<img src="https://certify.alexametrics.com/atrk.gif?account=knr3r1xk/v20jL" style="display:none" height="1" width="1" alt="">
Supplier Tutorials

The Wholesalers Guide to the Ultimate Online Catalog to Increase Sales

A wholesaler’s products catalog is an essential sales tool, but a paper catalog brings high printing costs and is often out of date within a few months. An online catalog is easy to update, easy to share with customers and can be accessed directly from your website


 

Where do your wholesale customers go to access your products? 15 years ago the majority would look for your paper catalog in the stack they have in their office. More recently, customers have learned to turn to your website. A company's website is the first place people go for product information and those people include your wholesale customers. With continued advancements in what technology can do for your business, it's time to evaluate how your wholesale customers can find, access and order your products.

When evaluating your customer ordering journey consider the following:

  1. How many barriers do your customers have to overcome before accessing your most up to date product catalog?
  2. What is the average time its takes for your customers to place an order with your company?
  3. How are your products represented and do they reflect your brand properly?

Once you have considered the above factors you will likely come the conclusion that a paper catalog or downloadable PDF is not the best ordering process to offer your customers. Wholesale purchasers are people, and they have experienced online ordering in their personal life so those expectations carry into their professional life. People are now expecting easy access to product images, information, and pricing in the wholesale world as well.

Read why your business needs to commit to online ordering 

How a wholesale online catalog will increase sales and customer satisfaction

A wholesaler’s products catalog is an essential sales tool, but a paper catalog brings high printing costs and is often out of date within a few months. The traditional view of a paper catalog, pricing list and order form is outdated and time-consuming to you and your customers. An online catalog is easy to update, easy to share with customers, and can be accessed directly from your website. Wholesale online ordering is becoming the preferred way to place orders in the wholesale industry because it is fast and easy.

Optimizing your online wholesale catalog

To provide your customers with a truly exceptional ordering experience, your existing catalog information has to be optimized for online ordering. Everything your customer needs to place an order with your company should to available and easy to understand. Reviewing and optimizing the following areas of your catalog will increase sales and improve your customers experience ordering from your company.

Images

No matter what you are selling, people want to see product images. Product images are essential because they represent your products and brand. Visual images are far easier to recognize than text so including images is a great way to help customers scan through and find the product that want. At the same time, well-presenting images help customers notice products that they may not have been searching for, encouraging them to discover and purchase more products from your catalog.Product images improve the ordering experience for your customers. OrderEase has surveyed hundreds wholesale buyers on their ordering experience, and those who order from a catalog with more images had a better ordering experience. Product images improve the ordering experience for your customers. Putting effort into providing product images on your wholesale catalog is worth the investment.

Product Information

Product descriptions and information are often overlooked by wholesale suppliers but are very important to wholesale customers. All product information should communicate the details your customers need in their language, not how your company describes the  products internally. That means the product description should be easy to read and should include information, like color, size, case quantities, zoning, etc.

Price

The online catalog available on your website doesn’t need to include pricing, but once you’ve assigned pricing to customers, there shouldn’t be any barriers. Price should be visible for the customers you do business with.

Inventory

There is nothing worse to a customer than wasting their time building an order for products you don’t have. Updated inventory information is vital to provide your customers with the best ordering experience possible. People are used to real-time inventory online, and those expectations will apply to your wholesale online ordering.

So now that you know what your online catalog needs to provide your customers with an exceptional ordering experience, it's time to put that information into action. Our team at OrderEase can work with you to optimize and promote your online catalog directly to your customers and on your website. So when you are ready, reach out to us and let us help your online catalog move your business forward.

Similar posts

Get notified on new blog posts

Be the first to know about new updates and feature releases from OrderEase.