WooCommerce is normally built around online purchases. Customers browse products, add them to the cart, proceed to checkout, choose a payment method, and place an order.
But not every business needs that workflow.
A company may want to use WooCommerce simply to showcase its products, without allowing visitors to purchase them online. A manufacturer might want to display its entire product range but ask customers to contact a sales representative. A wholesaler may want to show products and specifications without displaying public prices. A business may also be preparing its online store before payment, shipping, or inventory systems are ready.
In these situations, turning WooCommerce into a product catalog can be a much better solution than replacing WooCommerce entirely.
The goal is to keep the useful parts of WooCommerce — products, categories, images, attributes, variations, search, filtering, and product pages — while removing or replacing the purchasing functionality.
This guide explains how to turn WooCommerce into a catalog without online payments, what you should remove from the shopping process, and how to replace the Add to Cart button with a more useful action.
What Is WooCommerce Catalog Mode?
WooCommerce catalog mode means using WooCommerce primarily as a product catalog instead of a traditional online store.
Products remain published and can appear on the Shop page, category pages, search results, and individual product pages. However, customers cannot complete a normal online purchase.
Depending on how the catalog is configured, you can:
- Remove the Add to Cart button.
- Hide the Cart page.
- Disable or bypass the Checkout page.
- Remove payment methods.
- Hide product prices.
- Replace Add to Cart with a Request a Quote button.
- Replace Add to Cart with a Contact Us button.
- Keep prices visible while disabling purchasing.
- Allow purchasing only for certain logged-in users.
- Use different catalog behavior for different products or customer roles.
WooCommerce itself provides product catalog visibility settings, while dedicated catalog-mode extensions can disable purchasing functionality and replace purchasing controls with alternative content.
The important thing is that catalog mode is not simply hiding a button with CSS.
If the goal is to prevent purchases, the purchasing functionality itself should be disabled or controlled.
Why Turn WooCommerce Into a Catalog?
There are several situations where a catalog-based WooCommerce website makes sense.
1. Products Are Sold Offline
Some companies use their website to showcase products but complete every sale through phone, email, physical stores, or sales representatives.
In that case, there is no reason to force visitors through an online checkout.
The website can instead provide:
- Product information.
- Specifications.
- Images.
- Documents.
- Available variations.
- Contact information.
- Request-a-quote functionality.
- Sales representative contact details.
2. Products Have No Fixed Public Price
Some products cannot have a simple public price.
The final price might depend on:
- Quantity.
- Configuration.
- Shipping location.
- Customization.
- Installation.
- Contract terms.
- Customer type.
- Wholesale pricing.
Instead of displaying a misleading price, the product page can use a message such as:
“Contact us for pricing”
or:
“Request a quote”
3. The Website Is for B2B Customers
B2B websites often need a different purchasing process from normal consumer stores.
A business might want to show its product catalog publicly while requiring customers to contact the sales team before purchasing.
Alternatively, public visitors may see the catalog while approved distributors or logged-in customers can access prices and purchasing functionality.
WooCommerce catalog extensions can support role-based purchasing and price visibility, allowing different behavior for different user groups.
4. Online Payments Are Not Ready Yet
You might already have hundreds of products entered into WooCommerce but still be working on:
- Payment gateways.
- Shipping configuration.
- Tax rules.
- Inventory.
- Order processing.
- Customer accounts.
Instead of keeping the website offline until everything is finished, you can temporarily use WooCommerce as a catalog.
Once the store is ready, purchasing can be enabled again.
Catalog Mode vs Removing WooCommerce
One common question is whether WooCommerce should simply be removed.
Usually, that is unnecessary.
WooCommerce gives you a powerful product management system. You can continue using:
- Product categories.
- Product tags.
- Product attributes.
- Variations.
- Product images.
- Product galleries.
- Related products.
- Product search.
- Product filtering.
- Stock information.
- Custom product data.
- WooCommerce templates.
If your website already uses WooCommerce, turning it into a catalog allows you to keep this structure while removing the purchasing process.
The catalog can later be converted back into a normal store without rebuilding every product.
Decide What Your Catalog Should Show
Before changing anything, decide what visitors should actually see.
There are several possible catalog configurations.
Option 1: Products + Prices + No Purchasing
This is the simplest setup.
Visitors can see:
- Product image.
- Product name.
- Description.
- Specifications.
- Price.
But there is no Add to Cart button.
This works well when prices are fixed but orders are handled manually.
Option 2: Products Without Prices
In this setup, visitors can browse products but prices are hidden.
