Punchouts: Giving the One-Two Punch to Big Box Stores

A question we hear increasingly from independent resellers of business products is, “How can we keep up with the Amazons and Staples of the world?” One clear answer is Punchouts. However, why stop with keeping pace? With Punchouts, you can beat them at the ecommerce game.

Punchouts defined

In simple terms, a Punchout is integrating a customer’s existing e-procurement software with ECI’s Red Falcon or DDMSPLUS ecommerce software. This integration allows customers to use their own software to shop and order from an office product reseller’s website quickly and seamlessly. Customers click on the reseller’s icon, conveniently located on their desktop computer or tablet, and have instant access to the reseller’s ecommerce site. Customers can fill their shopping carts, send them to the designated internal department for approval and purchase order(s), and the order is sent to the reseller, ready to be filled and delivered. Orders can be placed from any location where an approved user can access the system. Most large companies use one of the many standard software systems that Red Falcon or DDMSPLUS integrate with easily. However, Punchouts can also be customized to fit proprietary e-procurement software.

Statistics worth pondering

Consider:

• The e-purchasing market is growing nearly twice as fast as the overall software market.—Forrester November 2019

• 60% of companies believe the pandemic exacerbated their existing procurement challenges, and roughly 40% say the effects of the pandemic have made automation more appealing.—Levvel Research’s 2020 Report

• B2B ecommerce growth will continue to outpace other electronic and non-electronic sales channels. B2B sellers cannot afford to ignore buyers’ desire for high-quality B2B ecommerce experiences.—B2B Market Report

There are computer screens full of similar statistics. The most significant pressure on profit margins for physical business and office supply stores is from online entities offering greater consumer convenience. Savvy resellers have been beefing up online presences to keep up with ecommerce competitors as consumer purchasing habits shift.

The great news is, for a minimal investment, a Punchout can bring many happy and lucrative returns.

A (huge) matter of convenience

The ability of customers to connect directly with your ecommerce site is the equivalent of a nonstop train that delivers them straight to your store. Your customers no longer need to log out of their account, remember logins and passwords, and go back and forth with internal departments to get order approvals and required POs. It is all done seamlessly through the Punchout integration. Customers click on your logo/icon on their desktop or tablet and start shopping, knowing you are an approved vendor. Once their carts are filled, they are automatically sent, with a single click, to the appropriate department for any pre-order requirements. The orders arrive directly at your warehouse, complete and ready to fill. Punchouts eliminate red tape and interdepartmental communications that cost customers time, money, and frustration. Direct purchasing also reduces the number of returns.

“Punchouts create greater efficiencies,” explains Mark Porter, president of Porter’s Office Products, Rexburg, Idaho, a company that uses ECI Punchouts. “There’s no dual order entry, no multiple logins or passwords. The customer’s frequently ordered items are right there with their pricing.”

Other Punchout favorites that put dealers a step ahead of many websites include the ability to save information without re-inputting with each order and the choice of payment options; clients can instantly pay with a credit card or access and pay invoices later from their computer.

Punchouts are equally convenient for independent resellers, with orders arriving directly to the warehouse complete and ready to be picked and delivered.

“Punchouts lock customers into us because if they buy from someone else, they have to put the order in twice, get approval and a PO, which is all done automatically before the order comes to us,” Porter says. “Before Punchouts, large customers would fax the orders to us every night; we had to key in 30 to 70 orders every day, so the Punchouts save a lot of work.”

Greater efficiencies are one dealer benefit of Punchouts. But far from the only one.

Requests for Punchouts

Increasingly, large customers in the government, education, corporate, and healthcare sectors and other entities with multiple locations are requiring Punchouts for dealers to submit a request for proposal (RFPs). Without a Punchout, you can’t even get in the door. But with an ECI Punchout, you can get in the door and win the account thanks to ECI’s premium e-procurement integration system and support.

That is precisely what happened for independent office supply dealer Union Office, which needed a Punchout to bid the largest university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“We responded to the school’s RFP and had three interviews,” says Juliette Trahan, Union Office operations manager. The school chose a certain number of the companies and did due diligence. Having a Punchout was mandatory even to be able to submit an RFP. If we hadn’t had one, we would have been ruled out immediately.” Instead, Union Office won the account.

Besides helping the small local supplier win a huge account, the Punchout built confidence, leading to even bigger profits. “Winning such a well-known educational facility was a big deal for us, a feather in our cap,” Trahan says. “It showed us we don’t have to be afraid to go after these million-dollar accounts. Now, we know we can do it.”

Punching for dollars

Despite their recent growing popularity, Punchouts are not new, and not all are mandated by RFPs. FSIoffice, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been offering Punchouts for two decades. According to Beth Freeman, executive vice president of the family-owned dealer, Punchouts are the backbone of the vendor’s impressive sales.

“We implemented our first Punchout 20 years ago, in 2002,” says Freeman. “It was with the state of North Carolina, the largest account we had. It was driven by the customer’s request. The state wanted to streamline the process to integrate it with its ERP system. …For us, having Punchouts has meant many millions of dollars. Our state contracts are year-round and have been multimillion accounts for us over the last decade.”

Punching deeper

Punchouts secure more business within existing accounts, since once companies know you are an approved vendor and access to your e-catalog is only a click away, they turn to you as the supplier of choice. It also gives access to other departments within the account that may not have purchased from you previously.

“We currently have about 30 Punchouts, but most include multiple entities,” Freeman says. “State contracts can include hospitals, schools, counties, and other entities. For example, the Punchout for the State of North Carolina includes the Department of Transportation and Department of Health and Human Resources; all the different state entities have individual accounts and different people, but it is one Punchout. Similarly, a hospital could have multiple account numbers in the DDMS system but one Punchout, so it keeps track of all the departments.”

Time to punch

Punchouts give customers direct access to your ecommerce website for easy ordering that saves them and you time and money. They are an independent reseller’s secret weapon against the big-box ecommerce sites. If you are an independent dealer that is not offering punch outs, it’s time to get in the ecommerce easy-procurement game—and win. It’s time to visit the ECI website for more information on Punchouts.