Save Money by Putting Your Catalog on the Internet

Small companies are discovering that even with the
increasing usage of the Internet, online catalogs have
not entirely replaced the need for hard-copy catalogs.
Just as it would be unreasonable to assume that all of
your customers have access to the Internet, it would be
unreasonable to not consider the advantages of online
catalogs as a supplement or replacement to your printed
products.

by Jeffrey Moses NFIB.org

With lower costs for the creation and maintenance of a
Web site than for a printed catalog, the advantages of
placing your catalog online are many:

On a Web site, you can add pages and links at minimal
costs. Since limited space isn’t a consideration, you
can provide comprehensive information about every item
your business offers. Also, since some of your
specialty products are interesting to a small
percentage of your customers only, it would not make
sense to feature these products in a hard-copy catalog.
In an online catalog, however, you can feature every
item that you offer and give in-depth descriptions of
them.

In a printed catalog, including one photo of each
product would be very expensive, if not impossible.
With an online catalog you can provide multiple photos
of products (perhaps from different angles), giving
customers a complete look at what they are buying.

As your customer base grows, you have to continually
reprint and redistribute hard-copy catalogs. Whenever
you add new products to your company’s product line,
your hard-copy catalog becomes outdated. With an online
catalog, you can easily add a new page or section.

A Web site, unlike a catalog, can be interactive. This
allows customers to make comments about products they
have purchased. Customer testimonials (when positive)
are a great boon to sales.

FAQ pages (frequently asked questions) on your Web site
can save your sales staff and your customers time and
frustration. Make sure you maintain coordination
between your sales staff and Web site creators so that
when your sales staff encounters a question that comes
up often, it can be added to the FAQ page.

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