What is a general catalogue?

A general catalogue

An essential feature of our ERP solution, the general catalogue brings together all the items created and listed in your database. It is your main product management tool.

To help you understand it better, here are its main functions: 

Centralisation of product data

The general catalogue acts as a central library where all the information relating to the products offered by the company is stored. This includes descriptions, technical specifications, prices, images, etc…

Organisation and classification 

It makes it very easy to organise products into categories and sub-categories. This organisation has a number of advantages: 

• it makes it easier to find and navigate through the various items;
• it provides sales statistics for a particular category of items;
• you can define a common field for a group of items, so you don’t have to define each item individually;
• you can offer promotions on certain categories or sub-categories of items with just a few clicks.

Updates and changes

The general catalogue allows you to update and modify product information centrally. Any changes made are immediately implemented throughout the system, ensuring data consistency and accuracy.

Setting up promotions

Thanks to the catalogue in our ERP solution, you can offer promotions and manage them easily without any risk of error. You can even offer them for a particular category of item or for a certain period of time, for example. 

Creating item associations

Thanks to our management software, you can establish connections between certain items in your catalogue. By associating complementary products or services, the selection of one automatically leads to the suggestion of the other. This enables your sales staff to cross-sell seamlessly when interacting with a customer. 

Differences with the customer catalogue

A customer catalogue is a subset of the general catalogue. Its main function is to provide a partial, personalised view of the general catalogue, focusing only on the items you wish to display. 

This type of catalogue can be built in two different ways: 

The automatic catalogue: this takes the basics of the general catalogue, including its categories and items. It offers the possibility of extracting a specific part of the general catalogue according to predefined criteria. This automated approach simplifies the process of selecting items for inclusion in the customer catalogue. 

Manual catalogue: unlike the previous option, this catalogue can be built from an empty tree structure, completely independent of the general catalogue. You have total freedom to select and prioritise items according to your needs and preferences.

The ability to create customer catalogues is of great importance if you want to customise your product offerings for specific customers or particular sales channels. 

It allows you to define a selection of items to be sent to an e-commerce site or made available for sale to a given customer, to create web exclusives, a BtoB catalogue, etc.

The flexibility and adaptability offered by the customer catalogue make it easier to implement targeted sales strategies and manage your customer relations effectively. 

Conclusion

The general catalogue is therefore the central base that brings together all your product data. Thanks to its functionalities, it helps you to boost your activity on the web or in your shop. 

Customer catalogues offer considerable scope for customisation. Whether you use an automatic or manual catalogue, you have the flexibility you need to adapt your offers and sales strategies. 

The complementary nature of the general catalogue and customer catalogues means you can optimise your product management, respond effectively to the specific needs of your customers and implement targeted, high-performance sales strategies. 

With our ERP solution, managing your catalogue becomes an asset for your company!