Difference between revisions of "Products"

From Spiffy Stores Knowledge Base

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The Products section is where you can see all the products that populate your ecommerce store. You can add new items here, and organise the product list using the controls on the sidebar. If you want to see how much of each product you have in stock, the sidebar also has a link to your inventory overview
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=== Adding New Products ===
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<html>
 
<html>
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<div>
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<div style="padding:57.36% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/572809888?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="add si mple product 001"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>
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  <video width="640" height="480" poster="/kb/images/6/69/Screencast_poster.jpg">
 
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    <source type="video/h264" src="/kb/images/6/60/Creating_a_product.m4v">
 
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  </video>
 
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</div>
 
 
</html>
 
</html>
  
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If you can't see the video above, you can also view it on [http://www.youtube.com/user/spiffystores?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/M3AJSrgDZY4 Youtube ]
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If you can't see the video above, you can also view it on [https://vimeo.com/572809888 Vimeo ]
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<br> The Products section is where you can see all the products that populate your ecommerce store. You can add new items here, and organise the product list using the controls on the sidebar. If you want to see how much of each product you have in stock, the sidebar also has a link to your inventory overview
 
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<br>
 
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=== Adding New Products  ===
 
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<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
 
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Image:Spiffy-store-toolbox-add-product.png|Adding a new product
 
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</gallery>
 
  
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After clicking the Add new product link, just fill in the appropriate fields with your product information and hit the Save product button. In order to be easily accessible to your customers, a product then needs to be "added to a collection" which is "linked from within your shop".  
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After clicking the "Add a new product" link, just fill in the appropriate fields with your product information and hit the Save product button. In order to be easily accessible to your customers, a product then needs to be "added to a collection" which is "linked from within your shop".  
  
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The only fields that you absolutely have to fill in before saving your product are Title, Product type, and Product Vendor, but you'll almost certainly want to enter more information than that.  
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The only fields that you absolutely have to fill in before saving your product are Title, Product type, and Product Vendor, but you'll almost certainly want to enter more information than that. You will also need to specify the price and weight for the default variation.
  
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==== Hints for Adding New Products ====
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==== Hints for Adding New Products ====
  
 
Here are some tips for entering product information:  
 
Here are some tips for entering product information:  
  
