The expectation for centralized business processes and information has become universal, extending beyond B2C into B2B sectors. Professional buyers, constantly on the move, require seamless multi-device accessibility to manage orders effortlessly. 

As your business strives to meet these new requirements, the search for a unified commerce platform with catalog management software begins. From scaling your business to streamlining different discount logic, a catalog management software will help you customize your website, aligning with your ever-changing needs.

Short on Time? Here Are the Key Takeaways

After testing dozens of platforms, we’ve shortlisted the top 7 catalog management solutions: 

1. DJUST 
2. Salesforce 
3. SAP 
4. SANA
5. Pimcore
6. Pepperi 
7. Adobe Commerce (Magento)

We’ve reviewed each tool in detail, offering a glimpse into their standout features and use cases. Each of them boasts unique features beneficial for specific brand niches and industries. So let's dive in! 

What is Catalog Management Software?

Catalog management software stores, organizes, updates, and manages product information in a centralized repository. 

Businesses can use this software to create customized digital catalogs, track inventory, maintain consistent distribution of product data across multiple channels, and create a seamless shopping experience for buyers. 

For example, if you run a wholesale apparel distribution business, a catalog management system will record all your transactions with your retail partners. It will track which garments were ordered, shipped, and which items are available in your inventory. Further, you can customize it only to show specific product lines to different retailers based on their previous purchase history. 

If you have buyers interested in certain clothes, the website will suggest more of the same. This will make it easier for them to find what they need, and their chances of making a purchase will also increase.

Types of Catalog Management Software

We can categorize catalog management software into 5 different types. 

Here's a quick overview: 
‍

In terms of ease of maintenance, cost-efficiency, scalability, support, and catalog management, SaaS such as DJUST is the most viable option - for SMBs as well as enterprises.

Additionally, there are different ways to manage a catalog, such as via a PIM (Product Information Management), a commerce platform, or an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Which is more suitable for your business will depend upon various factors, such as the complexity of your catalog, the number of SKUs, etc., which we've discussed below!

‍

5 Benefits of Implementing Catalog Management Software

On the fence about going fully digital with your catalog management? 

According to Gartner's Future of Sales 2025 report, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels by 2025. This emphasizes the importance of digitizing business operations, including catalog management.

So, let's understand how a catalog tool fits into your workflow and the advantages you'll unlock with it:

1. Faster time-to-market: With streamlined data management and distribution, a catalog management system allows you to stick to your catalog creation deadlines and hit the market right on time. For instance, DJUST allows you to make substantial customizations with a single click to create a unique catalog in no time.
2. Omni-channel integration: You can combine all your sales channels, including your eCommerce site, marketplaces, and physical stores, into a single platform and offer a unified customer experience. As a result, your data and processes are consolidated and you save significant time in operations.
3. Opportunities to create dynamic catalogs: You should be able to automate actions with dynamic rules. With a platform like DJUST, you can manage multiple offers and select which products, variants, or categories to associate them with.
4. Superior end-user experience: A well-designed catalog management platform will let your customers modify their B2B shopping carts, place orders from anywhere, and even offer excellent after-sales support. Such purchasing experiences are key to building a loyal customer base.
5. Scalability: When your business expands into new markets or sales channels, the product catalog software scales with you. It supports large volumes of product data without any major additional investment in infrastructure. Additionally, it lets you keep your catalogs up to date by synchronizing data across all platforms.

How to Choose the Best Catalog Management Tool

Choosing the best catalog management software depends on various factors, such as:

• Internal information system: You must choose a tool that aligns and integrates well with your current systems (ERP, CRMs, etc.) to ensure a seamless data flow and efficiency.
• Complexity of your catalog: You need to determine whether your product catalog is fairly simple and straightforward, or complex. Based on that, you can choose a tool that aligns with your requirements. For instance - if your catalog includes numerous product variations, specifications, and attributes, you'll need a tool to handle the complexity without compromising performance.
• Final usage: What's the end-use of your catalog? Are you using it for internal purposes, customer-facing applications, or both? This will also influence the features and functionalities you need.

To help you out, there are a few key features your catalog management software must have:

• Frictionless customer experience: Look for a tool with an easy-to-use B2B customer portal. Your customers should be able to set up roles and permissions, track quotes, manage orders, and choose between multiple payment methods.
• Personalization: The tool must have ample room for B2B eCommerce catalog customizations, such as showing a specific product type or promotions to a targeted group or setting up volume-based pricing.
• Multiple language capabilities: If you operate from different locations worldwide, your tool should support multiple languages for smooth back-office operations.
• Unified store management: Whether you want to set up a single store catering to different locations and languages or multiple location-specific stores, you should be able to manage all types of operations from a single point of control from the backend.
• Swift navigation: Your customers must be able to navigate your catalog seamlessly. Find a tool that supports full-text search, auto-suggestions, auto-completion, and non-exact search. For example, if someone searches for “water bottles,” the navigation bar might show “copper water bottles” or suggest related products. 
• API-driven: Your catalog management tool should not limit you in any way. Look for a tool that lets you integrate with third-party applications easily so that you can further improve your catalog according to your requirements, including workflow validation. For instance, it should allow easy integration with your external systems, such as your ERP, PIM, and CRM, to have all data accessible and utilized within the catalog management software itself.

7 Best Catalog Management Software

When it comes to catalog management, you need a tool that goes beyond the basics. 

