Turning your traditionally off-line business into an ecommmerce website
The Internet has opened a myriad of opportunities globally for business executives. For those who already have a business in the real world, it will definitely be profitable to go online. There are reasons to be motivated to integrate your business with the Internet:
High visibility
With one website, you are set to showcase your products worldwide. Think how much that would cost without the Internet. Can you imagine what it is to have your products seen and bought all over the world? Having an international business?
Widest coverage
As with visibility you can also cover a great number of products by putting them on your website. One website will advertise all your products, and whether they are 5 or 500, you can do it at one shot. The coverage that the Internet gives you in terms of marketing capacity is unparalleled.
High profits
Your profits will definitely increase, as your wares are offered simultaneously throughout the world. Also, because the payments will be in different currencies, there is always the possibility of benefiting from exchange rates. The Internet has secure payments through credit cards as well as e-currencies making it purchasing easy for anyone, anywhere.
Round the clock availability
Once your website in on the Internet, your shop will be open round the clock seven days a week. While you are sleeping, you can still be selling.
Technical Requirements:
Web-designer
In order to have positive results, you will need a web designer. A professional designer is essential for a site that is efficient, effective, and user-friendly.
Server uptime
You will also need to have a dependable webhost with an optimal uptime (99.9 percent) so your website will be accessible at all times.
Attract traffic
You will need to run ads on the net to promote traffic to your website. The cost of web advertising is a fraction of the cost of “real-world” advertising. You can use pay-per-click marketing strategy as well as landing pages (where you get keyword articles to lead the surfer to your site).
Adequate bandwidth
Adequate bandwidth (server space) will allow simultaneous surfing from hundreds of customers. In the event of an inadequate bandwidth, when experiencing full surfer capacity, your website will not longer be accessible.
Product Presentation In Limited Booth Space In Wholesale Trade Shows
Limited booth space does not mean you are inconsequential. You can definitely create a good impression and a lasting one if you manage your space effectively. The following tips will help you make the most of a small space:
Visibility
The most important aspect in a wholesale trade show is the visibility. You need to ensure that your company’s name or the main product’s name (or both) is prominently displayed where it attracts the total attention of the customer. Make sure you use the right color combination if it has a popular logo so it can be recognized easily.
Readability
People walking by will not really want to stop and squint at small print to learn about the product – more so if it is new. So, the best way to project your product is by having several large photographs and posters. Most important is to have them see how the product is used and hence have as many visuals presenting the way the product is used.
Promotion material
Ensure you have plenty of promotional material that can be given away to those who are interested in your product. People will not have the time to gather all the information from you during their passing through walk – but they will definitely get back to you if the product pamphlet or brochure captures their attention.
Eye-catching presentation
Have, if possible, a running presentation on a TV or laptop to catch the attention of those browsing through the trade show. Alternatively, run a regular presentation when you see that you have a crowd in front of your booth. Keep the presentation short, just sufficient to whet their appetite to know more. A visual presentation is more memorable a pamphlet. Make it clear, concise, highlighting only one or two important aspects.
Open display area
Do not, as most people do, place a table in front of your display booth. Rather, keep the table in a corner and invite people inside the booth, which will make better use of the booth space and help you interact with those who show interest.
Neat display system
Have a professionally made display system. Avoid the typical curtain back-walls and linen-covered tables. The more outstanding your display will be the more will you attract the customer’s attention.
Have some giveaways for children
It is a small gesture, but a gesture that touches the hearts of all people. During shows, there are people who are browsing with their children who are usually bored. Giving out free happy face balloons or candies to the children who pass your booth can be a very nice gesture and attract your potential customers’ attention. You can print your company’s contact info on the balloons, which will also become your moving advertisement in the trade shows.
Collect feedback
When people visit, collect their visiting cards or phone numbers so you can follow-up later.
Unique product design has never been more important to independent wholesalers
There are two main things that a customer looks for in a wholesale sale – (i) great price and (ii) great product. Additionally, in order to have a successful sale, the wholesaler’s products should be as attractive as possible. Unique product design has never been more important to independent wholesalers. A distinctive looking package or complimentary-extras can be just as important as a competitive price.
The independent wholesalers are at a disadvantage only when they are not prepared for competition. How do you get to have a unique product? You do not need to have one; you can make one:
Packaging
Packaging of a product can make a difference of a few hundred dollars. Whatever the product, you can make it more enticing by enhancing it with a unique packaging. Not only is extraordinary packaging eye-catching, but it also increases the value of your product.
Delivery methods
There are people who wholesale flowers. And there are people who deliver wholesale flowers along with colorful cellophane papers and tiny gift tags with ribbons. Guess who will get the more repeat orders?
Add a service
You sell fishing gear. Add to it the information of the best fishing trips around the area; or just a plain fishing-tips brochure; or information about different types of fish and offer it as a gift. People will appreciate the extra mile you went for making it pleasant for them.
Ergonomically designed
This is a term that is catching fast among the today products designs. According to the Wikipedia, ‘ergonomics” is the science of “making a thing or task, or job most compatible with the environment and the needs and abilities of those who use them”. Is your product ergonomic? Does it fulfill the need of space saving, energy saving and is it eco-friendly? Then you have the right product design.
Wholesale Trade Show Reports
Have you wondered how people work out the viability of major trade shows? How they calculate what is feasible and what is not? When it is feasible and when it is not? This is where Trade Show Reports enter the equation.
These reports are written by data analysts who forecast the future growth of the market. The information contained in the reports allows for the individualized planning of trade shows that anticipate the needs of invitees.
What information belongs in a Trade Show Report? Let us look at the following points:
- Management associations coordinates (phone and address)
- Location for trade shows and dates
- Statistics of the show
- What industry segment(s) took part
- Ranking of the events and shows separately and comparatively
- Total market size estimate
- Benchmarks
- Forecasts of market vis-à-vis high ranking products
Data corresponding to the above points will be collected with the help of questionnaires, interviews, and personal discussions. The correct interpretation of data can create a report which will serve as a guide for successfully organizing the next trade show(s).
There are many other trade show reports which cover other aspects, such as:
- Analysis of key industries
- Possibility of the industry to hire
- Whether revenue from exhibitions will rise or fall in the current year
- Global, national and regional major growth strategies
- Will investment be high in the current year
- What growth percentage is expected in the presented this year
Trade show reports are mostly used as guides. But many times they are also used as a follow-up measure as well. There are reports which look particularly at the profile of the customers and try to organize the data captured to draw an accurate picture of the return on investment from the past trade shows, as well as forecast the future trends.