Instead of:
“$1,299”
you might show:
“Contact us for pricing”
or:
“Request a quote”
This is common for B2B products, custom equipment, services, and products with variable pricing.
Option 3: Products + Request a Quote
This is often more useful than simply removing the Add to Cart button.
For example:
Product Name
Description…
Request a Quote
The button sends the visitor to a form where they can provide:
- Name.
- Company.
- Email.
- Phone number.
- Product.
- Quantity.
- Additional requirements.
This turns the catalog into a lead-generation system instead of simply removing ecommerce functionality.
Option 4: Catalog for Visitors, Store for Logged-In Customers
This is useful for wholesalers and distributors.
A visitor might see:
Product A
Contact us for pricing
while an approved customer sees:
Product A
$149
Add to Cart
This type of role-based catalog functionality is supported by dedicated WooCommerce catalog extensions.
How to Turn WooCommerce Into Catalog Mode
There are several ways to implement this.
The right method depends on how much control you need.
Method 1: Use a WooCommerce Catalog Mode Plugin
For most websites, this is the easiest solution.
WooCommerce offers catalog-oriented extensions that can disable purchasing functionality while keeping products available as a catalog. For example, WooCommerce’s Catalog Visibility Options extension can disable Add to Cart functionality, hide prices, and provide alternate content on product pages.
A typical configuration looks like:
Purchases: Disabled
Prices: Enabled or Disabled
Add to Cart text: Custom or removed
Alternate product content: Optional
This is useful when you want a reliable catalog mode without building the functionality yourself.
Some extensions also allow catalog behavior to be applied based on:
- Product.
- Category.
- User role.
- Customer location.
This can be useful when only part of the website should operate as a catalog.
Method 2: Remove the Add to Cart Functionality
If you want a simple catalog and do not need advanced role-based rules, you can remove purchasing controls.
The important distinction is between:
Hiding the button
and:
Disabling purchasing.
Hiding the button visually is not always enough.
For example, WooCommerce can use AJAX Add to Cart buttons on product archives. Simply changing the button text does not necessarily remove the underlying functionality. WooCommerce’s documentation specifically notes that changing button text alone does not prevent an AJAX Add to Cart action.
Therefore, the purchasing functionality should be disabled rather than merely hidden with CSS.
Method 3: Replace Add to Cart With Request a Quote
For many businesses, this is the best catalog setup.
Instead of:
Add to Cart
use:
Request a Quote
or:
Contact Sales
or:
Ask About This Product
The button can link to a dedicated form.
For example:
Request a Quote
The form can ask for:
- Full name.
- Company name.
- Email.
- Phone.
- Product name.
- Quantity.
- Message.
For more advanced implementations, the product name can automatically be passed into the form so the visitor does not need to type it manually.
Dedicated WooCommerce catalog extensions can replace Add to Cart with custom text or a Request a Quote action.
How to Handle Product Prices
Prices are one of the most important decisions in catalog mode.
You have three main choices.
Keep Prices Visible
Use this when your products have fixed public prices.
For example:
Industrial Pump
$1,250
Contact Sales
This gives visitors useful information while still preventing online purchases.
Hide Prices Completely
Use this when pricing depends on the customer or product configuration.
Instead of displaying a price, show:
Contact us for pricing
This can be especially useful for B2B products.
Replace Prices With Custom Text
Rather than leaving an empty space where the price normally appears, use a message.
Examples include:
- Contact for price.
- Request a quote.
- Login to view pricing.
- Price available on request.
- Contact our sales team.
WooCommerce catalog extensions can replace the standard price output with custom text when prices are disabled.
What Should Happen to the Cart?
If customers cannot purchase products, the Cart page usually has little purpose.
You can therefore remove the Cart link from:
- Main navigation.
- Header.
- Mobile menu.
- Footer.
- Other WooCommerce navigation areas.
However, do not assume that removing the visible cart icon disables the cart functionality itself.
The cart icon is part of the theme or site navigation, while purchasing functionality is controlled by WooCommerce.
A catalog-mode implementation should deal with both.
WooCommerce’s documentation also notes that some catalog solutions disable purchasing without automatically hiding the cart icon, meaning the navigation may need to be adjusted separately.
What Should Happen to Checkout?
If nobody can purchase products, the normal checkout process is unnecessary.
Depending on the implementation, you can:
- Hide the Checkout link.
- Redirect visitors away from Checkout.
- Remove the checkout page from navigation.
- Disable purchasing before checkout can be reached.
