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, attributes, additional images, downloads and more 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.
If your site enforces unique product codes, the system will check the code as you type and warn you if it's already in use.
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 supersede the main product code, then leave this blank and enter your product codes on your options instead.
Legacy Product Code
If you've migrated from another system and want to keep a record of the previous code (for reporting, search or order matching), enter it here.
Only appears when the Legacy Product Code feature is enabled.
GTIN
Enter the Global Trade Item Number (e.g. EAN, UPC, ISBN) for this product. This is used by Google Shopping and other product feeds.
The field includes a "Where do I find this?" link to Google's documentation.
Product Type
Allows you to select a type (created in the Product Types) admin area.
Only appears when the Product Types & Attributes feature is enabled.
Entering Commodity Code, Country of Origin & Customs Description on your products
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.
Customs Description
Field to enter a detailed explanation of goods being shipped internationally, used to inform customs authorities about the shipment's contents
Batch Products Processor
Commodity Code, Country of Origin & Customs Description can all 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.
Status
Set the main status of the product from Draft, 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.
New products default to Draft. Switch to Live (or Featured / Special Offer) when you're ready to publish.
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.
When you choose Upcoming, extra fields appear:
- Launch Date / Time — when the product is automatically published
- Launch Status — the status to switch to on launch (Live, Featured or Special Offer)
If you have Early Birds & Exclusives enabled, an "Available to Early Bird customers?" tickbox also appears here, allowing selected customers to buy upcoming products before launch.
Non Purchasable
When ticked, this product will be locked to Draft and cannot be shown or purchased on the frontend.
Use this for internal records, archived products, or items that exist purely for reporting.
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.
RRS Group Override
If your site uses RRS (Runners, Repeaters, Strangers) groups, you can override the group used for this product here.
Only appears if RRS Groups are enabled. Otherwise leave as "None".
Sync product to Unleashed
If your site is connected to Unleashed inventory, tick to push this product to Unleashed when saved.
Only appears if Unleashed is connected.
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.
AI assistance: Click the Write product description button to have the system draft an SEO-optimised description based on the product name. You can edit the result before saving.
Read more on How To Describe A Product & Sell It
Default Product Image(s)
Upload the main product image. You can select multiple images at once - the first will be set as the default and the rest added as additional images.
Advisory reading: Images - Getting Them Right
YouTube Videos
Paste one or more YouTube URLs here. When set, a Play button appears under the main product image on the product page. Clicking it replaces the image with the video. If you prefer larger videos, 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.
Hide Prices
If ticked, prices are removed for this product in the main part of the store. Although if the user adds it to their cart / checkout it will show the price.
Mark as Enquiry Only
Instead of an add-to-cart button the user will see an enquiry button that pops a form to collect the user's information.
If Early Birds & Exclusives are enabled, an additional "Except to Exclusive customers" tickbox lets exclusive members buy normally while everyone else sees the enquiry button.
Exclude from Google Products
If ticked, this product will be removed from the Google Products feed and will not appear in their Comparison search engine.
Price List Exclusions
- Exclude from Price List — removes the product from the Price List app, its downloads, and its difference emails.
- Only exclude Price List Difference Emails — keeps the product in the Price List but stops it triggering difference emails.
Exclude from Multi Store & API Webhooks
If ticked, this product will not be sent in API webhooks e.g. for Multi Store. You might want to tick this if you don't want to send the product to the replica sites yet. You can untick this on the edit product screen.
Restricted user access
Only allow access to this product for one or more specific customers. The product will only appear in categories, search, direct links and more for those users. Leave blank to allow all users to see this product.
Only appears if Restricted Access is enabled.
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.
If your site is integrated with Sage and field requirements are enforced, this is read-only and must be set inside Sage.
Development Cost
This is the price it cost to originally develop this product for calculating time-to-profit.
Only appears if Development Costs are enabled.
Google Shopping Min. Price
Optionally set a specific minimum price you'd like to use in Google Shopping's Auto Discounts.
You can also tick "Exclude from Google Shopping Auto Discounts" to opt this product out of automatic discounting. Both fields only appear if Google Shopping Auto Discounts are enabled.
Max Discount %
Limits the automatic group price discount for this product. The final discount will be the lower of this value and the group's automatic percent reduction. Leave blank for no limit.
Only appears if Auto Group Pricing is enabled.
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 (or use the date range above to schedule it).
Auto Group Price Preview
Prices that will be generated on save based on the retail price entered above.
If you have Auto Group Pricing set up, a live preview table appears once you enter a retail price. It shows what each group's price will be (ex. and inc. VAT, including special prices), based on each group's auto discount percent and any Max Discount % limit. You can also enter a per-group **Override %** here to set that group's discount directly.
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.
Click "+ Delivery Cost Surcharges?" to expand the zone table.
Extra
The Extra section contains a number of per-product flags:
Is this a digital product? Tick this if it is a downloadable digital product. If all bought items are digital, the delivery address & methods are hidden on checkout. Pair this with a Purchase Event below to handle the download.
Read about setting this up in full in this article.
Is this an addon product? Addon products are hidden from many areas such as best seller lists, abandoned cart emails etc.
Is this a free sample? When customers only have free samples in their cart, it will skip any min order value requirements.
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.
You can optionally restrict the free delivery to a specific zone only.
Buying Rules
Select which buying rule(s) apply to this product. This is used 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.
Quantity in Pack
If a product is actually a bundle of multiple items (for example, a pack of 6 sold as one product), enter the number of underlying items here. Buying rules using item quantities will use this value.
Fitting Time
If your site has product fitting times enabled, enter the fitting / installation time here.
Purchase Event
Optional event to fire when this product is purchased — used for digital downloads, course access, and other automation hooks.
Banner Display
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.
Display Sort Order
This allows you to organise the order in which products appear on the website by setting a number. It is a good idea to use a multiple of 10 so that you can easily move products without having to renumber all of them. For example, product 1=10, product 2=20, product 3=30. If you then wanted product 3 to appear before product 2 you would change product 3's order to 19.
In most cases you can simply drag and drop products into position via Product Manager once they're 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.
Delivery Packaging Type
Pick the packaging type for shipping calculations.
Only appears when packaging types have been set up on your site.
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.
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 one or more documents which will appear on the product page as a downloadable resource for the visitor, for example a brochure or set of technical specifications.
As well as uploading files here, they can also be marked as private (no public link) and requires login (for where you need an account to see the file).
If you have the watermarking feature enabled on your site, you can also set the file to be automatically watermarked with the user ID from here as well.
The "Update the download file if existing file name already exists?" option lets you replace an existing file of the same name rather than creating a duplicate.
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.
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#
Note: If needed, you can set two more links here. The inputs will only show after setting values in Site Definitions > MARKETING_SITE_LINK_TITLE_2 & MARKETING_SITE_LINK_TITLE_3
Event Hook Page
An optional page used for event hooks (such as triggering email tasks when this product is purchased).
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.
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.
Click Save
Well done, you have completed the first stage which adds the base information to the product.
If your site has delayed product events enabled, a second button is available to sync this product with external systems (such as Multi Store and Unleashed) on demand.
If Boost List is enabled, a Boost button is also available to promote this product through your boost campaigns.
Next: Edit the product to enter additional information for the second stage