Optimization Archives - Catalog Machine Blog

Order form: All you need to know

A purchase order form is a necessary tool for every business. It helps to improve financial and inventory control, manage incoming orders, and streamline the procurement processes. In this article, we will see in detail what is a purchase order form, what is necessary to include there, and how to create one for your business in a couple of minutes.

What is a purchase order form?

A purchase order form is a template that is used for a purchase order. Generally speaking, it is a written agreement between the buyer and the seller about quantity, quality, time of delivery in the form of a document. It is mostly used at the B2B market when wholesaler, manufacturer, or retailer sells a high number of products at once.

Products & Services

An order form is used when businesses purchase both products and services. For example, you need to print out a brochure as a part of your marketing campaign. A printing agency will ask you to fill out a document where you will tell how many brochures do you need, what type of paper the agency should use, etc.

Online & offline

We have defined a purchase order as a document. However, it does not mean that it should be printed out. Lots of businesses that are operating online use a digital purchase order form. The difference is that in the online world it can be used for people, not just companies. Imagine the last time you bought cloth online? You need to select a size, color, and quantity before submitting. In other words, you are filling up an order form.

What to include in your order form?

Based on the Purchase Control article, a general order form should contain the following fields.

Information about the seller – the name of the company, address, contact info.
Information about the buyer – the name of the company/person, address, contact info.
Purchase order number – a unique numerical identifier of the order.
Information about the products – quantity, characteristics, etc.
Pricing – total and for each particular product.
Shipping details – when a product will be shipped, approximate date of arrival, address for delivery.

After filling up a form, the customer usually received a confirmation via email, message, or even a phone call, if a seller needs to confirm any details.

How to create an order form?

Catalog Machine is online software that allows you to create an order request form ready for printing or design a catalog with an embedded order form. Let’s see how you can create a PDF purchase order form in 3 Steps.

Step 1.

After logging in to the system, go to Catalog and click Crete New on the top right corner.

Select the Blank option on the very left. Click Create your catalog.

Step 2.

Now you need to select a proper layout.

Click More types on the right part of your screen.

Select Order form from the appeared page layout options.

Now you need to select a template that suits your business needs: with product images, wholesale or static order forms. All of them are fully customizable, so no worries if you need to add extra information or change the design.

Step 3.

Customizing order form.

Add products you would like to include.

You can add products one by one, all products at once, or a group (collection or category).

After adding, you can click Update Products to finish creating. The other option is to select Fields and Design to add more or delete some product fields and change the design.

Play around with the available options to find the one that you like the most.

To preview how it will look like a PDF document or download it to your device, go to View/Download, PDF section, and select the option you need.

Adding an order form to an existing catalog

… is even more comfortable.

Go to the catalog, click on the Orders on the left sidebar.

Here you can enable orders right from the catalog.

As you can see from the image below, it will appear here once someone makes an order.

Advanced Settings

Configure order request settings from the Order Requests page.

Custom caption for the button and order form
Enable product prices and totals for order requests
Enable product variants (displayed for products that have variants) with fields
Fill in the order form header and footer.
Add custom fields
· Select product fields that will be added to a notification email, presented at the order request form for your client and order request details page for you.
Configure a notification email sent to your customer

Order Request List, Details, and Management

Go to the Order Requests page from the right sidebar to access the list and details pages.

On the list page:

Manage simple order request life-cycle: Accept, Reject or Close order requests or delete them. These actions are available from list and details pages.
Filter orders by text, status, products, and dates
Export orders in CSV format

Order Details

Click on Order ID to access the Order Request Details.

You can add your notes on the Order Request Details page.

Manage order numbers

Change order request number by clicking on it and entering the number that will be synchronized with your system. After that, all new orders will be automatically enumerated using your system (ex. Renamed last order is 1234, the next one will be 1235). The system recognizes only the numerical part of the order name. So, if you name the order ABC1234, the next one will still be 1235.

Now you know what a purchase order form is, why you need it, and how you can easily create one with Catalog Machine.

Inventory Management & Catalogs

Businesses with dynamically changing portfolios require a flexible data management system and a real-time view of inventory. Both of them are essential for your business longevity and survival.

Catalog Machine allows you to create a centralized product catalog for all your needs, from online and PDF product presentation, tiered pricing, backed with the inventory management system. Today we will tell you how efficient inventory management helps to expand your business lifetime. And how a catalog creation becomes a perfect way to manage your data.