The trade shows reports are invaluable tools to understand how customer behavior, market growth, or recession rates indicate the industries which will grow best, and the demand of products.
Notes on manufacturing in China for wholesalers
There is a fast emerging trend in the economic and trade strategy in developed and developing countries called outsourcing. Globalization has brought about a fantastic mix of technology and cheap labor as a result of which trade profits can be doubled, tripled and quadrupled. The trick is getting your manufacturing unit placed in a country where labor is cheap, and with the help of which you can produce better, faster and more product units than you could with any machine, and at a fraction of the cost. Products costing $100 to produce in the U.S. can cost $10-12 to be manufactured in China.
China has extremely cheap labor and an extremely proficient workforce. There are plenty of manufacturing companies who will, upon request, send you a prototype of your product free of cost. In order to get a good price, be sure to apply to a minimum of six manufacturing companies. These companies know that you are checking up on them and they will be honest in quoting. You will also need someone to refer the companies to you just as a stand-by measure. You need to choose not on the basis of price, but on the quality of the sample as well as the promise of delivery time.
Be careful with how you plan to get the shipment sent once it is completed. The best is to have it shipped by the manufacturer and have them share the risk of product damage in long distance shipment. You will have to be ready to make full payment in the first few dealings, but will eventually be able to operate on credit in the same way you do in the U.S.
What makes a successful ecommerce website
There are many ways to create a successful e-commerce but there are four crucial points that you should keep in mind while launching your website.
Website
Your website is like your showroom, airy and attractive. When online, the equivalent of a showroom is an uncluttered website where the eyes can move freely up and down finding the details they need without much effort. It is extremely important that the website be easy to navigate since the surfer should not have to search for the product or details he or she is looking for. The website should project its products in a provocative way so the surfer wants to see more.
Place testimonials or photos of your product so people can create a positive image of its usage. If your products are guaranteed, post this information conspicuously.
Your merchant account
This feature is a must for any commercial website because without it you will not be able to receive payment by credit cards. Reports show that as high as 99 percent of the trade online is done through credit cards. Hence, if you do not have a merchant account you lose business. You will need to be able to accept all major credit cards and without this feature that is not possible.
Shopping cart and secure server
This is interconnected with the above. When you have a merchant account to accept credit cards, you will need an online shopping cart. This feature allows your customers to choose and place their chosen products in the cart just as one would do in shopping mall. This cart will, at the end of the shopping, total the products and give the total cost of the products chosen.
In order to have your shopping cart work well you need to have its software installed on your website or on the server that hosts your website. If you choose to have your own server you will need to have a certificate from Verisign and Thawrte, which encrypts the financial information given by your customers so they can feel safe while giving you this sensitive information.
Payment gateway
This is another crucial aspect in setting up a successful e-commerce website. The payment gateway is the link from your website to the credit card processor. This gateway helps information to pass from your site to the authorization centre where the credit card is verified and then charged; after that the reply will come back to your website that the processing has been successful. A payment gateway will always check for details in credit card information and reject any discrepancy in the information. In this way it reduces the use of fraudulent cards by almost 80 percent.
Ecommerce Online shopping trend
The advent of the Internet has opened a host of avenues to people, the world over. “World over” is actually the key phrase in this expression. The internet brought people closer through globalization; due to the Internet now people can buy, sell and see merchandise all over the world at the click of their mouse right in their homes. It is amazing to see how technology has reduced geographical distance with the help of the Internet.
The online shopping trend has further improved due to the fact that credit cards also have gone online and are safe to use. There is nothing simpler than to charge your card on the Internet and buy the thing you like. You may be in the U.S. buying a product from Australia, or you may be living in India and buying a product from Paris. It is just a matter of a mouse click.
Another factor that aided the promotion of the online shopping is the extremely rapid growth of the affiliate business world over. Actually the Internet helped to alleviate a lot of unemployment by promoting online business and affiliate programs.
Advertising also hit the Internet with a vengeance and rode the rising online shopping trends to become one of the most profitable businesses available on the net. The fact that advertising on the net costs a tiny fraction of the real world advertising and yet it reaches millions of people worldwide is amazing. Affiliate programs are also marketing – and the plus point is that it is marketing which pays back almost 100%. Where do you get such odds in the real world?
The Internet also helps people connect with related products so if a person for example, buys bathing soap, they can look at shampoos and body lotion also. A link where that product is available is inserted/ highlighted so that the person can immediately go there if they need. This is wonderful when it comes to business because indeed people love to buy this way and in the process end up buying all the things they like just because they are available right there on their desktop.
Online shopping is going to grow further with the refinement of the technology. For example the advent of wireless and infrared technology makes it possible for people to connect to the net from anywhere they are – park, car, vacation cottage, boat, etc. The availability of tiny Internet compatible laptops also makes it a pleasure to surf the net and shop.
Ecommerce consumer online spending behavior report
There are many ways to find out who has visited your website, for how long, and if anything was purchased. There is specifically designed software which can keep track of every hit on your website. This software will also draw a comprehensive report from this data. In an offline store, you gather feedback in person from the customer; this is not possible with a website Similarly, when a customer repeatedly comes to your shop and regularly buys from you, he or she becomes a regular client. You see him or her often and you motivate him or her to continue coming to your shop by offering excellent service, periodic discounts, and information on sales. How can this be done for an online client?
The online consumer spending report addresses this issue. The software that will be installed on your website will capture the behavior of any customer that “enters” your shop online and will record his/her behavior. From these records, the software will find out how many times a customer returns to the site and also how many times he/she buys from your site. When the customer becomes a regular, you can start doing a few things to make him or her feel special and valued. This can include periodic discounts, complimentary products/samples, services, and information.
There is a great deal of importance attached to having an up-to-date customer report so you can know at any given time whether your sales are staying on an upward or downward swing. Sales and marketing go hand in hand and the online consumer spending report will help you balance the sales with appropriate marketing inputs.
Since the report will show you how many customers visited the website, who purchased, and who visited again, it will give you a clear idea of returns-per-investment (ROI) which is important if you are using a pay-per-click marketing strategy. It will also point you to the next step of action on how to boost or maintain sales. The reports will help you decide whether you need a better marketing strategy or not.
