Category: Uncategorized

How to save your energy, time, and money?

How to create appealing templates?

How to use and customize pre-designed templates?

Keep reading to find the answer! 

How to save energy, time, and money when creating a product catalog?

Using the templates! They are a helpful marketing tool, used among different industries and business types. 

Firstly, templates help to present information in an appealing way. Black text on the white background with the image behind stayed far in the past.

Today you need something bright, outstanding, and remarkable. Unless you are a professional designer, it may be hard to achieve. So, templates are here for you to keep you up to date design. 

Secondly, a professional-looking digital catalog will help you to achieve better SEO results. As you know, the first impression is the most important one. Transferring this to the digital world, the better the first impression the more time a client will spend at your digital catalog. 

Besides that, you will receive a lower bounce rate. So, the catalog will receive more credibility from Google, while you will achieve more potential customers.

Thirdly, templates are a crucial customer communication tool. This argument is like the previous one, but now we are looking from the customers’ perspectives. A well-organized design helps to improve customer satisfaction. For example, you can customize the product catalog for each client in a few clicks if you are using templates. 

Last but not least. Design templates save marketing managers or business owners the energy it takes to recreate the same design time and time again.

To stay unique, create your own templates. Make them easy to maintain and update. That will help you to achieve the best result with the least costs. 

How to create appealing templates?

Here you will find the list of tips on how to build an eye-catching template for the product catalog. We have created this list to help you make the most of product catalogs for your business. 

Stay flexible. 

In case if you want to add/delete information in the future, the template should be modular. So, you can easily adjust I, rather than create a whole new one. The trick is, the simpler your design is, the easier it can be modified. 

Be clear.

Reach out to the audience is your main goal. Be sure your information is presented in a clear and easy way. No one will spend hours with your product catalog, no matter how appealing the design is. 

Keep the hierarchy. 

One of the ways to present the information clearly is to practicing proper hierarchy. You can play around with geometrical shapes and icons to achieve it. 

Make it colorful. 

But not too much. Designers recommend staying within 4 main colors. At the same time, culture impacts how people react to different colors. So, keep in mind your customers’ background. 

Use bright colors to highlight information only where it is necessary.

Do contrast. 

Add some dark colors. You can even make a dark background. Together with white font and minimalistic design, it will look stylish and sophisticated.

Be minimalistic.

We would recommend you to use 2 different fonts. One may be for the main text, while the second one for the titles or the catalog name. It’s always better to experiment with different styles of the same font (bold, italic, etc.)

Don’t go all in. 

Playing with fonts, colors, shapes, and icons may be fun. But don’t use everything at once. In this case, your template may start looking overwhelmed. 

Select a 2-column layout.

It will make your catalog look structured and organized. The 2-column template creates a satisfying sense of rhythm in the design.

Moreover, put your image to the left and text to the right. It has been scientifically proven that this combination is the most effective. Because the more creative part of the brain will focus on the picture, while rational one – on the information. 

Become efficient.

Creating a template for the whole catalog at once may be too overwhelming. The solution is to create a template for each product and share it with the whole product database. This template should include all product fields common for the products (ex. material, size, etc.) and design (fonts, color, product fields allocation). Click here to know more about a single product template.  

Be up-to-date.

With the help of automation. Your catalog can be updated every time you change your product database. Imagine how much time you will save! Read more about how you can automate catalog management with Catalog Machine here. You can also connect the catalog creation process with external platforms with help of Zapier. 

Use diversity.

Use different types of product presentation. For example, include a price list in your lookbook. So, the client can easily manage through the list of products. This section should still be consistent with the rest of the catalog in terms of fonts, main colors, and style.

Now you know how to design your professional-looking template. All you need to do is to sign up http://catalogmachine.com/ Upload your product database. And you are free to create any template you want. 

How to use and customize pre-designed templates?

If you are still not sure, that you are ready to build your own template, there are lots of predefined and customizable options. 

Catalog Machine has created a bunch of templates for different industries and purposes. Click https://www.catalogmachine.com/templates to select the one that suits you the most.

All our templates are fully customizable. So, if you want to change the color, font, or add a new field, you can easily do it. 

We would recommend you keep the design setting of the templates and simply add more information. 

 

Create beautiful Price Lists that compliment your business and increase sales. Nowadays, a price list is one of the essential tools to present your products in the marketplace. This is why to achieve the best results; you need to consider the following points.

1. The purpose of the Price List

Here we are talking about both your target audience and the business itself.

A price list could be distributed among the existing and potential clients. If it is a client-oriented, you need to present only the information relevant to them. In addition, whenever you are sharing a price list to a new client, it must be engaging enough to stand out among the competitors.

In addition, the characteristics of the target audience will have an impact. For example, the demographic aspect influences the currency and a language.

Except for marketing purposes, a list has an internal to the business value. It can be used as an operational organization’s document to track changes in the prices and stock of the products. If this is your case, you may want to include as much information to the document as possible to track changes in the future and prepare reports. As well as, it transmits the information about the product to the company’s various departments, agents, and suppliers.

2. Is the Price List going to be digital or printed?

Both options have the right to live and be profitable.

Digital: As well as most of the digital world, it is about efficiency.

Firstly, the digital price list has lower production costs. Especially when you realize that the price list’s core characteristic is a possibility of constant changes. So, there is no way you can create one list for a long period of time.

Secondly, it is easier to share among the wider target audience. You can present a digital price list on your website or even Social Media pages.

Summing up, you will interact with more potential clients and save money at the same time.

Printed: Selecting this option, you are playing the long game. The printed price list will cost you more and is harder to manage. However, it is a proven way to establish good customer relationships that improve the probability of final negotiation. Why? A printed version will always be more user-friendly and shows a personal approach to each client. Who does not like to be valued?

