An online product catalogue with prices and enquiry buttons, not a cart
Trade suppliers, furniture makers, nurseries and equipment hire firms often want their whole range online but don't sell it through a checkout. Prices vary by quantity, items are made to order, or every sale starts with a conversation. A product catalog website shows the range clearly and turns interest into an enquiry. Anticode keeps the products in a CMS collection, gives each its own page and sends enquiries to you.
Who a catalogue suits better than a shop
- Trade and wholesale suppliers, where buyers have account prices and order by invoice.
- Makers of furniture, joinery or textiles, where every piece is built to a size or finish.
- Plant nurseries and growers, whose availability changes weekly and who sell to landscapers by the trolley.
- Hire companies, for equipment, marquees or props, where the price depends on dates.
- Manufacturers whose products are sold through dealers but who need a reference catalogue with specifications.
In each case, a cart would either show the wrong price or take money for something that hasn't been confirmed. A catalogue removes that problem and keeps the part buyers need: being able to browse, compare and send a sensible enquiry.
Designing the product record
The quality of a catalogue depends on its fields more than its layout. Decide the fields once, and every product gets the same treatment. In Anticode, a CMS collection has typed fields that you edit in the dashboard. A typical set for a furniture maker:
| Field | Why it's there |
|---|---|
| Name and product code | Buyers quote codes back to you; it ends the "which one did you mean" emails |
| Photo | The main image, with alt text that describes the piece |
| Short description | One or two lines for the listing |
| Full description | Materials, finish, construction, care |
| Dimensions | Width, depth, height and weight, in the units your buyers use |
| Price or price note | "From" price, a trade price note, or "price on request" |
| Lead time | How long it takes to make or deliver |
| Category | Tables, chairs, storage: so the listing can be read in groups |
Anticode serves the collection as a listing at /<collection>/ and a page for each item at /<collection>/<slug>, so a product called the Hale Dining Table might live at /furniture/hale-dining-table. That gives each product a link you can paste into an email or a quote, and an address search engines can find.
To show prices or not
Hiding every price behind "enquire" makes browsing pointless and filters out nobody. Showing exact prices can be wrong for trade buyers with their own terms. Common middle grounds:
- "From" prices, based on the standard size or finish.
- Retail prices shown, with a line for trade accounts: "trade and volume pricing on request".
- Price bands ("under 500, 500 to 1,500") in your currency, if exact figures change too often.
- Price on request only for genuinely bespoke items, not the whole range.
The enquiry
Every product page should end in one obvious action. On Anticode that's the contact form. Tell buyers, right above it, what to include in their message: the product code, the quantity, and a delivery postcode if it affects the price. If you'd rather have a field for each, a custom form tied to a site function can carry them. Enquiries are saved to your project, sealed at rest, emailed to you if you like, and can be sent to a CRM such as HubSpot, a sheet, Airtable or a team channel. If a buyer is interested in several items, one message listing all the codes is better than one enquiry per product, so say that too.
For items with a fixed price that you are happy to sell outright, you can add buy buttons that go to a payment link from your own provider (Stripe Payment Links, PayPal, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Shopify or Whop) alongside the enquiry form. There's one payment link per account and every buy button opens it, so for more than one item point it at a product list or multi-item checkout at the provider. Most catalogues won't need it.
Keeping it current
The point of the CMS is that adding a product or changing a price is a dashboard edit, not a rebuild. Set a routine: review the catalogue monthly, mark discontinued items as such for a while (people still search for them) before removing them, and update lead times when your workshop is busy. In a Team workspace, the person who knows the stock can make these edits without touching the design.
What a catalogue on Anticode won't do
- No cart or checkout. Buyers can't add several products and pay; that's the trade-off of this format. If you want that, see the online store build and its payment-link approach, or a dedicated e-commerce platform.
- No stock levels, shipping or tax handling. Note availability in a field and handle the rest in your quote.
- No search or filters. With a large range, group products by category and keep each listing short. A catalogue of thousands of items needs a dedicated tool.
- No trade logins. There are no buyer accounts on published sites, so confidential price lists can't be shown to logged-in buyers only.
Questions people ask
Can I print the catalogue as a PDF?
Anticode doesn't generate a PDF catalogue. Browsers can print individual pages, and a plain Light theme prints well, but a designed print catalogue is a separate job.
How many products can I list?
A collection can hold your range, but with no on-site search, catalogues work best when browsable by category: dozens or a few hundred items rather than thousands.
Can I start with a few products and add more later?
Yes. Build the site with a handful, then add the rest in the dashboard; each new product gets its page without a rebuild.