What is digital procurement? A complete 2025 guide

Digital procurement empowers organizations to achieve comprehensive spend oversight, improve compliance, and adapt to changing market conditions—all benefits that are hard to come by with traditional procurement tools. 

Efficiency in your procurement function is tied to accurate, up-to-date data that only technology can provide, such as real-time spend monitoring, AI-driven insights, and predictive data analytics. With this procurement data at your fingertips, you can confidently make large purchasing decisions that maximize long-term value for your organization. 

However, undergoing digital procurement transformation is a significant undertaking that requires executive buy-in and comprehensive change management strategies. Understanding the benefits of a digital procurement strategy, the best digital procurement solutions, and the strategic importance of these digital technologies for procurement executives can help you build a stronger business case for adoption.

What is digital procurement?

Digital procurement is the use of technology to optimize and automate the process of sourcing, buying, and managing the goods and services needed for your business. It helps make your company’s procurement process more efficient by speeding up the purchasing process and eliminating manual tasks, reducing the risk of error. 

The term e-procurement is often used synonymously with digital procurement. However, e-procurement specifically describes the electronic systems that manage procurement activities, such as creating purchase requisitions, monitoring supplier performance, or forecasting future demand and spend. E-procurement serves as an implementation of digital procurement.

Benefits of digital procurement

Companies are switching to digital procurement at high rates for many reasons, one of which is the increasing impact of emerging technologies. According to a survey by Gartner, sourcing and procurement professionals expect generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) alone to do the following over the next 12–18 months:

• Increase productivity by 21%
• Increase cost savings by 12%
• Improve revenue by 11%

When you consider all the types of tools featured in procurement technology, it can open your company up to a world of benefits, including:

• Significantly increased efficiency: Digital procurement tools automate manual processes, consolidate data from various sources, streamline workflows, improve communication with internal stakeholders, and boost supplier relationship management.
• Reduced costs: Digital procurement systems help identify cost reduction opportunities, eliminate wasteful spending, and minimize administrative overhead by eliminating time-consuming manual tasks.
• Improved agility: Digital procurement gives you more flexibility to adjust to changing market conditions and scale operations by quickly identifying and engaging with new suppliers.
• Enhanced risk management: Digital procurement tools improve supply chain transparency, enabling you to identify, evaluate, and mitigate risks more effectively. Improved vendor selection further reduces the likelihood of supply chain disruptions.
• Assured compliance: When using digital procurement software or solutions, you have access to an end-to-end audit trail and the ability to set compliance controls that adhere to internal policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements.

Types of digital procurement tools

Digital procurement offers various tools that support different aspects of the procurement process. The best type of tool—or tools—for your business depends on your procurement goals and organizational needs.

Here are a few types of digital procurement tools and the differences between them.

Implementing digital procurement: A step-by-step guide

Any initiative that involves organizational change may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. By developing a strategic step-by-step plan, you can prepare for unexpected roadblocks and keep your team on the same page. 

Step 1: Assess organizational readiness

The first step in implementing digital procurement is to make sure your organization is ready to support the change. This means: 

• Having the right talent capabilities to operate the new systems, or preparing to implement training for the new systems

• Ensuring integration with your organization’s current technology assets or preparing to migrate to the new systems

• Establishing a clear, strategic roadmap for change 

• Selecting key metrics for measuring success

• Verifying budgetary readiness

• Assessing company culture and receptivity to change

   

Step 2: Develop a digital procurement strategy

Once you’ve determined that your organization is properly prepared to adopt digital procurement, you can begin developing a digital procurement strategy. The right strategy depends on which procurement goals are most pressing. 

For example, if you want to reduce costs as quickly as possible, you might look into procurement analytics tools to help your team identify the biggest cost-saving opportunities. If your priority is becoming strategic about sourcing, seek out vendor management tools to build stronger supplier partnerships.

Step 3: Select digital procurement tools

Having a well-thought-out strategy and clear vision will help you identify the right e-procurement tools to meet your goals. Regardless of the type of technologies you choose, it's crucial to select options that integrate with your company’s existing tech stack. Failing to confirm compatibility before purchasing could complicate your procurement process since fragmented systems can't communicate with each other.

