This question is very common, especially in recent years: is an online store preferable or just a virtual catalogue? We will answer this question in this article, hoping to clarify ideas and give a useful reply. There is a meeting point between these two different types of business. If the virtual store requires work more focused on improving the customer experience, on the offer dedicated to the plans, on improving the design and navigability of the site; the virtual catalogue is already equipped with a specific design, practical and optimized for the assembly of all the products and services you offer in less than 10 minutes.
Obviously, the biggest advantage of these catalogues is that they are extremely quick to implement in the sales department: in fact, all you need to do is enter some details and add the products to sell, thus allowing potential customers to place as many orders as they want.
However, when we talk about virtual shops, things go differently since it takes more time to implement everything: first of all, the configuration of payment methods can be extremely frustrating and complicated, as can the organization of products and categories.
This is why today we want to explain to you carefully why a digital catalogue is preferable to a virtual shop.
A digital catalogue is nothing more than a magazine, an online area where you have the possibility to upload all the products and services you offer, adding options very similar to those present in a virtual shop, such as social networks and contact methods so that everything is efficiently and quickly opened to the public.
A digital catalogue is like a traditional catalogue, but virtual. We can therefore define it as a grouping of efficient and ideal products, items and services offered by a certain brand, giving consumers the opportunity to analyse and decide to buy what they want most, together with all the details, including the price, of the aforementioned. The form for contacts and order organization must also be inserted into this tool.
Generally, the catalogues work by order and not by direct purchase on the website.
A virtual store, also known as e-commerce, is simply a website designed specifically to sell products or services. This tool is also called electronic commerce.
Obviously, among the main advantages, we find the possibility of offering products or services online 24 hours a day, without closing limits. In addition to this, there is also the possibility of getting more sales opportunities by reaching a much larger audience.
Despite this, virtual stores require more focused and intense work since they have a complicated interface and configuring and launching products could take much longer than necessary, or at least, compared to a digital catalogue.
Digital catalogues have countless benefits over online stores. That is why we decided to list some of them so you can be prepared to choose the best option between store or digital catalogue.
1) Speed of availability of products and services
2) Cost optimization
3) Free of charge some elements
4) Connection to WhatsApp
5) Simplicity in sharing on social media
6) Simplicity in customization without using codes
Digital catalogues have several advantages compared to traditional online stores; however, this depends on personal needs. In fact, if you want a small shop with few products offered or if you own a start-up, we strongly recommend using virtual catalogues precisely because of their ease of use, their extremely rapid distribution and easier access to services.
Stores are generally much more complicated to set up, design and advertise.
Callbell Shop presents itself as a platform developed with the sole objective of managing and resolving all doubts and requests of your online business, having the right space to showcase your products and services, increasing their visibility and achieving the long-awaited success and deserved.
This platform can be used by all 3 types of WhatsApp accounts: personal, business and WhatsApp API. In addition to this, in case you do not have a digital catalogue, creating it will only take 10 minutes, publishing up to 500 products or services you offer, having the possibility to check the history of all orders, customizing the design of your activities, creating variations for products, easily connecting social networks such as Facebook Business Manager and much more.
Callbell Shop presents many features that allow entrepreneurs to increase their earnings, having the possibility of adding more than 500 products and connecting everything to Facebook Business Manager so as to insert the newly created catalogue on your Facebook page, just as Callbell Shop can connect to WhatsApp, by allowing you to receive orders directly within chats and much more.
The greatest advantage presented by Callbell Shop is that it is totally free and extremely easy to understand. Creating an online store will really be a piece of cake.
About the author: Hello! I am Alan and I am the marketing manager at Callbell, the first communication platform designed to help sales and support teams to collaborate and communicate with customers through direct messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and Instagram Direct