 [ Back to Support Main Menu ] |
|
Adding Products to Your Store
This Section covers adding new products to your store's database using the add products screen of the store manager.Adding Products Menu
- Product ID Numbers
- Product Price and Shipping & Handling Fees
- Product Options
- Product Category
- Product Name
- Product Image Name
- Product Image Upload Fields
- Product Description
- User Fields
Product ID Numbers
This box will automatically fill in with the next product number following the highest listed in the store's database. Don't worry about the "*" symbol in the product number (if using version F, you will have to delete it manually). You may also enter any number you wish to keep it uniform with your existing product codes. You will have to experiment if your product numbers are not numbers to make sure that they appear right in your store and the number is captured during checkout. For simplicity, please use numbers only. Note: these characters are not allowed in the Product ID: !,#,@,$,%,&,*,(,),{,},{,},|,\,/,=,+.-,?,<,>,~, commas, colons, semi-colons, periods, and spaces.
By default the product number is limited to 4 or less characters and will advance in numerical sequence starting at 0001. If you need more characters, you will need to adjust the pad length setting found in the main settings section of the Program Settings menu.
^ TOPProduct Price and Shipping & Handling Fees
Enter the price you wish to charge for the product in the top box. Do not add the "$" sign. You should enter the price in x,xxx.xx format (examples: 1,999.95, 349.00, 19.95)
The next box has two ways info is added. If you signed up for online shipping accounts, you can directly interface with USPS, UPS and FedEx using the SBW module found in the shipping section under the Program Settings menu and enter the weight of the item plus a little extra weight for packaging. The shopping cart will then interface with your shipping carrier and figure the shipping in real time. Otherwise, you can add a dollar amount for extra shipping, a handling fee or insurance costs for the individual product. You can change the cart display, from the store manager menu, to title this function as you like (such as: Handling and Insurance). Remember that the main shipping costs are added and setup thru the shipping settings section in the Program Settings menu. This section is for extra costs you wish to add to a product if you are not using real time shipping, otherwise enter the product's weight.
^ TOP
Product Options
Choose the options file you wish to use for the product. If there are no options available on your product, leave it or choose the blank.html file.
Options files allow you to post a single listing for products with multiple colors, sizes, models, gift wrapping, etc. You may also charge additional costs for differing options that the customer selects. You may have as many options and option menus as you wish, but more than two option menus are not recommended due to store layout spacing.
^ TOP
Product Category
Enter the product category you wish the product to fall under. This is case sensitive so you will need to be consent for products that fall under the same category. If you use the same category name but with different letter cases, they will be treated as separate categories. For example, if you sell shirts and you type in Shirts for one product, SHirts for another, and SHIRTS for yet another, these three products will be classified as three different product categories.
You may use a single word or use multiple words connected by an underscore character (multi_words) (cannot use this method if auto-generating category links - only if you hard code your category links can you use this method). If you use spaces to separate multiple words, you will get an error or results that you did not expect. Note: these characters are not allowed in the Product ID: !,#,@,$,%,&,*,(,),{,},{,},|,\,/,=,+.-,?,<,>,~, commas, colons, semi-colons, periods, and spaces.
^ TOP
Product Name
Enter the product name. This will be the text that is bolded above the product description and the text used to identify the product in order confirmations and in store searches. Make sure the product is identifiable to you and your customer. Note: these characters are not allowed in the Product Category: !,#,@,$,%,&,*,(,),{,},{,},|,\,/,=,+,?,<,>,~, colons, and semi-colons.
^ TOP
Product Image Name
^ TOP
Product Image Upload Fields
These two boxes allow you to upload two images for the product being added, usually a regular image and a smaller one to be displayed when the customer checks out to complete the order. To select an image to upload, click on the "browse" button which will bring up a new box. Make sure you select "all files" in the bottom option box before proceeding to find your graphic on your hard drive, otherwise you will not be able to see it. Go to the directory where your graphic is located (such as c:\myfile\images\filename.gif) and select the file you wish to upload. the graphics will automatically upload to the correct location once you press the "Add Product" button.
We suggest that you keep main product images under 170 pixels in width and smaller images less than 70 pixels in width.
^ TOP
Product Description
Enter a description for your product here. It can be as long as you wish. You may use html to color text, link to a detailed spec page, link to a large photo/image, separate lines, change text styles, etc. We suggest that you read a html book or an online html tutorial if you wish to add html functions.
If you wish to have a detailed description, we suggest that you create a separate web page for that product, upload it to the "pages" directory which is within the "html" directory and place a like under the products brief description. You can then access the page by using the link: agora.cgi?page=pagenamehere.html . This way people can look at the specs and not lose their shopping cart information.
^ TOP
User Fields
These fields are for advanced users only. But you will need to fill out one of the fields to complete the product addition process.
User 1: here you will enter the name of the small product image that is used during the checkout process. Type: %%IMG%% then the image name. Example: %%IMG%%imagename.gif
^ TOPNow you are thru entering product information. Now press the Add Product button. When you are finished adding products, press the "Done Entering Products" button and you will be returned to the main store manager menu.
Design & Maintenance: