You can add, edit, delete and organise products in Product Manager.
1. Go to Product Manager
2. Click Add A New Product
Adding products is a 2 stage process. First you add the main product record, then you can add options and attributes by editing the product.
Note: You can also click Add A New Category here or View Recycle Bin (this is where deleted products go so you can restore them back if you accidentally deleted them or just want to return them to the store in the future).
3. Enter your main product information, image and settings for this product
Product Name:
Enter the product name or title with all the main descriptive keywords present and ensure it "sells" the product.
Product names have a strong affect on SEO rankings, so for best SEO results:
Keep it to 70 characters in length so it displays on Google search results without being cut-off
Make sure your best keywords are near the front
Ensure the brand name appears in the title
Product Code:
Enter a product code. If you are using Google Adwords PLA's then enter a valid MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) as your product code. Read this article for full details: Google Merchant Centre Requirements.
Tip: Entering Codes When Giving Choices Via Options.
If you are entering product options (e.g. bigger sizes such as double duvet, king size duvet etc) with their own product codes which supercede the main product code, then leave this blank and enter your product codes on your options instead. This will then only display the option product code in the checkout process.
Entering Commodity Code, Country of Origin & EORI number on your products Charge: £395+VAT
If you are using the order acknowledgement from the website as an invoice then we can add extra fields onto your template to include: commodity code, country of origin and EORI number.
First, enable the fields via Site Settings > Ecommerce > "Show Commodity Code and Country of Origin fields on product record" then enter your data via the new fields that appear underneath the product code in Product Manager when editing a product:
Once data entry is completed, raise a ticket with us to display those fields on your order/invoice template including your EORI number.
Batch Products Processor
Commodity Code and Country of Origin can both be set using the batch processing program to save time.
Template tags
Invoice Template Tags (Table Row Template) - line.commodity_code & line.country_of_origin
Read more about how these are used for exporting in our Brexit article.
Select Manufacturer (or Brand):
Select the manufacturer for this product. If you manufacture your own products then simply add yourself as a manufacturer to the system. This is also potentially used in the Google Shopping feed.
Product Short Description:
This is normally left blank, unless there is a special reason to use this information in a custom product layout template.
Product Long Description:
This is a really important field that can clinch the sale (even if your price is higher).
Ensure you provide a good description of the product and it's key selling points. Include embedded video - you might find manufacturer videos on Youtube which you can add to your page. You can add extra images into this area if it helps to highlight the product features and benefits.
Read more on How To Describe A Product & Sell It
Default Product Image:
Upload the main product image. Advisory reading: Images - Getting Them Right
Youtube Video:
If you enter a video link here then a Play button will appear under the main product image on the product page. The image will then be replaced with the video when play is clicked. If you prefer larger videos, then you can embed these in the Product Long Description by clicking Source and pasting in your embed HTML from Youtube.
Price Comparisons:
This will search Google Shopping and Ebay and display products that match your product name as you type it. This is a really useful feature to ensure you are aware of competitor prices. Also consider using our Price Comparison tool to monitor competitor prices.
Cost Price:
This is a reference only field for you to note your cost price excluding tax. When you edit prices in Product Manager it is used to calculate the Margin based on the selling price or special price you enter, to help ensure you sell with enough margin in the price.
Selling Price:
Prices and tax class can be entered into either field and the system will use your tax rate in Site Setup to calculate the price with or without tax.
Special Price:
Special prices and tax class can be entered here. To become effective, the product status must be set to Special Offer.
Delivery Cost Surcharge:
This is a surcharge for this product which will be added to the overall delivery charge calculated by the system. This is useful for bulky items taking up a lot of van space which you will be charged extra for, or for heavy items that could require a stronger van or a 2-man lift. Enter the extra charge for each delivery zone it applies to, else leave blank.
Status:
Set the main status of the product from Live, Featured, Upcoming or Special Offer. These statuses can be used on product pages to select which product to display by type. Only one status can be used on a product at any one time.
Special Offers
You can enter dates for when special offers run and the product status will be updated automatically.
Upcoming Products
You can set an availability date and time for products with an upcoming status which means visitors to the product page can sign up for an email notification that will be sent to them once the date/time of availability is reached, which is checked every hour. Once the email is sent the status is set to live for you automatically.
Discontinued products
This can be displayed to customers viewing the product via a template tag change.
Run Special Offer promotion between:
Set a date range between which your product will be set to Special Offer status and will use the special offer prices set on the product record.
Tip: Putting items on sale
For an item to show as being on sale, set the status to Special Offer and ensure you have prices in the Special Price fields.
