I'm spending some time brainstorming the next generation of product catalogs with a new platform partner
Moodstocks. These are just a few of my preliminary thoughts on the subject.
Using the
Mimeo Connect Cloud Print API you can print a dynamically generated product catalog in a magazine (saddle stitch) or perfect bound format. Products can be pulled directly from your live product catalog, used to generated a print catalog in PDF format, and sent to the Mimeo API for printing and mailing.kinlane-productions2kinlane-productions2
This type of
print on demand product catalog is an ideal way to efficiently print a product catalog that is always up to date, without large print runs and warehousing. Code can be embedded on web sites and partner sites that allow users to request a print version of a product catalog, and delivered the next day.
This type of print on demand product catalog is a move forward, but I think we can do better. Moodstocks pointed out that Mimeo provides the web to print link, and Moodstocks provides the print to web link. With Moodstocks API, all products included in a product catalog can also be added to a reference image catalog, that can be used in image recognition searches using their
image recognition API. All a user has to do is snap a picture of a product in the catalog with their mobile phone and they are immediately linked back to an online world of how-tos, tips, availabilities, coupons etc..
Using Mimeo you can make your e-commerce site immediately exportable to the physical world as a product catalog. Then using Moodstocks API you can provide an e-commerce mobile application that links these product catalogs in the physical world back to the wealth of real-time information available on the web.
We are still exploring the possibilities, but this seems to be the next generation of product catalogs that can bridge both the digital and physical worlds.