First things first, all you need to know about inventory management

There are multiple definitions of inventory management, as it varies from a company operation process. Generally, it refers to ordering, storing and using (selling) the company’s assets. Inventory could include finished products or raw materials and components, depending on the business and industry.However, the purpose is similar among all companies. Keep on the loop which products you have on hand, where those products are being sold, and when items are running low.

Why is it crucial to have the right number of items in your stock?

There are two ways of consequences if you estimate your inventory stock wrong.

Shortage. A shortage of inventory means lower customer satisfaction, lower sales, and lower cash flow.
Abundance. A large inventory carries the risk of spoilage, theft, damage, or shifts in demand.

If inventory management is not handled properly, it can result in a business either losing money on potential sales that can’t be filled or wasting money by stocking too much inventory. For this reason, inventory management is vital for a business of any size.

Are you in retail?

Inventory management is an essential part of a business in every industry. Meanwhile, if you are operating in the retail industry, inventory management importance starts to play the first fiddle. Just because without inventory, the retail business is useless.

Catalogs & Inventory management

A catalog combines all the inventory information you want to present or to know: wholesale and resale prices, product variants, description, image, etc. Taking this into account, a catalog could become not only a way to present to your customers up-to-date information and enable them to buy but also an effective data management system. One of Catalog Machine clients is working in the Art industry. It’s a medium-size retail company that are organizing pictures exhibitions. They told me that they need their catalogs for data management. One catalog is equal to one exhibition. So, they can keep on track in terms of sold out and presented pictures.

It is just one case of how the catalog could be used for effective inventory management. If you are planning to grow your business or at least stay in the game for a long time, we would recommend you to create a catalog with all your products included.

Why Catalog Machine for your catalog and inventory management?

Display and manage your products with Catalog Machine. It’s a simple way to manage your inventory. Let me tell you what you can achieve with Catalog Machine.

Organize your inventory. Keep all the inventory in one place. Easily create multiple catalogs. Put your products into categories and collections. Have different variants of one product (different colours, sizes, etc.)
Become fast and flexible. Import product at one click using integration with Shopify, Etsy, Magneto, eBay, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Zapier. Easily export your inventory. Create a catalog that will be presented on your website and ranked by Google.
Facilitate online experience. Create on Online Store and Online Catalogs. Get notified when someone places an order.
Scale your business. Capture and consolidate product data across all channels in real-time to serve catalog and inventory data, at scale, all the time.
Improve performance and customer satisfaction. Automatically present to your customers only in-stock items. Enable them to order right from the catalog or online store.

Era of Automation: Catalog Machine integration with Zapier

Do you still believe that product marketing is time-consuming, expensive, and hard? Wrong! Welcome to the era of automation!

Today we will share a way how to do your product online marketing in the most efficient way.

Connect different parts of your business with one app

Going to a modern online business you will see that there are thousands of apps that will help you to automatize your workflow. Most of them are pretty useful, but you will simply have a lack of time to use all of them.

That’s where Zapier comes up. Zapier is an online platform that connects 2000+ web apps with each other. So, you can automate a business workflow quickly and easily. Due to the efficiency that Zapier allows you to achieve, Evernote included it into the top 10 apps in 2018.

We can bet that you’ve already heard about Zapier and it’s powerfulness. However, the secret of it is deeply connected to another app. Today we want to show you what you can achieve with a combination of Zapier and Catalog Machine.

Catalog Machine Integration with Zapier

Catalog Machine is a necessary tool when it comes to presenting products to your clients: creating online or PDF catalogs, building your online store and even managing inventory (product stock). As we have already discussed, this is one of the first steps you should take. As it doesn’t matter how good your product is, unless no one sees it, no one buys it.

The Catalog Machine integration with Zapier allows you not just to present and sell your product but save a lot of time. You can use this time to focus on more important things and grow your business.

Zapier connects Catalog Machine with thousands of other apps. Google Sheets, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Gmail, Shopify and Slack are just some of them. Let’s see what you can get them in practice.

Google Sheets, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox

Uploading products and managing a product database is probably the most time-consuming business process. Simultaneously it’s essential to run the business properly. It gets worth it when you have to update your product database across several platforms (ex. Company’s document system, website, social media, etc.).

Now imagine how great it would be if you change a single row in Google Sheets, and the product information will be updated automatically at other platforms. Good news! Zapier allows you to do exactly this.

You can update products, catalogs, online store in Catalog Machine from updates rows in Google Sheets or Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox CSV files. In addition, you may receive a record at Google Sheets once you receive a new order. Convenient, isn’t it?