The report is an invaluable tool for cyber entrepreneurs, one that can make the difference between profit and loss— between success and failure.
Catalog Printing Glossary and Terminology
The following is by no means all of the terms that you may come across when dealing with your printer. What we wanted to do here is provide you with many of the most common terms so you can understand the catalog printing process better. Many of these terms are ones that you will not have to deal with at all as most catalog printers offer full service.
Bleeds: This is where your design calls for the ink to go all the way to an edge of the page. To determine the number of bleeds you have to count all of the edges the ink goes to. In other words, your page has a top, a bottom, a right, and a left edge. Each edge your ink will go to is one bleed.
Bluelines: This is a proof of your catalog on film that is used to verify that everything is correct.
Camera Ready Art: This are not your photographs. Those will be photographed as half tones. (See glossary term, Half Tones) This is about your artwork. It has to be provided to the printer on a board or paper ready to be photographed. If there is more than one color, each color has to be on a different sheet of paper or board piece. You should also include the composite where all of the colors are on one paper or board so the printer knows what the outcome should look like.
Color Key: This is an acetate film proof of your catalog. Each color is produced on a separate sheet, then laid over each other to make sure everything is in the right place. This method is generally less expensive than match print, but not as accurate. (See glossary term Match print.)
Composed Film: These are pieces of film that are ready to be stripped or put together with other pieces of film to make plate ready film. Plate ready film is used to make the plates your printer will print your catalog with.
Coverage Percentage: If your catalog has areas where there will be 100% ink coverage and you tell your printer, then they can use the correct press and processes to produce it for you.
Cover Ink: There are two types of ink to choose from for your cover. CMYK and PMS. If you are selling an industrial product you might use PMS, but for most products the cover uses the CMYK method for processing images.
Cover Stock: This is the heavier paper used for the cover of your catalog. It can also be used for the interior pages if you want to present your product better. High end products are usually sold in catalogs that use this higher quality paper throughout the catalog.
Design: The combination of everything from your photos to your fonts, layout, logos, artwork, and all to produce a piece that is ready to photograph and print.
Die Score or Cut: This is the method used to crease where your catalog will be folded. If your catalog has pockets this is the method your printer would use to “score” the crease where the folds are needed.
Emboss: This is where the printer creates a die and stamps your paper from the rear to make a shape stand out. This can be raised print or a logo, etc.
Foil Stamp: This is where your printer creates a die that is used to stamp metallic gold, silver, or other colored material onto your catalog pages or cover.
Fold Type: Whether your catalog will be folded in half from top to bottom, folded left to right like a magazine, or tri-folded like a brochure.
Half Tones: This is where the printer takes the photos you want in your catalog and scans them or shoots them with a camera that has a honeycomb lens. This converts your photograph to an image made up of many tiny dots that allow for correct printing of the photos.
Match Print: For high end product catalogs, this is the recommended method. Each piece of film contains one of your colors, then they are laminated together to make a single piece ready for printing. If the accuracy of the colors is important to you, then this choice is best.
Number of Pages: The number of pages you choose for your catalog. This is always in multiples of four.
Output Film: To rip your digital files and produce your art as film that is ready for print.
Output Ready Disk: This is a disk you provide to your printer as a complete product. The only thing they need to do is convert it from digital to analog film. The disk should contain a separate folder for images and one for fonts.
Perfect Binding: This is a binding process normally used for high-end product catalogs or catalogs that will be over 80 pages.
Perforate: If you want to have tear outs such as coupons, you would instruct your printer to perforate the edges of the tear out.
Quantity: The number of catalogs you need to have printed. The larger the quantity, the less each catalog will cost to produce, so you may want to order a few more catalogs than you need. They can always be distributed elsewhere.
Reflectives: This is where the printer makes a print from your photographs or your negatives.
Saddle Stitch Binding: This is a binding process normally used for catalogs that will be less than 80 pages and to save money over the perfect binding method.
Scans from Transparencies: Scanning is the process that takes your transparency and records your images as a digital file.
Set Type: Laying out your type onto a page. This term also applies to the selection of the right font and typeface for your layout.
Spread or Flat Size: This is the size of the paper that will be used to print your catalog on. Once folded it will become the Trim Size. See glossary terms for Trim Size.
Text Ink: This is the type of ink and the number of colors you will choose for the interior pages of your catalog. The two types of inks you can choose from is CMYK and PMS. If you will be using photos, you will likely be going with CMYK. If everything is text and few images, your printer may suggest PMS.
Text Stock Paper: This is the lighter paper your interior catalog pages might be printed on if you are trying to save money or you are selling an industrial or low end product.
Trim Size Folded: This is the final size you want your catalog to be. For instance, if you want an 8 ½ by 11 catalog, the printer uses 17 x 11 paper to print it, then folds it in half so it becomes 8 ½ x 11. Trim Size Folded is the term the printer uses to ask you the final outcome size you desire. Always remember that the width is always given before the length or height.
Ecommerce Drop shipping
Drop shipping is selling a product for a price you set up. Once the product has been bought and you have conformation of the payment, you go to a drop shipper. Here the drop shipper sells you the product at a wholesale price (thereby giving you the difference as a profit) and ships the product to your customer. Neat, is it not?
There are a few things however you should know before you go into this great business opportunity:
Sale-ability of the product
You cannot definitely just get saddled with any product. In order to make a profit you will need to identify some great products that can sell in bulk and come at a great price as well. You will need to know the market demand to forecast your profit and set your price. Your price, in order to be extremely attractive should be lower than the normal market range but high enough to give you a profit.
Have a few good products
Do not jump into the fray and take up everything you see left and right. It is better to concentrate on a few major products that can be marketed thoroughly and will provide a nice margin, rather than be spread thinly and not be able to manage.
Good supplier
It is crucial that you are dependable. In order for you to be dependable, you will need a supplier who is dependable. There are legitimate lists of worldwide drop shippers and it is wise to consult these lists before launching into business.
Be ready for complaints
Do not assume that because you have the services of a drop shipper, there will be no complaints. Things can go awry anytime, and you should be ready then to offer alternatives. For example, when the product you just sold is not in stock, offer comparable products, refunds, etc. Be sure the customer understands that the failure is due to circumstances beyond your control.
Rules On Good Catalog Design
Maybe you own a store or maybe you work out of your home and have great products to offer your customers. Getting the word out about your store or products locally is essential to your business, but what about people who are not local? Are you missing out on the opportunity to sell to people who do not live close to you?
A website is of course one option, but one of the basic rules of sales is that you need to get the product into the customer’s hands? How do you do that if they cannot walk into your store or business? A catalog is the best way. People love to touch things. When you put a catalog in their hands and they begin to browse through it, they will find something they want to buy.
Catalogs work better than anything else to reach out to potential customers who are not close enough to pay you a visit. That’s why large companies have been distributing catalogs for years. It is way more cost effective and makes more sales than any form of print advertising, websites, and even TV ads.
But I don’t know anything about putting together a good catalog. How do I design it so that people will buy? Are there guidelines or rules I can use to design my catalog? I’m glad you asked! In this article I will be going over the basic rules for designing an effective catalog.
First of all, don’t think of your catalog as an add-on to your business or an extra you are using to entice customers to visit your store. Your catalog is a standalone business in itself. Forget about the ways you sell your product to people when they are there in front of you. Forget about everything else so you can design your catalog in a way that gives the customer everything they need.
Lets start with Information:
This is one of the basic rules of good catalog design. Your catalog should contain all of the information your customer wants to know about the product. Sizes, colors, specifications, price, quantity discounts, and anything else about the products you sell so they have no questions to ask. Be thorough.
Images:
This is probably the most important set of rules for designing an effective catalog. Information alone will not sell your product. You need to design your catalog so that the images speak for themselves. You have to design your catalog in a way that showcases the images so every time the customer turns the page, a spectacular image catches their eye immediately.
To do this, you need to either hire a professional photographer to take your photos for you or if you plan to design your own catalog from top to bottom, you need to make sure the camera you choose to use is a high quality digital camera. Don’t scrimp on the images to save a buck. Basic rule to remember about your catalog design, “Images sell product”.
Another rule about creating images for your catalog; the setting you take the photographs in is very important. You are not going to the trouble to design a beautiful catalog and then have lousy images in it. You need to choose settings that make your products stand out and settings that will enhance the “feeling” you are trying to give to your customer. Sales are about emotions. If you can cause an emotion in your customer, you can make a sale. Deigning your catalog so that the images cause emotion will make you successful.
Which emotions? The whole range of emotions drives sales. Sadness, Happiness, Love, Hate, Greed, Lust, excitement, fear, pride, and other emotions are all part of making a sale. While designing your catalog images, you need to attempt to create one of those emotions.
Another rule to remember is “Design your catalog in a way that displays each photo of your products individually, not as a group of items in one picture.” People tend to buy more when your products are alone in the picture. It doesn’t look as cluttered.
Let’s recap the rules for good catalog design that we know so far:
Before you can design your catalog, you now know you need to prepare all of the information about each of your products you will be selling through the catalog. You also know that before you design your catalog, you need to produce quality images that produce emotions in your customers. Now that we have all of that, what’s next?
Layout rules for designing your catalog:
The different catalog design elements in the layout process are the cover, the back cover, the inside front and back covers, the first page, the index page, informational pages, and product pages. Informational pages include such things as a glossary of terms if your products are technical in nature, size and color charts where needed, shipping and ordering information, etc. You will need to add those informational pages as needed for your particular products and situation.
Rules about designing the cover of your catalog:
This is probably the most important thing you will design for your catalog. This is the first thing your potential customers will see. In designing the cover of your catalog, remember the emotion rules we discussed above. Your cover has to make them want to pick it up and open it to find something inside that they have been waiting for and just didn’t know it until your catalog arrived. This part of designing your catalog is one you will need to spend time and effort on or you may want to hire a professional catalog designer.
Rules about designing the back cover of your catalog:
This is almost as important as the front cover. When people put your catalog down, many times they lay it so the back cover is visible. It should be just as appealing as the front cover. When you send a catalog out, several potential customers may read it. You don’t want the first reader to lay the catalog on a table face down and for others not be enticed to pick it back up anyway. When you are experimenting with the front cover, take your second best choice for a cover and place it as your back cover.
Rules about designing the inside front and back covers for your catalog:
While there are no hard and fast rules for designing these pages of your catalog, there are a couple of things I have seen work very well. If you have informational pages that you want to make easy to find, then you can design the inside covers to display the information they need to refer to often. The other way you can design the inside covers is to display the products that you are offering on special or the products you make the most money on. You design the inside cover with leads that talk a little about the products you put there with an image, then the page number where they can get more information about it. You can put several of these inside the front cover and it works very well.
Rules about designing the first page of your catalog:
Remember this page is the very first thing your potential customer will see when they open the catalog. They don’t see the inside front cover first. They see the right hand page first. Again, you can use this page to display introductions to a few of your products they will find more information on further inside. Many people use this page as an index page, but I recommend you do that on the next page and make the first page exciting to your customer. Make them want to see more!
Rules about designing the product pages of your catalog:
Remember the page turning rule discussed about the first page of your catalog? It’s the same for your product pages. The upper right-hand corner or the right-hand page is the first spot your customer’s eyes will go to. Make sure you put your best images in this spot on every right-hand page of your catalog.
There are more rules about creating an effective catalog that we could go into, but I wanted to cover the most important aspects of designing a catalog that makes sales here. The last note is about printing. Just like with images, saving money on the printing will cost you sales. 4-color catalogs sell more product than 2-color catalogs. The paper your catalog is printed on should be high or at least medium quality. Putting time into designing and following all of the good catalog design rules listed in this article will not help you if the printing is done cheaply.
Procedures For Designing A Catalog
Okay, you have your products and you’ve decided you are going to design a catalog for distribution. But, where do I start? What should I do first when designing a catalog? What are the necessary steps to designing an effective catalog? In this article I will answer those questions for you and will give you a step by step procedure for designing your new catalog.
1st Procedure: Decide who your target audience will be.
This sounds easy but it needs to be done fist. You need to have who you will be designing a catalog for while you design your catalog. By doing this you will be able to picture how they will react to each step you take.
2nd Procedure: Decide what you will sell.
What I mean by that is that you do not want to add every product you have in your inventory if it is not something your target customers will buy. You can save money designing your catalog by leaving out items that are very unlikely to be bought by your target audience.
3rd Procedure: Separate your products so you can focus on them one at a time.
Take each product you will be selling and write your sales text and price out so you draw out an idea of how each product will be displayed. Also as you work on each item and write the descriptions, separately write out any details you will need to give your customer about size, color, and specifications. With some products you will be able to just use a little space in addition to the picture and explain everything there.
