and how often they plan on buying from you. As your products and pricing change, you can update each punchout catalog real-time.
Scalability
Finally, punchout catalogs offer unmatched scalability when supplying inventory, materials, and supplies to local and international businesses. The entire punchout catalog system is designed to adapt as your business grows and brings on new customers. Even if you’re working with small businesses in the area, as soon as you secure your first large business customer, the punchout catalog system will be ready to adapt and integrate large-scale volume, product uploads, and sales.
Without a system designed to scale your business sales, you’ll have a much harder time managing large business clients, creating loyalty based on your products and pricing, and at the end of the day, scaling your business to the next level.
Getting Started with Punchout Catalogs
As you can see, there’s quite a lot that a punchout catalog can do for your business, and partnered with your high-quality products, competitive prices, and stellar customer service, a punchout catalog can truly help transform your business.
Whether you’re looking to bring in new high-value clients or create lasting relationships with your existing business customers, a punchout catalog is an ideal solution.
Before you start using a punchout catalog make sure your team understand what that means for them and for the business. The best feedback you can get will always be from your team.
Author Bio
Samantha Wallace is a veteran tech writer and editor who has worked in several eCommerce companies. She has been covering technology online for over five years. She is the Content Advocate for Greenwingtechnology.com.