Catalogues are collections of product information that we use to organise our products for accurate online product promotion and sales. Generally, each catalogue is independent of the other. As a result, you are more likely to have numerous product catalogues to answer for all your requirements. This helps eCommerce platforms and search engines push business’s products accurately to customers online.
If this is how to organise tangible products for online sales and marketing, then how do you organise non-tangible products? For businesses that mainly sell services, software, subscriptions, and other non-tangible products, this is an important question to ask. The answer, however, is found on Digitrade’s Magento platform.
Digitrade’s eCommerce Solution allows you to not only create Product Catalogues, but also Virtual Product Catalogues for non-tangible products.
What differentiates Virtual Product Catalogues from Product Catalogues
With normal Product Catalogues, you need to give particular details about the product you are selling, so customers clearly know what you are offering and have an easier time deciding whether to purchase it. For instance, the colour, size, material, and even style of a product is information customers want to know when scouting products online. Something else online customers want to know are the delivery and shipping conditions of the product they are buying.
In contrast, Virtual Catalogues do not require all those details to be added to them, as they do not have those attributes. Virtual products are intangible, so they do not have tangible qualities, like size and colour. Thus, they are not given a Weight field when you create a Catalogue for them on an eCommerce platform. Similarly, they also do not have delivery/shipping options, as Virtual Product purchases are instantaneous. This means your business does not need to deliver them to customers.
How to create Virtual Product Catalogues
As previously stated, Digitrade’s Magento eCommerce platform enables you to create both Product Catalogues and Virtual Product Catalogues. To learn more on how Product Catalogues are made, look here. However, to learn how to create Virtual Product Catalogues in six steps, look no further. To list, the steps are as follows:
- Select product type
- Choose a product attribute set
- Fill in required fields
- Complete basic settings
- Fill in product information
- Publish product
Step 1: Select product type
To start creating a Virtual Catalogue, you need to first go to Digitrade’s Magento dashboard, find Catalogue on the Admin sidebar, and select Products. This, thus, shows the products existing in your Catalogues, as well as an option to Add Product. Click on the drop-down list on Add Product and select Virtual Product.
Step 2: Choose a product template/attribute set
The above step will open the New Product page, where you can choose the attribute set you want your Virtual Product to follow. You can do this by clicking on the Attribute Set drop-down menu and either choose the attribute set you want from the list or search it by name.
Step 3: Fill in required fields
At this point, you need to fill in some compulsory information about your Virtual Product. This information includes Product Name, SKU, and Price. SKU, specifically needs you to either accept its default option that correlates with the Product Name given, or enter a different SKU.
Follow this by setting the Enable Product function to No, then click Save. This action will prompt the Store View function, which is what you use to choose where the Virtual Product is available.
Step 4: Complete basic settings
Once done with the above, you need to configure the basic settings for the Virtual Product. At this step, you set the product’s Tax Class, specify the Quantity of Virtual Products you currently have available, and assign Categories accordingly. Moreover, merchants using inventory management can Assign Sources and Manage Stock at this stage.
Step 5: Fill in product information
You are almost done with creating a Virtual Product, which will thus form part of your Virtual Catalogue. This part of the process allows you to give product information with greater detail and requires you to complete a number of sections that relate to your Virtual Product. To list these sections, they are as follows:
- Content
- Images and Videos
- SEO
- Up-sells and Cross-sells
- Customisable Options
- Products in websites
- Design
- Gift Options
- Downloadable information (making Virtual Products downloadable)
Step 6: Publish product
Finally, your Virtual Product is ready for publishing into your Catalogue. Thus, if you are happy with everything so far, set Enable Product to Yes. Once done, you can either Save and preview your Virtual Product on your online store, or you can save and close the product. To preview it in your store, select Customer View from the Admin drop-down menu.
Do this for all your Virtual Products, and there you have – a Virtual Catalogue you can use to promote your intangible products and increase your online sales.
Now that you know how to create Virtual Product Catalogues on Digitrade’s Magento eCommerce Solution, the next step is getting Digitrade. With this eCommerce Solution, you can manage different types of Catalogues, create feeds for multiple online platforms, and ease all your eCommerce processes. How can you say no to that? For more information, contact us here.