In e-commerce, electronic catalogs are the most important channel between the manufacturer and the buyer.  Sometimes, they are the only communication channel. Therefore one of the most important tasks of an electronic catalog is to provide its contents in such a manner that the user can search it effectively, understand it immediately, and use it for his orders without problems.

Only up-to-date, complete and consistent catalogs allow the user to find the desired products or services quickly and only then will he be willing to buy.

First of all, electronic catalogs are solely electronic files through which descriptions of products and services are mediated to customers, interested people and buying companies. An electronic catalog can consist of a few or several million products. Apart from the products and services offered, electronic catalogs usually also contain price information.  They often offer the possibility of storing a highly differentiated price structure. Customer-specific prices can be furnished as well, as stipulated buy-off numbers or rebates. 

Apart from different prices, additional data (to be more precise: references to additional data), that contain further information on the services or products, can be included in an electronic catalog. Such files could be digitalized videos that show installation instructions for faucets, for example. Technical specifications in the form of PDF files, such as the technical data of a washing machine motor, can also be implied in electronic catalogs as CAD details of a roof construction.

The quality and the quantity of the information implied in electronic catalogs, highly depends on the e-commerce application in which the catalog shall be implemented. In end user-oriented applications, such as web shops, the product information is much more marketing-like and voluminous than in e-procurement applications. As a first step, a company must therefore decide which possibilities of e-commerce it wants to use on a medium- or long-term basis. Then the electronic catalog can be built according to the company's specific requirements.

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It was taken from the book by Johannes Hentrich "B2B-Katalogmanagement", which was published by Galileo Business Publishers.

Johannes Hentrich: "B2B-Katalogmanagement"
(Bonn: Galileo Press GmbH, 2001), 1. Auflage, pages 26/27.
The book is only available in German.

You can order the book here.

We thank the publishers for their kind support.