Having catalogs doesn’t guarantee that anyone buys from them. Contracts get negotiated and catalogs get connected, and requesters still order around them because they don’t know which catalog to open. Lio is built to close that gap, from the moment a supplier catalog is connected to the moment a requester places an order.
Why catalogs matter, and where they fall short
Companies set up catalogs for three reasons. They steer purchasing toward preferred suppliers and approved channels, they turn negotiated supplier terms into on-contract purchases, and they make compliant buying faster for every requester. None of that happens if requesters go around the catalogs.
Guided Buying in Lio starts with the requester. They describe what they need, and Lio searches all connected catalogs and puts preferred suppliers first. At our customers, this shows up in the numbers: maverick spend down 75% against their baseline, catalog quotas above 90%, and a purchase requisition in 30 seconds instead of about 20 minutes. Requesters pick the catalog route on their own because it is easier than buying around it.
Lio connects more than 150,000 catalogs from over 50,000 suppliers in 127 countries, and the number keeps growing as customers add catalogs to Guided Buying.
Working with suppliers on every integration
Every catalog depends on a supplier. Lio works with suppliers such as RS, Hoffmann, Kaiserkraft, Grainger, Conrad, Farnell and Amazon Business to improve each integration, from catalog access to order transmission. Their feedback goes straight into the product, which makes everyday purchasing smoother for requesters.
Any catalog format, one search
Suppliers deliver catalogs in different ways, and Lio supports the formats they use. Static catalogs come in as BMEcat, CSV or Excel files. PunchOut catalogs connect through OCI or cXML. Some suppliers connect directly through their own APIs. If a company already maintains catalogs in SAP Ariba or Coupa, Lio synchronizes them instead of rebuilding them from scratch. Procurement teams spend less time on onboarding, and suppliers deal with less technical work.
Search follows the same approach. Where a supplier already offers a search interface, such as OCI background search or a search API, Lio uses it. Static catalogs and product feeds are indexed in Lio. Where no standard interface exists, we build a search integration together with the supplier, using Lio Search Agents. Requesters see one search across all of it.
More catalogs no longer means more shops
In a classic procurement system, every new catalog is one more shop requesters have to know about. Procurement teams end up balancing coverage against how many catalogs people can keep track of. With agentic Guided Buying, Lio compares products across contracted suppliers, suppliers with overlapping assortments and marketplaces, while contracted assortments stay the preferred path. Adding a catalog now means more choice and more purchasing needs covered.
Before adding catalogs, it helps to know what is already there. For new customers, we run an Agentic Catalog Opportunity Assessment. It compares purchasing demand, from free-text requests to purchase history and commodity groups, with existing catalogs, their assortments, supplier coverage and usage. The result shows what already works, which catalogs are underused and which needs no catalog covers yet. Sometimes the answer is more catalogs. Sometimes it is getting more out of the ones you already have.
Three features that put catalogs to work
Catalog Check
Catalog Check runs when a requester submits a free-text request. If a matching catalog product is available, Lio points to it before the request goes out.
Auto Buy
With Auto Buy, Lio’s agents find the right products and take care of the purchase. They build the cart without opening a PunchOut session.
Supplier Portal
In the Supplier Portal, suppliers maintain their own catalogs. Each upload runs through automated checks, and changes go through validation, negotiation and approval workflows before they go live.
What comes next: UCP and Amazon Business
For more than 25 years, connections between buyers and suppliers have run on OCI and cXML. The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) gives AI agents one common way to discover products, check out, place orders, track deliveries and receive invoices from suppliers. Lio has joined the UCP B2B Procurement Tech Council as a development partner.
We have also announced a partnership with Amazon Business that brings Amazon Business’s AI-powered procurement experience into Lio Guided Buying. Read the Amazon Business announcement.
