What are the Different Ways to Manage your Product Catalogs

There are 3 different ways, using which you can manage your product catalogs:

1) Ecommerce Platform

Startups can easily manage their product catalogs using an appropriate ecommerce platform.

Startup companies have small catalogs, hence an ecommerce platform is enough for catalog management.

An ecommerce platform comes with a small number of tools that will allow you to upload and edit the catalog on the store.

For instance, in order to upload the product catalog onto your online store, it is important to create an Excel file containing all the product details.

Most ecommerce platforms come with store catalog functionality that allows you to decide which categories and products to display on the store.

However, if you decide to sell on multiple sales channels such as marketplaces, social media, etc., it can be difficult to manage your product catalog. Each sales channel comes with its own file format, which means it is imperative to convert your product file into that format.

Also, keeping the catalog up-to-date across all sales channels is a tedious and time-taking activity.

A point to note here is that when the catalog is huge, using an ecommerce platform alone is not enough. It is imperative to use an **IT product catalog management software **to efficiently handle your catalog.

2) Excel Sheets

This is tedious, yet affordable option to manage catalogs. However, the use of excel sheets come into picture when your catalog size is small. When you are selling a small range of products, there is no harm in using excel sheets because the catalog itself is limited.

You can also use excel sheets when you don’t need to update your product catalog frequently.

Experts are of the firm opinion that Excel sheets (used for gathering information) is not an efficient way to create and manage product catalogs. Complex catalogs created in excel sheets are never easy to handle.

When your catalog is huge, it is very difficult to organize and edit the catalog in excel sheets. From detecting errors to omissions, you will have a hard time providing accurate product data in excel sheets.

Updating the catalog is also very time consuming as you have to first search the product and appropriate field. You will have to specifically hire staff to edit and update the excel sheets. Thus managing catalog through excel sheets can be an expensive proposition.

On the whole, retailers having large catalogs shouldn’t even think of using Excel sheets.

3) Catalog Management Software

Whether you are a small or a large company, a catalog management tool is the best way to manage your product catalogs.

With this software tool, you can create catalogs rich in product information. Your catalogs are more visually appealing that visitors would love to browse.

From offering consistent product data across all sales channels to regularly updating catalog content, you can do all your catalog management activities effortlessly using this software application.

Companies with large catalogs often take the help of **Ecommerce catalog management services **to build and manage standard formatted catalogs.

As a reseller connected to B2B customers, it is important that you offer **PunchOut catalog**, a functionality that brings simplicity in the purchasing process.