So, you're ready to make your Flipbook into a fully shoppable experience! 🙌
It's time to set up shop (pun intended), and choose what checkout functionality works for your business.
In this article, we're going to explore how to add shop functionality to your catalog, from the Shop module to linking to your products.
You can find inspiration in looking at our examples here:
Shop Configuration
First option we're looking at is adding a shopping basket and shop functionality to your catalog.
The four primary checkout options are:
So which one is right for your business?
Setting up an email checkout is very simple, and has a ready made template, when you enable it. This can also be an option, if you don't have a ready-made webshop, and just wanna' get started!
This is often used by B2B cases, where the customer is requesting a quote from the seller, rather than checking out and paying at the same time. It's also seen in direct selling, where you wish to email the basket to a local re-seller.
With email checkout you can design a checkout form to collect the customer information you need to complete an order.
Shop integration
The sandbox way! The great thing about using the Shop Integration is, that you can make it work almost any way you want. We simply send the basket content data to you, and you decide what to do with it.
We often see this in B2C cases, where the seller wants the customers to checkout through their website. To make payment easy, and let their customers use the interface they know and are comfortable with.
The con to this compared to Email and WhatsApp is, that there is no ready template and requires development from your side, as we just send you the data.
Like the Email checkout, this is pretty much plug n' play with a ready made template. This checkout functionality was actually added by customer demand, as there are a lot of use-cases with iPaper being used as a sales tool in direct selling.
And in that use case; the customer being able to just text the products to their local re-seller is great and makes the shopping simple!
We've even had feedback from our customers saying, that before their customers would photograph hand-written notes to their resellers, and this has eased the transactions a lot.
Just like the Email, this can also be an option, if you don't have a ready-made webshop, and just wanna' get started!
Using the Shop as a wish list
Besides the primary checkout functions, another use-case is using the shop as a wish list! Instead of mailing the seller the products, they can share it with family and friends to keep as a wish list.
And so with the Email & WhatsApp checkout - and the secondary checkout option Email Share - your customers can easily share their wish lists.
Not surprisingly this is a popular feature with toy retailers around the Holidays :-)
Shopping without the Shop configuration?
Yes, there are more ways to drive customers to your product than the Shop!
Embed the catalog on your website and integrate it to your shopping basket
This way, your iPaper catalog is integrated with the basket on your website, so any product added to the basket in the catalog, is automatically added to the basket on your website! This is done using our JavaScript API, which can be found in our technical documentation.
Linking directly from your Flipbook to your products
Product Details View
This is only obtainable using our automation feature and delivering data containing image URLs for the product. Contact support@ipaper.io for more information.
With a Detailed Product View, you can present your product nicely with images and text in a frame. This can then link directly to the products webpage, or it can be used together with a Shop Configuration.
External link
This simply makes your icon open the products page on your website in a new window as an external link.
Popup frame:
Keep your visitors in your source of inspiration; your catalog - instead of sending them away to a new tab, where they might not come back from.
Works almost exactly like the External link, but instead of opening this in a new window, it opens your website in a frame on top of your catalog.
This makes it way easier for mobile users, as navigating tabs on a mobile device can be a challenge.
That was a lot to take in! There are a lot of options and ways to inspire your visitors! Hopefully you're now inspired to start making your catalog a shoppable experience :-)