Design and structure

Creating a price list, you should keep in mind these key elements that need to be included.

1. Size and content. A good price list is always a balance between all the possibly relevant information and the amount of data your client can handle easily.
2. The design should stay comparatively simple. It might be a good idea to use your 2 main brand colors at it.
3. Cover and back cover pages. As well as, one introduction page about your business and products.
4. Contact information. Phone number/website/Social Media.
5. Sorted products. You may divide your products by collections and organize them in alphabetical order.
6. Order form. Give your customer a chance to order something right away.

Catalog Machine is a platform that will help you to meet all the requirements above. Our easy-to-use design editor is packed with lots of resources and can allow you to print and share your price list in minutes.

Start creating today at https://www.catalogmachine.com/price-list-template.

 

Every top seller in the jewelry industry knows the importance of a lookbook for the business.  Learn tricks from these successful jewelry sellers to compete with them online. Read this article carefully to find your way to victory. 

Why would you need a lookbook in the jewelry industry?

A lookbook is a trend of the last few years. It also seems to lasts for a long time from now. There should be some good reasons for that. We have defined the top 3 reasons why a lookbook benefits a business if you are in the jewelry industry.

1. Jewelry sales shifts online

According to online jewelry sales statistics, the jewels e-commerce business grew by 14.2% in 2018. In 2019, more than 29 million people purchased jewelry online daily. In 2020, COVID 19 revolutionize the jewelry market by forcing most companies to shift sales online. As well as rethink their digital strategy. For example, the Courbet jeweler has decided to invest part of its capital in enriching the platform with functionalities based on 3D video and augmented reality. From now on, it will be possible to choose a ring in conditions similar to those of a physical store (LUXUS, 2020).

However, most of the companies in the industry do not accumulate that much capital to copy the Courbet strategy of dealing with crises. In this case, creating a digital version of a catalog allows the business to reach out to customers and don’t spend millions of dollars on R&D and innovation.

In addition to environmental forces, the power of buyers also encourages online sales. Millennials and Generation Z wield around $200 billion in buying power. At the same time, 67% of Millennials prefer to shop online, and 73% of Gen Zers shop online. By connecting the dots, you can see how attractive this niche at the market has become. 

2. The is always an emotional connection with a brand or/and a piece of jewelry 

… especially if we are talking about expensive jewelry. R. Bates (2020) came up with 9 psychological reasons why people buy diamond jewelry: I’m worth it; let’s celebrate; I did it; I want something exceptional; reflecting the qualities of a diamond; making the write impression; the promise of a diamond; redemption; purely a gift. We are not going to discuss each of them separately, but let’s sum it up. Usually, people are buying expensive jewelry as a gift for someone to show the importance of the person by the high price. Or to themselves as a reward or a method to underline their status in society. 

Why would you need to know that? To create a brand identity. It has to meet the main reasons for the purchase. For example, despite the broad product line Tiffany always associates with the engagement rings; Rolex is a way to show who is a boss here, and Pandora is about traveling and collecting memories. Every successful brand has a clear and distinctive story behind it. So, the first thing you should do is to come up with the story, whereas the lookbook will help to tell the story to your buyers. 

To achieve it, all the professional lookbooks and catalogs makers advise presenting a product on a person and within a context. For example, a golden diamond necklace on a white background says nothing. But if you put this necklace on the grandma’s neck and imagine a grandpa hugging her, you will see that this necklace is a symbol of life-long love. So, would you prefer to spend $1000 on a chain or the never-ending love?

3.  Jewelry is a fluid industry 

You want to stay up-to-date and engage your customers by updating the product range almost every season. It’s all up to you how to provide a supply, but a lookbook is a point where the supply and demand are crossing each other. So, what do you want to do is to present your latest collection as fast as possible, and a digital catalog is the best way to do it. 

First of all, updating the digital catalog is a lot faster than transporting a new collection to the store, reorganizing other products, and do the documents connected with this action. With a digital lookbook, it’s a matter of a few hours. If you decide to save your time, keep in mind that with Catalog Machine, you can not only update your lookbook with a few clicks but also start receiving orders and payments right from the catalogs. 

Secondly, going online is the best way to reach out to thousands of people at once. Selling from the store, you limit the target audience with a location factor. Whereas, if you can manage cross-country or even international shipping, you will pop it up in times.

Now you see the importance of the lookbook for the jewelry industry and maybe even want to create one for yourself. What should you know to succeed?  

What is the trick? 

The main focus of each lookbook is a photo. We would recommend you hire a professional photographer to be sure of the quality of the image. But what if you don’t have free money for that or want to create everything by yourself? We have created a list of rules; you should keep in mind to create a professional-looking photo of the product

1. Product positioning – no matter who or what is at the picture, the product that you are selling should be the first that your clients see. You can use bluer everything else around to make it stand out, put it at the center of the picture, or brighten it up a little bit. 
2. Be careful with the lights – if you are shooting indoors, set up your white background “studio” with a window to either the left or right and a white reflector of some sort on the opposite side. You want to light your product evenly and without shadows.  
3. Never use zoom unless you have a professional camera – it will bluer the image. Come as close as it is needed. 
4. Keep your camera clean – even a little bit of dust at the lens could spoil the image. 
5. Don’t use a flash – unless it is removable. Remember, to strait light at the ‘face’ of the product. 
6. Don’t move the camera – use any kind of camera holders. Everything is better than hands.
7. Edit the image after – you can find plenty of paid or free courses on the Internet on how to improve the photo.

Summing up, to be able to compete in the jewelry market, you want to create your lookbook. Go to https://www.catalogmachine.com/ to start improving your business!