Why are paper product catalogues still permitted to exist in a world where your products can be kept in a digital catalogue? A good, therapeutic ranting session about the paper-wasting, tree-killing dinosaurs that are paper product catalogues seemed like the next natural step after our earlier passionate outbursts against paper receipts. They are very heavy for carrying on the road and very expensive to print. Your lower back discomfort that shoots up? It's enough.
The 22-volume encyclopaedia and the telephone book are cousins of the paper product catalogue, which has somehow managed to avoid obsolescence. No more, then! We're making a statement. I mean, how come so many sales representatives still bring paper price sheets and catalogues to sales meetings when the internet has supplanted the encyclopaedias and yellow pages, which have long since been thrown in the trash? Now that we have digital catalogues and order management software at our disposal, it's time for a shift.
Product ranges are always evolving. New colour and size variations are introduced, products are added and deleted, and materials and specifications are frequently slightly altered. An enormous resource drain occurs when wholesale brands are forced to produce fresh catalogues annually to give to their sales representatives. The expense of creating, proofreading, printing, and shipping these catalogues is high. Consider all the trees. Consider the workforce. Consider the amount of money that was spent.
Digital catalogues have the advantage of being easily updated across the system. Using paper? Not at all. Your catalogues may not be completely current even if you produce fresh ones every year. Catalogues may actually become outdated as soon as they are released. Sales representatives must be notified of any modifications to the product line, and they must then strive to focus on closing deals while keeping track of every small change. If they forget something, it may result in errors, contrite justifications, and unhappy customers.
Getting information for so many SKUs in front of customers is challenging, particularly for field sales reps and wholesale brands who sell a wide variety of goods. In these situations, it's possible that a large number of retail customers are unaware of the complete range of products you sell. Retailers are occupied. They alternate between making phone calls, interacting with consumers, and talking to sales representatives. They are unlikely to be adding many new products to their collection because it can be very overwhelming to flip through huge catalogues. In result, sales representatives must memorise specific page numbers in order to access specific products, thus using more of their customers' time. Additionally, that catalogue may appear to be in worse shape if it has been in and out of the car a few times. Let's say you unintentionally stained pages 53–78 of the summer catalogue with your morning tea. Catastrophe.
Printing a photograph of every product in the catalogue is frequently impractical for certain brands with a large number of products. Catalogues with lengthy listings of SKUs and text descriptions may result from this. Humans think visually. Visuals are typically processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. Adding a high-quality photo could mean the difference between a sale and no sale.
Does this point require further discussion? Paper catalogues for products are large, unwieldy, and a real headache for travelling around. Paper usage increases with the number of products, which is never a good thing.
Paper product catalogues should have phased out long ago. Sales representatives will appreciate having a current, small digital catalogue with pictures to show their clients, and the environment will benefit from it as well (old catalogues simply wind up in the garbage, and the last thing we need is more material to clog landfills). In the end, your customers will appreciate the time savings and the enhanced, contemporary interaction with sales representatives. Doesn't that sound like a win-win scenario?