Tips for Finding the Right Product Density for Your Catalog

PATIENT: "Doc, I don't know what to do about product density in our catalog. I'm getting pushed by one faction to lower it, and by another faction to increase it. How can I know what density is the best?"

CATALOG DOCTOR: "Product density is quite a science. What's right for one brand is wrong for another. Here are some guidelines that may help."

Is Higher Density Always Better?
Many catalogers think, "if you don't show it, it won't sell," and therefore show as many products as possible. There's some validity to that approach, but there are also complications.

Add More Pages? Or More Products Per Page?
By adding more pages you can leave per-page product density the same as you have it. But more pages cost more money. Adding more products per page to existing pages doesn't cost, at least not in the short run. However, there are limitations to how many you can reasonably add.

Are You Giving Each Product Enough Space to Sell it Effectively?
If a small space shows the product such that your audience can see it well enough to be interested and tell what it looks like, and if the copy is able to communicate all the features and benefits the shopper needs to know in order to make a buying decision, then the minimum space to do that all that is all the space it needs.

Should You Ever Decrease Density? See This Test.
This is a true story: Over the years a cataloger had been increasing product density because "more products = more sales." Finally the creative department lobbied for a low-density test. Management laughed, but let them test. To everyone's surprise, and against "common sense," lower density won. Why?

This company was selling complex, feature-rich products that really needed multiple images and longer copy to sell well. By giving each product the space it needed to tell its story, fewer products per page outsold many products per page where the smaller space blocked each product's story. Consumers needed more information to make a buying decision; when they had that information, more of them bought.