Keeping this in mind, we've picked these 7 tools that’ll fast-track your internal operations and enhance your customers’ experience:

1. DJUST

A headless eCommerce platform at heart, DJUST stands out for its powerful catalog management tool. We have an array of useful B2B eCommerce features in store to personalize the shopping experience for your customers, such as: 

• Related product recommendations: Display products commonly purchased together, containing similar descriptions, or belonging to a related collection. For example, if one purchases a pair of hard hats, we will suggest a pair of protective gloves, which are commonly purchased together. Another situation could be, suppose the repair piece for a car is out. You could offer a similar, generic brand that will still fit in the make and model but from a different manufacturer.
• Custom catalogs: In your B2B catalog, you may have certain products or prices that are available only for a specific customer base. Create separate views for individual customers to ensure they only see the products that meet their criteria. For example - let's suppose you have two sneaker resellers namely Reseller A and Reseller B. Both of them have different order volumes and locations. So they won't have access to the same product categories or features. For instance, Reseller A will have access to a children’s catalog while Reseller B will not. 
• Product bundles: Combine products into bundles and sell them at attractive prices. DJUST’s smart system counts each item in the bundle separately and calculates availability based on the item with the lowest stock. This approach helps you boost sales with enticing combos while keeping inventory management in check. So suppose you're a retailer selling gift baskets to businesses, and you want to give customers the option to choose 5 products from a list of 10 for their gift basket. Once they select 5 products, they'll be able to add the gifts to the cart.  

Besides personalization, our B2B commerce suite also comes in handy to iron out the kinks in your back-office operations: 

• Multi prices and offers: Manage thousands of offers at one go. You can associate them with the right products, variants, or customer segments with no risk of discrepancies. Let’s say you have a product in multiple colors. The red variant is priced at $5, and the blue variant is priced at $7, and you want to run a discount of 60% on the blue one. With this feature, you can do that without any issues.
• Identify missing information: The product page competition rate lets you quickly determine whether a product page is missing any information. 
• Dynamic catalog: Automatically trigger actions and update your catalog by setting dynamic rules. For example, if you sell products for construction site safety, you can create a "Construction Site Safety" catalog and automatically assign all related products to it using rule configuration.

With DJUST, managing product catalogs and publishing feels effortless. Be it a single store, a few hundred, or thousands of stores catering to different countries, languages, and currencies, DJUST centralizes everything into a single platform. 

2. Salesforce 

Salesforce offers a catalog management tool for both B2B and B2C as part of its comprehensive suite of CRM solutions. It comes with two catalog options — Sales and Service Process. The sales catalog helps manage products that you can directly sell to users. In contrast, the service catalog is designed to provide the services necessary to sell and maintain products and services. 

Salesforce’s integrated AI tool, Einstein, comes in handy to create personalized product descriptions. If you’re selling multiple variations of a similar product, you can group your product catalogs into catalog categories and subcategories. 

The platform lets you list both sellable and non-sellable products in your catalog. In case you want to restrict visibility, use qualification rules to define eligibility and availability criteria for different products and product categories. 

3. SAP 

SAP Commerce Cloud offers access to an embedded solution for managing products, content, and catalogs from a single point and publishing across channels. If you have to make frequent changes to a massive volume of products, this tool could be a good fit for your B2B store. 

It comes with an intuitive interface for easy edits. The built-in data validation and automated workflows enhance product content quality. You can perform bulk edits and mass uploads of product data to cut down manual busywork and be more efficient. 

Operating at multiple locations around the world? SAP supports multilingual catalogs for your global eCommerce site.

4. SANA 

SANA Commerce Cloud offers smart catalog automation to help your customers with accurate information and boost sales with buyer-specific B2B catalogs. 

It syncs your web data with inventory, making it seamless to create and manage complex product catalogs. When there are too many SKUs to deal with, but you have too little time at hand, set up automation to run repetitive data-entry tasks on auto-pilot. 

The tool integrates with your ERP, ensuring your customers can access up-to-date product information, tailored offers, and discounts. It also integrates with your PIM, so descriptions, specifications, images, attachments, manuals, certificates, and translations remain consistent across platforms. 

5. Pimcore

Pimcore’s product information management (PIM) system speeds up how you manage your product catalogs. You can create publish-ready catalogs for different touch points and enhance the omnichannel experience for your customer base. 

The tool helps you identify gaps or inaccuracies in product data. You can update them in bulk to maintain the quality and consistency of information. 

Pimcore's USP is high-quality product feeds. You can create an optimized product feed based on customer behavior and buying patterns and drive more sales with hyper-personalization. 

6. Pepperi 

As a B2B online catalog management tool, Pepperi allows you to upload unlimited SKUs. This is a great option if you're rapidly scaling up but don't want to hurt your bottom line with additional infrastructure expenses. 

It allows you to create product catalogs catering to different categories and currencies, curate buyer-specific catalogs, and offer multiple catalog views based on device size and orientation. 

Uploading product assets is very flexible—you can add up to 6 images, videos, and PDFs to offer complete information to the buyer. 

7. Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Adobe Commerce's catalog management tool is a powerful asset for businesses offering physical and digital products.

It simplifies the process of creating and publishing products, whether straightforward or complex. Create products with multiple options, swatches for color or style variations, and customizable bundles tailored to customer preferences. The platform also supports the creation of downloadable products for digital content like software or eBooks and virtual products for services and other intangible offerings.

You can establish category structures, change the URLs of your listings to improve search engine optimization and create product attributes to add additional information to your product catalog. 

The bottom line

To really grab the attention of B2B buyers and keep them coming back, you've got to step up your game. Generic catalogs are unlikely to resonate with your audience. You need personalized catalogs that speak directly to their needs and offer deals they can't resist.

Unified commerce is the future, and a platform like DJUST is what you need to implement it successfully. It takes care of the multiple moving pieces of a product catalog. At the same time, it speeds up operations, helps you scale faster, and allows you to deliver a consistent buying experience across devices and platforms.