Catalog mode is a store that shows the range but does not sell - an enquiry instead of a cart, a conversation instead of a checkout. It sounds like a step backwards and it is sometimes the only sensible decision: a manufacturer with a thousand variants priced individually, a distributor whose prices depend on the contract, a company whose products nobody buys without talking about installation first.
This piece is about deliberately giving up online selling for every visitor. If what you actually want is something else - a public catalogue with no prices, but prices visible to logged-in trade customers - that is a different mechanism and I covered it in the pieces on wholesale pricing in WooCommerce and B2B account approval. There the prices exist, they are simply hidden. Here prices are not what decides the purchase at all.
Who catalog mode makes sense for
The four situations I see most often, and where it genuinely works:
- A product priced individually. Gates, bespoke furniture, machinery, fitted equipment. The price depends on dimensions, transport, lead time. A fixed figure on the product page would be fiction you then have to correct on the phone
- Selling exclusively through sales staff. The company has a team, commissions and agreed discounts. A store selling alongside that system creates a conflict, not a channel
- Showing a range you do not ship. A showroom, a local workshop, a producer. The customer is meant to come in, look and order on the spot, and the site is there to get them through the door
- Volumes too small to justify running sales online. A few orders a month do not pay for a payment gateway, a courier integration, store terms, returns handling and the data-protection paperwork that comes with orders
The common thread: the buying decision does not happen on the site. The site exists to produce a conversation, not to replace it. If your product gets bought in three clicks with no questions, catalog mode will only take money off you - more on that below.
What exactly gets switched off
“Catalog mode” sounds like a single toggle and is in fact a set of changes. Do half of them and a customer lands on a cart that does nothing and leaves convinced your site is broken.
| Element | What you do with it |
|---|---|
| ”Add to cart” button | gone from listings and product pages, replaced by an enquiry button |
| Cart and checkout pages | removed or redirected to contact |
| Cart icon in the menu | gone; a leftover empty cart in the header is the classic loose end |
| Prices | hidden or replaced with “from” pricing - a separate decision, below |
| My Account area | usually pointless with no orders |
| Transactional emails | switched off, apart from the enquiry notification |
| Store terms and returns policy | replaced with plain information about how you work |
The way to do it without a heavyweight plugin: in WooCommerce set the products to the External/Affiliate type, change the button text to “Ask for a price” and point the URL at your contact form with the product as a parameter. That is native, needs no extra code, and on a smaller catalogue it is entirely enough.
There is a more fundamental question too: do you need WooCommerce at all. With no cart, no payments, no stock and no orders, a plain catalogue built on a custom content type is lighter, faster and does not need a store plugin updated every month. I keep WooCommerce when the client realistically plans to switch selling on within a year, or needs variants, filters and attributes they do not want built from scratch.
Price: publish it, “from”, or “ask”
This is the decision that most affects how many enquiries you get, and the one most often made blind. Three options, honestly:
No price at all. The cleanest choice if the product genuinely is priced individually. It costs you some enquiries - people who want to know whether they are even in your range will simply leave. In exchange, every enquiry that does arrive comes from someone serious.
“From” pricing. Usually the best compromise. It filters out people on a completely different budget before they take an hour of your time, and it builds credibility - a company unafraid to state any figure looks better than a silent one. The condition: the “from” has to be real and achievable, otherwise the first conversation starts with disappointment.
A range, or sample projects with figures. Works well where you can show three typical configurations with prices. The customer places themselves in the range.
What not to do: do not hide the price “so competitors cannot see it”. Competitors will ring you as a customer anyway. A price hidden from competitors is mostly hidden from customers.
An enquiry instead of an order
An “Ask for a price” button pointing at a generic contact form is the minimum, but it loses context - you get “please quote” with no idea what for. Two things worth doing better:
- A form tied to the product. The name and code fill themselves in, the customer adds quantity and detail. Your inbox gets a complete request instead of a riddle
- An enquiry basket. The customer ticks several items and sends one enquiry with the list. On catalogues where people order in sets - building materials, parts, fittings - it genuinely raises the value of each enquiry
What has to happen after sending, for any of it to work: an automatic confirmation to the customer summarising what they asked about, a notification to you with the full details, and the enquiry saved in one place so nothing gets lost in an inbox. Once you are getting a dozen or more a week, the next step is feeding them into a CRM - otherwise after a month nobody knows who was answered.
