Why is this important?

Being able to easily load product information into our system is the first step to unlocking the benefits of Trustana Product Master.

The majority of companies in the trade & commerce industry have product information (read: descriptions, translations, photos, certifications, shipping specifications, etc) scattered across multiple files, flash drives or even stakeholders within an organisation; therefore, bringing that information together and loading it into a single account sets a strong data foundation.

We make sure this effort pays off, since keeping the information up-to-date then becomes a piece of cake!

Who is this important for?

Brand Owners, Import Distributors, Retailers

What are the problems we solve?

Flexible Data Model:

Our system is flexible, enabling our customers to show and store the various types of data (read: fields) they currently have. Adding fields, or attributes, to the account is a straightforward process which can be done before or after the initial product upload. Fields can be string, currency, numeric, dropdown lists and date formats.
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For example, food and beverage products may require fields like expiry dates and ingredients, while cosmetic products may require colour codes and suggested skin tones.

​Product Options:

Similar to being able to store all of the existing information on a certain product, customers need to manage how products are related to each other. We refer to them as variants. Variant Products are versions of the same product that have differences in ways meant to cater to various end-user needs. By storing the relationship between the products, customers can manage the product life cycle easier across all variants of a product.
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For example, lipstick comes in many colours, and potato chips come in many flavours.

​Inter-Departmental Collaboration:

In medium to large organisations, multiple teams are responsible for different data points of the same product. Marketing may take care of images, compliance of certifications, operations of shipping information, and sales on pricing. The complexity of having information up to date in a single location increases when organisations cross the 100 SKU mark, and becomes a real nightmare above 250 SKUs. One-man teams can no longer keep up, and collaboration is mandatory.
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By inviting members to the organisation and controlling their access rights, our customers can increase productivity, collaboration and data availability for those who need the information the most: commercial teams trying to close sales and answering buyer questions.
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For example: Sales support will make sure all products have good product descriptions and at least 2 images, while operations teams will make sure inventory levels are updated, and compliance teams add organic or halal certifications to a specific product.

​Multi-Language User Interface:

We understand international trade is often handled in English. However local teams or local transactions may not always prefer English. Our E-Catalog allows your potential buyers to change the interface language to any of 5 languages (English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and Thai).

Although the interface (labels, columns, buttons, etc) will be translated, product information entered will remain in the language inputted. However, customers may choose to use any language when entering their information into the system.
Customers can also add text in multiple languages; for example, a product description in English can followed by Chinese. This will be displayed accordingly in the E-Catalog.

Why is this important?

The E-Catalog is a tool designed for sales enablement and collaboration with internal or external customers, or even potential customers.

It is not just a catalog containing basic information, but a central repository of your product information accessible online to those who receive the link.
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In the event the E-Catalog is shared with potential buyers by your sales team, it is essential to make sure they have a good impression of your organisation, your team, your certifications, and the brands you own or represent.

This is an important part of relationship building, and the reason why most product catalogs include a company introduction on the first pages - your Company Profile serves as a digital version of the same.
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Setting up your Company Profile is usually done during onboarding with little maintenance thereafter, unless there are major changes, such as a new trade certification.
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We are confident this setup effort will pay off in setting your company up for success!

Who is this important for?

Brand Owners, Import Distributors, Retailers

What are the problems we solve?

Communicate Your Company Story:

Your company profile can be a basis for establishing trust with potential trade partners. We recommend highlighting your company story by adding a description, your website URL, your logo, and other relevant photos (for example, the facilities, your team)
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Demonstrate Legitimacy:

An important part of introducing your company to a new buyer is to make sure they can verify your company’s legitimacy. Buyers across the globe may not be able to visit your office or factory in person, however they still need reassurance before starting a business relationship with a new supplier.

Your company profile allows you to showcase:

For example, Food and Beverage products may benefit from showcasing HACCP and halal certifications, while Cosmetic products may want to showcase organic or laboratory test certifications

Controlled Document Sharing:

We understand sometimes organisations want to restrict access to certain documents, or to selectively share full documents only upon request. By allowing our customers to choose which document they want to allow users to download, customers can maintain confidentiality while still showing on their company profile that the document exists and is available to share upon request.
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Why is this important?

The trade industry heavily relies on catalogs to introduce their company and showcase their products.

Trustana’s E-Catalog solution uses all the information on Trustana Product Master to provide a differentiated E-Catalog experience:

Note that traditional catalogs and Trustana’s E-Catalog are not mutually exclusive, we encourage our customers to use them together if that suits their business. For example, company websites and designed catalogs are not updated frequently. They can contain a link (or QR code) for each product on the corresponding E-Catalog page to offer complete and up-to-date product information and media.

Who is this important for?

Brand Owners, Export Distributors, Import Distributors, B2B Retailers

What are the problems we solve?

