Catalogs as an app

Sales or product catalogs are typically available either in print or online as a website. The printed version can be expensive in terms of printing, shipping, and subsequent product updates.

Online catalogs on a website are, as the name suggests, accessible online – meaning only with a working internet connection. Furthermore, people are easily distracted online, often clicking somewhere else and leaving the online catalog quite quickly – just like traditional online shopping.

If you want to avoid both problems, a digital catalog app is a good option. This example, which we created for FLGN TLT a few years ago, shows some great men's fashion.

You can "tap" your way through the various product images. If you tap the red shopping button at the bottom of the page, a website window opens, the so-called in-app browser. This in-app browser now contains the live web shop, exactly where you can purchase the product you've just seen.

What's special about this in-app browser: As you can see, there's no URL address bar at the top, as is common on the internet. All you can do on this website is purchase the product, complete the payment process and then tap "Done" (in the English version) or "Fertig" (in the German version). This means you can't browse away from this web shop. You can either complete the purchase in the web shop or exit the in-app browser without making a purchase. After that, you'll be back in the app – exactly where you entered the in-app browser. Great, right?

Digital catalog as an app: The advantages at a glance

• The user does not get lost on the Internet like on a regular website (thanks to the in-app browser mentioned above).

• Stronger customer loyalty through app icon on the user’s tablet/smartphone.

• Interactive and multimedia design of the app catalog (360° views, videos, sound, etc.).

• No printing costs.

• No shipping costs (as with a conventional print catalog).

• Updates to the catalog are not expensive to implement (e.g. adding new products).

• Great image boost.

• Accessible worldwide via Apple App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android).

• The app catalog also works offline (without internet) after the initial download.

• A great eye-catcher at trade fairs, events and showrooms.

• Push notifications (similar to SMS) can be sent to the app or user's mobile device to, for example, draw attention to new products. With a single swipe, the user is taken directly to the app. (This requires multiple catalogs to be included in the app.)