What Is A Product Catalogue And Why do you need it?

A product catalogue is one of the most important aspects of a business. Let us know all about it and why a business must own a catalogue.

What Is A Product Catalogue?

A product catalogue is a kind of marketing collateral that consists of a list of products and their details that will help the buyer make a well-informed decision. These details are product-related like dimensions, descriptions, colours, size, reviews, features, availability, price and more.

These documents are needed in both B2B and B2C companies. 

Who Needs Product Catalogs?

Many business users and groups like store clerks, managers, sales reps etc need product catalogues. Let us understand how the groups make use of them:

• Buyers and decision-makers need it as reference material while making a purchase decision. They can compare different products/services from various vendors and choose the best option for their business.
• Sales reps and inside sales teams use a product catalogue to convey information to the customer about a product or a service and refer to it while communicating the benefits of using their products.
• Store and warehouse managers, shift managers, and operators use it to know about the details of the inventory in their godowns. 
• External parties such as agencies, partners, resellers, and value-added sellers use it to get information about a product and service and share it with end-users.
• Field marketers use it while they are walking customers through demos of their products and solutions which helps them in offering value to their customers.

Reasons Why You Need Product Catalogs

There are several reasons for which you may need product catalogues. Let us take a look at the list below:

Reduce Business Cycles

It is easier to share a digital catalogue with customers with all the details of the products so that all their questions are answered. This will help them come to a conclusion faster and would not involve the hassle of back and forth emails between the two parties.

Improve Conversion Rate

Catalogues also help improve the conversion rate of sales. With catalogues, customers have all the data they need to buy the product or service hence they buy products more efficiently.

Smooth Flow of Information

Product catalogues keep the flow of information smooth. The catalogues consist of every minute detail and are updated frequently which means that there is no stale information in emails, storage repositories, libraries, desktops and CRMs. 

Reduces Training Effort

When there is a catalogue of products, for people to refer to, there is a reduced need to train salespeople, retailers, partners and other people. 

To Glean Information

If a catalogue is available of the product, customers can easily purchase the product or service without talking to a salesperson. Everything they need to know about the product would be available on the product package or online information.

Ingredients of a Product Catalog

While working on a product catalogue, keep in mind that this one catalogue should be sufficient for all stakeholders and contain information for each and every one of them. 

Let us take a look at the ingredients of a product catalogue.

• Call to Action: Add a Call to action that indicates what you expect the target audience to do after seeing your brochure. Email/download/call/share? Append this information to let users contact you.
• Constituents: Mention the core constituents of the product like steel, copper, and alloy. 
• Certifications: List the certifications earned by the product such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001, etc.
• Customer Credentials: Include credentials from customers who have given 5 stars to the product.
• Description: Add description so users can quickly read it for reference.
• Discounts: Mention any early-bird/seasonal discounts for your product.
• Dimensions: Mention length, height, breadth, weight, the volume of the product.
• Features: Include the top features of the product.
• Guarantee/Warranty: Specify any guarantee or warranty clauses applicable to the product.
• Name of the product: Add the product name and any brand name.
• Ideal conditions of usage: Indicate the best conditions and criteria for using the product. e.g., temperature, surroundings, etc.
• Price: Mention the price of the product and the currency/geography applicable. 
• Pictures: Add a picture, the most critical component of a catalogue.
• Safety Measures: Include safety measures if required to inform and educate users. 
• Terms & Conditions: Add terms and conditions of using the product.
• Returns: Under what conditions will the company accept returns of the product?
• Size: Name the size of the product.
• Year of the launch: Which year was the product launched?
• Version: Name the version/release/series of the product. e.g., Windows 2016.

Product Catalogue Management

Product catalogues must be maintained and managed timely to ensure high utility. Here are the different aspects of product catalogue management: 

Timely Updating

All products change from time to time. Some have subtle changes, the rest are complete overhauls. Hence it is important that the catalogues are timely updated so that even the slightest change is noted and informed to the buyers.

Retrieving

Product catalogues must be easily retrievable at the time of need by users. They shouldn’t have to go through any hassle.  

Distributing to Users

All product brochures must be distributable to increase and enhance the user experience and also help buyers in comparing products and making a decision instantly. One can create personalized microsites with multiple product brochures, to convey vital information. This would help them glide through different brochures, and choose the product that suits them.

Tracking/Analyzing Performance

One should be able to track the number of views, downloads, re-shares, and time spent on each document. This analysis would help product managers, marketers, and sales reps to analyze product performance efficiently, grow sales, and deliver a personalized user experience.

How Lio Can Help You In Product Cataloguing 

Creating a product catalogue template means having a proper list of products with images, details like size, manufacturer, year of manufacture, warranty, price, reviews and much much more. When it comes to product catalogues, Lio can help you make them in no time.

Lio is that one app where you can store and organise all kinds of data. No matter what information you want to save, you can do it over here. It is here to put your life in order in the most hassle-free way.

There are several features of Lio and all make the use of the application very easy and helpful. You can add photographs, download your documents and folders, dedicate one folder to each information, collaborate and share with others and lock the information.

Lio is definitely for the win and using it for your business is only going to make your journey smooth and easy to track.

Step 1: Select the Language you want to work on. Lio on Android

Step 2: Create your account using your Phone Number or Email Id.

Verify the OTP and you are good to go.

Step 3: Select a template in which you want to add your data.

Add your Data with our Free Cloud Storage.

Step 4: All Done? Share and Collaborate with your contacts.

Conclusion

Product catalogues are a very important part of the business that must not be skipped. It becomes easier for people to know and have all the essential information about the product or service and make an informed decision about purchasing it. It also gives the buyer the feeling of trust if all the information is displayed. 

It is easy to maintain and manage the product catalogue and must be done diligently. If made well, it can rise up the sales of the products.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)