Gmail

Don’t want to check the platform every other minute to check if someone has made an order? Easy! Use integration with Gmail to receive an email once your customer submitted an order form.

Shopify

Lots of businesses have accounts and product databases on Shopify. However, like any other platform it has, it’s limitations. For example, during the conversation with Catalog Machine customers, he confessed that Catalog Machine allows him to create tiered pricing and target retailers and wholesalers at the same time.

It would be a pity after updating your product database, start it from the very beginning at the other platform. That’s why Zapier connects Catalog Machine to Shopify, to transfer your data at one click.

All of this is just a small part of what you can achieve as a business using Catalog Machine integration with Zapier.

Are you excited to start? Sign Up to a Catalog Machine. And follow this link to find out how to connect your Catalog Machine app with Zapier.

How to keep your business profitable during the COVID-19?

A lot of businesses were negatively impacted because of the coronavirus. However, some of the business owners were creative enough and could make a profit even at this challenging time. Today we are going to tell you the possible strategy to cope with a pandemic. Moreover, we will discuss a real company example that is staying profitable even during this challenging time.

Going Online

McKinsey & Company said ‘The battle against COVID-19 is one that leaders today must win if we are to find an economically and socially viable path to the next normal’. We are offering you not to wait until this battle will be won by the leader, but rather won it by yourself and become a leader eventually.

Due to the self-isolation policy all over the world, the online world receives first priority compared to the physical one. This is why moving a business online today is a necessity, if the manager wants a company to continue to operate.

We believe that is a force for better because going online benefits businesses in various ways. Here is a list what will be improved, if you move your business online:

Increase sales
Improve external communication
Improve companies’ image
Higher employee’s productivity
Speed up processing
Enhance and efficient service
Attract new customers

Generally speaking, a business will improve its competitive position.

Majectic Meat Case

However, going online does not mean the creation of the website, it’s a more complex process, that involves an online ordering system, social media, etc. Let us tell you a story about Majectic Meat Co.

Being a meat supplier to Utah’s local restaurants, the company lost most of the clients as the restaurants got closed one by one. Moreover, they had a lot of product surplus that was going to spoil very soon. It means not only no profit but also huge losses. The company’s management was limited in time to come up with a decision. So, they did what has never been done in the company before. Majectic Meat Co started selling meat directly to the community by adding an online ordering system to their website. As a community was happy to show support to a local business, this single move saved the company.

Mike Marsh firstly told this story. We found this case a perfect example for all small business owners, who are unable to sell their products because of the shut-down policy. However, to embed an online ordering system, Majectic Meat Co asked a local IT expert. Furthermore, we can bet that in the foreseeable future, they will ask the expert for another favour or even hire him because this kind of system requires permanent support.

Good news, we want to become that expert for you! With Catalog Machine you can update all the product base at once, integrate online ordering system into an existing website or use it separately, create tiered pricing, and a lot more!

Check the video on how you can start receiving orders online and selling directly from home in this video.

Top 5 factors that stop a small business from selling more

Are you trying different methods to increase sales, but nothing works well enough?

Have you tried Digital Marketing? Have you made the most out of your capacity? Sure?

We will show you what stops the small companies from using Digital Marketing to its fullest extent.

Top 5 barriers

Taimnen Heinin and Karjaluoto Heikki* proved that small companies are struggling when it comes to digital marketing channels usage. We are talking about a website, emails, social media and blog. You, as a small business owner, risk not derive benefits from the opportunities. The first step to overcome this is to become aware of the barriers that stop you. Not other words explore the list.

Yes, you are the first and main factor that might stop a company from selling. Sorry for being too straightforward; we did not mean to heart your feelings. What is the result of your background, motivation, capabilities and experience? It is the stop or stimulation of the effective usage of digital marketing channels. Scientifically this factor belongs to a group called “firm-specific and owner-manager factors.”

Heinin and Heikki* talked to 16 small business managers. Some of the interviewees had prejudices about the usage of social media. As you already guessed, it provokes nothing good for a company. Usually, this kind of attitude towards social media was the result of unfamiliarity with different channels and how they work.

The moral of the story increase your digital intelligence. Good news, we are here exactly for this purpose. Keep reading this blog to overcome the ‘You’ barrier.