But with other products where more information is necessary, you will be putting together a page or more of just information as a reference or guide to buying the products in your catalog. So as you do each one, that is the time to make notes about additional information you will need to offer the customer on another page.
4th Procedure: Photographing your products.
When designing your catalog, individual pictures are best. Group photos will save you money, but they will also make you less sales. Using a professional photographer is also a good idea if you can afford one. Your images are what sells your product so if you do a bad job at photographing your product, you will lose sales.
At this point you have most of the “pieces” you will use while designing your catalog. Just a couple more pieces and we’ll be ready to move on to actually designing your catalog.
5th Procedure: Informational Pages.
Industrial product catalogs might need to give specifications, clothing catalogs need to offer more colors and sizes to choose from but not have it take up too much room on the product pages, and more.
You want to design the information pages of your catalog so that it is simple for the shopper to use. Do not use complex formulas and make them do calculations. Don’t make your customer think too much or too long or you will lose sales. You should have most of the information on the product pages where possible.
Other pages that might help your catalog’s design are special sales product pages, an index, etc. You need to decide how many pages of information you will be including because when designing a catalog you have to remember that the number of pages is always a multiple of four.
6th Procedure: Pre-Layout.
This is where you decide where everything will go. Will your information pages be on the inside of the covers or in the center, etc. You know you will have a front and back outside and inside cover. You will have informational pages, and then you have your product pages. Decide how it will read.
7th Procedure: Layout of product pages.
Again, just like in the photography is you are not experienced in layout you may want to hire a professional to do the layout design of your catalog, especially for the pages that will display your products and descriptions.
If you intend to do it yourself, then there are some things you will need to know. Always place quality images at the top right hand corner of every right hand page. When your customers starts to turn the page, this is the first thing they will see. It needs to catch their eye and stop them from just flipping through the catalog.
Some people flip through magazines and catalogs from the back to the front, so the upper left hand corner of every left hand page is almost as important. You want them to stop and open your product pages so think of images that will catch their eye and make them want to see more.
Some catalogs use the easiest method of displaying products and information on each page. That is dividing the page in quarters, sixths, or eighths and giving each product it’s on little section. In other catalogs they display the photos and product numbers on one side and the corresponding information for each on the other side of the page. There are other ways as well, this is meant to suggest a couple of ways you can do it.
8th Procedure: Front and Back Cover Layout.
This is one of the most important steps you will take while designing your catalog. If you have done everything else yourself, you still may want to consider having a professional design your covers.
The reason this step is so important to catalog design is twofold. One your cover is what will get your customer to want to browse through your catalog in the first place. A bad cover is like having a store that sells fashionable clothing in the ghetto. If your target customers will not come to the store and go inside you have no chance to sell them anything.
The second reason is that for each catalog you send out, you want several potential customers to read it. When the person you sent it to lays it down somewhere, you want others who see it want to pick it up and browse as well. For this reason both the front and back cover is important. You do not know how they will lay it down.
9th Procedure: Finding a printer for your catalog.
Before you start designing your catalog, you may want to find the printer that will be doing the printing for you. The reason is that they can help you know what requirements they have for your artwork, images, and layout, and will help you choose the printing methods that will work best for your type of catalog.
I saved this for last, but it is really the first step to catalog design. The last thing you want to do is design your catalog, then find out your chosen printer cannot print your catalog the way you have designed it.
The Advantage of Having Well Designed Catalog For You Products
So you are all set. You have the products you want to sell. You have the target audience you wish to sell to. You have your mailing list. And you know you want to create a catalog to send to everyone on your list. Now all you have to do is go to the printer and tell them you need to put a catalog together, right?
There are a lot of things to consider when putting together your catalog. The mailing list, gathering the products together, and everything else you have done so far is only the beginning. In this article I will guide you through creating a well-designed catalog and why your catalog needs to be well designed in the first place.
If you were to hire someone to sell your products for you person to person, you wouldn’t send them out in a pair of raggedy cutoffs and a T-shirt would you? Probably not. You would want to make sure they are dressed nicely and that they present themselves well. You would also want your salespeople to have talent at talking people into buying your products.
Well, your catalog is about to be your salesperson. You are about to send your salesperson out to sell to your potential customers, so you need to make sure they are dressed for the job and that they can sell. There are several things you need to consider in order to produce a well-designed catalog. A well-designed catalog will sell a lot of product. A poorly-designed catalog will just cost you money.
The features of a well-designed catalog are the following:
A Cover Page that catches the eye from across the room. A well-designed cover page can make you more sales than anything else you do because other people will pick it up besides the person you sent it to. The idea is to make the cover page inviting enough that everyone who sees it at least wants to take a peek inside. A 4-color cover page is essential to a well-designed catalog.
A well-designed back cover for your catalog is almost as important. If someone lays the catalog facedown, a well-design back cover can get others to pick it up anyway. The same 4-color process is essential to a well-designed back cover for your catalog just as it is with the front cover.
Pages that contain information such as specifications, sizes, colors, shapes, and other essentials needs to be easy to read and informative. A well-designed catalog doesn’t make someone do a lot of calculations when figuring out what they need.
A well-designed order form is essential to a well-designed catalog as well. Do not make it complicated! This is the deciding moment for your customer. They are thinking of ordering products through your catalog. If the process is complicated, you will lose them at this point.
The inside front and back covers need to be well designed also. Your catalog shoppers need information. Placing that information in these strategic locations makes that information easy for them to find. If you do not need to put information there, put your specials or the products you want to sell the most there. Don’t discount the inside back cover as unimportant. Many people pick up a catalog or magazine and flip through from the back to the front instead of from the beginning. A well-designed inside back cover can catch their eye right away.
Keep in mind a well-designed catalog always has something that catches the eye in the upper right-hand corner of the page on the right every time the user turns a page. This is where their eyes go first and what they will see if they are just flipping through the book. If you want them to stop flipping, catch their eye there with your best images
Images are very important to any well-designed catalog. Your images must be professional quality and your products should be photographed alone and not grouped. Single-product photos cost more than grouping but also sell better so they will make you more money than the extra you spend doing it this way. The image should stand out and make the person viewing it want the product. No catalog can be considered well designed if the photos are not high quality.
