How to Organize Your Catalog: 10 Choices

When you are planning your catalog, you have many things to think about: What products should I feature? How much space should I devote to each product? And, the biggie: how should I organize my catalog? Let me present you with 10 choices for how to organize your catalog so you can move past this dilemma and get your catalog printing done in a snap.

1. By how the products will be used, or by function. If you have a catalog that features kitchen products, you can arrange them according to categories of use. You can put all of the cutting apparatuses in one section, utensils in another, pots and pans in another section, small appliances in another section and so on.

This makes it easy for the customer to find a product that solves his problem. He can turn to a section and compare products within that section. The downside to this method is that many kitchen products have multiple uses, which means you’ll either need to repeat them in different sections or use a lot of cross references.

2. By popularity. By putting your most popular products at the front of your catalog, the reader is sure to see your best of the best right off the bat. This keeps interest high. Less-popular products are dropped to the back of the catalog, where many readers probably won’t get to anyway.

The bad thing about this method is that it could confuse readers because they won’t know where to find what they’re looking for because they don’t know how the products rank in popularity.

3. By equipment type. Radio Shack’s catalogs are organized by equipment type: stereos together in one section, car radios in the next section, followed by DVD players, computers and so on. This a natural and logical scheme for companies that have multiple product lines.

The bad thing is if people are shopping for multiple products, like a home stereo system that includes a DVD player, speakers, television, etc., they have to look in different sections for the same brand. If you have products that are often bought grouped together, consider presenting them in those types of groups by brand name.

4. By price. If your customers tend to shop by savings, start with the cheapest products at the front of the catalog and work your way up. If you’re audience is upscale and look for quality over price, start your catalog with your highest-priced items and work your way down.

This works well for those whose customers look at the price tag before anything else.

5. By alphabetical order. If you can’t find an organizing system that works for you, you can simply list your products alphabetically. Make sure to include an index or table of contents in your catalog so people can easily look up the page number of the product they’re looking for.

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