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What Is a PunchOut Catalog? A Guide for Lab Supply Companies
Universities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies increasingly buy laboratory supplies through e-procurement systems. If your customers ask whether you support PunchOut, this guide explains what it is, how it works, and what it takes to add it to your website.
PunchOut in one paragraph
A PunchOut catalog lets a buyer start in their own purchasing system, click through to your website, shop at their contract prices, and send the cart back to their system instead of checking out. Their internal approval runs as normal, and a purchase order is then sent to you electronically.
Why lab buyers use it
Institutions need control: approved suppliers, negotiated prices, budget and grant codes, and approval rules. PunchOut gives researchers the convenience of shopping your live catalog while procurement keeps that control.
For suppliers, it often decides whether you are easy to buy from at all. Some institutions prefer, or require, PunchOut for regular purchasing.
How it works technically
Most systems use one of two standards. cXML is common with SAP Ariba, Coupa and Jaggaer. OCI is common in SAP-based environments. Both follow the same pattern: a setup request opens a session on your site, the buyer shops, and the cart is returned in a structured message.
Your website has to recognize the buyer, show the right prices, and return product codes, units, quantities and prices in the format the buyer's system expects.
What you need on your side
A catalog with clean product data, account or contract pricing, a PunchOut connector that handles cXML or OCI, and a way to receive purchase orders, usually into your ERP or order system.
Each customer connection is configured and tested with that customer's procurement team. Plan for a short test cycle per customer.
PunchOut vs a regular B2B store
They are not either-or. Many suppliers run a normal B2B store with logins for smaller customers and PunchOut for large institutions, both using the same catalog and pricing rules.
When it is worth it
If a meaningful share of your revenue comes from institutions that use e-procurement, or customers are asking for it, PunchOut is usually worth building. If most orders come from small labs or distributors, start with B2B accounts and add PunchOut later.
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