Which software should you use to create your product catalog?

It is a must-have for e-retailers, whether it is B2B or B2C, or whether it is in print or online. The product catalog is one of the most important touch points for your customers, as it gives a taste and overview of your brand and products. By making the product(s) attractive, the product catalog is the ultimate tool to help you boost your sales. Detailing product features, components, materials, uses, and perhaps prices, catalogs present all the key data and information about your products that is important to your future consumers.

How to facilitate and optimize the creation of this catalog? With which tool and/or software?

A multitude of software... for which needs?

There are many tools and software available to create your product catalog, but the era of Word brochures is over. In reality, the tool you choose to create your catalog must meet your most precise needs.

Extremely powerful and professional software such as Adobe Indesign or Flipsnack allow the edition of catalogs and other content, often from basic templates and can be declined into digital catalogs later. These are very powerful software and experts in their field allowing to put forward the data concerning your products, to generate pdf of your catalogs and often having a technical assistance if needed.

Microsoft Publisher is another authoring tool, which also allows you to create catalogs with neat layouts, and previously integrated if you already have a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Even Canva, which is the tool accessible to all, ideal for beginners and concerning the creation of brochures, leaflets and even catalogs, which can be declined in digital version, can be an excellent tool if your company is starting. Its numerous free illustration images are a great strength concerning this software, which exists in free and professional (i.e. paid) versions.

Other free solutions also exist such as: FlipHTML5, DiskCatalogMaker or Peperi which can be suitable tools if you are starting out and/or are a small business.

Interactive catalogs are also very popular with e-retailers, and more and more now in B2B: they correspond to the uses that consumers have today from the Internet, they facilitate their search for information by providing an interactive experience (search for keywords in the content, fluid navigation through an interactive table of contents, zoom on products ...) and can achieve savings sometimes significant. 

The PIM for its flexibility and reliability

To guarantee a product catalog that's rigorous in terms of data quality, flexible in the event of any changes, quick and easy to create, export and distribute..., the PIM is the reference catalog creation software.

A tool that allows any business to save a lot of time and energy: by carefully following the creation steps and once the settings are set, the creation of your product catalog and its distribution are automated, you have nothing more to do!

In general, with PIM, you must think omnichannel and this aspect must be reflected in your catalogs, whether they are in paper or digital version. Whatever your industry, the rhythm and pace throughout the year is sustained and your product catalog must follow and be released on time, with the most accurate product information possible.

To put it simply, PIM is thought of as a global platform for the creation of your product catalog: allowing stakeholders to contribute harmoniously and to be satisfied, giving the possibility to easily and quickly modify product information, guaranteeing systematically up-to-date data and zero typos and errors... The creation of the catalog from PIM allows you to easily manage the distribution of your product information on all your web channels while ensuring multi-channel consistency and an optimal customer experience.

Many brands (such as PCB Création or NAOS) trust us for the management of their Print and creation of product catalogs, so why not you?

Conclusion

There are many software, tools and other platforms that allow you to create the product catalog that will deliver the best product experience to your users and future customers. The points to keep in mind depend on your activity, whether you are in B2B or B2C and how initiated or expert your company is in creating product catalogs. Not only does this valuable tool highlight your products by providing maximum information for your prospects, but it also represents a showcase for your brand as a whole. Nevertheless, the creation of this support requires a rigorous organization and certain crucial skills, which is facilitated and simplified by the use of a software PIM. 

If you are interested, don 't hesitate to ask for your free demo.