Products
Oh yeah baby, the time has come…let’s get your bread buttered and ENTER SOME PRODUCTS (insert cheering crowd). We are just going to start by giving you the basic instructions (you impatient person you). However, after the instructions you will see an actual description of what each of the settings mean.
The Least You Need to Know to Add a Product
When you arrive on the products page, you will see two column. The left column lists your products (once they have been entered). From here, you can choose to edit/delete/view/duplicate/unpublish a product. The right column provides a form for you to add new products.
To add a new product (if you aren’t in the process of editing one), you can just start entering the information into the form. If you are in the process of editing a product, in order to add a new one you just need to click the “Add Products” link at the top of the page.
The minimum requirements for adding a product are
- Product Name
- Product Price
- Product Category
- Product Weight (if the product requires shipping)
- After that, you can do whatever the heck you like with the rest of the form settings.
- Once you click the “Add New Product” button at the bottom of the page, you are officially in business.
What Do These Setting Even Mean?
Basic Information
Product Name: Make sure your product name is distinctive (i.e. you know which product the name actually refers to), since this is the identifying information you will receive when the customer places the order. Also, you want your customer to be able to, you know, get the gist of the product before they even read the details.
Stock Keeping Unit: This isn’t where you actually put the number of items you have in stock. Instead this is where you would put a product SKU or any other identifier you might use for yourself when it comes to keeping track of your products. This is not a required field.
Price: Pretty self explanatory
Sales Price: Also pretty self-explanatory. If the product is on sale, the price you enter here will override the other price. Both prices will still display, but the original price will have a line running through, just to let your customers know what a deal they are getting. Man you are nice!
+ New Currency: If you are selling your products in other countries, and you want the price to be able to display in the local currencies, this is where you would choose the currency, and enter the price (in that currency).
Product Description: This is the basic product description, which can appear (depending on your settings) on any page that lists multiple products (e.g. the main “products” page or a “category page”). In addition, this description will appear on the actual individual product page itself.
Additional Description: This is any sort of additional description you might have for the product. On the pages that list multiple products (depending on your settings), this will appear in a collapsed area called “Details”, which the user can click to expand upon. The additional description will appear on the actual individual product page itself, as well.
—————————————————————————————————————–
Categories and Tags
Categories/Brands: Choose which categories and/or brands your product should be listed under. Your product can be in as many categories and/or brands as you like, however it must be in at least one. Otherwise you ain’t gonna see no product. Click here to read more about categories in general.
Tags: You can tag your product with multiple labels, and then add the Product Tabs widget , which gives your customers yet another way to search your catalog. Tags are also awesome for SEO.
—————————————————————————————————————–
Price and Stock Control
Do not include tax: Check this box if you do not want that particular product to have a sales tax (note: taxes are set in store > settings > general)
This is a donation: Checking this box awakens the magical donation’s fairy, who plops a little donations box on your product page where the price would normally be. This allows your customers to enter their own price for the product. There is also a donations widget you can stick in your sidebar, which will also be activated by the power of the donation’s fairy.
Table Rate Price: This is only applicable if you want the price of your product to change depending on the quantity that is ordered. For example, if you were selling books – one book might be $10, two books might be $18, three books might be $25, etc.
Custom Tax Rate: Check this if for some reason, your product has a custom tax rate.
I have a limited number of this item in stock…: This is a VERY IMPORTANT box. Check this box if you want the cart to keep track of your inventory. You can then enter a number for the items you have in stock, and once the stock reaches zero, the product will no longer be available in the store, unless you come back and untick the box, or add more stock.
—————————————————————————————————————–
Shipping Details
Weight: If you are calculating your shipping based on weight, then this is where you enter the weight!
Flat Rate Settings: If you are calculating your shipping based on a flat rate for each product (rather than just a flat rate for the entire order as a whole), this is where you enter your flat rate fee. Notice you have an option to enter a fee both for local shipping as well as international shipping.
Disregard Shipping: Check this box if your product does not require shipping (such as digital downloads).
