WooCommerce catalog mode: When, why, and how to use it

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From new product development to creating marketing strategies and optimizing for conversions, most ecommerce store owners are constantly working with one goal in mind: increase the number of orders on their site. 

But, believe it or not, you may not always want to allow traditional orders in your ecommerce shop. Instead, you may want to provide custom quotes, only sell to wholesale customers, restrict purchases of regulated items to verified users, or just sell your products through authorized retailers. 

WooCommerce catalog mode lets you display products just like any other online store but doesn’t actually allow visitors to make a direct purchase. 

In this post, we’ll look at the reasons to create a shop catalog. Then, we’ll show you how to enable catalog mode and share key tips to help you maximize sales. 

What is catalog mode in WooCommerce?

Catalog mode enables visitors to view product details without being able to purchase. As you can see in the image below, it completely replaces the standard “shop” setup, showing all of your available items without the option to add them to a cart or complete an order.

So, you might replace buttons with custom messages. These can contain information about how/where to buy your products, or your contact details and physical store address.

Or, instead of displaying an add to cart button, you might redirect customers to a landing page where they can request quotes. This is exactly what Cardionics does, as you can see in the image below.

By setting up catalog mode using a plugin, you’ll be able to configure custom visibility rules for prices. For example, you might hide prices for guests and make them available to only registered users. Or you could customize visibility and prices based on visitors’ locations.

We’ll take a closer look at these WooCommerce catalog visibility options later in this post. 

When is WooCommerce catalog mode most useful?

So, if you can’t directly sell products in WooCommerce catalog mode, why use it at all? Let’s explore a few use cases.

You only want to sell in person

Let’s say you sell products at physical stores, pop-ups, or events. With an online catalog, you can preserve this in-person-only business model while allowing customers to see what’s available and plan their purchases ahead of time. 

You’re an affiliate marketer

If you run an affiliate marketing site, you might simply display products that redirect customers to the company website where they can purchase them. 

You sell completely custom items

A catalog-style website can be a great choice if you sell custom items that require quotes. These may include personalized cakes, furniture that’s made to measure, and creative pieces like paintings.

In these scenarios, you can redirect visitors to a form where they can share more details. You can also provide contact details to discuss the available options with customers.

While not completely custom items, Bare Metal Laser sells expensive industrial equipment that requires a more involved sales process. As a result, product pages list typical item details and even pricing information, but the “buy now” button has been replaced with “Make an Enquiry.” When users click this, a contact form pops up so sales reps can then reach out to prospects individually and discuss purchase options.

Here’s an example of this for one of their products:

You’re a wholesaler

If you sell wholesale items, you might prefer businesses to contact you directly. Here, you wouldn’t display the prices or enable instant purchasing, as the cost will likely depend on the number of items and delivery agreement. 

Alternatively, you can configure prices and add-to-cart buttons so that they’re only visible to users who have created an account. These may include regular wholesale clients or individuals who have purchased from your online store before.

You sell products with negotiable or fluctuating prices 

You might also sell products with fluctuating prices based on market conditions. If you don’t enable catalog mode for WooCommerce, you may find yourself constantly updating your prices. Instead, you can send customers to a form where they can request a cost estimate.

You need to temporarily suspend sales

Going on vacation? Hit a road bump in your supply chain? Maybe you just need a break. Whatever the reason, if you want to briefly halt sales without disrupting everything else, WooCommerce catalog mode can come in handy. 

You can keep your products and services visible on your website so that, even though you’re not available to fulfill orders at the moment, shoppers can understand your offerings. They might even add them to a wishlist or bookmark the page so they can come back when you’re open again.

You want to tease products before officially launching 

If you’re a brand new business, you might not be quite ready to “open the doors.” A catalog can help build buzz around your products until you’re all set up. 

In these situations, your catalog can function as a “coming soon” page. This way, you can still make your products accessible for search engines and visitors, rather than presenting a blank website.

Additional benefits of using WooCommerce catalog mode

No matter your reason for using WooCommerce catalog mode, doing so comes with many other broad benefits. By listing products online, even if they’re not available for purchase, you can: 

• Improve search engine optimization (SEO). Online catalogs can be indexed by search engines like Google, making it possible for users to search and find your products and services. If you’re intentional about developing these product pages with SEO in mind — adding keywords to descriptions, properly using alt tags, etc. — these pages can provide a lot of value for your optimization efforts. 
• Track key metrics. You can monitor interactions with your catalog to find out which products are most popular. Then, you can use this data to improve your marketing campaigns.
• Increase the perceived value of items. By prompting visitors to request custom quotes, you can create a feel of exclusivity around your products. The same goes if you only allow customers to buy items at events or pop-ups.
• Show products in their best light. When creating your catalog, you can add high-resolution images and beautiful videos that allow customers to see the whole product from every angle. This will help demonstrate the actual value of your items.

Although you won’t be able to accept payments directly, WooCommerce catalog mode can still help you maximize profits and create an engaging customer experience.

How do I create a catalog in WooCommerce?

Now, let’s take a look at how to transform the default WooCommerce platform into a full-fledged online catalog.

 1. Add products to your WooCommerce store

WooCommerce is a completely free WordPress plugin, so you can go ahead and activate it directly within the WordPress dashboard. The setup wizard will walk you through key steps to set up your WooCommerce store (although you can complete this process later).

Next, you can add your products. If you have a lot of items, it’s a good idea to configure your categories first. This will help you organize your online store. 

Navigate to Products → Categories:

If you’re an online fashion retailer, you might create categories for clothing, accessories, shoes, etc. 

When you’re ready, head to Products → Add New. Here, you can enter a product name and a description to highlight key details or benefits:

To the right, you’ll see that you can set WooCommerce product images or add a gallery. Below that, you can assign your item to a category, or create new categories here if you haven’t done so already.

