Tradeics

July 15, 2025

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Traditional Procurement Vs. e-Procurement

What are the major differences between traditional procurement and e-Procurement?

What are the benefits and risks comes with e-Procurement?

Procurement has dramatically changed over the years, and we are now living in the new era of procurement management and you certainly had been heard about e-Procurement and its great benefits for your small business, medium or a large one.

1. What is e-Procurement?

According to The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), The definition of e-Procurement is:

“The combined use of electronic information and communications technology to enhance the links between customer and supplier, and with other value chain partners, and thereby to improve external and internal processes. e-Procurement is a key component of the B2B e-commerce”

In other words, e-procurement improves the relationship between the buyer and the supplier and strengthens the internal business process for both of them, in addition to that it offers significant cost savings and more profit.

2. What are the major differences between traditional procurement and e-Procurement?

To find suppliers:

In traditional procurement, The procurement officers have to search various suppliers’ catalogues, and may not know whether they offer discounts or not, then seek the suppliers over numerous phone calls, and it is usually in-person conversation-based or done through pen-and-paper.

In e-Procurement, via your laptop or smartphone, you'll be able to easily compare hundreds of online catalogues of different suppliers in the same time and communicate with the supplier online to confirm the availability and quantity, which makes the purchase order activity instant.