- Replace checkout with a Request a Quote or Contact Sales workflow.
Some catalog-mode extensions provide options to hide the Cart and Checkout pages directly.
The important thing is to test the entire customer journey afterward.
Do not only check the product page.
Test:
Product → Add to Cart → Cart → Checkout → Payment
and confirm that the purchasing workflow is actually unavailable.
What About Payment Gateways?
If the website is genuinely a catalog and there are no online purchases, payment gateways are no longer part of the normal customer journey.
You may therefore not need to display:
- Credit card payment.
- PayPal.
- Bank transfer.
- Cash on delivery.
- Other payment methods.
Some advanced catalog-mode solutions can hide specific payment methods or the entire payment section depending on the configuration.
However, do not delete your payment gateway configuration simply because the store is temporarily operating as a catalog.
If you expect to enable ecommerce later, keeping the configuration can make the eventual transition easier.
Catalog Mode Does Not Mean Hiding Products From Google
This is an important distinction.
A catalog website can still have publicly accessible product pages.
For example:
example.com/product/industrial-pump/
can remain indexable even though customers cannot buy the product online.
You can still optimize:
- Product titles.
- Product descriptions.
- Product images.
- Internal links.
- Product categories.
- Structured data.
- Search snippets.
The goal is to remove purchasing functionality, not necessarily to remove products from search engines.
WooCommerce’s product catalog visibility settings control where products appear within the site’s catalog and search, which is separate from deciding whether your entire product catalog should be indexed by search engines.
If you need more control over which products appear publicly, WooCommerce also provides product visibility options such as Shop and search, Shop only, Search only, and Hidden.
How to Build a Better Catalog Experience
Simply removing Add to Cart can leave the product page feeling incomplete.
Instead, replace the ecommerce action with something useful.
For example:
Product Name
Product description…
Specifications
- Model: ABC-200
- Capacity: 500 L
- Material: Stainless steel
- Warranty: 2 years
Request a Quote
Contact Sales
This gives the visitor a clear next step.
The website is no longer trying to force a purchase that it cannot support.
It is guiding the visitor toward the actual sales process.
Add a Request a Quote Form
If products are not sold directly online, a quote form can become the primary conversion point.
A good form can include:
Contact Information
- Name.
- Company.
- Email.
- Phone.
Product Information
- Product name.
- Product variation.
- Quantity.
- Desired delivery date.
Additional Information
- Message.
- Technical requirements.
- File upload if necessary.
The product name can also be passed automatically from the product page into the form.
This is particularly useful when the website contains dozens or hundreds of products.
Instead of receiving an email that says:
“I’m interested.”
you can receive:
“Company ABC wants a quote for Product XYZ, quantity 20.”
That makes the catalog much more useful as a sales tool.
When You Should Keep WooCommerce Checkout
Catalog mode is not always the right answer.
If customers need to:
- Add multiple products.
- Calculate shipping.
- Apply discounts.
- Enter billing information.
- Pay online.
- Receive automatic order confirmation.
- Track orders.
then a normal WooCommerce store may be more appropriate.
You may also want a hybrid solution.
For example:
- Public visitors see a catalog.
- Logged-in customers can purchase.
- Wholesale customers see different prices.
- Certain products require a quote.
- Other products can be purchased normally.
WooCommerce catalog extensions can support these types of role-based configurations.
How to Create a Hybrid WooCommerce Catalog
A hybrid store can be particularly useful for B2B websites.
Imagine a company selling 500 products.
A normal visitor sees:
Product A
Contact for pricing
Request a Quote
An approved distributor logs in and sees:
Product A
€240
Add to Cart
The same WooCommerce installation can therefore serve two different audiences.
This can be achieved with role-based catalog functionality, where price visibility and purchasing permissions change depending on the user’s role.
This approach is often more practical than maintaining completely separate product databases.
Common Mistakes When Creating a WooCommerce Catalog
Only Hiding the Add to Cart Button With CSS
This changes what visitors see but does not necessarily disable purchasing functionality.
The underlying WooCommerce functionality should be disabled or properly controlled.
Leaving the Cart Icon Visible
If the site is a catalog, a cart icon can confuse visitors.
Remove or replace it if customers cannot purchase products.
Leaving an Empty Checkout Page
If checkout is no longer part of the website, sending visitors to an empty or broken checkout page creates unnecessary friction.
Redirect or replace it with a useful page.
Removing Product Prices Without an Alternative
If you hide prices, give visitors another action.
