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Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is CataDisc?

CataDisc is the first fully transactional CD catalog designed to provide companies with a way to integrate their online and offline sales efforts. CataDisc is the first digital catalog to have a fully integrated shopping cart1 right on the CD itself enabling your customer to shop even without an Internet connection.

Isn’t that already being done?

Digital catalogs have been around for a while, but in order for the customer to place an order, they had to have an Internet connection and connect to a website with shopping capability. This limits the overall effectiveness of the CD catalog and does not address the anxiety people have with purchasing online (since 2000 only 51% of online subscribers actually have ordered online, THAT’S 49% THAT DIDN’T!!). Last year a new record was set for personal information stolen from the internet. This is a real issue with many people still uncomfortable with online ordering. Identify theft and privacy intrusion are real problems. With CataDisc CD catalogs, shopping is done offline with no privacy intrusion.  The customer can fill the shopping cart and then choose to order online with "one click" with encryption of data or print the order with all personal information secured in a 2D barcode.
 

So how exactly are CataDisc CD catalogs different from other digital catalogs?

1.  CataDisc is the only CD catalog that allows the customer to shop completely offline without an Internet connection or browser software.

2.  CataDisc’s patent-pending shopping cart gives the customer four choices of order entry – it enables the customer to enter an order with “one click” to connect to the Internet or to print their order to mail or fax with all personal information encrypted and encoded in a 2D barcode.  If they want to place the order via telephone, the shopping cart is presented with your telephone number for order entry.

3.  CataDisc is the only CD catalog with the ability to encrypt and encode the customer’s personal data in a secure 2D barcode. This patented technology2 provides the customer with total privacy: 

  • No privacy intrusion by having “cookies” collected because shopping is done offline

  • Personal information is encrypted and secure when placing order over the Internet

  • Personal information is encrypted and encoded for total security in a patented 2D barcode when order is mailed or faxed.

1Patent Pending

2Patent #7,124,939


How do CataDisc CD catalogs provide total order entry accuracy for the vendor?

Because all order information is encoded and contained in our patented 2D barcode, when you receive an order by mail or fax from a CataDisc cd catalog, you simply “swipe” the bar code and the order is downloaded into your electronic system increasing productivity and providing 100% order accuracy. It eliminates the need to manually input the info, lowering labor costs. And the problem of illegible handwriting causing order errors is eliminated as well.

What do we need to “swipe” the barcode?

When we create a CataDisc cd catalog or CataStic flash memory catalog with bar coded order information, we provide the vendor with a barcode reader and a program for uploading and decrypting orders into their electronic system.

Do we have to have bar coding capability? What if we just want customers to enter orders into our system via the Internet?

Every CataDisc cd catalog is customized to the customer’s specific needs; if you want your customers to connect to your website—we can do that. If you want orders entered directly to your order entry system via your website, we can provide the interface needed. You can choose from our “menu” of features for your customized digital catalog.

We have a website—why do we need a CataDisc CD catalog?

  • CataDisc CD catalogs are the perfect integration tool between your paper catalog and your website.

  • CataDisc CD catalogs are interactive providing a means for your customer to place an order when looking at the catalog—unlike putting a paper catalog aside to order from later or being interrupted when ordering from a website that deletes the order after a period of time if there is no activity.  Even if the customer turns off their computer without completing an order and reboots, the order stays on the CataDisc and can be completed the next time the catalog is placed in the computer.

  • CataDisc CD catalogs can be a standalone sales channel - cd catalogs can provide a “video salesperson” talking about your products’ features and benefits with the cost of customer acquisition substantially less than a field sales force.

  • You can reach a much larger “audience” with CataDisc CD catalogs than with a sales force or telemarketing.
  • Unlike some websites, CataDisc technology addresses customers’ “privacy intrusion” concerns— they are secure from “cookies” while shopping and their personal information is kept totally secure when ordering.
  • CataDisc CD catalogs eliminate the need for customers to have to search for your website— eliminating the possibility that they also find your competitors.  It also eliminates the time and expense of constantly optimizing your website for good search engine positioning.

  • CataDisc CD catalogs enable you to stand out from the competition—Be a Leader!!!
     
  • Show prospective customers something they haven’t seen before—a catalog on CD will practically jump out of the mailbox!  A round catalog! Many marketers are also finding that for their business prospects, dimensional mail such as CDs can help them get past gatekeepers in the mail room and outer office. Once in a prospect's hands, a CataDisc cd catalog is destined to get noticed, opened, viewed and remembered.  The numbers bear it out -- recent Direct Marketing Association studies suggest that dimensional mail produced a 5.14% average response compared to a 3.25% average response rate for traditional direct mail.3

This sounds expensive, why not stick with our traditional paper catalog?

Believe it or not, this actually can be done at less than half the cost of what your current paper catalog is costing you, PLUS IT IS INTERACTIVE, SHOPPABLE AND MEASURABLE!

Catalogs are very limited in what they can do to sell your product, but with CataDisc CD catalogs you can talk to your customers, demonstrate your products in video, magnify the product to see detail, rotate the product to see it from different angles, enable customers to do product searches, and even up-sell and cross-sell add-on merchandise.

These abilities enhance the customer’s exposure to your products and make it more likely that orders will be larger on average; the shopping experience is a more interesting process. The flexibility and possibilities of this product are unprecedented.

CataDisc CD catalogs have yet another advantage over paper catalogs - Impulse Buying.   Businesses are using new technologies to enhance impulse buying so consumers can purchase their temptations whenever they want, before the urge passes.  When reading a paper catalog, how often have you turned down a page to something you want to order and then never get back to the catalog?  With CataDisc cd catalogs, your customers see the product and can hit "add to cart" immediately - there is no waiting to call, fill out the order form or find the website. And their purchase is secure!

Additionally, CD catalogs have a greater perceived value than paper catalogs but are actually less expensive to produce and mail, PLUS CataDisc is totally interactive.

Hold a paper catalog in one hand and a CD catalog in the other. Which is perceived to have more value? Of course it’s the CD. Statistically, this is one of the most powerful tactical tools known. When you look at the cost savings associated with production and shipping, along with the extremely high “look at” rate (90% of all CDs that are received are viewed4), it just makes good sense.


But we can do some of those things with our website.

The key word there is SOME. That’s also taking into consideration that only customers with broadband connections will be able to enjoy these interactive components and be willing to purchase online.

Remember a large number of  people still have a dial-up connection. With CataDisc CD catalogs, the need for connection speed is a thing of the past. They don’t even need an internet connection or browser; just a computer with a CD-ROM drive. Plus, if just selling over the internet is such a good idea, why then are more paper catalogs mailed every year? CataDisc takes the advantages of the internet and catalogs and combines them into one powerful tool.

How are CataDisc CD catalogs environmentally friendly?

Paper catalogs are increasingly coming under fire from environmental groups for using “virgin paper” and not recycled paper.  By using CataDisc CD catalogs, you save trees and prevent the extinction of native plant and animal species, the loss of which results in increases in greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change, increased soil erosion, drought and flooding. 

3Solar Communications

4Forrester Research