A well-designed catalog also contains all of the information your potential customers need when considering a purchase. After reading your product descriptions, they should have no questions about the details of their purchase, including how to order the product. Now, you are armed with more information about putting together a well-designed catalog and hopefully you now understand the importance of doing so. If you try too hard to save money when putting your catalog together, then your sales will suffer and you may find it costing you money to send the catalog out instead of making you money.
A well-designed catalog may cost a little more to produce but you will reap the benefits when several people besides the person you sent each catalog to are reading it and ordering your merchandise.
Types Of Catalog
There are many types of business that can benefit by producing a catalog. Many people are not aware of the benefits of designing some type of catalog for their business and ignore this great way to bring in more business. Almost any company can benefit from designing a catalog.
In this article I will go over some of the different types of catalogs your business can design. Some types of catalog will not apply to your business, but keep reading and think about your business and the type of catalog you could be producing.
Wholesale business:
This is the most common type of catalog. If you run a wholesale business and are not yet producing a catalog, you are seriously missing the boat.
As a supplier you need to alert your resellers on new items you have to offer, specials on products you are trying to move, and you need to update those you supply with current shipping policies and ordering details. In addition to that, you need new customers. You could be sending your catalog to a lot of businesses that do not yet resell your products.
Retail Business:
Again, it’s about attracting new customers and making more money. Obviously, the more customers you have, the more products you sell, the more money you make. You already know that. But are you designing a catalog for your retail business?
If not, you should be. For your existing customers designing a catalog for your retail business can help provide them an easy way to order more product than they do currently. If you obtain a mailing list of potential customers, your well-designed retail catalog will bring you new customers. Designing a catalog for your retail business is the most effective advertising you can do.
Direct Mailing Business:
If you already have a direct-mail marketing program, then you are sitting on a virtual gold mine! You have the list. You are already mailing something to people. Design a catalog for your direct mail business and see how your sales grow in leaps and bounds.
Catalog Design For Expensive Products:
Designing a catalog for items like jewelry, furniture, and other high end products is whole category in itself. If you want to design a catalog for a high end product, then you have to design a high end catalog for your products.
Everything, from the images of your products, to the type of paper for your catalog must be considered. If you want to design a catalog that will sell expensive products. The people you will be showing the catalog to expect nothing but the best from your products and if your catalog design is anything but the best they won’t have the confidence to buy from you.
Catalog Design For Lower Priced Products:
There are many examples of catalogs that are designed to sell lower priced or low-end products. Fingerhut comes to mind. Designing a catalog for products that do not cost a lot does not mean you can design a catalog that no one will want to pick up and browse through.
If you design a catalog that takes your less expensive items and showcases them the way you would while designing a catalog for higher priced items, then people will think the products you see are a bargain. Rich displays for less expensive items is not new in marketing. Think of the velvet bag some liquor products are packaged in even though the liquor itself is not very high priced.
Packaging is everything no matter what type of catalog you want to design. The better the package, the more you will sell. So when designing any type of catalog keep that in mind and you will produce a catalog that people will want to not only pick up and browse through to buy your products, they will also pass it along to others.
Product Photography for Catalogs
In this article I am going to give you some tips about photographing your products for your catalog. The images you use in your catalog are the most important features you will be deciding on. The images sell your products. The text and everything else are important, but if the images are not well-produced, then your sales will suffer.
There are professional product photographers and using them will ensure that you have the best photos for your catalog. However, this does not come cheap. If you decide to do it yourself, you can save a lot of money. Just be sure you are confident that you can produce high-quality photos for your catalog products.
The first rule of good catalog product photography is to photograph your products individually. Group photos of products do not sell product as well as individual images. Again, it is more costly to do this because of film, printing, and layout concerns. You can save money by photographing your catalog products in groups as long as you understand that this method could also cost you money in reduced sales.
Choose appropriate backgrounds for your products. You want the product to stand out in the picture, not the background. If your product is white, use a dark background. Add contrast to your photos. Take several photos of each product so you can decide later which ones are the “best of batch” later.
If you are skilled with PhotoShop you can enhance the images of your products. Shadowing is a great method to use when you are displaying expensive products like wine, jewelry, or artwork. If you do not know how to use PhotoShop, you may want to get a professional graphic artist to touch up your photos for you.
Why all this trouble for just a few pictures? You want to present your products in the best light, no pun intended. You will not be there with your catalog to speak to the customer. Your pictures must speak to the customer for you. By taking the extra time to make each and every photo a virtual showcase for your product, you make the potential customer want to see more of your photos, then buy your products.
To the consumer, the quality of the image equates to the likely quality of the product. When people see an image that is pleasing to them, they want to possess it. If you want them to “possess” your product by ordering it, you have to make them want it. Your images are the best way to do that.
You can use a high-quality 35mm camera or a high-quality digital camera to photograph your products with. Personally I recommend you go with the digital camera if you are going to photograph your own catalog products.
Digital cameras and images are much easier to deal with and the quality is as near to perfect as you can get. Touching up the pictures of your products is not necessary, but you would be surprised at how much it can improve your results.
The bottom line is this. No matter where else you might cut corners, do not cut corners when it comes to the photos of your catalog images.
Types of Paper in Catalog Printing
There are many things that are important to catalog design. Your images must be sharp and appealing. Your text and even the font you use for the text is important. The cover page design and the design of your catalog’s product pages all play important roles in designing a catalog that will bring in new customers and sales.
However none of the things mentioned above are more important than the type of paper you will choose to print your catalog on. The “feel” of your catalog is important to your potential customers. The longer they have your catalog in their hands, the more product they will buy. In this article I will go over some of the many paper choices you have to print your catalog on.
First you need to decide if the cover will be the same paper as the rest of your catalog. In most cases the cover will be of heavier weight then the interior pages.
Second you will need to choose coated or uncoated paper for printing your catalog. Coated paper is for the glossier layouts and uncoated is more economical, but can still display your products well.
So you have two things to consider first, “Will it be glossy paper or not?”, “Will my cover be the same weight as the interior pages of my catalog?”
Once you have answered those two questions the next decision is what the weight of the paper will be. Most catalogs go with 60, 70, or 80 lb. weights. So it would be 60lb uncoated or coated, 70 lb. Coated or uncoated. 80 lb. Paper usually is only chosen for 80 lb. Weight and above. Also, not all paper is measured by weight. Some is measured by thickness or “points”.