—————————————————————————————————————–
Variation Control
Add Variation Set: Clicking on this link will take you to the variations page where you can add a new variation set (if you haven’t already done so).
Variation Sets: If you already created your variations sets (like we told you to do), then you will see them listed here. If you check the box next to the name of the variation set, the variations values for that set will appear. You can then check the box for the appropriate values, at which point a table will appear (we know, does it ever stop). Once the table appears, you can then enter a new price and weight (if necessary) for the different values, as well as associate a download for the variation (if necessary). Click here to read more about variations in general.
—————————————————————————————————————–
Advanced Options
Custom Meta: This is where you can add even more information about the product (if there is anything left to share). For example, if you are selling films, and you want your customers to be able to search by director, you could add a field named “Director” with the description value of “Steven Speilberg”. If you are familiar with WordPress, this is our version of Custom Fields.
Merchant Notes: This is your chance to write little snarky comments about the product that only YOU will see. For example, if you are selling a defective product (which we’re sure you would never do), and you know it’s defective, you might want to make a note to yourself to remind you that the product is defective, and you should ignore all emails from anyone who bought it! Or you could just use this section to write normal valid reminders. Whatever floats your boat.
Users can personalize this product…: If you check this box, the mysterious personalization gnome (obviously WP e-Commerce is fully inhabited by the paranormal) places a text box on the product page for customers to enter their own text. For example, if you are selling customized t-shirts, this is where the customer would type what they want their t-shirt to say
Users can upload images…: If you check this box, the enchanted uploading dragon (running out of mystical words and beings here), will place an upload form on the product page so that customers can upload an image, which you can then retrieve from the purchase log.
Off Site Product Link: If this product is for sale on another website enter the link here, and the mischevious elf-like…oh forget it. If you put a link here (for instance, your product is an MP3 file for sale on itunes), this option over rides the buy now and add to cart links and takes you to the site linked here.
—————————————————————————————————————–
Product Images
Select Files: This is where you upload your product images. Whether it’s one image, or 10 images (if you have purchased the Gold Cart), this is the place the magic (oops) happens.
Manage Thumbnails: If you have the Gold Cart, this is where you manage your product images. From here, you can
- Choose (via drag and drop) which image should be the primary one
- Re-order (via drag and drop) the way in which the gallery thumbnails appear
- Choose which size you want the thumbnails to be. Your options are
- Use default size – You can set a default size in the Store > Settings > Appearance section
- Do not resize thumbnail image – This means the thumbnail will be the exact dimensions of your upload. You probably won’t want to select this, because it means for some reason, you want to go through and manually size your thumbnails before you upload them. But hey, maybe you enjoy mind numbing tasks. Your much better off setting a default size for the thumbnails, and then using the next setting for images which the default settings do not apply
- Use specific size – If some of your product images do not fit the default size (for example if some of them are wider or taller than the default) you will select this option. Once you select it, you will be able to enter the dimensions you would like the thumbnail to use.
- Use separate thumbnail – This is for if you want one image to be the main product image (once you get to the actual product page), but you want a different image to be used on any page that lists products. We’re sure there is a good reason for this setting, we just can’t think of it this second.
- Crop this image using jCrop – You can click on this if you want to crop your image from within WP e-Commerce. However, you can only crop the image into a perfect square. You can’t get funky with it (no rectangles allowed)
Note: The “do not resize” option and the “use specific size” option do not work if you are using the grid view. This is because, if those setting did work, you would no longer have a nice clean grid. To see a forum members clever work-a-round click here. But don’t blame us when your grid looks all funky.
—————————————————————————————————————–
Product Download
Upload File: This is where you upload a file, if its available for download (man, that’s a weird sentence). You can then choose from the uploaded files, whichever one applies to this product. If you are using the MP3 Module, this is also where you would upload the MP3.
—————————————————————————————————————–
Add New Product (or Update Product) Button
Click this sucker and you’re done! Now go…make some money.