Punchout vs Punch-in vs Integrated Search vs Hosted Catalog

Once an organization is big enough to have an e-procurement system, the Amazon Business question stops being "should we" and becomes "through which pipe". Amazon publishes several, the names are unhelpfully similar, and the differences are real.

The useful mental model: they all connect the same two systems, and they differ in where the buyer is standing when they choose a product, and who curates what they can see. This page assumes you already know what punchout is — if not, start with punchout and procurement integration.

Punchout — the baseline

The buyer begins in the e-procurement system, punches out to the Amazon Business store, shops, and returns with a cart that becomes a requisition under your normal approval rules. Amazon's administrators configure it in Business Settings → System integrations → Configure purchasing system.

Everything else on this page is a variation on it, and — importantly — requires it first.

Punch-in — the same road, driven the other way

Amazon describes punch-in as beginning your purchase in the Amazon Business store before submitting the completed cart to your e-procurement system, where punchout requires you to start the journey in the e-procurement system.

Which sounds cosmetic and is not. Buyers who know exactly what they want find Amazon's own search better than most procurement front-ends; punch-in lets them use it without escaping the approval process. It needs punchout enabled and an administrator to activate the feature.

Amazon names 10 supported systems:

Adelpo, ClickApporter, Compleat, Fraxion, NB Solution, Onventis, Planergy, Precoro, SAP Ariba, Tyler Technologies.

Integrated Search — the buyer never leaves

The most ambitious of the four. Amazon describes searching for products from within the e-procurement system, viewing selection and making purchases without leaving it. Orders then proceed via Level 2 punchout after the product is selected.

Prerequisites, as Amazon states them:

• An existing punchout integration through a compatible system.
• A system that supports the Integrated Search feature.
• Administrators to configure punchout in Business Settings under System integrations.
• The Amazon Business Product Search API enabled.

Supported systems, 8 of them: Adelpo, BeNeering, BuyerQuest, Coupa, GEP, Ivalua, Onventis, SAP Ariba.

Note the overlap with punch-in is small — Adelpo, Onventis and SAP Ariba appear on both lists, and most platforms appear on one or neither. Check your platform against both lists before designing a workflow around either.

Hosted Catalog — curation instead of search

A different philosophy entirely. Rather than exposing Amazon's catalog to your buyers, a Hosted Catalog places a set of pre-approved items — with prices, descriptions and images — directly inside your e-procurement system. Amazon Business support manages updates to reflect selected items and negotiated pricing arrangements.

Amazon states no account configuration updates are needed to use it in your e-procurement system, and that it works alongside other integrations such as punchout. But setup is not self-service: Amazon requires you to contact an account executive.

This is the right answer when the goal is restriction rather than reach — a maintenance team that should order from a defined list of forty items and nothing else. It is the wrong answer when the value of Amazon is the breadth of the catalog, which for most small and mid-sized organizations it is.

The App Center — the option people forget

Amazon describes the App Center as a one-stop shop where business customers can discover third-party apps integrated with Amazon Business, across 5 categories: accounting management, rewards and recognition, expense management, integrated shopping, inventory management. It names Concur Expense, QuickBooks Online and Awardco.

For an organization without a formal e-procurement system, this is usually the whole answer. You do not need punchout to get Amazon spend into your accounting — you need the accounting integration, which is a much smaller project. QuickBooks and accounting integration covers that route.

Choosing

1. No e-procurement system? Stop here. Use the App Center or a direct accounting integration, plus approvals and groups inside Amazon Business itself.
2. Have one, want breadth? Punchout, and then punch-in if your platform supports it and your buyers prefer Amazon's search.
3. Have one, want no context-switching at all? Integrated Search — if you are on one of the eight platforms and can get the Product Search API enabled.
4. Have one, want restriction? Hosted Catalog, via an account executive.

What none of these do

None of them is authentication. Single sign-on governs who is signed in and what happens when they leave the organization; these routes govern where the transaction takes place. Most organizations that need one need the other, and they are configured separately — setting up single sign-on.

And none of them replaces internal control. Approval workflows, groups, shared payment methods and budgets all still apply, and for a business below e-procurement scale they are the entire toolkit — multi-user accounts and approvals and budgets and spending limits.