For eCommerce, streamlining high-quality and consistent product information is necessary to hook target customers. Every customer needs easy access to accurate product information to be able to gauge whether the product(s) in question matches what they are looking for. And product catalogs play a major role in easing their journey. 84% of customers say that they buy a product after delving deep into the product catalog. Every brand that focuses on strategic expansion needs an organized and decluttered product catalog to diversify its customer base.
If you’ve wondered what measures you can take to improve your product catalogs, you’ve come to the right place.
What is a Product Catalog?
A product catalog is not just a fashionable exhibition of your inventories. It conveys technical, user-oriented, and emotional information on products. A well-built product catalog includes product description, attributes, quality images, designs, call to action, and regular updates on product features.
A customer spends about 15.5 minutes looking into a product catalog. It helps consumers identify entire product categories in one single location. E-commerce businesses need to invest in customizing product catalogs than depending on pre-made templates. Customization and flexibility help you upkeep brand identity and user experience.
A content-driven eCommerce product catalog management helps you come closest to mimicking the in-store experience. In a nutshell, diving deep into the functional aspects of the product catalog is vital to engage customers with stellar content and amplify the brand visibility.
In this omnichannel marketing world, optimized and data-enriched product details are crucial to improve sales value across multiple channels. Moreover, meticulous product catalog management:
- Builds brand trust by accelerating accuracy
- Offers filter bubble to navigate customers browse through the shopping site
- Helps in product mapping to boost dynamic pricing and related products view
- Promotes upselling and cross-selling to build stronger customer relationships
- Handles database management and fuels up master data experience
- Personalizes B2B catalog to reach new markets and increase the sale
Unfortunately, managing a product catalog is one of the biggest pain points brands face. Consumers are now much more conscious and aware of their requirements. So, it’s high time to address the challenges to give buyers a seamless shopping journey.
Common Product Catalog Challenges
Let’s flip through some pain points faced by distributors and retailers while creating an eCommerce product catalog design:
1. Product data loading and processing
Manual entry is always tedious and prone to errors. Though there are a few options like automation tools and management systems, budding eCommerce enterprises find it difficult to manage operational costs.
2. Absence of a unified storage system
Managing multiple spreadsheets to store inventory data leads to discrepancies and consumes time when the business expands. Vendors and suppliers need a centralized data management system to eliminate inconsistency and search difficulties.
3. Meaningful integrations
For tapping audiences and leading them through the sales funnel, it’s imperative to run a multi-channel marketing strategy. But for many B2B ventures, optimizing the products for multiple channels is challenging.
4. Content aggregation and timely updates
Polishing and repurposing ERP datasheets for managing content can be difficult and time-consuming for you. Moreover, spending dollars on data sheets may not bring quality customer-facing content for regular updates.
Pro Tips: Design a Top-notch Product Catalog
There’s no single rule or solution in creating a visually appealing product catalog. Customization is the key
When it comes to designing an eCommerce product catalog, invest quality time to build a personalized and funnel-based catalog design. B2B buyers often demand customizable catalogs to increase customer experience and provide real-time solutions.
Read below the crucial steps to creating a convertible eCommerce product catalog:
1. Understand Your Sales Goals & Target Audience
Track the consumer journey and address the pain points to tap prospect buyers. You might be creating a product catalog for a press outlet, retailer, or for sharing directly with the customers. A product catalog for a B2B vendor won’t be the same as the catalog for a customer. So, setting the tone of the catalog structure and analyzing target audience behavior is necessary to aggregate meaningful content.
2. Find a Customizable Design
Interactive catalog designs hook target customers and create an everlasting imprint in customers’ minds. But make sure the catalog design is flexible to accommodate future updates. Product catalog maintenance is an unending process. A customizable layout ensures ease in inventory maintenance and frequent updating.
3. Optimize Your Products
Details on the catalog differ according to sales goals. An intuitive product Taxonomy is necessary to navigate your customers and improve the consumer retention rate It may not include every product. So choosing the products and grouping them under specific categories and sub-categories eases consumer journey and search relevance.
Catalog success is not only about expanding the product categories. You list hundreds and thousands of inventories on the sales catalog, but only 10 or 20 categories influence buyers. So, optimizing tailored content and product by analyzing consumers’ unique preferences and demography helps you build a buyer-facing catalog.
According to the product demand and selling history, you can develop new catalog entries to inculcate bundle sales or multi-pack strategies.
4. Integrate a product information management system
An eCommerce product catalog is a centralized hub to store data for reference, influence buyers, and build brand identity. Though ERP facilitates data, it cannot satisfy a retail product catalog.
When your business expands, optimizing catalog design according to changing business scenarios becomes laborious. A retailer needs a robust product information management system to sell across multiple platforms and media channels. No matter how many Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) you need to handle a day, a flexible product information system makes data import and onboard hassle-free and quick.
5. Merge with eCommerce platforms & cross-channels
eCommerce marketing is a vast ecosystem, you need a user-friendly PIM tool to design product catalogs fit for different locales, channels, and languages. Product Information Management (PIM) is the absolute power suite you can use to manage your product catalog for multiple platforms and channels. Maintaining your product catalog on a Content Management System (CMS) can be tiresome when the market grows and listing inflates. For seamless integration with eCommerce platforms and social media channels, PIM provides ready-to-use catalog templates for all the channels.
6. Manage your Product catalog for offline distribution
The built-in export feature in PIM enables distributors and retailers to utilize offline catalogs in PDF and Comma Separated Values (CSV) formats to complement online marketing strategies. The resurgence of printed catalogs into B2B and B2C marketing channels notifies the exponential value of offline catalogs in the digital world.
Balancing online and offline catalogs can help to expand the customer base and sustainability. Statistics claim 69% of customers look into offline catalogs before making an online purchase.
Here Are 9 Benefits of Utilizing PIM for eCommerce Catalog Management
- Assist vendors to upkeep consistency in information
- Help customers churn out product details by reducing business cycles
- Enhance conversion Rate & beef up branding through building a compelling and engaging catalog
- Leverage cost-free and quick distribution of product information and brand message across diverse channels
- Decrease product returns and bouncing rates by eliminating manual errors and incomplete product information
- Centralize data management and eliminates product data duplication across channels
- Automate import and export of product data helping your team boost productivity
- Power omnichannel experience by optimizing product description for multiple channels and platforms
- Promote global scalability and local market penetration through the multi-language support system
Product Catalog- The Power Suit that Influences Purchase Decisions
Inspiring product data is the key to drive sales and run a value-driven eCommerce platform. People engage with product catalogs to generate awareness and make purchasing decisions. A smooth flow of information grabs shoppers back to your store.
Managing an eCommerce product catalog is integral to organize data and suitable product categories. Augment your digital catalog and sharpen your competitive edge by using our product information management system.
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