Product Catalogs—How to Bring Your Catalog to Life with Digital Interactivity

Considering how rapidly the number of digital shoppers keeps increasing every year, we cannot assume that these shoppers only buy from online stores. Research shows that 73% of customers use multiple channels to shop. And each channel has a set of expectations required by the shoppers themselves.

One demand that’s having a huge moment is shoppable ecommerce product catalogs. Physical catalogs are still an effective marketing tool. Brands such as Anthropologie and Patagonia are still investing in traditional print catalogs, and even marketplace giant Amazon continues to ship offline catalogs to customers. 

Now is the time to create interactive catalogs that enable cross-use between print and digital. That way, you're giving your customers the same in-store and online experience. Let’s explain more about what digital interactivity is all about.

What is an interactive product catalog?

A printed catalog is tangible and allows customers to physically page through it until a product catches their interest. Meanwhile, a digital ecatalog offers a similar experience that allows customers to click buttons and page through it online. 

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You can bring a print catalog to life by transforming it into an interactive digital catalog. When we say interactive catalog, we’re talking about a catalog that gives customers the ability to buy directly from the catalog. That type of experience opens up new possibilities for your business. Let’s get into what these are. 

What possibilities can interactive catalogs bring you?

An interactive catalog offers you a huge possibility to improve customer experience and satisfaction, which can, ultimately, boost sales.

1. Cross-platform reach and engagement  

Researching and shopping for products online is second nature for many customers. They use various devices for this activity; some use desktops and others use tablets and smartphones. (These are potential customers that you can reach through an interactive catalog, whether it’s via your online shop, email, Facebook Shop, or other social media platforms.) This way, you're providing customers with a seamless shopping journey—from discovery to purchase.

2. Ability to add links and product tags 

This is the part that makes your product catalogs interactive and, most importantly, very effective. In addition to showcasing your products in a visually attractive manner (with rich images, videos, and product information), you can add links that take customers directly to the product page. What’s more, is you can add product tags to provide customers with more product details that will add weight and confidence in their buying decision. All of this, without having to leave the catalog to make a separate search to your web shop to find the product. However, in a store environment, you can scan the QR code on the physical page, and it will take you to the exact product online, where you can proceed to make a purchase.

3. Faster “add to cart” experience 

An interactive digital ecatalog simplifies the buying process: customers are a click away from adding the chosen products to their cart. That’s hyper-convenience at its best, and that’s exactly what customers are always looking for! All you have to do is ensure that the product catalog is well-structured, filled with the right information and is searchable so that customers can get to their preferred products easier. Finally, ensure that it has all related links and product tags. 

And, just like that, you’ve enhanced the user experience. Customers can easily purchase your products without jumping through hoops to make a purchase. 

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4. Get access to customer insights 

You've done your best with your ecatalog, but how do you know if it really worked successfully? This is where product analytics can rescue you from the guessing games, by letting you track the results of your hard work. The analytics provides you with performance and customer insights to study. It can show you exactly which products customers liked, and bought the most of, through the catalog.

You’ll also get to know the weakest links; the products that didn’t sell much. 

Now there’s so much you can do with this information to improve your product catalog offering. For instance, when you know which products your customers are interested in the most, you can update your catalog/s with more similar products, or add a related product that works well with the previous product they had bought. An intelligent product analytics tool lets you achieve this and more! 

Create interactive catalogs easier and faster with PIM 

Creating product catalogs that convert doesn’t have to be a time-consuming task. When you’re armed with the right tools in your ecommerce tech stack, anything is possible. Take Plytix PIM, for example. It's so much more than a PIM database; you’re able to create a print catalog that you can easily transform into an interactive digital catalog to ensure that you cater to all target audiences. 

Our unique Brand Portals feature allows you to create printed and digital catalogs, respectively, without any design skills. Simply manage your information—product titles, descriptions, and digital assets—in a centralized location, and drop this information into a template of choice to create a catalog. Then onto measuring the results: get an overview via our product analytics tool. 

To learn how PIM can enhance your product catalog creation, book a demo!