Effortless Update Process:

Each and every time a product is updated in Trustana’s Product Information portal, the update takes effect immediately. A simple refresh of the E-Catalog page will display the latest information at that moment.
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​Repository of Product Information and Media:

The E-Catalog is updated instantly every time product information is saved in the portal. This means that collaborative work reflects changes instantly. Users with access to the E-Catalog will have the latest version of the information contained in the catalog. This leads to a straightforward process to stay up-to-date with product details, media files or even packaging changes. The user can now self-serve to double-check these details instead of having to ask questions internally (to other teams) or to their suppliers (buyer asking their sellers). Also, sharing media files usually involves file transfer applications since these often exceed the standard 10 MB data transfer capacity of emails. By uploading high-res images to the E-Catalog, users will be able to self-serve media files directly from there, and use them on their own marketing campaigns or sales materials. Say goodbye to low-res images!

Search and Discovery Made Easy:

Things get complex as volume increases. Discovering products in a catalog with 20 SKUs is simple compared to 500 SKUs, or even 5000 SKUs. The E-Catalog features a search bar that scans through product titles, SKUs and brand names.

Filters can be applied by category or subcategory, by country of origin, and in conjunction with the search bar, making the discovery process easy and focused on the user’s actual interest.

For example, a salesperson can narrow down a portfolio of 5000 SKUs to 50 SKUs by filtering only lipsticks from Korea and using colour as a search keyword.

Focused PDF Product Portfolio:

A traditional catalog has one main version, and usually contains hundreds of SKUs. However, sales teams often want to feature only a selection of products to their potential customers, instead of the full portfolio. These users may copy and paste information from the PDF into Powerpoint slides, to then print them and distribute them to the buyer.

With Trustana’s E-Catalog solution, sales teams can select specific products and add them to custom catalogs, removing the need to tediously copy and paste information.
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For example, a salesperson of Food and Beverage products is meeting a retailer interested in frozen dumplings. The salesperson can shortlist the products and create a custom catalog only containing what is needed, share it or even print it.

​Targeted Catalogs:

Trustana E-Catalog allows internal users like the sales team, or even external customers, to browse, shortlist, and extract focused information only on the products of interest, instantly. This can happen either from the main catalog of products or by curating a custom catalog, focused for example on one category instead of the full range. The custom catalogs can be made for a variety of purposes, such as:

There is no limit on how many catalogs you can have, and all are always up-to-date. That means if you update a product that is part of multiple catalogs, all of the catalogs will refresh with the latest information.

Easy to Share:

Traditional catalogs are shared physically, while their digital versions need to be shared over file transfer applications (large files, heavy images). Even when shared by file transfer, loading a 100 MB PDF can make even modern computers or phones sluggish. Hence, users must compromise on the level of detail contained in the catalog, the number of pictures for each product, and the overall quality of the pictures - just to make it shareable.

With Trustana E-Catalog, sharing is copying a link, or downloading a QR code to paste on printed media (brochure, flyer, banner, stand, etc.). Users will instantly access the latest version of the information but also the highest quality uploaded, no matter the megabytes, or gigabytes, of storage used.

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Offline to Online:

QR code technology has been widely used to bring users from offline to online. For example, wallet payments often use QR codes, allowing users to scan the merchant's code, and transfer that merchant money as payment.

Trustana’s E-Catalog has the option to share by QR code, where the code is automatically generated with the organisation's logo, for the specific page opened.

Downloaded PDF catalogs automatically add QR codes to allow receivers of the catalogs to have access to the latest version of the product information online, if required.

For example, a retail store buying products from a distributor can receive a printed copy of the catalog, and if they see images they could reuse in the marketing campaigns, they can simply scan the QR code, access the product page and download the images by themselves.
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Enquiry Funnel:

All E-Catalogs, including the General Catalog or any custom catalog, have Enquiry buttons at the bottom of the screen and the top, enabling viewers to send an enquiry. The form is optimised for potential buyers, taking into consideration the needs of international trade (for example, incoterm requirements).

The enquiry form is an easy way to capture interest from a potential buyer, and get the conversation started.

Multi-Language User Interface:

We understand international trade is often handled in English. However local teams or local transactions may not always prefer English. Our E-Catalog allows your potential buyers to change the interface language to any of 5 languages (English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and Thai).

Product information entered will not be translated, only the interface (labels, columns, buttons, etc). However, our customers may choose to use any language to enter their information into the system.
Customers can also add text in multiple languages, for example, a product description in English followed by Chinese (Simplified). Then this will be displayed accordingly on E-Catalog.

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Paperless

Convenient and environmentally friendly. Sales teams do not need to keep printing copies of catalogs to distribute to their potential or existing buyers. At the same time, if printing is necessary, the ability to shortlist products before printing the PDF copy keeps the impact to the minimum.

Traditional countries still prefer hardcopies, while more sustainable-aware economies embrace the reduced impact on the environment and reduced effort to transport physical copies with them.