The Product Catalog Generator simplifies the creation of professional catalogs. It enables organizations to scale their content production efficiently while significantly reducing time-to-market and resource allocation.
Overview
Our solution helps your organization improve the catalog creation, reducing the process from weeks to minutes while ensuring real-time product information accuracy. It also maintains brand consistency across all digital catalogs.
Table of contents
Choose a page layout to display product information
Map your product feed to Flipsnack
Customize your product catalog
Next steps for automating your catalog creation process
Key Benefits
- Faster catalog production – Automate catalog creation and updates, reducing manual work.
- Consistent branding – Maintain brand identity across all catalogs with pre-designed templates.
- Scalability – Easily generate catalogs for large product inventories without starting from scratch.
- Seamless data integration – Automatically sync product details, prices, and images from a feed.
- Customization & interactivity – Enhance catalogs with videos, links, and shoppable buttons.
Use Cases
E-Commerce & Retail
Retailers can create faster interactive product catalogs with big product portfolios, for online or in-store browsing. Customers can explore product details, compare options, and make purchase decisions directly from a digital catalog.
B2B Sales & Wholesale
Sales teams can automate bulk product catalogs, ensuring real-time pricing and inventory updates for distributors and business buyers.
Franchises & Multi-Location Businesses
Multi-location businesses can generate catalogs per region or store, adjusting product availability and pricing dynamically.
Requirements:
- Plan: Enterprise
- Ideal for company size: Mid-market and Enterprise
- Product data feed template
If you have a custom template, here’s a list of Flipsnack elements you can use with the Catalog Generator by adding them to your feed:
Step-by-step guide
1. Prepare your product feed
To use this feature, you need to organize your product information in a program like Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or Pages. However, you can only connect your data in Flipsnack using Google Sheets, a CSV file, or a .xlsx (Microsoft Excel) file.
Important: The catalog generator currently works in two ways:
1. Start from a pre-made example of feed by downloading the templates we made for you, and change the existing products with your own.
2. Import your own CSV files and map the columns as needed (we will explain mapping later on in this article), making the process more flexible if you already have your product data in Google Sheets, a CSV file, or a .xlsx (Microsoft Excel) file
If you decided to download our templates, make sure your product data includes important details like:
- SKU (mandatory)
- Name
- Description
- Product Image URL
- Price
- Currency
- Website.Button.Label
- Website.Link
Tip: Schedule a consultation with our product expert for personalized assistance regarding Catalog Generator.
2. Import your product feed
Note: What is a feed?
A feed is a structured data set, typically from your CSV file or Google Sheet. It works like a spreadsheet that holds your product details, which Flipsnack uses to populate your catalog automatically, based on the column names you have.
From the main dashboard, click on the Create button in the top right corner, then select Product Catalog.
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Then, a pop-up will appear to import your product feed, where you will have three options:
1. Google Drive: Connect to your Google Drive account and then select the Google Sheets that has your product data.Note: If you have products that need frequent updates, we recommend using Google Sheets. For example, if you manage an inventory of seasonal items that change frequently, using Google Sheets makes the update process easier, making sure all information remains accurate and current.
2. Upload CSV or XLSX: Import a .csv or .xlsx file from your computer.
3. Use existing feed: select from your existing product feeds. → This feature is available only on the Enterprise plan.
Important: If you try to create a catalog with an already existing feed, make sure that the feed is updated. If you made some changes in the feed, you have to sync/replace it in the Automation Page; if not, we will use the old version of the
Click the Download template button to use our ready-made CSV template to help you prepare your product feed.
Important: The maximum number of products allowed in a catalog is 2.000. If your catalog exceeds this limit, a warning will appear in the Design Studio, informing you that only the first 2000 products will be added to the flipbook.
3. Select a page layout template
Once your product data is imported, the Product Catalog Generator will show 6 different types of product layout templates that you can use, each with unique layouts and design elements.
Note: If the available layouts don’t fully meet your needs, our in-house design team can create custom-branded Catalog Generator templates made for your business. This service ensures a consistent, professional look across all your catalogs, but also saves your team valuable time by letting our experts handle the setup for you. Under templates, click Get custom template, fill out the form, and our team will assist you in designing the perfect template for your business.
6 page layout templates for Catalog Generator
We’re providing these details so you can correctly name your columns (using the same structure we use) or verify that the auto-mapping feature has matched your columns properly with ours. This way, you’ll also know exactly which product information is displayed in each of the 6 page layout templates.
Note: The templates display different sets of information and are currently generated in A4 format only.
1. Product Catalog with 4 Page Layout
- Name
- Description
- Product.ImageURL
- Price
- Currency
- Shop button
Note: Templates that include a shopping list button, like this one, are ideal for showcasing and selling products with multiple variations, such as different sizes, colors, or styles. You can use a product feed with variants.
2. 7 Products Structured Page Layout
This template shows 7 products with a detailed structure, including:
- SKU
- Name
- Description
- Website.Button.Label
- Price
- Discount Price
- Currency
3. 3 Products Clean Page Layout
- Name
- Description
- Product.ImageURL
- Price
- Currency
4. 2 Products Text-Rich Page Layout
This layout is designed for 2 products with additional text elements:
- Name
- Description
- Product.ImageURL
- Price
- Currency
- Shop button
Note: Here, the difference is that the information (name, price, etc.) is also linked to the shopping list button, not just to the text element and shape. For this template, you can also use our product feed with variants; learn from here how you set it up.
5. 4 Product Page Layout with External Buttons
A layout for 4 products, featuring actionable links:
- Name
- Description
- Product.ImageURL
- Website.Button.Label (text that appears on the page, styled as a blue link)
- Website.Link (the URL the button links to)
5. 6 Product Page Layout with External Buttons
A layout for 6 products, featuring actionable links:
- SKU
- Name
- Description
- Product.ImageURL
- Shop button (the product information is linked to the shopping list button)
4. Map your product feed to Flipsnack
After you pick the template, the mapping modal will open, called Map feed content, allowing you to connect your feed with our platform.
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The mapping modal now uses AI mapping. If your column headers differ slightly from the template (for example, “Product Title” instead of “Name”), Flipsnack will detect and match them automatically. Make sure you have a valid column with SKU. If needed, adjust it manually by selecting the correct option from the dropdown menu, and then confirm.
5. Generate product catalog
After that, it will automatically create a catalog based on the template. Wait a few seconds while the catalog is generated, then review it to ensure all information is accurate.
Note: If you've made changes to your product feed, you can use the auto-sync buttons for updates.
Use the Preview button in the upper right corner to see how your catalog looks. Once you’re satisfied, share the catalog link with your audience.
6. Customize your catalog
If you'd like, you can add front and back covers to reflect your brand. You can also choose from our existing templates or create your own directly in Flipsnack - including your logos and brand elements.
To take it a step further, you can improve your catalog by adding interactive elements like videos, links, and more to make it more engaging for your audience and boost sales.
Tip: You can learn more about improving your digital catalog by checking out our Academy lessons.
Help us improve this feature to be more amazing and valuable. Share your feedback with us.
Next Steps
Explore more resources:
- Prepare your feed for Flipsnack automation
- Automation for product variants
- How to use synchronization for Automation in Flipsnack
- 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 automate multimedia elements in your digital publications
Our team is here to help. Connect with our team experts or message us via the in-app chat for personalized assistance.