Top 5 WordPress Catalog Plugins for Innovative Online Stores

A comprehensive list of WordPress catalog plugins to supercharge your eCommerce store.

If you think online selling is all about finding the products and brands that would reel in your predefined target market and putting them out on the worldwide web, you got it all wrong, folks. Online commerce or eCommerce is such a big piece of meat you can’t gobble up in one seating. You have to cut it into bite-size pieces to fully digest what it means, how it works, and how you can set yourself up for success.

Just like any conventional business, eCommerce requires a set of crystal-clear plans. That would define everything from the big aspects of running your business down to the smallest details. You might not seriously consider nailing your product catalog pages when putting your products out there. But it’s about time you do.

For a minute, imagine yourself as the shopper perusing your product pages. Do you find it easy navigating your way through your online shop? Do the keywords you enter lead you to the right items you’re seeking? Does your catalog display all the essential pieces of product information that answer the questions you have in mind about the item? Did the overall product page appear visually arresting—something that reeled you in?

The Importance of WordPress Catalog Plugins

If you answered ‘no’ to some or most of the questions above, it only indicates that you need to improve your product catalog management. Neglect this part and your business is bound to suffer. There could be some drop in your SEO success rate. Customers might leave and look elsewhere for the item they need.

Because, hey, lack of necessary product information turns off buyers. Understandably, when we have unanswered questions in mind, we find it hard to decide and act. In this case, buyers find it extra challenging to weigh in between the decision to buy or to leave.

For example, if you find a good pair of shoes online without sizing information, you easily conclude that it’s pretty useless coming across this item. And if you can’t see enough product images that could somehow boost your confidence to buy, you might even regret wasting your time on that page.

On the other hand, having a good product catalog draws your potential buyers’ interest. When they find your catalog highly responsive and well optimized, they gain a positive user experience. Ultimately, finding the right information they need can boost their confidence to make a purchase. As you achieve all these, you’re gradually fostering brand loyalty.

And so, you have to start working on that product catalog right now or fix that one on your site if it’s existing already. The top product catalog plugins for WordPress will help you do that. Below are some examples.

Best WordPress Catalog Plugins

1. eCommerce Product Catalog

You don’t have to look elsewhere if you’re seeking one of the WordPress catalog plugins for your eCommerce store that’s geared with ideal features and functionalities. The plugin eCommerce Product Catalog provides an efficient solution for organizing and managing your product pages. It doesn’t only enable you to create sleek and beautiful product pages. Also, it makes them highly responsive and user-friendly as well.

This flexible plugin allows you to customize your product display with ease. You can use WordPress customizer, template files or CSS. It’s up to you to decide where to place your product display on your website. You can place it anywhere ideal with or without price and custom parameters.

Designed to help you create ultra-organized product pages, the plugin conveniently allows you to sort your products into multiple categories, tags, filters, and even multiple product catalogs. With this feature, your customers will quickly and easily navigate your product pages. In addition, you can place a product search field on your page to ensure a satisfactory online shopping experience every time. Don’t let any chance of one buyer making a purchase slip away!

More Features of eCommerce Product Catalog

On your end as the site admin, transferring your products from a listing on your file to your website and vice versa can be time-consuming. The plugin eliminates that inconvenience through a feature. That allows you to import and export your products with a CSV spreadsheet. You can display up to 100,000 products in the catalog, divided into several product pages.

Another great bonus this plugin provides is its capability to optimize your ecommerce site on search engine results. The meta tags and schema.org rich snippets make this possible. It’s also perfectly alright if you’re using a third-party SEO plugin as it’s designed to integrate well with all major SEO plugins. And as you know, SEO is a classic marketing technique that never gets old. Yet, it’s effective and cost-efficient.

The various product page templates make it easy to build your catalog design quickly. Since it’s highly modifiable, you can build a product catalog on a full-page online shop and other WordPress site formats, such as blogs and portfolios.

2. WC Catalog Enquiry

A valuable add-on to the WooCommerce plugin, WC Catalog Enquiry enables eCommerce store owners to simultaneously use its features and functionalities for shop and catalog. It also provides functionality that works like a restricted content tool. You can limit access to your shop for non-registered users. That will make your site an exclusive place for members who shop regularly. You can take advantage of this feature as part of the gradual process of fostering brand loyalty.

What specific functionalities can this WordPress catalog plugin do for your site? Some free features will enable you to hide the “add to cart” button from a product page or any other type of page. You can also provide access to pricing information exclusively to registered site members.

There’s also an option to either allow product selling on a page or display the products exclusively on a catalog. As its name implies, you can use WC Catalog Enquiry to create inquiry forms. Those interested shoppers can use to ask for information about your products. You can also add and customize an inquiry button on your catalog page. Think of it as the online digital version of your conventional product brochure.