Let me tell you a story about how overcoming a “you” barrier bring a start-up to success. A few years ago one passioned about tourism girl decided to create a business based on her hobby. ‘Challenging holiday” had a unique business model, they offer a combination of holiday tour with business lectures and extreme experience. Sound fun? You can imagine how many thousands of dollars a girl invested to arrange the first tour… and almost failed. The lack of Social Media knowledge didn’t let her target the right audience. In a week before the trip was supposed to start, she decided to use opinion leaders as a way to promote her business. In couple of days, all trip spots were sold out! This is an example of how crucial the experience and knowledge of business owners is for small business success.

People around you

Here were are talking only about coworkers. In a big company, the lack of knowledge or experience of one employee mitigates by another one. In a small company, there is always a lack of human resources.

What to do? Invest in your people. To grow the business, you should start playing in a long game. Shift a focus from the sales into increasing digital awareness among your employees.

The importance of people around you was nicely described by David Ogilvy in ‘Confessions of an Advertising Man.’ “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”

Goal…

… and the way it should be achieved. Due to the research* small companies are focusing primarily on the website, SEO (search engine optimization) and social media. What’s out of focus? Blogging!

Blogging is a two-way communication process, as well as social media. But, compared to the last one, blogging retains more control. The two-way communication channels allow you to engage the customers and create brand awareness.

There is a tricky part here. People are having fun at social media and expect the story to be told. No direct sales! Social media should be perceived as a tool to start a dialogue with the customer and create value for them.

Want to be straightforward and sail right away? One-way communication channels are here for you. Your website, SEO and SEA (search engine advertising) and the emails are an excellent way to sell. You may achieve a better ‘right now’ result, but what’s about the future?

Competitors

They are always here. Especially if your competitors are bigger companies. They might dictate what is necessary at the market to survive. We can be sure of the first rule. Digital existence. If a company cannot be found in Google, it does not exist.

The way you exist (which digital channels are you using) is up to you. You may research your competitors and use the same channels as they are to stay at the same level. The other way is to find your niche, a channel that is not taken or not that popular.

For example, AirBnB is a substitute for traditional hospitality. So, if you are thinking about opening a hotel, you should take into account the prices offered by AirBnB. Especially if you are not offering luxury class services.

Resources

We’ve already talked about the importance of a human resource, but there is a list of other resources that can’t be overlooked. It is money, time, technology. Each of them is a potential barrier for a small company that holds it away from the bright digital future.

The lack of resources is a common characteristic among all small-size businesses. How to win? Be more efficient than others. We’ve already described one of the possible ways to achieve it here.

Now you know what might stop your business from success. Moreover, you know some options on how to overcome these barriers. Forewarned is forearmed!

Be skeptical of yourself as a business owner. Around yourself with people you admire. Keep your competitors and modern trends under the radar. Use your resources wisely. Doing all of this will allow to set up realistic goals and grow. Start with yourself. Spend a couple of hours today to think which areas are needed to be improved. Search various education online resources and online platforms to select the most suitable way for you to become a better businessmen/women. The barriers are needed not to stop you, but to make your way more interesting!

* Taimnen, H and Karjaluoto, H, (2015), The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 22 (4), 633-651. doi:10.1108/JSBED-05-2013-0073

Digital technology. A new way to beat your competitors

Are you the owner of a small company? We know how to beat your competitors online. So, you can improve your digital marketing strategy and grow your business. The answer was given by a group of scientists P. Foroudi, S. Gupta, A. Nazarian and M. Duda in their article “Digital technology and marketing management capability: achieving growth in SMEs”. Long story short, digital technology increases your marketing capacity. Whereas the last one makes it easier to grow.

Have you ever look at digital technology as a way to expand your business and beat the competition? Every company, including your competitors, use a business model. To diversify you from the competitors, you should create a unique business model. The most efficient way is to build digital technology in the heart of your business model.

How to find digital technology that will allow you to win?

First of all, going online or using any digital platform is not your (a business owner) choice. Or, it may be better to say, you weren’t the first one. The first was your customer with his or her needs and wishes. Now it’s your move. Go where your customers are and sell. Digital technology will help you to increase sales and decrease costs.

Secondly, you are not the only one who is ready to respond. All businesses have direct and indirect competitors. For example, you own an Italian restaurant. A Chinese restaurant across the street is your direct competitor. Whereas a food market two blocks away is an indirect one. All three of you satisfying the same customer need – hunger, but in a different way. To stay successful, you should identify your direct and indirect competitors. Pay attention to the business models they use to operate and identify the gap. This is your niche and a chance to get a competitive advantage.

If you can’t find any gap in the current market, innovate. In a fast-changing business world innovation is the most sustainable business advantage. The term innovation can be scary because it usually associates with uncertainty. To create competitiveness you should not risk it all. The implementation of digital technology in a new way can be considered an innovation.

