Frequently Asked Questions

PunchOut 101

What’s PunchOut? Why does it exist? Why do B2B sellers need it?

PunchOut 101
What’s PunchOut?

(aka cXML PunchOut, OCI Roundtrip)

An e-Procurement industry-standard protocol that enables secure online shopping and ordering between e-commerce web store platforms (Magento, Woo, Shopify, EpiServer, Prestashop, Big Commerce, OpenCart, Oro Commerce, etc.) and e-procurement systems (Coupa, SAP Ariba, Workday, Oracle, Jaggaer, iValua, Birchstreet, SAP SRM, etc.) It has existed for over 20 years, and ALL e-procurement and ERP systems have built-in support today so your customers are ready and waiting…

Why is my customer (the buying organization) asking for PunchOut?
Your customer is implementing an e-procurement system to order online from suppliers. The e-procurement ordering process requires they be able to automatically login to your web store from their e-procurement systems, that your web store be visible inside a browser frame in the e-procurement system UI, that the web store shopping cart can be added to the e-procurement systems shopping cart (where they could have an item from other web stores, and finally that the order is pre-approved prior to fulfillment – that’s where PunchOut comes in.

The typical B2C web ordering process supported by your web store won’t work for your customers using e-procurement systems

See below for a Web Order vs. PunchOut Order

So, how do I get my web store to be able to support the e-Procurement Ordering process?

You can build PunchOut functionality into your web store platform yourself. This can be complex, time-consuming and expensive if you aren’t familiar with PunchOut (the technical specification can be found at www.cxml.org), or your web store platform technology itself. The fastest, least expensive and most reliable way to make your web store PunchOut-ready is the Vurbis PunchOut Plugin™. An explanation of how the Vurbis PunchOut Plugin makes your existing web store “PunchOut-Ready” is shown in the infographic below (functionality added by Vurbis is in red type).

PunchOut order process

Note: If requested by the customer, additional EDI-type transactions such as Advanced Ship Notice, PO Change, etc. can be exchanged between the web store and e-procurement system using cXML ERP integration as part of the overall PunchOut process via Vurbis’ Web API Agent service is also available (ask us).

The Benefits of Being PunchOut-Ready

Increased Sales

Your web store is now fully integrated with your customer’s e-procurement or ERP system

Lower Costs

Orders from e-procurement customers are automated from login to invoice, with fewer errors and exceptions

Brand Exposure

Your logo is on every customer’s e-procurement desktop, and they’re only a click away your web store

Customer Satisfaction

By being PunchOut-Ready you’re contributing to your customer’s e-procurement ROI and savings

Omnichannel

Your e-procurement customers have the same shopping and ordering experience as your web-direct customers

Revenue Protection

If you don’t become PunchOut-Ready, your customers will find a supplier (Amazon?) who is!

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