With regular trade customers the natural next step is a portal where they see their own prices and place orders themselves; I described that in the piece on a B2B ordering portal.
A catalogue and Google
Here is the most common misunderstanding: “I do not sell online, so SEO does not apply to me”. It applies more, because the catalogue is usually the only source of enquiries besides referrals.
What works exactly as it does in a store: categories pick up general phrases, product pages pick up name and code searches, descriptions and photos decide whether anyone stays. A catalogue with no prices still works for visibility.
What stops working:
- Google Merchant Center and free shopping listings require a price and availability. Without them you cannot list products in that channel
- Product rich results in search - that line with price and availability under the result - also rely on offer data. With no price you get a plain text result
- Shopping campaigns drop out for the same reason
The practical conclusion: since you lose the price-based channels, everything else matters more - category copy written around the questions customers actually ask, your own photography instead of manufacturer stock shots, and site speed. Where to start I set out in the SEO audit checklist.
When catalog mode costs you customers
Four signs the catalogue suits you rather than your customer:
- The product is simple and comparable. If someone can find the same thing with a price and a buy button in a minute, they will take that. An enquiry is extra work for them
- Enquiries arrive but do not turn into sales. That usually means people were asking about the price, not the product - and dropped out once they heard it. “From” pricing fixes that immediately
- You reply two days later. A catalogue only works with a fast response. A store sells at night, a person does not - with nobody answering promptly, catalog mode turns into a well that leads fall into
- Customers keep asking the same questions. A sign that the product page is not answering the basics, and that is what needs fixing rather than being explained by email every time
Catalog mode is a reversible decision but not a free one. Every quarter it is worth counting the enquiries and how many turned into work.
The way back, or switching selling on later
The worst outcome is a catalogue built so that enabling sales means a rebuild. Three things I do from the start, even when there is to be no selling:
- A proper product data structure - code, attributes, categories, variants, stock. Unused but filled in, because nobody ever backfills it later
- Product URLs that will not have to change - switching the cart on must not force new addresses; changing URLs a year in means redirect work and a risk to rankings
- The enquiry form as a separate component, not baked into the product template - so it can be swapped for a buy button without touching anything else
Set up that way, going from catalogue to store is a matter of configuring payments, shipping and terms rather than a new project. What a full store build costs I set out separately in the piece on WooCommerce store cost.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set up catalog mode in WooCommerce without a plugin? The simplest native route is to set products to the External/Affiliate type, change the button text to “Ask for a price” and point it at your contact form. Then remove the cart and checkout pages and the cart icon in the menu. On a larger catalogue a catalog-mode plugin is more convenient, but the principle stays the same: every trace of the cart has to go, not just the button.
Can a site with no prices rank well? Yes. Rankings depend on content, structure and speed, not on whether a price is present. What you lose are the channels that require prices: free shopping listings, shopping campaigns and the rich result with a price under your link. So with a catalogue it pays to lean harder on category copy and content that answers customer questions.
Is “from” pricing better than no price at all? In most cases yes, because it filters out people on a completely different budget before they take an hour of your time, and it builds credibility. One condition: that figure has to be genuinely achievable for the simplest configuration, otherwise the first conversation starts with you explaining why it costs more.
Do I need WooCommerce if I do not sell online? Not always. With no cart, payments, stock or orders, a catalogue on a custom content type is lighter and less demanding to maintain. WooCommerce earns its place when you plan to switch selling on within a foreseeable timeframe, or you need variants, attributes and filters you would rather not build from nothing.
How is catalog mode different from hiding prices from guests? Catalog mode switches off selling for everyone - nobody can buy, logged in or not. Hiding prices is a B2B mechanism: the price list exists, it is simply visible after login and account approval, and the trade customer places orders normally. They are two different business decisions; they can be combined, but they are not substitutes.
Running a store where something does not work the way it should? I build and rebuild WooCommerce stores - from a single fix to reworking the whole sales flow. Tell me what you are dealing with and I will send back a scope and a price.