Active Catalog: Wordpress Product Catalog Plugin

Active Catalog gives industrial B2B companies an easy way to organize and display their product catalog, making it simple for your customers to find exactly what they’re looking for.

Whether you have fifty products or thousands, Active Catalog can quickly import your product catalog and create a unique page to display each product. Use the free Active Catalog plugin alone on your WordPress site or connect it to ActiveConversion for enhanced visibility into visitor interactions with your products.

The Active Catalog plugin is designed specifically for industrial B2B companies, so you don’t have to deal with all the unnecessary extras found in other catalog plugins. Active Catalog gives your customers the chance to download product brochures, specifications, or other useful documents and the ability to contact you for further information. Want a deeper insight into the buyer’s activity? You can integrate this plugin with ActiveConversion software to follow them through the sales pipeline and you’ll get notified whenever they return to your website and have any interaction with your brand. 

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

1. Download ActiveCatalog at https://wordpress.org/plugins/active-catalog/
2. Log into Wordpress
3. Go to Plugins and search for "Active Catalog"
4. Click "Install Now"
5. When the installation is finished, click "Activate"
6. You will now see "AC Catalog" in your Wordpress menu

ADD CATEGORY

1. Under the menu, click on Product Catalog -> Category
2. Click on the Add Category button
3. Enter the Name for the category and an optional Image
4. Click on Save button

ADD AN INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT

1. Log into WordPress admin
2. Go to Active Catalog section
3. Click on Add New
4. The product page editor will appear
5. Fill in the content as you would a standard word press page.
6. Publish the page.

IMPORT YOUR PRODUCTS

1. Log into WordPress admin
2. Go to Active Catalog section
3. Click on Import Catalog button
4. Select the product catalog CSV file that contains the proper header columns and click Upload CSV
5. In the next screen, review and ensure the detected columns are matching the proper field names
6. When ready, click on Continue
7. This confirmation page will show:
   • You are about to import the product catalog. Please confirm:
   • Total items to be imported: 136
   • Items to be created: 89
   • Items to be updated: 46
   • Duplicate items: 2
8. Click on the Confirm Import button to import the catalog.

FORMATTING YOUR PRODUCT CSV FOR IMPORT

Your CSV file should contain the following header titles: product, sku, tags, categories, brochures, spec sheets, manufacturer, price, content, main image and secondary images.

A template for your CSV can be found in the AC Catalog screen:

• Product: Name of the product to be displayed on the product page.
• SKU: SKU number. Displayed on the product page.
• Tags: Relevant tags to improve searchability and display of similar products. Not shown on the product page.
• Categories: Category assignment to improve organization and searchability. Categories will be displayed on the product page.
• Brochures: Links to brochures, downloadable from the product page.
• Spec Sheets: Links to technical spec sheets, downloadable from the product page.
• Manufacturer: Product manufacturer. displayed on the product page.
• Price: Price of the product. Do not include currency symbol. Displayed on the product page.
• Content: The full product description to be displayed on the product page. You can use HTML formatting to change its appearance on the page.
• Main Image: The first image to be displayed on the product page. Include a link to the media file (URL)
• Secondary Images: Other images to be displayed. Include a link to the media file (URL)

If a cell is left empty in the CSV file, it will be removed from the product page.

Any offsite files linked to in your CSV (images, brochures, or spec sheets) will be automatically uploaded to your Wordpress installation during import. 

Download CSV Template for Product Import

STYLING YOUR PRODUCT PAGES

The Active Catalog plugin includes its own basic theme templates for Wordpress to display your product information. 

The below PHP templates are located in the plugin folder:

Archive template: archive-ac_product.php
Single product template: single-ac_product.php
Category archive: taxonomy-ac_product_cat.php
Tag archive: taxonomy-ac_product_tag.php

You can copy these templates into your own Wordpress theme and customize or adjust by editing your theme code as needed to match your website.