Now the above is really over-simplified. There are other types of special paper you can choose from. There is textured paper, photographic paper, and other more expensive paper to choose from if you are selling a high-end or expensive product.
There are also other considerations when choosing the paper your catalog will be printed on. Such as the method of printing you are going to choose.
If you are going to have your catalog printed on a hot-set web press, then you can choose uncoated or coated paper. The heat will dry the ink as it prints your catalog. If your printer uses a cold-set web press then the ink air-dries and is absorbed into the paper. A cold-set web press cannot print on coated paper.
If your printer uses a sheet-fed press then you can choose from any of the high quality papers they have available. The same goes for printers that do digital printing.
It will depend a lot on the printer you choose.
You need to find out what type of paper is available and you will want to see samples of the paper to get a better idea of which one you want to print your catalog on. Also ask your printer to suggest the different types of paper they think will be the best for your catalog.Here is a list of some of the types of paper your printer may have available for you to choose from or may be able to order for you.
Dull Coated Paper Matte Coated Paper Glossy Coated Paper Antique Paper Vellum Paper Wove Paper Smooth Paper Felt Paper Linen Paper Fiber-added Paper Laid Paper Parchment
Four things determine the quality of the paper:
opacity, brightness, finish, and ppi. (Pounds per inch) Brightness affects the contrast and brilliance of the paper. It affects how your text will stand out on the pages of your catalog. Opacity is how much your ink is visible from the back of the page. If a paper is too opaque, your text and images from one page will be seen through onto another page that your customer is trying to read. The finish affects the feel of the pages and also how your images will look. The lower grade finishes produce grainier images while high quality finishes sharpen the look of your images.
Ask your printer to provide you with samples or swatch booklets and a price list for printing your catalog on the various types of paper before you decide. You know what your budget is and paper is only one of the expenses you have to consider.
Ways to distribute your catalogs to your targeted customers
Ok, you have done everything you need to do to produce a quality catalog and they have been printed. How do you get them into your customer’s hands? In this article we will talk about catalog distribution.
If you are going to distribute your catalog in the most common method, by mail, then you will need a mailing list. Maybe you already have a list of customers you are mailing the catalog to or maybe you need to purchase a mailing list that targets a specific demographic or geographical area.
There are mailing lists that are targeted by zip code, by income, by the fact they are homeowners, by if the people on the list have children, and even more specifically targeted categories like homeowners who have lived in their home more than five years, etc.
You can easily find lists by searching the web, but be careful. How new is their data? When was the last time they updated their data? Is the company you are buying the list from reputable? These are questions you need to keep in mind before purchasing a mailing list from anyone.
There are also catalog distribution services who already have all of that information and who can handle all of the distribution for you. Having a professional catalog distribution service do this for you can help you avoid costly mistakes.
The post office can give you rates depending on the size and weight of the catalog you want to distribute by US mail. Something I hope you kept in mind when printing your catalog is durability. The post office has to process all mail including catalogs, then it is handled by other people, then the postman, before it ever gets to your customer.
So if you do not have at least a durable cover for your catalog, you may want to have them wrapped before mailing them out to protect them from damage. You want your customer to see your well-designed catalog before any damage occurs.
There are other ways to distribute catalogs as well. Of course if you have a retail outlet or store, you can offer your customers or walk in traffic a catalog. If you have foot traffic going by your store all the time, you can set up a display outside of your store with catalogs for them. You would be surprised at how many people it will bring inside to shop.
You can talk to friends who also have stores and shops, your beauty shop or barber shop, convenience stores even. People will pick up a well-designed catalog that looks like it has something they might need. Everyone loves to shop and a catalog is the easiest way for them to shop.
Be creative, keep catalogs in your car so you can hand them out to people. When you stop somewhere you might want to ask the store owner if they mind putting some of your catalogs somewhere for their customers to pick up. Obviously if you sell anything similar to what they sell it’s not a good idea to ask them.
Last but definitely not least is offering your catalog through your website, ezine, or newsletter. If you have a website, you simply put in a form for a visitor to fill out with their name and address and mail them a catalog. Websites seem to be impersonal to many people. The offer of an actual catalog sent to them from your website will also give them more confidence to buy not just through your catalog but through your website as well.
If you already have an ezine or newsletter you mail out to website visitors, offer your catalog to them as well. Here is why. Yes these people already may be buying through your website so sending them a catalog is costly. However, you have to keep in mind when you send out one catalog to one person, many people may end up browsing through it. They distribute your catalog for you in effect. They may not show everyone your website, but they will share their catalog.
I hope this article has helped you with your decision about how to distribute your catalog. There are other methods depending on your budget, the number of catalogs, and the people who you want to send them to. The most common way is to use the postal service. Professional distribution is more costly, but they know how to get your catalog in the right hands and can track the mailings and have other advantages.
Catalog Printing Methods
What are my choices for printing my catalog? What are the different types of catalog printing and which ones are the best for my catalog? In this article I will go over several types of catalog printing to help you answer those questions.
Web Press:
This is the most commonly used type of press for printing catalogs. It uses a roll of paper to make the catalog printing process faster. There are two types of web press. The Heat-Set Web Press and the Cold-Set Web Press.
Heat-Set Web Press:
The heat-set web press has a built-in heating unit that dries the ink. This gives the press the ability to produce a high volume of catalogs quickly. Another advantage it has is It can handle printing your catalog on coated and high-gloss paper. A heat-set web press is also the best choice if your catalog needs to have high quality photographs and images.
Heat-set web presses are good for large catalog printing jobs or where the cost of setup is irrelevant. It is a huge press and takes a staff of people to set it up for one catalog printing job. This is where you run into setup fees from your printer. On a large run, say 10,000 copies or more, the setup fee when divided by the number of catalogs is not too bad. If you were to apply those same setup fees to a run of only 1000 copies, the cost per catalog printed might be out of your budget requirements.
Cold-Set Web Press:
This type of web press does not have a heating unit. The ink must be air-dried. The cold-set web press is used with text stock paper where the ink will absorb into the paper of your catalog. It will not print on coated and glossy paper. In addition to that, the photos and images for your catalog will not be quite as sharp as those printed on a heat-set web press.
However, if you are printing less than 10,000 catalogs or your primary needs are not the sharpness of the images, a cold-set web press might be the right choice for you. It will save you money over the heat-set method.
