Before the boom and bust of the dot-com bubble, which began in the mid-'90s, print catalogs were the bedrock of a company's go-to-marketing strategy.
When somebody wanted inspiration for a new coffee table, a three-piece suit, or a hi-fi system—they'd browse through their favorite retailer's printed catalog. Or, for inspiration, they'd visit various stores on the high street and learn more about the product they want before weighing up their options.
But how do people discover products now? And how does your e-commerce store fit into that experience? Is there still room for a catalog? Read on to get our take on that.
Before big-name retailers like Victoria's Secret, Argos and IKEA reacted to consumer behavior changes, every year, they would print catalogs in the millions. The enormous reach of print catalogs was a sales and marketing powerhouse, and their revenues were heavily dependent on them.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) attributes part of the print catalogs' effectiveness to consumer psychology and that they increase the vividness of certain products by "enhancing the reader's ability to visualize and imagine product usage experiences." HBR adds vividness is a powerful influencer of consumer behavior as "it increases consumer involvement and joy in the purchasing process."
Print catalogs were also:
- Standout engagement tools that built brand awareness;
- Primary sources of information for sales and marketing staff;
- Tactile in nature, which extended brand exposure by using smell, touch, and sight.
But, in today's world of the internet of things, consumer behavior has wholly been disrupted. Now, before consumers make a purchase, they start most of their product research online (87%). And over the last few years, this has been a tremendous driving force behind making retailers switch from print to digital catalogs.
It's likely that last year's landmark events that saw several giant catalog retailers, like IKEA and Argos, stop printing their publications—will be a strong signal for other retailers to follow suit.
And if you're a retailer who wants to start building up the reach of your digital catalog, is it enough to rely on a PDF that you uploaded to your website or app? And how will you measure its performance?
We want everyone to enjoy our platform—including the 1 billion people in the world who have visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities. That’s why we’re continuously improving the accessibility of our catalogs and publications.
When it comes to accessibility, we’re not alone. Many governments take accessibility seriously and have put laws in place specifically for it. Accessibility done well has a positive impact on the usability of your catalogs while also minimizing legal risk.
This post will explain what you need to know about our accessibility approach and what guidelines we follow. We’ll also show a few examples of how we’ve made our catalogs more accessible.
Gone are the days where TV, radio, and print dominated marketing budgets. Today, online retailers define their marketing budgets by their spend on digital channels like social media, email, and search engines.
With pandemic-catalyzed digital transformation, pressure from stakeholders to be a sustainable business, and consumer behavior changes—print catalogs are being disrupted by digital ones.
In this post, we explain how you can overcome the challenges you'll face as you make the transition from print to digital and how you can maximize your reach, conversions, and sales with your online catalog.
We see two trends meet: digital transformation and sustainability. The online catalog can be a great way to meet consumer expectations on the digital front, while also reducing your print volume. Read on to see our infographic about the Tree-Free Catalog!
In previous posts, we’ve highlighted that online is gaining momentum. And that the majority of product research is done online (87%!). Equally interesting is that over four-fifths of purchases still take place offline.
If there is one thing these stats show us, it’s that the ROPO effect is a huge influence on the bottom line of a retailer.
By Researching Online, and Purchasing Offline, consumers enjoy the convenience of both online and offline shopping throughout their journey. And for retailers, it makes a lot of sense to play into this trend where online and offline synergize.
As an online catalog company, we know all about ROPO. So, read on if you want to learn how online catalogs contribute to this area.
Another post made infographic. This time we took 12 Mind-Blowing Online Catalog Usage Graphs and turned it into a summarized who, how, when, and why. Read on to gain some quick insights into the online catalog and its readers.
Digital Transformation is… transforming. Twilio’s report revealed that 97% of companies have sped up their digital transformation process due to Covid-19. The same pandemic also caused eCommerce penetration to suddenly skyrocket, raking in 10 years’ worth of growth over the first three months of the pandemic. That’s just huge!
Read on to learn more about these trends, and how online catalogs fit in as we share some interesting stats and graphs!
With online publications you can measure your customers' behavior while they’re reading. You’re getting to know your customers better every second. One way to leverage this data, is through personalization of your catalogs or other marketing channels further down the funnel.
We've already written a post about what level of personalization customers expect. We've now turned it into an Infographic for your convenience.
eCommerce sales have been growing steady for over a decade. For this year’s holiday shopping season though, Deloitte even predicts a 25% to 35% growth in eCommerce revenue. Clearly, shopper behavior is changing rapidly. And it’s up to retailers to make the best of it.