Step 4: Foster organizational buy-in

Once you’re ready to roll out your new technologies, it’s time to get people excited. Communicate early and often about the benefits of going digital, detailing how the new procurement systems can make employees’ jobs easier and how this change contributes directly to the company’s overall mission. Share specific use cases that demonstrate its abilities to save time and money.

If the changes support sustainability or corporate social responsibility efforts, mention that as well. It may also help to reassure staff that the new system isn’t there to replace their jobs, especially if you sense any concern. This can help your team relax and feel better about buying in.

Case study: ExxonMobil's digital procurement transformation

While digital procurement transformation can benefit companies of any size, it can be especially advantageous for large enterprises that order a high volume of supplies to support operations. 

For example, ExxonMobil has thousands of people across six continents who collectively spend more than $40 billion each year with thousands of suppliers. Any opportunity to decrease costs or improve the procurement cycle can significantly improve the company’s bottom line.

ExxonMobil integrated HAQM Business into its existing e-procurement ecosystem to enhance procurement efficiency and visibility. The free shipping benefit alone saves the company roughly $7.50 on every package shipped via postal services. Additionally, consolidating all deliveries to one day—their dedicated HAQM delivery day—helped them streamline their receiving process.

The company’s users adopted HAQM Business quickly, as they were already familiar with the HAQM interface from their own personal shopping. This allowed ExxonMobil to create significant change without drastically disrupting its existing business processes.

The strategic importance of digital procurement for financial executives

Thoughtful digital procurement implementation is pivotal for financial and procurement leaders at any corporation. It helps support organizational goals, improve financial performance, and provide a competitive edge by boosting your ability to compete in a digital-first landscape. 

Digital tools enable these benefits by enhancing oversight of the entire procurement process, reducing risks, and improving compliance through automated tracking and reporting. They can also drive efficiency in purchasing operations and give you more control over company expenditures. 

How HAQM Business supports digital procurement

HAQM Business combines the selection, convenience, and value expected from HAQM, with unique capabilities that can help improve your purchasing operations. With HAQM Business, your teams can access an intuitive digital solution with easy, on-the-go purchasing, AI-driven spend insights, and seamless procurement system integrations. 

By enabling self-service purchasing, bulk ordering, and compliance controls, HAQM Business helps organizations modernize procurement operations while maintaining flexibility and cost efficiency. It also offers a familiar, user-friendly interface for procurement teams with convenient mobile options, making training and onboarding quick and easy.

Here are a few of the tool’s features that can help support your business:

• Compliance controls: Define rules that comply with internal policies that identify preferred, restricted, and blocked categories or sellers. You can also set budget limits and create approval workflows.
• Spend insights: Spend Visibility (a Business Prime feature) tracks your organization’s buying patterns over time to help you find cost-saving opportunities.
• Procurement system integrations: HAQM Business integrates with other procurement systems to offer solutions like Punchout, Punch-in, Hosted Catalog, and more. 
• Diverse supplier catalog: HAQM Business hosts a large pool of diverse suppliers that makes it easy to connect with small businesses and businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, and members of the LGBT community.
• Bulk ordering and quantity discounts: HAQM Business offers business-only pricing, including discounts on large orders and Subscribe & Save purchases. It also allows for high-volume purchases of more than 1,000 units of the same SKU. 

Reach your goals faster with digital procurement

Digital procurement solutions are effective tools for optimizing spend, managing risks, and creating efficient procurement processes. They simplify compliance, maximize return on investment, and assist you in making confident, data-backed decisions.

HAQM Business combines HAQM's familiarity and convenience with digital procurement tools like purchasing insights, robust data analytics, and compliance controls. You also gain access to wholesale savings, volume discounts, and Subscribe & Save orders that increase profit margins.

Start your digital procurement journey with a tool you already know. Create your free HAQM Business account today, or contact sales to learn how HAQM Business can help you achieve your procurement goals.