Contents (6 sections)
Buying a batch of solar panels or batteries for a professional project rarely starts with a shortage of suppliers. The catalogues are overflowing. What is missing is comparable data: certifications presented in ten different ways, production capacities declared without proof, quality policies that cannot be checked without a visit. The result, as the BuyStep website puts it bluntly: decisions taken on partial and unreliable information.
What BuyStep is #
BuyStep is a B2B marketplace dedicated to energy equipment. On one side, manufacturers and suppliers presenting their products; on the other, professional buyers looking for a reliable partner. The portal is available in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese), which reflects the reality of a sector where the factory is rarely in the buyer's country.
BuyStep does not compare prices. BuyStep compares the reliability of suppliers.
Audit 9.0: one structure for every supplier #
The heart of the system is Audit 9.0. Every supplier fills in a single structure: 9 dimensions, more than 200 criteria, with supporting documents and certifications. Company, production, quality, certifications, social responsibility, markets served: the same questions for everyone, in the same order. An audit counts as complete once 85% of the required criteria are filled in, and each section has its own status (not filled in, in progress, complete, points of attention).
The data is self-declared and then cross-checked: against the supplier's history, through AI-assisted analysis, with software tools and, if necessary, through a physical visit. A supplier who passes these stages receives the “BuyStep Verified” label, visible to buyers.
BuyStep Score: from data to decision #
The audit produces data; the BuyStep Score turns it into indicators. The engine aggregates the audit dimensions into three pillars and applies explicit scoring rules. It also raises risk flags: a single production site with no continuity plan, or social responsibility triggers (child labour, forced labour, discrimination) that echo the obligations of the European CSDDD directive. Below 50, the risk is rated high; between 50 and 70, moderate.
For the buyer, this changes the nature of the choice: they are no longer comparing brochures but identical structures, scored by the same rules, with the supporting documents alongside.
Where AI comes in, and where it does not #
The term “AI audit” deserves to be made precise, because it can mean anything. In the design of Audit 9.0, AI is used to read and structure: extract what documents and certificates in mixed formats say, spot inconsistencies between what is declared and what is provided, and prepare the verification work. Scoring, on the other hand, follows written rules (thresholds, flags, weightings), and the “BuyStep Verified” label remains a decision by the platform, not by a model.
For suppliers, for buyers #
- Supplier: a single audit to fill in once, section by section, with a dashboard that shows what is missing; visibility with buyers who are looking for evidence, not promises; three subscription levels to choose the exposure you want.
- Buyer: suppliers that can be compared on an identical structure, a reliability score, risk flags, favourites and a messaging system to make contact without an intermediary.
- Both: six languages, verified documents, and a platform that has no interest in selling one product rather than another.
Under the bonnet #
For those interested in the technical side: the portal is a Next.js 16 application that talks to a single .NET 10 REST API through a Backend-for-Frontend that keeps tokens on the server side. Data lives in PostgreSQL, search in Elasticsearch, subscriptions with Stripe. The business domain has more than 55 entities and the whole is covered by unit tests, integration tests on a real database and architecture tests, run by a five-stage pipeline on every release. We explain these choices in the BuyStep case study.
Are you a manufacturer or distributor of energy equipment? You can request an audit directly on buystep.com. Do you have a sector, a network or a market that needs the same thing, a structured audit and a reliability score for your partners? That is the kind of business application we design and host in France. First conversation free, quote within 48 h.
