Catalogues are expensive to print and date quickly. When it is essential that customers have a current catalogue of your products at all times, an electronic solution is the answer.

How much more efficient and cost-effective would it not be for your customers to access the information online via your website and to simply e-mail you an online order. Your sales team will be able to refer prospective clients to the appropriate page on your online catalogue, immediately providing enquirers with the required information while increasing the team's productivity and sales, while simultaneously reducing costs.

A real advantage to this solution is that when you need to update your catalogue or revise your prices, you can do it in-house and your customers will have access to the latest information immediately.

Online price lists are often a major concern for businesses - in many industries access to pricelists provide competitors with an opportunity to undercut their opposition and subsequently entice clients to move their business to them. In another instance the business may have different pricing for different customers or categories of customers, and run the risk of alienating prospective clients by posting their standard, over-the-counter rates.

The most simplistic solution to this problem is to list your products and associated product codes on your website without any pricing. The customer can then browse your inventory and decide on the items they require prior to phoning you for pricing and availability.

Another common solution, used in those industries where pricing-espionage is not a concern, is to display the "base" prices on your website and having the customers apply the applicable discount percentages you agreed with them in advance.

The more sophisticated, recommended solution is to have a subscriber-base website where only registered subscribers (registration can be free) can access the prices via their unique user name and password. This will further enable you to have different price lists for different groups of customers.

This type of website is used as an aid to the sales and marketing effort, as well as being a business tool.