How to turn your PDFs into shoppable catalogs and automate the process

Learn how to revolutionize your sales and marketing operations by converting static PDF catalogs into dynamic, shoppable experiences.

Overview

Static PDF catalogs can lead to missed revenue opportunities and operational inefficiencies. With Flipsnack’s shoppable catalog automation, you can transform traditional publications into dynamic sales channels—allowing customers to browse, interact with, and purchase products directly from your catalog.

Table of contents 

Create your CSV/Spreadsheet 

Upload your data

Add products to the PDF 

Next steps 

Key benefits 

• Keep product listings accurate without manual edits.
• Let customers browse and buy directly from the catalog.
• Easily manage large catalogs without redesigning layouts.
• Automate and streamline catalog creation.

Use cases

Retail Companies 

A retailer displays digital catalogs in-store. Customers browse, add products to a wishlist, and request more details. A store associate then creates a personalized catalog showcasing only the requested products and sends it to the customer. The customer finalizes their selection, adds items to a wishlist, and submits the order—streamlining the shopping experience.

B2B Wholesale & Distributors

A wholesale company automates price lists and product catalogs, allowing buyers to filter through different product variants (e.g., sizes, materials) directly from the catalog. Instead of sending multiple PDFs for different configurations, the distributor updates product data dynamically via a spreadsheet.

E-Commerce Brands

An online seller converts static PDFs into interactive shoppable catalogs, integrating shopping buttons and product variations directly from a spreadsheet. Customers can explore options, compare variants, and add items to their cart without navigating away.

Schedule a consultation with our product experts for personalized assistance.

Step-by-step guide 

Find out how to do it in this video as well: 

Step 1. Create your CSV/Spreadsheet 

You can add all the information about your products in a Google Spreadsheet or create your CSV file in Excel or a similar program. You will need a column for each element you want to automate (SKU, name, imagine, etc)

If you don’t have a product feed yet, you can easily download and customize one of our pre-made templates to include the necessary information. 

We have two temples, and the differences between the two are:

• Simple Product Feed: Designed for products without variations. It's straightforward and ideal for simpler inventories.
• Variant-Rich Product Feed: This feed includes detailed attributes such as color, size, material, and more—perfect for products with multiple variations.

Choose the Variant-Rich Product Feed template. 

Your spreadsheet will look like this after importing it in Google Sheets: 

Now, you can delete the columns you don’t need and customize the look and feel of buttons and product areas, including styling for colors, transparency, and button text to match your brand.

If you don’t want to display the discounted price or other types of information, you can simply omit them from the CSV file.

You can check out more information about Variant-Rich Product Feed at our help center or contact us on live chat. 

Step 2: Upload your data

On the main dashboard, go to Automation, on the bottom left side, click on Import feed.

Now either click on the Upload CSV file or Google Drive. 

After you click, the preferred option, you will have the option to download our pre-mapped templates, if you download them you will get the Simple Product Feed and Variant-Rich Product Feed in the same folder.

For this example, I will connect to my Google Drive, because it will be easier to update it later on if I make any changes to my spreadsheet if needed. 

Click on the Connect Google Drive. You will have to log in to your account. From your account, you can pick your product feed and wait until it's getting imported. 

After the upload is complete, the mapping modal will open, called Set unique ID, allowing you to connect your file with our platform.

If your columns have the same names as those in the mapping modal and also in the demo template, they will be mapped automatically.

If not, for example, if you have "Title" instead of "Name," you will need to map it manually so it can make the connection between your feed and our platform. 

After you make sure, that the feed columns are properly mapped, click on Save Changes. 

Step 3: Add products to the PDF 

Then, go back to the Home page, and from Flipbooks, choose the catalog in which you want to add the products from the spreadsheet and click on the Edit button, on the left side of the flipbook card.

In my case, I uploaded a PDF catalog, but you can start one from scratch in Flipsnack and have the flexibility to make your template. 

After that, on the left-hand side, you will see the Automation section with a list of all the products you've added to your spreadsheet. Drag and drop the product onto the page, it will appear as an area, but you can customize it to your liking, the size, or the Opacity from the upper right side.

Please click the Preview button in the upper right corner to test if it worked properly.

If you customize your area and you're satisfied with the result, duplicate it so you don’t need to customize for each product. You can use Ctrl+D on Windows or Cmd+D on Mac. A duplicated area will already be connected to the feed. 

Once the area element is duplicated, you can simply move it over an item on the catalog and drag and drop the corresponding product from the Automation tab. You can then go ahead and repeat this process as much as you need to.

Filter by used or unused products in catalogs

You can easily filter products to see which ones are already used in your catalog in the Automation tab and which ones are not. This is especially helpful if you're unsure which products you've already added

Step 4: Add a shopping button

If you want to add a product with a shopping button that you set up from the spreadsheet, simply drag and drop it onto the page as well. 

Then, click on the Preview button in the left upper corner and see how your area and shop buttons look. 

Next steps

Useful resources 

Take your product catalog strategy to the next level with  best practices to improve your processes: 

• Prepare your spreadsheet for Flipsnack automation
• Automation for product variants 
• How to create a product catalog using the Product Catalog Generator
• How to use synchronization for Automation in Flipsnack
• How to automate multimedia elements in your digital publications
• How to create product catalogs from scratch using a product feed
• How to turn your PDFs into shoppable catalogs and automate the process

• How to prepare your datasheets for automation

Need expert support? 

Our team is here to help. Connect with our team experts or message us via the in-app chat for personalized assistance.