How Do I Make an Online Product Catalog?

Angela Shaffield Picture

by Angela Shaffield | Last Updated: Apr 11, 2023

The process of making an online product catalog or a product catalog website has two stages: the planning stage and the creation stage. Each stage is equally important. The planning stage helps you determine the structure of your online product guide and what product information you believe your customers will find helpful. The creation stage is when you will make sure that your online product catalog is easy to navigate and add any final touches that will make your online product guide a seamless experience.. The first step of the planning stage is to determine the structure and what product information you would like to include in your online product guide. This is where templates come in handy. A template can serve as a starting point for your online product catalog outline. It is a good idea to use templates to save time then edit them to fit your business goals. During the step of gathering all the product information you want to use in your product catalog, you will need to add all your product information into a product information management (PIM) solution. Doing this will allow you to easily find product information in the future and easily update your product catalog and other marketing materials. When choosing a PIM solution for the purpose of tying it to a product catalog, a tool like Lumavate will be best because, when you create a product catalog on Lumavate’s platform, it will automatically be tied to a PIM solution. Once you have planned out your product catalog, it's time to start the creating stage. During the creating stage you will create a digital experience that is tied to a PIM solution. Lumavate is actually a no code tool and offers templates to guide you through the process, so creating a product catalog is no longer a daunting task.  Eventually, you will need to manage and update your product data after creating your product catalog. Using a solution like Lumavate makes it easy for you to manage and update your product data and digital assets using Lumavate's PIM functionality and allows you to build digital experiences tied to product data that is always up-to-date in less than 30 minutes.

What Is the Best Software to Make a Catalog?

When creating a product catalog, you are going to need to use a catalog design software. There are many types of software solutions that you can use to make a product catalog. When choosing one to use, think about the functionality that supports your business goals and what you will need when making your product catalog. Here are some questions to ask yourself when choosing a software to help you make your product catalog: The most important question listed above is: “Will this software help me keep my product catalog up-to-date?”. For Lumavate’s customers, this is one of their first priorities. Lumavate ensures that your product catalog and any other digital experience will always be filled with up-to-date product information by including a PIM solution in its platform, so you can create digital experiences, tie them to a PIM, and update your product information using the same tool. Lumavate’s PIM is a brilliant choice for storing, editing, and managing your product information.It offers an organized way of storing your product information by product type and with custom attributes. Related products can also be associated within Lumavate’s PIM.

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Catalog?

The cost of creating a product catalog can vary greatly. There are many factors to consider when estimating the cost of creating a product catalog. Some factors to consider are: An example of how these factors can come into play is how a company that uses Excel to manage product data and creates a PDF version of their product guide will probably spend countless hours or more depending on the number of product in their product line, and the time it takes to update the product catalog annually can add up over time, not to mention the time and effort to create a product catalog from scratch. Whereas a company using a PIM tied to a digital experience product guide will require substantially fewer hours to create and update a product guide. In fact, once all the product data and related digital assets are in Lumavate’s PIM, it can take less than 30 minutes to build out a comprehensive product guide digital experience.  The PIM functionality is included in Lumavate’s Professional and Enterprise plans. Want to learn more about our pricing? Book a demo or check out our pricing page to learn more about what Lumavate can do for you.

See Lumavate in Action

Meet with one of our experts to see how easy it is to centralize your product data, manage digital assets, and create digital product experiences. Trust us…you’re going to be wowed.