Can Magento be used as a CMS to build a product catalog(not a store currently but maybe in the future)

Question

I have to build a website for a mobile store. They want to list their products but don't want to start selling yet. I have done a lot of website with Joomla and Virtuemart. This time I want to use Magento as they use Lightspeed a POS that offers integration with Magento community edition.

My question is can I simply use Magento as a CMS to only display products and a few static pages like about us etc. I went through stackoverflow and found that some members have recommended some good blog integrations for magento so that part is solved(Thanks :-) ).

I know I can use wordpress as a blog with magento. I rephrase....Can I use it to simply display products!

If Yes then please let me know if I am doing it for the right reason. the reason are:

1. Adding products and product information becomes very easy in a shopping cart(But in a CMS like Joomla each page has to be literally "designed" or I will have to use CCK editor. It still becomes difficult for the client to update products IMO)

2. It comes with built in plugins to show related/featured products etc. with a click on a button or options in the backend while client simply puts the appropriate tags(With a CMS have to use a plugin or module in Joomla that has to be set to show in the particular pages)

3. Automatic display of images etc is easier in Magento in comparison to a CMS like Joomla where I will have to use a plugin or a gallery that is set to show inside an article
4. The buy/add to cart button can easily be disabled and a "more info" button can be added that will send an email to the client. They get the exact product code the customer is asking for(Doing that in Joomla would require a lot of extra stuff like adding codes or use an advanced contact form with a tag to be entered for each page)
5. Last but not the least when client is ready to go online it can easily be converted

Does Magento have two display? One is simply a catalog and the other a store. I have seen that in some stores online(not necessarily using magento) I am assuming either they created a website with the products pages first and then added a store later. But in many cases it looks like a part of the Shopping application.(i just can't seem to remember which one they were using now). If Magento allows that then I think my problem is solved. I simply use the "catalog option" and when the client is ready for the store I simply pull the products using a extension from their POS software.

Thank you for taking the time to read/answer.

Answer 1

System > Configuration > Advanced > Advanced

Disable the modules you don't want to use.

For example, if you wanted to use Magento as catalog only then disable sales module.

Hope this works for you!

Answer 2

Using Magento as a catalog only without selling the items is pretty straightforward. The easiest thing to do is just to use the catalog category lists to list the products and just make sure the "order" button is not visible.

You can do this simply by removing it from the product detail template (and the list/grid template in case they have it). Or you could (I think) set all products to 'out of stock' this will automatically remove the 'order' button.

If you want to be thorough you should edit the cartControllers's addAction to disable adding products to the cart.

If you are going to combine Magento with Wordpress, Fishpig has developed a plugin with which you can use shortcode within Wordpress blogposts or/and pages to display products. More info about that can be found here: http://fishpig.co.uk/wordpress-integration/docs/shortcodes.html