Managing Products through Your E-Store

Once you have your E-Store set up and containing products, you can easily manage your products through the public part of the website.  Note: You must be logged into the website to manage products (and conduct all website administration).

Product Categories

You will start by browsing to a Product Categories page of the website either through the "View Shop" link or by clicking on one of the "Product Categories" links.

1. At the top of each page will be a link: Admin: Manage Categories Here,
   • Clicking on the link takes you to a list of product categories.
2. To edit a Product Category, click on the category name,
   • Here, you can edit or view all the elements of the category,
   • Change the Category name or description,
   • The Public Display box must be ticked if you want the category and all its public products to appear on the website.
   • You can restrict the images you can select from in the products area by selecting an album,
     • This is ideal when there are large numbers of images in the system,
     • It reduces the selections thus saving some time.
   • Set a display order if it is important.
   • Select an appropriate image to represent the category from the Category Image list.  Otherwise a generic image will appear.
3. Always click "Update This Category" to save any changes made.

Products

Detail

To manage a specific Product, you can browse to a specific product on the website or use the links in the products category listing.

1. If using the website itself, at the top of the product page will be a link - Admin: Manage This Product,
   • Click on the link to go to the editable details page for the product,
   • Note the tabs near the top of the page - they all relate to the relevant product.
2. Whilst the fields are relatively self-explanatory, the following will help you get the most out of the system;
   • Ideally, the product name should contain terms you want to be picked up by search engines,
   • Where product numbers are important and widely used, include them in the title,
   • Use variations on the search term that might lead to that product page in the description and features section of the product,
   • Do not present huge blocks of text on product pages,
   • Use headings and dot points to break up and categorise information where there is a lot of it pertaining to a product,
   • Always review changes that have been made, in the web view, to ensure it presents well, is accurate and does not contain typographical errors,
   • Products appear in order, first by the Display Order number, then alphabetically,
   • Make a decision early whether to use display order or not and how you want the products ordered,
   • Products need to be ordered consistently across the website,
   • Display Order numbers do not have to be consecutive and products with the same Display Order number will appear alphabetically.

Additional Product Elements

Easily browse to other elements of the product by using the tabs.  Here is some basic information about the tabs:

Web View

• Click on the Web View tab to return to the product page on the website.
• Always remember to save your changes by clicking the Save or Update button at the bottom of any form you are editing.

Options

• Only use options when prices for each option is the same.
• When using both style and size options, multiple entries in each field will result in every combination of each field,
  • If you do not want this to happen, you will need to save each set of options separately.
• Although the fields refer to size and style, there is no restriction as to what information you save as options but keep the total length of the option to no more than about 100 characters (50 chars in each of the fields).
• Options will appear on the product page as a drop down list with the first option selected by default,
  • Options are listed alphabetically.

Images

• You can add extra images to the product page here or manage to primary image.
• The primary image is the most prominent image, with the associated images appearing as thumbnails.
• Clicking any image will open a full sized image album of all the listed images which can be viewed as a slide show.

Prices

• Manage prices for your products here.
• It is advisable to set a price date far in the future.
• If changing prices, click "Carry Price Forward" and set new dates - the old price date will be automatically adjusted.
• Dates can be set to change at any time in the future and will occur automatically on your website.
• Specials can be set in the parent price record.

Extra Info

• You can have associated products appear on the product page.
• Set the text that will appear near the images.
• List the products listing the product numbers and the order you want them to appear.  Use the following format;
  • Order Number:Product ID - eg - 1:2735,2:6754,3:9841 etc.,
  • The associated products' images normally appear near the bottom of the product page.

Stats

• View the stats of the product here.
• Viewed stats indicate the number of times the product page has been viewed.
• This does not include views by staff except if they have not been logged in.

Click her for more detailed information on setting up and managing your E-Store.