News
Mass retailing and mail order: PageOnDemand.com injects a winning formula into corporate sales and marketing strategies
Paris, 16. September – Das 2006 gegründete Unternehmen PageOnDemand.com bietet den Unternehmen der Massendistribution und des Versandverkaufs einen einmaligen, wettbewerbsfähigen Service zur Erstellung ihrer Druckkataloge, aber auch zur Abwandlung im Internet und auf allen mobilen Trägern. PageOnDemand.com ist heute ein unumgänglicher Akteur in der Welt der Multichannel-Lösungen.
➢ Key challenges in the retailing and mail order sector
Today, when having to deal with increasingly demanding and temperamental clients, multichannel distribution stands out as a surefire strategic approach for companies.
Multiplying the distribution channels in play allows companies to tinker with the specificities of each channel: the complete product line presented in a printed catalogue, ease of access to information at any time via Internet or a cell phone, direct contact with the product plus seller’s advice inside a store, etc.
The consumer needs to feel special and wants to be kept informed by a retailer that a given product or service is now on the market, that its price has dropped or that a sale is being held: all should be configured to accompany the consumer in his quest for information.
By enhancing the modes of contact with the customer, multichannel distribution constitutes a real springboard for growth that companies must now incorporate into their sales and marketing strategies.
A multichannel approach means more than adapting a message to a particular means of transmission. This approach entails differentiating the message depending on the recipient’s profile and thus knowing how to manage content produced in all its facets: type of target, language, product segmentation, type of sales promotion, etc.
PageOnDemand.com proposes a bold and innovative concept that allows companies to confront these complex issues while limiting the constraints encountered.
The goal consists of streamlining the paper catalogue production in a way that reduces costs and offers companies the opportunity to deploy their content on the Web as well as all mobile devices with minimal additional investment.
➢ Innovative and competitive multichannel solutions
- PAGE-ON-DEMAND
The response provided by PageOnDemand.com is the PAGE-ON-DEMAND collaborative platform.
This Web 2.0 platform is intended for advertisers, catalogue designers, prepress agencies and the like, regardless of catalogue size (from small posters to catalogues containing thousands of pages) and type (promotional, technical, travel, industrial, flyers, guides, brochures, etc.).
All actors involved in catalogue production use PAGE-ON-DEMAND: product retail managers, marketing firms, catalogue managers, designers, editors, layout artists, printers, translators, Webmasters, etc.
PAGE-ON-DEMAND runs in SaaS mode: accessible via the Internet using a browser, the platform is immediately operational without requiring any upfront investment or installation. No technical competence is needed either; this zero-investment opportunity allows standardizing professional processes and rapidly disseminating catalogues in all languages and on all types of media.
Content exchange is fully secure and the resultant gain in profitability from marketing operations is ensured through shorter schedules and lower costs for catalogue production.
This model is indeed unique: professionals only pay for actual use and are billed a fixed price per catalogue page produced. The platform has been adopted by some leading retailers like the Carrefour Group, Socoda, Orange, Codes Rousseau and Belambra, as well as by many advertising agencies including Euro RSCG 360, Mundocom and Sell Marketing.
Within a span of barely 4 years, PAGE-ON-DEMAND has won over more than 2,000 users and has contributed to the creation of 3,600 catalogues via its PAGE-ON-DEMAND platform.
- PageEX™
Since the multichannel formula has become part and parcel of the sales and marketing strategy adopted by advertisers, PageOnDemand.com launched PageEX to ensure that e-catalogues (i.e. a Web version of the printed catalogue) are more than the paper catalogue posted online.
Enhanced by a multitude of functionalities, relative to searches, browsing and a “shopping list” (or cart), the PageEX e-catalogue works as a standalone micro-site, which cannot be distinguished from traditional online retailing sites.
More intuitively laid out than a regular e-commerce site, given that the standard codes of the paper catalogue have been incorporated, the PageEX e-catalogue makes it possible to reach a wider audience and build a clientele among those relative inexperienced in online shopping.
Since promotional items and offers can be highlighted in a PageEX e-catalogue, the Web user is able to browse the various e-catalogues of a given advertiser, searching by keyword or cross-category selection (price, article).
By clicking on the product image, the Web user is directly routed to the page or pages of interest.
Close-up images, notes, access to product fact sheets, order forms and two-way links with the e-commerce site… all the tools are now available to provide a maximum amount of information to the Web user and accompany the purchase decision.
- A promising outlook for m-commerce
In June 2010, PageOnDemand.com launched a PageEX application for both iPhone and iPad.
This PageEX advance allows industrializing the step of e-catalogue implementation onto new mobile devices.
The process involved is also fully automated and requires no technical intervention whatsoever. The applications on iPhone and iPad feature the same functionalities as Website use.
➢ SaaS mode for greater speed, availability and security
The SaaS mode is a novel concept that has revolutionized the use of software. It has gained popularity in the corporate world as an attractive and highly efficient alternative to internal applications.
This mode stands out for its availability; it can be up and running within a few days, enabling companies to quickly access an operational solution.
Furthermore, by requiring absolutely no in-house resources or technical competence, SaaS makes it possible for project colleagues to perform their functions without delay independently of computer services staff. Information is immediately available to all actors, and every level of the company has a complete and accurate picture of activity progress in real time.
The PAGE-ON-DEMAND platform posts an availability rate of 99.97%. This kind of service is very difficult to reach for a company’s internal operations, and moreover a rate like this very often necessitates significant additional costs.
PAGE-ON-DEMAND also offers very fast turnaround thanks to an operational customer service, which is not always included with in-house applications.
