Increase Sales by Supporting PunchOut Catalogs from your WooCommerce Web Store
If selling to Global 2000 companies is something you do today or plan to do in the future, just having a WooCommerce web store is no longer enough to meet these large corporations’ buying needs. But if your WooCommerce store also supports PunchOut catalogs (aka PunchOut integration, cXML PunchOut, OCI Roundtrip), then online sales from Global 2000 companies could be yours for the taking.
PunchOut Catalogs, or just PunchOut, as it’s commonly referred to, is not a system or a product, but a B2B industry-standard protocol specification that allows sellers to integrate B2B e-commerce store platforms like WooCommerce with their customer’s procurement systems like those offered by Coupa, SAP Ariba, Workday, Oracle, Jaggaer and Tradeshift, among others. The PunchOut specification also supports B2B transactions like purchase orders, ship notices and invoices over the web. Every procurement system (there are hundreds of vendors in addition to those mentioned) and most ERP systems have a PunchOut API today.
So how does supporting PunchOut catalogs from your WooCommerce web store translate into increased online sales from Global 2000 customers?
First, Global 2000 companies almost exclusively use procurement systems to buy online from suppliers. Because procurement system ROI (return on investment) is based 100% of orders originating in the procurement system, having a customer place orders from outside of the procurement system – for example, logging into your WooCommerce web store from a browser – is prohibited by your customer’s purchasing policies.
So, to get and keep their business, you need to integrate your WooCommerce web store with their procurement system; and PunchOut is how you do it!
The Vurbis PunchOut Plugin™ enables your WooCommerce web store to support PunchOut catalogs without modification using the cloud. Once installed, Vurbis PunchOut Plugin™ recognizes PunchOut requests (while ignoring other login requests) from your customers any procurement system. Working with the web store API and the Vurbis Cloud, it initiates and manages the PunchOut session on your behalf.
The PunchOut user shops you store just like they logged in from the web. This allows your PunchOut customers the same access to the advanced B2B features and functionality in your WooCommerce web store as your other online customers.
In addition to increased sales, other benefits of supporting PunchOut catalogs include lower cost of sales, fewer errors and exceptions, increased brand exposure, and higher customer satisfaction levels.
If your Global 2000 customers haven’t already started asking for PunchOut catalogs, assume they will be soon. A recent study conducted by Mordor Intelligence indicates the global procurement market can expect a 10.2% CAGR between 2020 and 2025.
Still not convinced PunchOut catalogs can work for you? Amazon Business started supporting PunchOut on their site in late 2015. By the end of 2018, sales increased more than 10X from under $1B to over $10B and are in excess of $25B today!
If PunchOut catalogs worked for Amazon Business, it can work for you too.
