For Ji Sport, a Danish B2B company, catalogs are more relevant than ever. And given that the marketing departments spend significant resources creating the PDF for print, it was a low-hanging fruit for Ji Sport to bring the format online. Then, distribute it on all channels to create demand and activate customers, while also optimizing the sales process – all at the same time.
1
Attract an audience
2
Engage and convert
3
Get benefits across the organisation
Ji Sport is a leading Scandinavian B2B sports equipment wholesaler.
Historically, JI Sport have effectively used printed catalogs to upsell to existing customers and create demand to attract new customers - but for years now, B2B sales has been changing.
The new digital direction in B2B
The digitalization of the past few years means that a larger part of the B2B customer journey has moved online.
However, according to Ji Sport, "the catalog format still excels with its curated content that takes customers on a journey through the entire product assortment.”
By taking your catalogs online, you can provide something in the B2B buying journey that other formats can't:
An online full-funnel B2B tool that facilitates both overview and inspiration, engagement and conversions.
Ji Sport's digital full-funnel B2B tool
If used correctly, digital catalogs can create full-funnel digital catalogs that drive demand, active customers and increase catalog ROI in B2B.
Ji Sport have been kind enough to share their blueprint on how to do it with you - including all the organisational benefits!
Attraction
To introduce customers and lead them to their broad range of products and inspire interest, the digital catalog is currently used in all top funnel awareness campaigns – from social media, newsletters and ads.
“Every time we include a digital catalog in our newsletter or SoMe posts, then there’s great engagement” - Anne-Cathrine Jørgensen, Sales and Marketing, Co-owner Ji Sport
Engagement
After attracting, it’s a matter of creating an engaging browsing experience.
When the prospective customer lands in the digital catalog, they can now on-demand…
Get more information about products
Watch product videos and view extra images
Click links and get additional information
And this fosters interest and understanding of the products, which can lead to upselling.
“iPaper help keep the customer in the digital catalog for longer time by enriching the experience with product images, videos, data sheets and so on. iPaper can create en bigger trust in the customers’ buying experience.” - Anne-Cathrine Jørgensen, Sales and Marketing, Co-owner Ji Sport
Conversion
If the prospective customer is interested in the products shown, they can either…
add them to a shopping list and request a quote from Ji Sport’s sales team
or add them to the shopping cart on the ecommerce website and checkout directly
And that creates either direct sales or better, more qualified leads:
“With the option for linking to direct purchasing, or for customers to requests a quote, sales have something to follow up on.” - Anne-Cathrine Jørgensen, Sales and Marketing, Co-owner Ji Sport
In this way, the customer can choose their preferred way of shopping.
B2B Sales benefits
General 1:1 Dialogues
Ji Sport use digital catalogs in 1:1 dialogues with customers, both to expand their perspectives on the product assortment, educate them on the benefits of the various products and guide them towards the best choices in each category.
Penetrating niche markets
JI Sport use iPaper’s Build-a-Flipbook feature to create special niche catalogs focusing only on a specific subset of JI Sport’s product assortment. This helps open new doors into niche markets, and provide hyper-relevant content for the prospective customers.
Personalized, relevant follow-ups
After each customer dialogue, the Build-a-flipbook feature allows the salesperson to reduce the digital catalogs into custom mini-versions for each customer. This makes the buying experience much more personal, curated and relevant.
“With this function we can tailor the digital catalogs to each customer's specific needs.” - Anne-Cathrine Jørgensen, Sales and Marketing, Co-owner Ji Sport
B2B Marketing benefits
Showing the best, most interesting product to the audience
The various tracking options in iPaper enables Ji Sport’s marketing team to retarget customers via tracking pixels, and identify the most popular products in their assortment.
This feedback enables them to select which products to highlight on their website, in newsletters and various other marketing channels, increasing the relevance of their campaigns.
“We’ll highlight those products that get the most attention in the digital catalog, in other channels to make our communication specific and increase the chances of a sale.” - Anne-Cathrine Jørgensen, Sales and Marketing, Co-owner Ji Sport
Efficiency and reduction of manual work
Ji Sport uses automation to place shopping links on all products, saving significant manual time each month. The platform is user-friendly, offering a smooth setup process and making it easy to adjust and tailor catalogs as needed.
5 key takeaways from JI Sport:
Consider how your e-commerce and digital catalog can complement each other.
Use interactive elements to boost customer engagement.
Identify relevant conversion points to turn interest into sales.
Simplify your follow-up process and make it more personalized.
Set up statistics and tracking in your digital catalog to present more relevant offers.
More strategies that will make your digital catalog effective
