Open Buying: Why Procurement Is Finally Ready to Move Beyond Catalogs
For years, procurement innovation focused on one idea: the catalog.
Static catalogs.
Punch-out catalogs.
Better catalogs.
Yet despite all that effort, buying at work is still slower, more complex, and more manual than buying as a consumer. Not because procurement teams failed — but because the world around procurement changed faster than procurement systems did.
The Real Shift Didn’t Happen in Procurement
The most important transformation in B2B purchasing didn’t happen inside procurement platforms.
It happened on the supplier side.
Across industries, B2B suppliers have invested heavily — and continue to invest — in rich, consumer-like digital storefronts. Today, many suppliers offer:
Real-time pricing
Live inventory and availability
Seamless checkout
Immediate order confirmation and tracking
In other words, the infrastructure for modern buying already exists.
What hasn’t kept up is how companies allow employees to buy from these suppliers.
Why Catalog-Based Buying Is Showing Its Limits
Traditional procurement models were built for a different era.
Static catalogs
Static catalogs require buyers to upload, maintain, and regularly update supplier content themselves. Prices go out of date. Items disappear. Governance is manual and fragile.
Punch-out catalogs
Punch-out catalogs improved things by letting suppliers host their own content. But the buying experience is still fragmented:
Multiple approvals across request, PO, and payment
Delays between cart creation and order placement
Invoices, matching, and accruals after the fact
In both cases, the process is optimized around the system, not around the moment of purchase.
The result?
A growing gap between how suppliers sell and how companies buy.
Open Buying: A Different Starting Point
Open Buying flips the model.
Instead of forcing modern supplier storefronts into legacy procurement workflows, Open Buying starts where the transaction actually happens: on the supplier’s website.
With Open Buying:
Employees buy directly on supplier sites (seamlessly logged in with SSO to access contracted terms when applicable)
Approvals happen concurrently at checkout, based on company controls
Payment is executed immediately via virtual cards (one-time or multi-use)
Accounting records are created automatically, without waiting on invoices or manual intervention
The buying moment becomes the control point — not the aftermath.
Why This Matters for Finance and Procurement
Open Buying isn’t about removing control. It’s about moving control upstream.
Fewer bottlenecks
Instead of three manual approvals, controls run once, in real time, at checkout.
Faster and cleaner payments
Suppliers are paid instantly, while buyers retain extended payment terms through card programs.
Simpler accounting, without accruals
With traditional catalog-based buying, accounting depends on supplier invoices. Each invoice must be received, recorded, matched, and approved. When invoices arrive late or not at all, finance teams are forced to manage accruals for goods or services already received.
With Open Buying:
Transactions are recorded automatically at the time of purchase
Invoices are captured for record keeping, not to trigger accounting or payment
Accruals are eliminated because spend is recognized in real time
All transactions flow through a single card issuer while preserving merchant-level spend visibility, enabling accurate reporting and strategic spend analysis without waiting for invoices.
Why Open Buying Is Possible Now
This shift wasn’t realistic ten years ago.
It’s possible today because suppliers are now digitally equipped.
Procurement no longer needs to recreate catalogs or mirror supplier systems. The value now lies in:
Enforcing policies at the moment of purchase
Automating approvals, payment, and accounting
Letting buying feel as simple as the storefronts suppliers have already built
The Natural Next Step
Static and punch-out catalogs helped digitize procurement workflows.
Open Buying digitizes the buying moment itself.
As supplier e-commerce continues to mature, procurement models built around catalogs, POs, and invoices will increasingly feel like workarounds — not strategies.
The question is no longer whether procurement can evolve.
It’s whether systems will finally catch up with the way suppliers already sell.