Further down, you’ll find a section called Product data, where you can determine whether your item is a simple product, variable product, affiliate product, or grouped product:

You can also set the price for your item and include a sale price if applicable. Feel free to explore the settings in this section and configure any that apply to your products.

For example, you can add a SKU number and define stock status in the Inventory section. You can also select product attributes and shipping details.

2. Install the YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode plugin

By default, WooCommerce lets people view product prices, add items to carts, and visit the Checkout page to complete their purchase.

If you want to turn your online store into a catalog, you’ll either need to install a plugin or create a completely custom solution with the help of a developer. In this article, we’ll use the YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode plugin, pictured below. You can use the free version to display items without making them immediately available for sale.

The premium plugin version comes with a greater level of customization. For instance, it enables you to apply an advanced catalog mode to specific products and users (like guests or users in certain locations).

Plus, you can add an inquiry form to product pages so that customers can contact you or request a quote. You also have the option to hide prices or replace prices with different labels and buttons.

To get started, navigate to Plugins → Add New in the WordPress dashboard. Use the search bar to look for the YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode plugin and click on Install Now → Activate. 

You should now see a new YITH tab appear in the WordPress sidebar.

3. Configure catalog settings and preview your products

With the YITH catalog mode plugin installed on your site, you’re ready to launch WooCommerce catalog mode. 

Hover over the YITH option in the sidebar and select Catalog Mode:

If you want all administrators to also see catalog mode, you can use the relevant toggle in the Settings section to enable this. 

Once you’ve enabled catalog mode, if you want to hide all add to cart buttons and hide the Cart and Checkout page, use the Disable shop slider.

When you do this, your ecommerce shop will instantly transform into an online catalog. You also have the option to choose the locations where you want to hide the add-to-cart buttons:

So, you might hide this feature across all pages, the shop page, or just on product pages. 

You can use the final toggle to hide product variations where add to cart is hidden. Once you’ve made all of your choices, click on Save Options at the bottom of the page. 

Now, it’s a good idea to check that this has worked. So, go to Products → All Products. Select any product from the list and click on the View link which will lead you to the product page:

As you can see, there is no add-to-cart button, although you can still see the product price.

If you want to hide prices, you’ll need to edit the product and navigate to the Product data section. Then, manually remove the price and save the changes. 

You can do this automatically with the paid version of YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode.

Note that, while you can enable WooCommerce catalog mode by creating a completely custom-coded solution, this can be quite intricate and complicated. Therefore, in most situations, using a dedicated tool can be the best option for any WordPress users who don’t have advanced technical knowledge.

4. Create a dedicated catalog page to display your items

Currently, visitors can find your catalog by accessing the WooCommerce Shop page, where they would usually be able to view all your items, product prices, and add-to-cart buttons. 

Typically, this page can be found by typing your online store’s domain name and entering /shop to the end, as shown here:

The layout of this page may look different depending on which WooCommerce theme you’re using.

Since you’re now running a catalog rather than a shop, it might be confusing for customers to have your product accessible at a /shop domain. Therefore, you can create a new WordPress page to function as your catalog.

To do this, simply go to Pages → Add New. Then, give the page a name like “catalog” and populate it with your catalog content by entering the following shortcode:

[products columns=”4″ limit=”8″ paginate=”true”]

Naturally, you can change the number of columns or the number of items visible on each page. 

Plus, in the Page settings, you can enter your preferred permalink, so it looks something like this: yourwebsitename.com/catalog. Then, preview the page to see how it looks to visitors.

 How do I enable catalog mode on an existing WooCommerce store?

You can turn any existing storefront into a catalog-only store by using a plugin like YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode. Start by installing the plugin, then follow the rest of the steps in the instructions above to configure settings, create a dedicated catalog page, and more. 

Alternatively, you could hire a developer or agency to create a completely custom catalog mode for your store. This, however, can get complicated or expensive quickly. So unless you need a specific or unique setup, a plugin is probably the way to go.

How can I maximize sales from a WooCommerce catalog?

One common misconception of online catalogs is that you won’t be able to make sales when you use one. While that’s partly true since you can’t accept payments directly from your site, it isn’t the whole story.

WooCommerce catalog mode allows you to give customers enough time to think about which items they’d like to buy. 

Then, you or your sales team can execute powerful email marketing campaigns to follow up with customers. All you have to do is install a WooCommerce-compatible plugin like Omnisend for WooCommerce.

This free plugin, shown below, offers incredibly rich features designed to streamline marketing communication so you reach the right people with the right message at the right time.

Once the plugin is active on your site, you can connect WordPress to your Omnisend account or register for a new one.

After that, you’re able to use push notifications, emails, and SMS messages to target customers who have shown interest in certain items:

Better yet, you can choose from a library of pre-built flows and templates (or build your own). And you can access advanced reports to improve your campaigns.

Omnisend can also help you maximize sales from your catalog through newsletters. You can use the email builder to import products and deliver personalized recommendations for different contact profiles. 

Additionally, it enables you to send unique discount offers to your customers’ inboxes, which is a great way to increase the average order value. 

Set up WooCommerce catalog mode today

While a product catalog won’t allow customers to purchase items, it’s a useful way to allow wholesale or other customers to browse products at their leisure between talks with sales reps. Plus, no matter your business structure, it will help you improve visibility in the search engines, and that’s always a good thing.

If you enable WooCommerce catalog mode, you can hide add-to-cart buttons, hide product prices, and remove the Cart and Checkout pages. You can do this easily using the YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode plugin. You can even set up a dedicated page where customers can view items in a single place.

Since visitors will need to take additional actions between discovering your products and making a purchase, long-term lead nurturing and follow ups are absolutely critical. The best way to do this? Email and SMS drip campaigns.