10 Benefits of eCatalogues
eCatalogues have been around for some time and they are here to stay. This is a result of global economies and industries becoming more driven by technology.
An eCatalogue, digital catalogue or online catalogue depending on your preference, is the cornerstone of successful companies’ marketing and growth strategies with good reason.
Even though we can say with certainty that print catalogues had their benefits too, nowadays they become less and less used as eCatalogues become more and more popular and it is also safe to say that they are now what is expected as the industry standard.
Digital catalogues are very convenient and allow your business to share your products with your retail and wholesale customers or prospects online in a matter of seconds.
The digitisation of your print catalogues adds a whole new dimension of convenience for both your company, customers and prospects by allowing them to easily find your catalogue online and browse through your product offerings.
Moreover, utilising digital channels like social media, YouTube, online advertising, and more, can provide many more benefits that print catalogues and campaigns just don’t have the ability to.
With that in mind, below we have put together the top 10 benefits as we see them and the key reasons why having an eCatalogue for your business is a huge advantage over your competitors.
The main benefits of an eCatalogue are as follows:
- Convenience and accessibility
- Easily shareable online
- Easy to update and maintain
- They reduce admin, print, and distribution costs
- They another level of professionalism
- They integrate with your eCommerce and your ERP
- You can collect key customer data
- Catalogues are easily scalable
- They offer fast, smart product search
- They offer an advantage over competitors
Now, without any further ado, let’s just jump right into it and get into the details.
What are the Benefits of a Digital Catalogue?
- Convenience and accessibility
No matter what some might say, customers want convenience. After all, we all want an easier life right?
An eCatalogue acts as a reference for your business and it allows your existing and potential customers to view your products and services from wherever they are as long as they have access to the internet and a mobile phone.
Customers want the ability to self-service and making it easy for your customers to buy from you can prevent them from looking around at other suppliers.
So something as simple as keeping a digital catalogue with real-time information for your customers online will keep them coming back for more.
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Easily Shareable Online
Say goodbye to the old way of sharing your physical catalogues. Tactics like word of mouth and customer recommendations are just not enough in the age of technology and information.
With an eCatalogue, you can share your latest catalogue online with your customers in a matter of seconds. Digital shareability is something great that all businesses who are online enjoy.
You can simply share your catalogue using a simple link via text, email, or on social media and people can click on to and be directed directly to your online catalogue. Simple, right?
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Easy to update and maintain
If your business is still using a physical catalogue then I am pretty sure you know first hand that making changes to it can be costly and not so convenient.
Even a small change because a price needs updating or a product is available in a new colour or style can be a hassle.
Whatever the reason, you normally have to re-print or personally inform your customers by phone or email about the updates.
With a digital catalogue, updating product information, images, prices, or whatever else you need to change is simple, easy, fast, and most importantly in real-time.
You can make the updates electronically and your eCatalogue gets updated instantly!
No need to wait until the next print run to update your catalogue.
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They reduce admin, print, and distribution costs
It’s a well-known fact that printing catalogues can involve frequent costs. Also, you need to distribute all these product catalogues to your customers which includes a shipping cost too. On top of that, your admin team needs to spend time organising and ensuring that everything is perfect before going to print.
Using an eCatalogue can help you remove lost time and cost once and for all. Once you’ve launched an online digital catalogue, all you’ve to do is send it to your customers digitally.
Even better, make your customers visit your website where you have your catalogue instead.
A digital catalogue will not only save you a lot of money, but it will also save you time as now you will be able to make updates in a matter of minutes, or even seconds and immediately let your customers know about the new update.
A win, win no matter how you look at it.
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They add another level of professionalism
When you’ve a sales team using e-catalogues with clients you create a dynamic, professional impression with your customers.
It shows that you’re a well-organized business who’s interested in having the most up-to-date data available to your customers. This will instil confidence and trust in your company from your customers and build a strong relationship.
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They integrate with your eCommerce and ERP
This benefit is linked back to the convenience benefit that we mentioned earlier.
Integrating your full eCatalogue with your eCommerce solution provides a whole new level of professionalism and convenience for your customers and prospects.
Your online store will help your business drive more sales with very little effort.
As customers and visitors have access to your full online catalogue, they can just add products to their cart and make the purchase.
The ERP integration means that when customers view your products, they will be viewing product descriptions, prices, and stock availability in real-time directly from your ERP system.
The orders can be placed directly into your ERP system too as it’s a two-way flow of data, saving you the manual labour of re-keying in orders.
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You can collect key customer data
Ask yourself the following question. How easy is it for you to collect customer information on all your marketing material and efforts?
Well, if I were to answer that question I would say that it was very, very hard.
Being able to collect accurate customer data is key when it comes to understanding what works and what doesn’t. All of your online marketing campaigns can now be monitored and accurate, targeted customer data can be collected.
Remarketing to customers who view certain products in your catalogue but do not purchase can be very powerful in helping them to make a purchase decision or just to come back to the product page again.
Online data analytic tools like Google Analytics can help you do all that and much more for free, as long as you have an eCatalogue implemented. Such tools will allow you to see how long each user spent viewing each product page, how they interacted with your content, what parts got their attention, how many users in total visited your catalogue and much more.
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Catalogues are easily scalable
A digital catalogue ensures that as your business grows and your catalogue expands, you can increase the size of your online catalogue without having to worry about cost and maintenance.
Updating your catalogue is fast, easy and costs very little, just a small amount of admin work. That’s all. You don’t have to divide your catalogue into smaller pieces as you would normally do with print catalogues.
Now, you can divide your catalogue into categories and subcategories that allows your customers to search much easier for your products.
No matter how big your business grows, it will be much easier to scale with an eCatalogue.
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They offer fast, smart product search
Digital catalogues are great when it comes to finding products fast. With the smart search function, you can type a keyword, product name or product code and it will show up in a fraction of the time it would take you to find it if you had a print catalogue.
Smart search is one of the most significant advantages that an eCatalogue solution offers to businesses and their customers.
Your customers can access the online catalogue from anywhere, at any time on any device and search for products they need.
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They offer an advantage over competitors
So far, we have listed a number of great benefits. However, we’ve kept this one as the cherry on top for a reason.
All the benefits we’ve listed contribute equally towards a common goal. To make your business get ahead of your competition who may be lacking in comparison.
eCatalogues give your business a direct advantage over competitors who have not yet gone digital.
A digital catalogue opens your business to a wider audience and the chance to attract new customers online. You can implement some great online marketing strategies to add more value to your business and eventually leave your competitors behind.
Summary
It’s safe to say that eCatalogues are the best alternative to old-fashioned physical print catalogues in many different ways.
Digital transformation is now accelerating all around us and digital catalogues are here to help businesses to reduce costs, streamline their business processes, increase sales, and much more using new technology.
No matter how you look at it, eCatalogues are for the better and are here to stay. Now is the time to adapt to how consumers and B2B businesses want to purchase goods online.
If you are looking for a solution, why don’t you take a look at the Aphix eCatalogue solution?
If you’re interested, book a free demo at a time that suits and see how our eCatalogue solution can help your business to start selling smarter online.
If you have any questions, feel free to fill out the form below or chat with us using the live chat box and one of our experts will be more than happy to assist you.