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Catalogs have always been a marketing mainstay due to their utility and ease of use. They have not faded into irrelevance with time. Rather, they have evolved into a core feature of digital commerce.
For local businesses, embracing detailed digital catalogs presents a powerful opportunity to compete on a level playing field. These catalogs do more than showcase products; they provide rich, interactive experiences that engage consumers and drive sales.
Furthermore, the depth of data available through digital catalogs enables local businesses to implement highly effective targeted marketing strategies, enhancing their reach and consumer engagement.
In this brochure, we explore how detailed digital catalogs can revolutionize sales for local businesses and help them to thrive in an increasingly digital marketplace.
Local businesses that establish a robust online presence through Google business listings must have detailed and properly structured catalogs. This is where online competitors have maintained their edge.
As consumers increasingly use search engines in their shopping process, having comprehensive catalogs becomes essential. In fact, 59% of consumers report using Google to research a purchase, regardless of whether they plan to buy online or offline.
Creating a Google Merchant Center (GMC) account and adding your products there is the easiest way of having a detailed catalog that shows product listings in Google search results.
Let us go over some of the most noticeable benefits of having detailed catalogs:
Most consumers searching for a product want to ensure you have the correct product before visiting your store. A catalog helps them get more information about the product. Having product images also improves consumer trust, making them more likely to visit your store and purchase.
Having a properly structured catalog also means that consumers can efficiently search for products by filtering them by category and other metrics like size and price. This ensures better awareness about your products, and makes for a seamless shopping experience once the consumer is in the store. Ensure your product images are high quality and accurately reflect the product.
Having a detailed and location-level product catalog makes navigating your website a joy. This keeps your consumers happy and engaged – which is the way to boost loyalty and conversion. On the other hand, reading about a product on your website and then finding it inaccurate after visiting the store will be a frustrating experience for your consumers.
Providing all the information in one place additionally means that consumers don’t need to visit other websites to conduct research. This also influences conversions, as consumers might be looking for key pieces of information (like product dimensions or features) before pulling the trigger.
Google Merchant Center (GMC) listings also allow consumers to directly get all the information about your product and purchase it from the search page.
If your product information is properly structured from the beginning and the status of stocks is updated in real-time, it opens up a world of possibilities. Expanding across various digital platforms from your website and local business listings can drastically increase your brand’s visibility.
You can use the same database to build a presence on local business directories, including product listing services like Google Merchant Center (GMC), and platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, and online marketplaces without extra effort. This enables you to go omnichannel without any additional hassles.
Maintaining optimal inventory levels is a constant balancing act for local businesses. A product catalog can be a game-changer in this pursuit. Acting as a central hub for all product information, it helps you with real-time insights that translate into significant improvements in inventory management.
One of the most crucial benefits is the ability to provide real-time inventory updates. This eliminates the frustration of consumers encountering out-of-stock items online or in-store. Furthermore, a product catalog facilitates better stock allocation across locations, preventing overstocking in one branch while another faces stockouts.
This reduces the associated costs of warehousing and logistics, leading to a healthier bottom line. Ultimately, a well-maintained product catalog helps make data-driven inventory-level decisions, ensuring consumer satisfaction and optimizing profitability.
As you might have already guessed, you need a robust technical infrastructure to reap these benefits. Local stores, in general, have fragmented processes that make it difficult to use data to gain insights.
Even if you use a consolidated database, managing all your operations, including business listings, Google Merchant Center (GMC) listings, reviews, and consumer queries across platforms will be expensive.
End-to-end integrated product offerings like SingleInterface can help you manage this entire process from a single dashboard. You can focus on your core businesses while SingleInterface handles the technical details.
Great-quality catalogs are and always have been central to shopping experiences. Catalogs inform potential consumers about your products, bring them into the store, help in seamless conversions, and also help cross-sell without any direct intervention.
Online ecommerce players have mastered the art of creating high-quality and well-structured product catalogs. To compete with them, local businesses must shift from the old practice of showing products only in the store.
An interactive and informative catalog across various platforms is the key to increasing footfall and improving consumer experience—ultimately boosting revenue. Products designed with local businesses in mind, like SingleInterface, with all necessary features accessible from a unified dashboard, can quickly and economically get you up and running with a digital catalog.
Digital Transformation Marketing Stack for Physical Retail Enterprises.