For example:
Contact for pricing
Request a Quote
or:
Login to view prices
Forgetting Mobile Navigation
It is common to remove the desktop cart link while leaving it visible in the mobile header.
Always test both versions.
Not Testing Variable Products
If the catalog contains variations, test:
- Product attributes.
- Variation selection.
- Images.
- Availability.
- Custom buttons.
Make sure disabling purchases does not create broken variation interfaces.
Deleting WooCommerce Pages Unnecessarily
If you may eventually return to normal ecommerce, there is usually little reason to permanently delete WooCommerce’s Cart and Checkout pages.
WooCommerce documentation recommends keeping its generated pages available even when purchasing functionality is disabled, because they may be needed later.
Catalog Mode and Elementor
If your WooCommerce website uses Elementor, you can customize the visual presentation of the catalog without changing the underlying WooCommerce product structure.
For example, you can create:
- Custom product archives.
- Custom single-product layouts.
- Product category templates.
- Custom product information sections.
- Request Quote buttons.
- Contact Sales sections.
- Specification tables.
- Downloadable product documents.
The important part is to make sure the Elementor template does not reintroduce an Add to Cart element after catalog mode has been configured.
This is especially important with custom WooCommerce templates.
A website can have the WooCommerce functionality correctly configured while an Elementor template still displays an unwanted purchasing element.
Always test the final front end after changing the template.
Can You Use WooCommerce Without Payments?
Yes.
WooCommerce does not have to be used exclusively as a traditional online store.
It can be used as the product management and catalog system while the actual sales process happens elsewhere.
For example:
Website → Product Catalog → Request Quote → Sales Team → Manual Order
instead of:
Website → Product → Cart → Checkout → Payment
This makes WooCommerce useful for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, service companies, equipment suppliers, and businesses with custom pricing.
A Practical Catalog Mode Setup
For a typical B2B website, a useful setup might look like this:
Shop
Products are displayed normally.
Product Pages
Images, descriptions, specifications and downloadable documents are displayed.
Prices
Hidden or replaced with “Contact for pricing.”
Add to Cart
Replaced with “Request a Quote.”
Cart
Removed from the navigation.
Checkout
Disabled or redirected.
Payment
Not displayed.
Quote Form
Collects customer and product information.
Email Notification
Sent to the sales team.
This provides a complete product catalog without forcing the website into an ecommerce workflow that the business does not actually need.
Final Testing Checklist
Before launching the catalog, test the website as a normal visitor.
Product Pages
- Products are visible.
- Product images work.
- Variations work correctly.
- Descriptions are displayed.
- Specifications are visible.
- Prices display correctly or are intentionally hidden.
Purchasing
- Add to Cart is removed or replaced.
- Products cannot accidentally be added through AJAX.
- Cart is not accessible through normal navigation.
- Checkout does not provide an unintended purchase path.
- Payment methods are not exposed.
Navigation
- Cart links are removed where necessary.
- Checkout links are removed.
- Mobile navigation is checked.
- Footer links are checked.
Conversion
- Request Quote works.
- Contact Sales works.
- Forms send emails correctly.
- Product information is passed into forms where appropriate.
SEO
- Product pages remain accessible if they should be indexed.
- Product titles and descriptions are optimized.
- Product categories are useful.
- Internal links work.
- Unwanted catalog pages are not accidentally indexed.
Final Thoughts
Turning WooCommerce into a catalog is not simply a matter of deleting the Add to Cart button.
A properly configured catalog should remove the parts of the ecommerce process that the business does not need while keeping the powerful product management and catalog functionality that WooCommerce provides.
For a simple catalog, you may only need to disable purchasing and remove the Cart and Checkout from the user experience.
For a B2B website, you may want something more advanced:
Product Catalog → Request a Quote → Sales Team
For a hybrid store, you can go even further and show different prices and purchasing capabilities depending on the customer’s role.
The key is to decide what you want visitors to do after viewing a product.
If the answer is not “buy it online,” don’t leave them with a disabled Add to Cart button and no next step. Give them a clear action such as Request a Quote, Contact Sales, Ask for Pricing, or Talk to a Representative.
For websites that need more advanced WooCommerce functionality, performance optimization, security, SEO, and practical WordPress development guidance, you can also explore the WP Flow Mastery WordPress eBook.
Written by Nemanja Stosic
WordPress Developer & Website Optimization Specialist
Nemanja has worked on more than 200 websites and focuses on WordPress development, performance optimization, SEO, security, WooCommerce, and practical website improvements.