What digital technology is the sweet spot?

To sell your product you should at least show it to your customer. At most you should present t in the most attractive way. To do that you have to maintain a team of a photographer, a designer and a marketing specialist. Another way is to waste all of your time to handle it by yourself. Now multiply it by the number of products you have. The first option is costly, the second one is time-consuming. Digital catalog is a digital technology that allows us to save both time and money, and still present your product in a way the customers will like. This is how you can gain a competitive advantage and a chance to grow your business with the use of innovation.

How does it work in real life?

Our customer research clearly shows how using a digital catalog increase small company efficiency, saving time and money. We will discuss 3 different cases further.

Time efficiency

First, the owner of the clothing store struggled with maintaining several digital platforms (such as website and social media) manually. Uploading the same picture of the products to different places took him too much time. Whereas the was no way not to do this because product based were updated super fast. For him, the creation of a digital catalog and simply share it across all the platforms become a solution to save lots of time.

Cost efficiency

Second, the company has already relied on the creation of catalogs, however, they were using printed versions. Due to the owner “it’s way too expansive and it’s not that efficient”. There were two reasons: printing costs and too high and you can’t reach that many customers in person compared to the online world. A shift towards digital catalogs let him save a lot of money. It should be mentioned that for the special clients he is still using a PDF version of the digital catalog and print them out.

Time & Cost efficiency

The last example is the small company that relied on the designer. There were three major problems here: the designer couldn’t finish the catalog as fast as it was required by the market, it was impossible to change one product (if it’s out of stock, etc.), and a good designer asks for a good salary. So switching to a digital catalog allowed them to save both time and money.

There are many more examples of how using the online catalog helped our companies to change their business model for better, save scarce resources and beat their competitors.

The Elements of a Product Catalog: Table of Contents, Contact Info, and Your Story

How do i make it easier to navigate my catalog? Will my customers be able to reach out to me? Does it matter what my business is all about? This catalog digest helps you with all that and more.

It’s important for whoever is viewing your catalog to be able to easily navigate it and not spend too much time looking for what they need. A table of contents with page numbers and product names can make the shopping experience for the customer much more enjoyable and stress free.

Featuring Images from: Brumleve Industries Wholesale Pricing Catalog

Not only is having a TOC a great way to make a shopping experience smoother, it may help the maker of it as well. If in the future you wish to edit your catalog and add certain products or remove them, the table of contents you made will help you do all this faster. Also having a Table of Contents may also show that you are more professional to the people viewing your product offering.

“Implementing Shopify and having Catalog Machine integrate with it has been a life saver in getting our products, descriptions, and prices automatically imported. We will be distributing our catalog to our wholesale customers. They will now have a color catalog with a much better layout of product, images, and prices”. -Michael Brumleve, Brumleve Industries

Business contact info

Your customers, whether it’s a single individual or a store you are supplying, need to have easy access to your contact info. Make sure to include it either on the first few pages of your catalog or potentially at the end.

Featuring Images from: Seattle Pump and Equipment Vac-Tools & Accessories Catalog

“I found Catalog Machine through the Shopify App Store and immediately began working on our company industrial tools catalog. 2 weeks later I had an extensive 179 page tools catalog filled with hundreds of products that my sales team and customers could use immediately. Something I was dreading became a fairly simple and enjoyable process thanks to Andriy and Catalog Machine!!”- Cole Childers, Seattle Pump & Equipment co.

Tell your story

One of the pages from your catalog can show your vision, how your business started off and what it is that inspires you and everyone involved to keep going with it. You shouldn’t be afraid to self promote.

Featuring Images from: V’Enza Creations LLC Wholesale Catalog 2018

“I use the catalogs as 3 different options at the moment. I have LOVED having these, they allow me to change things if needed and I have viable information I can instantly send to potential clients!”- Sheila Vaske, V’Enza Creations LLC

Effective storytelling will get the customer engaged. And since you’re marketing your product and business with the catalog anyways, you shouldn’t hesitate to let the customer know a bit more about who they are buying from.

For the full galleries featured here you can visit the links below:

https://www.catalogmachine.com/brumleve-industries/catalogs/wholesale-pricing-catalog.html

https://www.catalogmachine.com/seattle-pump-and-equipment/catalogs/seattle-pump-and-equipment-catalog.html

https://www.catalogmachine.com/venza-creations-llc/catalogs/venza-creations-fall-2017.html