All businesses want consumers to purchase their goods, that’s the simple nature of business.
Having a catalog is a great way for potential customers to see what you offer in an organized fashion. But in today’s digital world many businesses are moving away from the traditional print catalog and focusing more of their listing and ordering online. Why is that?
Here are five simple benefits of having an online ordering catalog:
- Cost – Paper catalogs are far more costly to produce when compared to an online one, and have even more costs associated with their distribution. An online ordering catalog can show you even more than a paper one (extra images and descriptions), be seen by a wider audience, and can even be tailored quickly and easily to different regional focuses or even languages. As an added bonus, any ‘bloopers’ you may find in your online files can be quickly changed (hopefully before a customer notices!), which cannot be said about the paper copy.
- Efficiency – An integrated online ordering catalog allows customers to view your products and place the order there and then – no need to make phone calls, or fill out order forms to be mailed or faxed. This saves them time, and you get paid faster without having the overhead of a call center full of order specialists.
- Search Engines – The more pages you have on the web in a search engine friendly format, the better visibility you will have, drawing more customers to you. Essentially this can be viewed as instant, free advertising!
- Sales Analysis – There are programs available to track customers’ movements through your online catalog, and can highlight popular trends and potential issues customers have with either the product or the pages. This gives you the chance to improve your customers’ experience in your catalog.
- Linking – If you have a new product, chances are you may write a press release, blog, or email blast about it. Linking these articles to the online catalog is a cinch. That draws people easily to featured products and gets them in the right place to think about ordering.
There we have five top reasons for having an integrated online ordering catalog. However, don’t be fooled, the paper catalog is NOT an endangered species. Some people are less tech savvy, or just prefer the paper copy. There are plenty of companies out there still producing and distributing successful paper catalogs. But with an online ordering catalog, there are benefits that you simply can’t ignore.
Feel free to do some shopping for your business by visiting Crawford’s online catalog today!
