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Guide to Catalog Machine - Key Concepts and Features (V2)

Explore Catalog Machine's core features: manage products, design catalogs, and share with customers. Learn key concepts and best practices.

Faster than reading? Try the AI assistants:

Note: This guide covers the core concepts of Catalog Machine, which remain consistent across versions, including Catalog Machine V2 (learn more here).

Welcome to Catalog Machine, your all-in-one solution for creating professional product catalogs. Here's a quick overview of our key features:

1. Product Management: Centralize and organize your product information

2. Catalog Design: Create attractive, customizable catalogs with ease

3. Distribution and Hosting: Share your catalogs through multiple channels

4. AI Assistants: AI Help (free, instant in-app answers) and AI Concierge (paid AI that imports products and builds catalogs for you)

This guide covers these features to help you manage products, design catalogs, and share them with customers.

AI Assistants — the fastest path

Catalog Machine V2 includes two AI tools that can do most of the work for you:

  • AI Help — free, in-app, answers questions instantly. Click the chat icon and ask anything. Learn more

  • AI Concierge — paid (credit-based), does the actual work. Click the lightning bolt icon and tell it what you want: import products from CSV/PDF/photos/website URLs, create a catalog, edit pages, publish. Learn more

If you'd rather skip the manual steps below, just open AI Concierge and describe what you want.

1. Product Management

At the heart of Catalog Machine is your product database, the central repository where all your product information is stored and managed:

  • Products: Add and edit core items you want to showcase. Each product has attributes like name, description, price, images, etc.

  • Categories: Group similar products that share the same set of attributes.

  • Collections: Organize products into flexible, hierarchical groups for marketing or display purposes.

  • Fields: Manage specific attributes of a product, like name, price, description.

  • Variants: Create and manage different versions of a product (sizes, colors).

  • Import and Integration: Bring in products from CSV files, e-commerce platforms like Shopify, or via AI Concierge from any source.

  • Inventory: Track and manage stock levels for your products.

Getting Started with Products:

  1. Easiest: ask AI Concierge to import products — paste a list, upload CSV/PDF/photos, or share a URL

  2. Or add a few products manually to familiarize yourself with the system

  3. Or use CSV import / Shopify integration for bulk add

  4. Organize: Create categories to define product attributes; use collections to group products for catalogs

2. Catalog Design

The Catalog Designer is where you'll create your professional-looking catalogs:

Page Creation and Editing:

  • Drag-and-drop interface for easy page design

  • Page elements: text boxes, images, product information, barcodes

  • Page Layouts: Pre-designed templates for quick page creation

  • Customization: Options for colors, fonts, headers/footers, and page sizes

  • Or skip manual design: ask AI Concierge to design your catalog from your products

Product Display Tools:

  • AutoGrid: Automatically generate multi-product pages.

  • Product Lists: Create customizable tabular displays of price lists.

  • Product Cards (formerly Templates): Customizable/reusable templates for displaying individual products.

Advanced Catalog Features:

  • Master catalogs to compose from existing sub-catalogs

  • Table of contents and product indexes

3. Catalog Distribution and Hosting

Once your catalog is ready, share via:

  • High-quality PDF for printing or digital distribution

  • Interactive online catalog

  • Direct link, social media, or embedded on your website

  • Privacy settings to control access

4. Advanced Features

Best Practices

  1. Try the AI first: AI Concierge can build your first catalog from a CSV/URL/photos in minutes

  2. Start small: Begin with a limited product set to learn the system

  3. Use templates: Leverage pre-made layouts and product cards

  4. Organize early: Set up categories and collections thoughtfully

  5. Update regularly: Keep product information current

Need help? Open AI Help for instant in-app answers, or chat with our support team.

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