Sometimes you really don’t need to sell products online, you just need to have a catalog that features all of your products online.  Back in the old days, when PDFs came along, many companies simply had their printer save their catalog to PDF and allowed users to download the file for viewing offline.  It’s amazing how times have changed.

Although the number of our clients who need an online catalog is slim, it’s still worth mentioning.  For instance, we have a client who is in the wholesale import business.  They literally have thousands of products with hundreds of variations and the pricing changes with the market. Pre WWW, it would have been a nightmare to keep up with all of the changes.  Your printer bill would far outweigh anything you could ever spend on a website.

Fast Forward to 2021

It really couldn’t get any easier nowadays.  With the help of WordPress and WooCommerce and a tiny little plugin, we are able to move a company’s entire product lineup to the web in an online catalog, with short and long descriptions, specs, photos, videos, and so much more.  And the nicest part of it all is the ease of use.  Remember when we had to use a phonebook to look up a number?  Wouldn’t it suck to have to go back to those days?

Earlier this year, we took on a new client with a 65-year history of importing products and selling them wholesale.  They had most of their products on their website, but each one was on its own static page and was not searchable.

We showed them how we could take their spreadsheet of over 2,000 products and import them into an online catalog where their clients can now do a keyword search and find virtually anything they have in a couple of seconds.  And, the great thing about this story is, they can maintain everything in-house, keeping the cost down and have more control over things.

If and when the day comes when they want to sell to the general public, it’s as easy as flipping a switch to go from catalog mode to full-blown eCommerce.  Now that’s magical not to mention smart.  If you would like to learn how you can automate your business online, give us a call.  We would love to hear from you.