Roadmap

We're continuously innovating to bring more value to the program.  Here are a few major initiatives we are working on currently

API Driven and Seller Portal

• Seller will be able to manage (add/edit/delete) products in a “Seller Studio”, which will insert the product into an approval hopper for review and promotion by Buy MBE account manager.
  • Sellers can upload spreadsheets and .zip files of images, documents, etc.
• The Seller can use a REST API to POST, PATCH, PUT, DELETE and GET products into the approval hopper. Seller access is limited to only products attached to their seller account.

ERP Integration

• Buyers will be able to integrate a punchout catalog into their existing ERP/e-procurements system to maintain governance and approval gates. Buyer can shop the Buy MBE catalog and then “Punch out” the cart to their native system.
• Buyers will have their own API permission giving the access to pull down orders, gather report data, and POST new orders into the Buy MBE system.

Potential for AI with Buy MBE

• Use Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve search results
• Create correlations between product and sellers.
  • Ex. If Buyer A buys janitorial supplies from Seller X, but Seller X has a limited catalog, we can find other sellers with similar profiles in the geo-targeted area having additional inventories
  • Personalized shopping – ex. Recognition that Buyer X always buys certain products and customizing the catalog display/navigation accordingly.
• Generative Chat – interact using chat to interact with the product and seller catalog.
  • Ex. “I am looking to purchase brooms from a company in Baton Rouge…”
  • This could also be used for customer support after we have some content assets built up over time.