3. Ultimate Product Catalog

With tons of ideal features, tools, and functionalities to make your product catalog as visually appealing and organized as possible, the plugin indeed took its name seriously. Ultimate Product Catalog comes with three product catalog layouts. These can be viewed and switched quickly and smoothly—yes, folks, no page reload needed.

The three different product catalog layouts are offered right in the free version. The plugin’s premium version offers three additional styles: minimalist, block and hover layouts. All of the pre-designed catalog layouts, are highly responsive. And so, you can be sure that your product pages will be visually appealing and user friendly across all devices.

But the sleek, well-organized feel isn’t just evident on the overall look of the page layout. Your customers will experience utmost convenient shopping with the efficient sorting and filtering system for categorizing and sub-categorizing your products. It’s also easy to set sale prices and toggle these on or off for the whole product page, catalog or individual products.

More Features of Ultimate Product Catalog

No need to manually enter your products on your site’s draft page. You can upload and import them to your catalog from a spreadsheet file. As a result, you can save time and allot to more important aspects of running your business.

The Ultimate Product Catalog plugin integrates fully with WooCommerce. With the full WooCommerce product integration feature, your customers can checkout directly from the product catalog. However, you need to upgrade from free to premium version to avail this feature. You can take advantage of the free seven-day trial of the premium version to see how it goes for your eCommerce store.

With its wide range of features and functionalities, Ultimate Product Catalog is undoubtedly one of the best catalog plugins for WordPress.

4. WordPress Portfolio Plugin – GridKit Portfolio Gallery

While GridKit Portfolio Gallery was not exclusively created as a plugin for creating product catalogs, it was designed to be a versatile plugin for various uses and site themes. Web designers can use it to display portfolio projects, create multi-purpose gallery layouts, make slider presentations, and create product catalogs for your online store.

Whatever visually appealing grid layout you need to come up with, you can use GridKit Portfolio Gallery for that. You can design your pages for various screen sizes, as the plugin provides a highly responsive and mobile-friendly layout option. Target consumers can access your product catalogs with ease, convenience and efficiency through a mobile device while on the go.

The WordPress Catalog plugins will also enable you to build appealing and sleek pop-ups that showcase items grouped in grid style. You can use this feature to create teasers that reel in your site visitors to your actual product pages.

These are just some free features you can utilize with this plugin. It allows you to customize almost every feature that the plugin provides. You can unleash more useful tools and functionalities when you upgrade to the pro version.

The Premium Version

The premium version offers over three additional grid layouts and three additional pop-up styles. It also comes with the video support feature, which allows you to embed product videos uploaded on YouTube or Vimeo. In addition, it allows you to improve your ranking on search engine results by making your gallery pictures SEO friendly.

Like the WC Catalog Enquiry plugin, you can use GridKit Portfolio Gallery to create and showcase captivating online product brochures. That will prompt target consumers to find out more about the products and brands available on your shop.

5. YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode

One of the best WordPress catalog plugins for WooCommerce is YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode. It centered on improving the look, feel and functionality of WooCommerce sites. YITH, the plugin developer, has also created other useful plugins.

Its WooCommerce Catalog Mode plugin is just one of the many tools you can use and the other plugins included in what the company tags as the YITH Essential Kit for WooCommerce. Think of it as a comprehensive ecommerce toolbox that every online entrepreneur can use to grow his business.

But let’s talk about what the YITH WooCommerce Catalog Mode plugin can do for your ecommerce site. The concept of this plugin is to create beautiful eCommerce site pages. That’s where you can display your products without making them immediately available for sale. As mentioned earlier, consider this a teaser for your upcoming brand or product launch.

The Key Takeaways

The plugin can transform your product pages as a complete product catalog only by disabling checkout and add-to-cart functions. But why would a seller do this anyway? Does he not want to make sales but ironically, what he does for a living? Of course, any business owner would love to hit a home run in the sales department. No, that’s not the point.

But just in case there are inevitable moments in life when you’re left with no choice but to close your store temporarily because you won’t be able to process the orders and you don’t have enough manpower to do that for you either, you’ll find this plugin beneficial. Instead of closing your online store completely, just leave it like a digital product brochure. You’ll still draw interested buyers. On top of that, you’ll be able to maintain your active online presence.

You can leave your product pages as exclusive catalogs that potential consumers can still browse. If they find something interesting, this can prompt them to write you a message inquiring about the product. For example, you’re out for a week or so to go on a vacation.

While all these WordPress catalog plugins for creating catalogs provide promising and notable features, you still have to carefully look at your business needs and priorities. By defining how exactly you want your catalog to look for your target audience, you can create a roadmap leading you to an ideal plugin that provides all the features and tools you need.