Set Free Delivery For This Product:
This gives you the choice of making this product and/or its options free delivery. A "free delivery" message will appear on the product template to promote the fact.
Buying Rule:
Select which buying rule applies to this product. This is used during at the checkout page to stop the checkout process if required and to display a message to the buyer. Click here for details on setting up Buying Rules.
Displaying a banner stripe in the top right corner of your product:
Enter the banner text you want to display and pick / enter the color hex code (e.g. #FF9900) in the colour field. Note: Keep the text short as the banner has very limited room, best in lower case to allow more room. Check it displays ok once added.
Product Order:
Ignore this, you can now drag and drop products into position via Product Manager once they are set up.
Product Weight:
Enter your product weight.
Tip: Units of weight are whole numbers, so for example if you sell some items in grams and some in kilograms, then use grams as the measure. If you generally round up to the nearest kilogram (or pound), then use kilograms (or pounds) as the measure.
Product Tickboxes
If your site has Product Tickboxes enabled and set up via Product Tickbox Manager, these will display here allowing you to multi select as many tickboxes that apply to this product. This is also available on the edit product screen and via batch product processor to mass apply these.
Categories:
Select the default category for this product. It can also be added up to a further 4 categories, so for example one of these could be End Of Line Clearance. The product will then be displayed in all the selected categories. Remember to read about departments, categories and product filters.
Extra:
Digital Product. Tick this if it is a downloadable digital product and if all bought items are digital, the delivery address & methods are hidden on checkout plus select the Purchase Event set up for this to be a download. Read about setting this up in full in this article.
4. Stock Management Section
These settings can be ignored if you are not using the system for stock control.
Important notes about how stock control works.
Stock Level Reporting: Product Versus Option Levels
Stock can be controlled at a product or product option level, as determined on a product-by-product basis. For example, if you sell shoes then you will need to control stock by the shoe size, which is an option. The stock level will then be adjusted at either the product level or the option level when you sell a product. Please note: If you choose to stock control at the option level, the product level does not keep an overall count of stock for the different product options below it.
Stock Reservation During Checkout
Stock is allocated on a committed payment basis, i.e. at the point that a successful payment has been taken. So, imagine you have a product with only 1 left and 2 visitors arrive at the site and each add that product to their basket. They would both be allowed to add it. Once one person has completed the sale process fully by making payment, then the stock is reduced to zero and the other visitor receives a message saying the product has just gone out of stock when they make any further progression in the checkout process. You can see the full checkout process here.
Alert Me When Stock Reaches:
Leave blank or enter the stock number level which triggers a stock warning alert for this product. If entered, this overrides the standard alert level in your site settings. You can still sell products, this is advance warning that you are getting low.
Stop Selling And Alert Me Again When Stock Qty Reaches:
Leave blank or enter the stock number level which triggers a stop selling alert for this product. If entered, this overrides the standard alert level in your site settings. You will not be able to sell products. If stock is held at the option level, the option will become greyed out and show as unavailable. This enables you to retain some stock without fully selling out and is useful for bricks and mortar retailers who need to keep some products on display.
Related Download or Upload A New Download:
Select or upload a document which will appear on the product page as a downloadable resource for the visitor, for example a brochure or set of technical specifications.
Tip: In Site Setup >Default product download category - you can select a default download category which will be used when adding downloads directly on the Product page. This can help to save time and keep all your product downloads in one place.
Related Page:
Select a page whose content will be displayed underneath this product's description. This is useful for displaying information common to many products, such as handling and care instructions, hazard warnings etc.
5. Send To Social Media Section
Decide whether to send a social signal about this product to the connected social media platforms. This will send a short post or tweet about the product with an image typically. Read about Connect.
Marketing Site Link:
Add a link here if you want this product to link to another site's product page rather than being able to add it to cart on this site. This is used for affiliate marketing. It is normally left blank for non-affiliate sites.
Tip: If you are using this with the schools/charities picker, please add "#id#" where you want the id to be pulled through, e.g. www.site.co.uk/page?id=#id#
6. Page Meta Tags - Product SEO Meta Data
When you add/edit products you can override the default meta data used for SEO and displaying in search engine results with your own custom meta data.
By default, when you add a product it takes:
meta title from the product title field followed by the value in Site Settings > Search Engine Optimisation > Website Title
meta keywords from the product title field followed by the value in Site Settings > Search Engine Optimisation > Website Keywords
meta description from the first 150 characters of the product description field
However, you can now optimise each of these values in the fields provided to improve SEO effectiveness.
7. Click Save
Well done, you have completed the first stage which adds the base information to the product.
Next: Edit the product to enter additional information for the second stage