10 Simple Ways to Maximize Your Digital Catalog or Lookbook Now

Publishing digital versions of your print catalogs or lookbooks online is a no-brainer. But did you know you can be getting much more out of your digital catalog and lookbook program with very little cost and effort? The days of posting an uninspired catalog are over, thanks to visual commerce features like Scan & Shop. Putting your publications at the forefront of your digital strategy can have a big payoff. To help you rethink your strategy, here are ten recommendations that support digital catalog best practices using this powerful omni-channel opportunity:

#10 Omni-Channel Done Right

Every brand in the game is adopting an omni-channel marketing strategy. Digital catalogs or lookbooks offer easy-to-access content and a seamless user experience across channels: offline, on the web, tablet, mobile, social and in-store.

What better way to create valuable content, distribute it to every channel, and make it accessible on every device? What’s more, response rates quadruple when customers are contacted via two or more channels.

FUN FACT: Companies that excel in engaging customers across multiple channels retain more than twice as many customers as companies without cross-channel strategies.

#9 Be Social

Give people something to talk about that’s easy to share. Whether it’s the latest merchandise, lifestyle photos, trends, styling tips or video — digital catalogs are great fodder for social sharing. Some platforms make it easy and fun to share pages, products, wishlists, or entire catalogs. Taking it one step further, Syndeca integrates with virtually any social network.

FUN FACT: 46% of online consumers consult social media when making a purchase decision.

#8 Drive Engagement

Digital content offers more than print — that’s a given. With the right platform you can take advantage of many added benefits. For example, you can tag every product in a catalog or lookbook, offering more product information (including alt images, prices, colors, sizes, etc.), provide streaming videos, allow your customers to share pages and products with friends, and even add to bag seamlessly. These rich features can translate into an easy 5+ minutes of brand engagement from your customers.

FUN FACT: How much is more? When you contact the same customer twice (in print and in digital, for example), response rates have shown an increase up to 400%, compared to one channel alone.

#7 Maximize Retention

Once you have loyal customers, you don’t want to lose them. You can increase customer retention by allowing users to engage easily and in multiple ways — through the mail, online, in social media, in an app, and in-store. Digital catalogs and lookbooks provide the perfect vehicle to increase touch points, convert offline interest into online action, and drive loyalty for your brand.

FUN FACT: Converting a new customer costs five times as much as keeping an existing one.

#6 Provide Inspiration

Consumers are moving away from planned purchases and towards inspired ones. Browsing websites and traditional product-listings are limiting. Plus, these days users typically shop by category when they already know what they want. When customers don’t know what they want until they see it, brands benefit from inspiring purchases using compelling editorial or lifestyle photography.

TIP: Make sure your digital catalog or lookbook is shoppable so you can transform that inspiration into action. If a user can’t seamlessly purchase from the page, you’re less likely to inspire the sale.

#5 Leverage Your Content: It’s Easy

According to recent studies, 84% of retailers believe that more product imagery will directly impact conversion rates, and 58% want to create new content that is more visual and engaging. At the same time, over half of B2C marketers already struggle producing enough content.

That’s where a great visual commerce platform comes in. Leverage the content you already have, including lifestyle photography, print catalogs, lookbooks, mailers and video — and combine the assets into rich, omni-channel experiences. You can also repurpose out-takes and b-sides by showcasing ‘behind the scenes’ footage, stories and images that didn’t make print.

TIP: Using Syndeca’s full-service, single production process, you can deploy experiences simultaneously across multiple channels without any additional effort from your team. That’s right — just send over your assets, and we’ll do the heavy lifting for you, so you can get back to the important stuff!

#4 Save On Postage

Did you know your digital catalog program could pay for itself, and then some? Through special USPS promotions, your mailings may qualify for postage discounts ranging from 2-3% when the Scan & Shop feature is enabled in your native apps. Depending on the size of your print circulation, the savings could fully fund your digital catalog program for a year or longer.

#3 Save the Promo

Emails are fantastic. As are promotions. But digital catalogs and lookbooks offer a way to meaningfully engage with your customers without appearing discount driven. Show your customers the latest styles, trends, or how to get the ‘look’ — and you’ll be showing them a breadth of merchandise with an editorial point of view. No incentive needed.

FUN FACT: Users browsing Syndeca digital catalogs view approximately 50% of all brand featured pages, proving this is a highly engaging channel in which users love to interact, share and shop.

#2 Drive Revenue

The holy grail of initiatives. The #1 item on your CMO’s list. And the easiest way to quantify the success of any program. Well, the good news is that digital catalogs and lookbooks are proven to drive revenue, not just by increasing loyalty and customer lifetime value, but also by directly increasing shopping bag value, conversion rate, and average order value.

FUN FACT: A recent study proves that a Syndeca digital catalog app drove an increase of 1.64X in AOV compared to the brand’s own native app.

#1 Realize your ROI

OK, so let’s break it down this way. When done right, digital catalogs and lookbooks have awesome ROI:

• Increased engagement = increased loyalty and spend
• Connecting with customers through multiple channels drives 400% lift in response
• Digital catalog or lookbook shoppers can lift AOV by 1.64X
• Conversion rates of these same users are 2-4 times higher than those who don’t shop either channel
• Producing rich digital experiences is easy, and can be implemented in a matter of days
• Integrating features like Scan & Shop with your print program can save 2-3% on the postage costs of your direct mail program

So, what are you waiting for? Learn more ways to maximize reach and drive revenue, or for a free consultation or demo of the Syndeca Platform.

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