A wholesale buyer evaluating your range often wants to browse everything you offer in one place, ideally something they can save, forward internally, or review offline — a single, well-organised catalog PDF serves this far better than pointing them to individual online listings they would need to click through one at a time.
The general structure of a good wholesale catalog
- A simple cover page with your business name, logo, and the catalog's date or season.
- A clear product listing, one section or page per product, each with a clean photo, the product name, key specifications, and wholesale pricing or minimum order quantity if relevant.
- Your contact and ordering information, placed prominently, usually at both the start and end.
Building it from product photos and text
If you already have clean, background-removed product photos following the approach in our guide to removing the background from a product photo, combine each photo with its accompanying text into a simple page layout, then combine every product's page into one ordered document with Merge PDF or Image to PDF depending on how you built each page.
Keeping the catalog organised for easy browsing
- Group similar products together rather than listing them in an arbitrary order, so a buyer looking for a specific category can find it quickly.
- Use consistent page layouts across every product, so the catalog feels coherent rather than like a collection of differently formatted pages.
- Keep photos and text sizing consistent, following the same batching approach covered in our guide to preparing product photos for marketplace listings.
Deciding what pricing information to include
Wholesale pricing is often tiered by quantity, and it is worth deciding upfront how much of that detail belongs directly in the catalog versus being discussed individually with each buyer. A catalog that includes clear starting price points, with a note that final pricing depends on order volume, often works better than either omitting pricing entirely or listing every possible tier directly on the page.
Keeping the file size manageable for easy sharing
A catalog with many product photos can add up to a large file, which matters if buyers will be downloading and forwarding it by email. Once the catalog is assembled, run it through the PDF Compressor to bring the size down to something that attaches to an email comfortably, checking that product photos remain clearly legible at the compression level you choose.
Updating the catalog as your product range changes
Rather than rebuilding the whole catalog from scratch every time a product is added, discontinued, or repriced, keep your source pages (each product's individual photo-plus-text layout) organised separately, so you can swap, add, or remove individual product pages and re-merge a fresh combined catalog relatively quickly when an update is needed.
Sending the catalog alongside other business documents
If a wholesale enquiry also calls for additional documents — terms and conditions, a minimum order form — consider whether combining them into one bundle with the catalog, following the approach in our guide to combining different file types into one file, presents more professionally than sending several separate attachments.
Tailoring the catalog for different kinds of buyers
Not every wholesale buyer needs to see your entire range — a buyer interested in one specific product category may be better served by a shorter, focused catalog covering just that category, rather than your full range including many irrelevant items. If your product range is broad, consider maintaining a few category-specific catalog versions alongside a full one, assembled from the same organised source pages, so you can send whichever is most relevant to a specific enquiry.
Following up after sending the catalog
A catalog sent without any follow-up is easy for a busy buyer to set aside and forget. Alongside the document itself, it is worth having a simple, low-pressure follow-up plan — a brief message a week or two later checking whether they had a chance to review it — since a polished catalog only helps if it actually gets looked at and acted on, rather than sitting unopened in an inbox.
Frequently asked questions
How many products should be on each catalog page?
This depends on your product range and how much detail each item needs; a clean, uncluttered layout generally serves a wholesale buyer better than cramming many products onto one page.
Should I include exact pricing or just a starting range?
Either can work; a clear starting price with a note that final pricing depends on order volume is a common, flexible approach for many wholesale contexts.
Do I need design software to build this?
No, combining product photos and simple text layouts using the tools covered here is sufficient for a clean, professional result without specialised design software.
How often should I update the catalog?
Whenever your product range changes meaningfully; keeping source pages organised separately makes partial updates faster than a full rebuild each time.
Should the catalog be different from what I show individual retail customers?
Often yes, since wholesale buyers typically want different information (minimum order quantities, tiered pricing) than a retail customer browsing individual listings.
Is there a limit to how many products I can include?
No practical limit; keep the file size manageable by compressing appropriately as the catalog grows.
Are these tools free?
Yes. No sign-up, no watermark, and files are removed from the server automatically about an hour after processing.