Product catalogue for an auto parts maker: part numbers, vehicle fit and photos the counter can use

A retailer at the parts counter holds a worn clutch plate in one hand and your catalogue on a phone in the other. The tractor model is known and a number can be read off the old part. If your catalogue is sorted by product family, with only your own codes, the retailer cannot get from what is in hand to what you make, and sells the brand that can be looked up instead. Build the catalogue around the three ways a counter searches: vehicle, OE number and your own part number. Give every entry the dimensions and photos that settle the fit.

How the counter looks a part up

There are three routes in, and a catalogue has to open on all of them.

The vehicle comes first for most lookups: maker, model, variant, years and engine. A mechanic with the vehicle in the bay starts there. The number on the old part comes next. It may be the vehicle maker's OE number or another aftermarket brand's number, and the counter wants it turned into yours. Your own part number is the third route, used for reorders and on the distributor's bill.

A catalogue arranged as "Clutch plates", "Pressure plates" and "Release bearings" answers none of the three. It reads well in your office and fails at the counter. For listings on your own web store or a marketplace, the title order and the genuine or aftermarket labels are covered in spare parts catalogues and honest labels. This post is about the catalogue a maker hands its distributors and retailers.

Three indexes, in this order

The vehicle section is the body of the book. Arrange it by vehicle maker, then model and variant. Under each, list every part you make for that vehicle, across product families.

The cross-reference index goes at the back. Sort it by OE number, and map each one to your part number. Add other brands' numbers only where your own team has checked the interchange on a real part.

The numerical index comes last. Sort it by your part number, with the page where each part appears. Distributors use it to bill and to reorder.

On the website, the same three become three search boxes over one set of data.

A sample page from the vehicle section

Here is one page, laid out the way the counter reads it. Every vehicle, number and dimension below is invented for the example; yours come from your own drawings and checked interchange.

Example Motors tractors: Model 475 series

Two choices on that page do most of the work. The key dimensions column holds the measurement a mechanic checks with a vernier before fitting. And part numbers that look alike in the catalogue never differ by a single digit.

On logos: write the vehicle's name as plain text, as the table does, and leave out its logo and artwork. A maker's mark on your page or box can imply approval you do not have, so ask your adviser first.

Photos that settle the fit

A glamour shot on a white background tells the counter nothing, because every clutch plate looks alike from the front. Shoot three photos of each part. The first shows the whole part beside a steel rule. The second is a close-up of the face that mates: the splines, the bolt pattern, the step that differs between variants. The third shows the marking on the part and the label on the box, so the retailer can match what arrived with what was ordered.

Use the same angle, light and background across the range, so two similar parts can be compared on a phone screen. Where a left and a right version exist, photograph them together. Name each photo file with the part number, so the website and the PDF draw from one folder.

Keep prices out, and split the PDF

Print fewer copies than you first plan. A printed book still earns its place at distributors and older retailers, where hand marks show what the counter uses. Everyone else can use the PDF.

Print no prices in the catalogue. Price revisions come more often than reprints, distributors get different terms, and a catalogue with prices goes out of date the day the list changes. Send a one-page price list per distributor instead.

Then think about the phone. A single PDF covering every vehicle is too heavy to open at a busy counter. Split it by segment, such as tractors, light commercial vehicles and three-wheelers, so each file opens quickly on WhatsApp. On the website, give every part number its own page with the same fields, so a mechanic who types an OE number into Google can land on it.

Imagine a clutch maker in Ahmednagar

Imagine a maker of clutch plates and pressure plates for tractors and light commercial vehicles in the Ahmednagar MIDC, Maharashtra. The details are illustrative. Its catalogue was grouped by product family, carried only the maker's own codes, showed every plate face-on in a studio shot and printed prices inside. Distributors in Latur and Nanded phoned the sales representative for most lookups, and the answers came from memory. One busy week, single plates went out against an order for a 4WD variant that needed the dual plate. Each price revision made the printed book wrong as well.

The maker rebuilt it by vehicle maker, model and variant, with the OE index and the numerical index at the back. Every row gained its key dimensions and spline count. Each part got three photos, with a rule in frame and a close-up of the splines, and the single and dual plates were shown together. Prices moved to a one-page list per distributor. The PDF was split into a tractor booklet and an LCV booklet, and the same rows went onto the website, one page per part number. The representative still gets calls. Now they are about parts the catalogue does not list yet, which tells the maker what to add next. The rebuild took the sales team most of a quarter, during which two distributors kept using the old book and the mix-ups continued there.

When a catalogue is not the fix

A better catalogue will not help a distributor with empty shelves, and a range of twenty parts needs a two-page sheet, not a book.

Rebuild one vehicle section first

Start small. Pick the vehicle that accounts for most of your sales and rebuild only its section in the format above. Send it to two distributors and note which questions they still phone about. Laying the pages out is the work of brochures, catalogues and marketing materials, and aftermarket buyers compare catalogues rather than plants, as the automotive component makers page describes for the whole trade. To plan your own catalogue, tell us what you need.