So you activated the plugin, and you saw a shiny new section appear in the left sidebar, and now you’re wondering what the hell all those new tabs are for. Just for you, we included this (incredibly) brief overview of the different aspects of a WP e-Commerce store. For detailed information about each of these sections, check out the appropriate documentation.

Sales
This section does not actually refer to items that might be on “sale” this week. Rather, it refers to your online sales as a whole. If you click on this tab, you will see

1. An overview of what’s going on in your store that month (how many products you are selling, how many sales their have been, etc.)
2. A sales log, which lists an overview of each sale. From here, you can click on any of the sales to see a more detailed report for that sale.

Products
This section refers to….your products. Genius isn’t it! No really, this IS where you actually add/edit your products.

Categories
This section refers to your product categories and/or brands. WP e-Commerce is pretty unique in that it gives your buyers a variety of ways to search through your products. Not only can you stick a product in multiple categories, but you can also categorize it by it’s brand. For example, if you were selling shoes (among other things), you would have a “shoe” category, as well as different “brand” categories such as Nike, Adidas, Vans, etc. In addition, you can actually specify your target markets for each of the categories as well!

Variations
This section refers to your different product variations. What’s a variation you ask? It’s pretty much just another word for “options”. For example: if you are selling t-shirts you might create a variation set called size, with the values of small, medium, large, etc. You get the point.

Marketing
This section refers to the various ways you can market your products. This is a truly awesome section, because from here you can create coupons, setup cross selling options, and most important of all UTILIZE THE POWER OF SOCIAL NETWORKS.

Settings
This section encompasses all of the settings that could even slightly affect your store. From taxes to layout to shipping AND more, this is where it all happens baby!

Upgrades
This is a magical section that can only be unlocked if you purchase the Gold Cart upgrade.