Modern e-catalogs come complete with interactive search capabilities, housing thousands of products and supporting multi-media content, can be published to your website to enable B2B e-commerce, and “pushed” to your sales reps’ mobile devices in the form of an app for catalog-based order taking.
B2B e-catalogs impact customers’ buying behavior and increase B2B sales. Here is the lowdown on how and why.
1. People discover your products deals and promotions, wherever they are
A B2B e-commerce e-catalog can open up a plethora of opportunities for more potential and returning clients to view your always-updated product range. Product descriptions, prices and images are uploaded instantly, so that your customers are always seeing current images and prices. Products on special offer and new arrivals are highlighted in prime real estate, incentivizing customers to buy.
2. Better customer engagement and satisfaction encourages them to keep buying from you
With detailed information pages for each product at their fingertips, sales reps can locate an item that a customer is interested in and reply to questions within seconds. Related PDFs and marketing documents can be accessed, including brochures, specs, care and assembly instructions, consumer reports and warranties. Videos can also be incorporated to showcase a product’s features and benefits, providing a memorable customer experience. At the end, orders are placed using an integrated B2C-like shopping cart.
3. You sell smarter, meaning you sell more
Products can be placed in multiple categories to increase the chances of a customer clicking on and purchasing that item, while cross-selling is facilitated by promoting complementary items to form a coordinated set, increasing order value. Products in the e-catalog can be sorted by price to increase margin; by inventory level to optimize stock; and by previous sales to customer to facilitate reordering.
4. E-catalogs drive traffic to your online store
An online catalog that is integral to your B2B e-commerce web storefront, allows customers to seamlessly move from browsing to purchasing goods. This is facilitated by creating product detail pages that present your products appealingly, including description, price, discounted price, product ID, and a link to that product in your online store.
5. Your products have a cross-geography clientele
E-catalog software can be leveraged for search engine optimization so that people across geographies can find your products, enabling you to expand to new, remote customers, that were previously out of reach. By using search-friendly product names, an e-catalog helps you gain SEO rankings for the products you sell. E-catalogs also allow you to cater to targeted geographic markets by customizing the content with different languages, currencies and images.
6. Products can be marketed through social media and email campaigns
The reach of your e-catalog can be extended exponentially by sharing it through social networking sites and email marketing campaigns, increasing sales dramatically. For example, customers are often responsive to special offers in a product catalog; with a digital version, leads and sales can be generated much more quickly on any computer or mobile device, especially when you add links to buy.
B2B e-catalogs are the cornerstone of modern B2B online sales. The good news for brands and manufacturers is that e-catalog software is now more powerful than ever and simpler than ever to implement.