Sheet-Fed Press:
Another good choice if you are not printing a high volume of catalogs is the sheet-fed press. The paper for your catalog is cut to size before the print run. One of the advantages a sheet-fed press has over the cold-set web press is that your images and photos will come out a much higher quality. Both are good for small runs, so if you are only going to print less than 10,000 catalogs and your artwork is important to you, the sheet-fed press might be the best way to go.
The sheet-fed press can also use various weights of paper, giving it another advantage over a cold-set web press. The downside is that sheet-fed presses run much slower. That is why they are usually only selected for a small run of catalogs or catalogs that require high quality graphics.
Digital Printing:
This is much newer than the other methods described in this article, but it will become mainstream. This is where the images for printing your catalog are sent directly from the computer to the press. There is no film involved. All of the images are digital. This also eliminates the need for plates. Finding a printer for your catalog that uses this method might be difficult though since it has not been widely adopted yet.
The advantages of digital printing are fast-turnaround time and for producing high quality full color catalogs. The downside is that you may be limited in your choice of paper types.
Electrostatic printing:
Only good for very short runs of catalog printing jobs. This is similar to photocopying documents in that it uses toner from a drum to thermally fuse your text and images to the paper.
Embossing:
This catalog printing method uses a die your printer makes according to your design. It makes an impression or raises the image or letters onto the page.
Engraving:
This is the catalog printing method that produces the highest quality images. You would only use this on the covers unless cost is not a factor. With engraved images, you can run your finger along the edge and fell that it has been indented or raised.
Gravure:
This method of printing is used to produce a high volume of quality catalogs. It is much more expensive than other methods, but it is the best way to produce high quality catalogs.Letterpress:
This method of catalog printing goes back to the 15th century. It uses a rubber stamp like process. The images or text are raised on the stamp and ink is applied and the pages are stamped.Offset lithography:
This is a common catalog printing method with little setup time and one that is very cost effective. It’s also good for printing on textured paper. It uses less ink than other methods as well.
I hope this has been a helpful guide to the different printing methods you can choose for your catalog. Keep in mind that every printer you go to will not be able to offer you all of these methods. Each printer buys the equipment best suited to his or her business. So if you are set on a particular type of catalog printing you may have to shop around to find a printer who uses your method.
Catalog Printing Tips
By now you know that printing and distributing a catalog will help you sell your product. You have chosen how you want to design your catalog but you have some printing questions. In this article I will help you explore all of your options and give you some catalog printing tips you can use.
Lets start with the cover of your catalog. What options do you have and which options should you choose for printing the cover of your new catalog?
First Catalog Printing Tip: Cover Paper.
Catalog covers should be and most often are printed on heavier paper stock than the rest of the catalog. That means the front and the back cover of your catalog. The old adage about don’t judge a book by it’s cover doesn’t work for catalogs. If the cover is not designed well and not printed on the right paper, people won’t open your catalog. And if they never open the catalog . . . well you get the idea.
The paper your cover is usually printed on is called cover stock. It is a heavier weight of paper than you will be using for the interior pages of your catalog. This also makes your catalog last longer. It will be there sitting on someone’s coffee table for others to read for a long time to come if you print your catalog on good paper stock.
Second Catalog Printing Tip: Interior Paper.
You have a lot of options when it comes to printing the interior pages of your catalog. A lot depends on the type of products you sell. For instance, if your catalog is for industrial products, you can probably get away with a much lower grade of paper than you would for a high-end product like jewelry.The types of paper you can choose from range from newspaper-like stock all the way up to glossy paper that is heavy in weight. The lighter weight text-stock paper is used most often for catalogs that will have a lot of pages. For catalogs that will be less than 20 pages, you might choose the same heavyweight stock you used for the cover.
Again this depends a lot on your product. For high-end products like furniture, fashions, or jewelry, glossy heavy paper-stock is the only way to go. You have to understand that the heavier the paper and the higher the quality of the paper, the more you will need to spend on printing. But you get what you pay for. If you want people to buy your high-end products, then you have to present them in the right way.
Third Catalog Printing Tip: Colors.
One of the major advantages of sending out a catalog is the expectation that more than just one person will read it. For a well designed catalog it is estimated that two to three people will read it.
The colors you choose for your catalog will have a lot to do with how much product people buy and how many people will pick up and browse through your catalog. Nowhere is this more important than both the front and back covers. If your covers are appealing, people will want to pick it up.
So your covers need to be printed with a 4-color process, especially if you are selling high-end products. But for all catalogs you want printed, choosing to use the full-color process will make you more sales.
Depending on your product, you may also want the interior pages to be of similar quality as the covers. For a catalog that is to sell high end products, glossy paper with full color for the photos is the only way to go. For an industrial-type of catalog, printing with just 2 colors is usually just fine.
Fourth Catalog Printing Tip:
Binding. This will depend a lot on both what type of product you sell and the number of pages you will have printed. For example, if you sell a high end product or you will have over 80 pages, you will want your printer to use “perfect binding”, where the pages are glued to the spine of your catalog. If you will be printing less than 80 pages and have a lower-priced or industrial type of product, then a good printing tip is to have them bind it with saddle stitching and stapled in the middle to hold it together.Fifth Catalog Printing Tip: Choosing a Printer for your Catalog.
Make sure first of all that the printer you choose for your catalog has experience with producing catalogs, not just brochures, business cards, etc. One of the most important catalog tips I can give you is, “Do not let price be the deciding factor in choosing a printer for your catalog.”I don’t mean the more you spend the better catalog you will have either. But the opposite is more often true than not. The cheapest catalog printer you can find will likely print you a “cheap” looking catalog that people will not be compelled to buy product from or even read.
You will need to be prepared before you visit your catalog printer. You will need to know how many catalogs you want to print. You need to know the number of pages you will want, (It is always a multiple of four pages, 4,8,12,16,etc.). You need to know the size you want your catalog to be, (8 ½ x 11, 11 x 17, 8 ½ x 5 ½, 4 ¼ x 5 ½, etc.)
You need to know the number of colors you want the cover and the interior pages to be. You need to know the type of paper you want used, although your printer can offer you those choices when you visit them. Just keep the catalog printing tips mentioned earlier in mind when choosing the type of paper you want.
You can also work with your printer on the type of binding they offer and how many times you want to be able to see a proof of the catalog before all of the copies are goinjg to be printed. This is important. The last thing you want to do is miss a mistake after you have already printed 25,000 catalogs.
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