Product catalogs are a great way to showcase all of your company’s products in one place. Building a catalog is a big task for your already busy team. Learn the process and tools that can help make this lift a little lighter.
What Is a Product Catalog?
Aproduct catalog is a comprehensive listing of all of your company’s products. A product catalog is often also referred to as a product catalogue, product guide, or product list. This resource becomes a single source of truth for all of your company’s products. All important product information should be listed in this guide helping your customers make informed purchases. A product catalog can appear in a few different forms. A product catalog PDF is a digital display of a product catalog. These are often found on company’s websites as a static display of all products. Product catalogs can also be presented as digital experiences. This is a great way to create an interactive and engaging display. The final way product catalogs are typically displayed is via printed catalog. These catalogs are created, printed, and circulated throughout the customer base. They are often mailed directly to customers or sent to third party dealers for their teams to reference. The information in printed catalogs quickly becomes out of date as products change, but the catalog does not.
What Are the Contents of a Good Product Catalog?
Having a product catalog is one thing, having a good product catalog is another. You want this resource to be useful to your customers and build confidence in your brand. The product catalog could be the first interaction your customer has with your brand. You want to make it a good one so they become repeat buyers. A good product catalog includes all relevant product information. This means product details, pricing, specs as well as related products and accessories. Any questions your customers have should be answered in your product catalog. The information in this catalog should always be up to date. Customers should not have to question information in a product catalog. You want your customers to trust you and that begins with accurate product information. Your product catalog should be easy to navigate as well. When a customer is deciding on a product they shouldn’t get lost trying to make sure it is the right fit for them. They don’t want to spend time flipping through the pages of a lengthy printed catalog either. Give them a simple click path and in a matter of seconds they have the answers they need and a purchase is being made.
How Do I Create a Product Catalog?
Creating an online digital catalog is a big task and can feel daunting in the beginning. Like any project it is important to break it up into manageable pieces that your team can execute with confidence. First determine the structure of your catalog and what needs to be included. Will all products be highlighted including related products? How will you organize your products? By product type, horsepower, cost? Think through every detail from the beginning to ensure you’re building the best catalog for your customers. By asking these questions from the start you’re making the blueprint for the rest of the catalog. Now you are tasked with collecting the content that will bring your catalog to life. This means every last product detail. Think through everything your customer needs to make informed purchasing decisions. Product images and any other details that will help build confidence with your audience. Next add this content to a Product Information Management (PIM) solution. Loading product information into a PIM creates a single source of truth for anyone working on this project. Your team knows the product information in the PIM is correct and can be trusted. They no longer need to worry about using the most recent version of an Excel sheet to find the answers. Now create your digital catalog as a digital experience. By connecting the PIM to your digital experience half of the work is being done for you. You no longer need to manually type in product details. With solutions like Lumavate, simply connect the digital experience and the PIM and information will appear. If a product is updated, make the change in the PIM and see the updated information in your digital experience in seconds. Like any project, once the big lift is done, there is still work to maintain. If your products change regularly, your product catalog is never truly done. Keep product information up to date in the PIM so the right information is in the hands of your customers.
How Do You Maintain a Product Catalog?
The work of a product catalog maker is never done and next is the important task of maintenance. Maintenance is a key element to having a good product catalog. A product catalog has no benefit if the information is outdated. Some product catalog software allows for easy maintenance. With solutions like Lumavate’s PIM information, maintenance is easy. Digital experiences connected to PIM data are automatically updated when the PIM is updated. One simple change in the PIM and it is changed everywhere else. This gives your customers confidence in your brand. They know they can count on you to provide accurate and comprehensive product information, no questions asked. Take it one step further and create a product catalog template. Create a framework of how you want every product catalog to look and be organized. With Lumavate your team can copy the template, make the necessary edits and it is ready to go. Your team is already on to the next task. It is important to review all of the features of each software to make sure you select the best catalog design software for your team. Think about what your team needs now as well as how you can grow. Learn how to make better digital product guides today, book a demo!
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.
