First, What is a Shoppable Catalogue?
It makes sense to integrate e-commerce into your website if you’re a straight-forward retail business, selling simple products and services online. But, if you’re a manufacturer or industrial supplier, a standard e-commerce solution may not be the right fit for you. Your sales cycle is longer, you sell bigger ticket items, and sales likely require a little more interaction than simply shipping an item following an online purchase. What if I told you that instead of building a conventional e-commerce shopping cart, we could build you a shoppable catalogue. It’s our twist on e-commerce for businesses requiring a more unique approach for presenting products to their customers. A shoppable catalogue will differentiate you from your competitors while seamlessly integrating into your website, in the same way that e-commerce does.
The Shoppable Catalogue: Our Twist on E-commerce
It’s 2021, and there’s no better time to invest in a shoppable catalogue for your business. The COVID-19 global pandemic is having an enormous impact on e-commerce. In fact, according to Statistics Canada, from May 2019 to May 2020 retail e-commerce increased at an astounding rate of 110%. If you need more convincing, check out more online retail stats here.
A shoppable catalogue can be incredibly useful for your business. It will give your customers a better shopping experience; a place where they can browse your products, have access to warranty info, see demo videos and prepare themselves to speak more in depth with a member of your sales team, all before making the “big” investment. Once they finish browsing and submit their wish list via your shoppable catalogue, it goes directly to your sales team’s inbox. Now, your sales team can better prepare for their follow up interaction with the customer, resulting in the higher likelihood of a sale.
Our Twist on the Traditional Catalogue
Gone are the days of leafing through paper catalogues over a morning coffee. While traditional printable catalogues represent an ‘old school’ mentality of marketing, there is no denying their effectiveness. Studies show that customers enjoy researching products, comparing the options and checking out reviews. Knowing this, why not take the next step towards creating a shoppable catalogue for your business? Even if you are not a traditional retail store, an online catalogue will benefit your business in many ways.
The Multi-Channel Approach
A multi-channel approach to marketing is a proven strategy for increasing sales. Not only that, OG offers an ‘out of the box’ solution to innovative purchasing methods. A curbside pick-up option and incorporating large manufacturing equipment pre-orders will make you stand out amongst competitors. You may not even realize that your company can benefit from a shoppable catalogue. Even if you don’t want to get into the shipment of items, a shoppable catalogue can be custom designed to your exact needs. Why not broaden your audience and demographic, and offer something as convenient as a product pick up service?
OG has implemented online shoppable catalogues for many manufacturing and industrial clients with very positive results. Benefits include:
- Allowing customers to research and generate interest in products before entering a store;
- Producing wish lists that allow customers to pinpoint products and drive purchasing opportunities;
- Capturing contact info and the ability to follow up with customers;
- The creation of a more seamless sales flow from the browsing experience to the final purchase.
Another plus of having a shoppable catalogue is having the ability to implement a professional printable PDF catalogue, if you wish. This is helpful to retail and wholesale clients in many different industries. All of your products’ images and information become automatically available in print as a tool for your sales team. With advanced integration you could print barcodes and inventory tags, transform your existing PDFs into digital flipbooks, or accept wholesale orders instantly with digital order sheets. We can collaborate with you through the process to fully design and brand everything.
Supplementing Email
Email campaigns are an amazing opportunity to engage with customers and with a shoppable catalogue, it’s easy to link directly to products and services. The benefits are two-fold, you are driving traffic to your site while increasing your SEO. Furthermore, you can specifically target certain subscribers using the data from your catalogues. In other words, you can send specific info about products to customers you know are already in the market.
You can also apply this same strategy to printable catalogues from your online inventory and target a specific mailout campaign.
Create an Experience
Online shoppable catalogues are an excellent way to showcase a sleek, simple brand experience. They introduce clients to products, engage people with captivating videos and animations, create sales and provide meaningful statistical data.
Furthermore, in today’s busy world, they offer convenience and efficiency that will make you stand apart. Engaging with customers before they even step into your store will make them feel appreciated. It also offers them the opportunity to research and explore their options, without any pressure from sales people. A shoppable catalogue transforms the customer experience to something that is empowering for your customer and your sales team.
Shoppable Catalogues: Pre-orders = Increased sales
A shoppable catalogue is a valuable tool for setting up pre-orders. Customers can even place orders for products that are out of stock. This is handy because it allows you to stay on top of inventory, analyze demand and begin a relationship with potential clients. Pre-orders are convenient for customers too. It allows them to order the item they want and only pay for it upon pick up. Not only is this convenient for everyone, it’s an excellent strategy for managing stock with wholesalers.
With OG’s expertise, we can set up your shoppable catalogue to collect orders either automatically or manually. With our advanced integration and innovative strategies, we can customize your catalogue to best suit your individual needs.
Want to learn more about this e-commerce option with a twist? Contact us today for more info!