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*SKU (Stock keeping unit): An SKU is a unique identifier for each of your product entries and "variants" which you can use to better organise your inventory. You don't have to use SKU numbers, but they can be very helpful especially if your inventory gets to be large. There are a number of different ways you can write SKUs, but you should stick to the same format for each of your products.  
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:; SKU (Stock keeping unit)
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*I have a limited number of this item in stock: If this option is checked, it means you want to keep track of how many individual products of this type you have available to sell. If you know that you will always have stock easily available for sale, then you can safely leave this option unchecked. Otherwise, it's a good idea to keep track of your stock even if it doesn't take you long to make more of the product available.  
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:: An SKU is a unique identifier for each of your product entries and "variants" which you can use to better organise your inventory. You don't have to use SKU numbers, but they can be very helpful especially if your inventory gets to be large. There are a number of different ways you can write SKUs, but you should really stick to the same format for each of your products.<br><br>You can make up your own SKU's, but for data feeds it's sometimes best to use the barcode number on a product if that product comes with a bar code.
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*Deny/allow out-of-stock purchases: This choice should depend on how much time it takes you to restock. If you are selling glossy prints of a painting that you just finished, for example, you could allow people to always order more because the prints don't take you long to make. On the other hand, you would probably want to restrict people from ordering any more rare packages of baseball cards from the 1950s if you've just sold the last one you have.  
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:; Track this variation's stock level
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*Tag your item: Customers can find products with particular tags using your store's search page, and they can use tags to filter any "collection" views that are "linked to" in your store. You have complete control over how you want to tag each product: a pair of jeans could be tagged with "classic blue denim," or instead with "casual rugged pants," or you could use all of these. One important thing to remember is that you should reuse tags between products as much as possible by using your list of existing tags. You probably don't want to end up with a "tshirts" tag and a "t-shirt" tag, for instance, because your customers would have to select both of them in order to see all of your t-shirts in a given collection. In fact, you may want to limit the number of tags in your ecommerce store to just a handful for each of your main collections so that your customers don't get overwhelmed by options. More information on using tags with collections can be found on the collections tab help page".  
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::If this option is selected, it means you want to keep track of how many individual products of this type you have available to sell. If you know that you will always have stock easily available for sale, then you can choose "Don't track stock level" instead. Otherwise, it's a good idea to keep track of your stock even if it doesn't take you long to make more of the product available.
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*Weight: This is used to calculate shipping costs, so it's good to be as accurate as possible.  
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:; Deny/allow out-of-stock purchases
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*Compare at price: If you want to brag about how much better your prices are compared to your competition, you can use this field to tell your customers just how much those swindlers are charging for the same product. Alternatively, you could use your compare at price to represent your "regular" price when you want to put a product on sale. You will need to make sure that the "theme" you are using displays the compare at price in such a way that it expresses the intended meaning.
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:: This choice should depend on how much time it takes you to restock. If you are selling glossy prints of a painting that you just finished, for example, you could allow people to always order more because the prints don't take you long to make. On the other hand, you would probably want to restrict people from ordering any more rare packages of baseball cards from the 1950s if you've just sold the last one you have.
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:; Tag your item
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The units of measurement and form of currency used by the new product form are set automatically depending on the country selected during account creation, but the defaults can be changed in your General Settings area.  
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:: Customers can find products with particular tags using your store's search page, and they are also used to display related items. You have complete control over how you want to tag each product: a pair of jeans could be tagged with "classic blue denim," or instead with "casual rugged pants," or you could use all of these. One important thing to remember is that you should reuse tags between products as much as possible by using your list of existing tags. <br><br>You probably don't want to end up with a "tshirts" tag and a "t-shirt" tag, for instance, because your customers would have to select both of them in order to see all of your t-shirts in a given collection. In fact, you may want to limit the number of tags in your ecommerce store to just a handful.<br><br>When entering your product tags, they should be separated by commas.<br><br>Product Tags are also used in the keyword meta tags for SEO purposes.".
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:; Weight
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:: This is used to calculate shipping costs, so it's good to be as accurate as possible.
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:; Original price
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:: If you want to brag about how much better your prices are compared to your competition, you can use this field to tell your customers just how much those swindlers are charging for the same product. Alternatively, you could use your "Original price" to represent your "regular" price when you want to put a product on sale. You will need to make sure that the "theme" you are using displays the original price in such a way that it expresses the intended meaning.
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:; Location Code
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:: This optional field can be used to indicate where you store the item in your inventory. It may be something like a shelf or box number, or some other identifier that will enable you to find the item quickly. The packing list and order view will be sorted in location code order, so that all items located in the same location will appear together, making order fulfilment easier.
  
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=== Editing your product information  ===
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The units of measurement and form of currency used by the new product form are set automatically depending on the country selected during account creation, but the defaults can be changed in your "General Settings" page.
  
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After adding a new product to your online store or by clicking on the product's icon in the main product list, you are able to edit any aspect of the item. In addition to the things you can change when first adding the product, there are a couple of new options which aren't available on the add product, such as reordering product images.
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== Formatting your content ==
  
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=== Product Variations  ===
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<gallery heights="200px" widths="200px" class="right">
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Image:Spiffy-store-toolbox-textile-guide.png|Textile guide to formatting your content
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</gallery>
  
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Variations could represent different sizes of a piece of clothing, different strains of sunflower seed, or different sizes of computer monitor. Each variant has its own prices, weight, and inventory record, but they all share the same product page which lets the customer choose which one they want to buy. You can only add variants in the product management screen, after you have added the product.  
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We introduced a WYSIWYG editor in 2020, which makes it much easier to format your text.
  
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You can always decide to create a new own product for every variation of this product, but this can result in a lot of time wasted for your customers as they browse your ecommerce store looking for exactly what they want. It's all up to you, but a good rule of thumb for many stores is to group products as variants when a single product description could fit for all of them.  
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You can also use HTML in the editor if you click the "Source Code" button.  In the new editor, right click is disabled for copy & paste, so you'll need to use your computer's shortcut keys...
  
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If your variants have visual characteristics which distinguish them from one another, then you may want to add an image to your product for each variant so that your customers can see exactly what they're going to get.
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COPY SHORTCUT KEYS ARE CTRL C<br>
 +
PASTE SHORTCUT KEYS ARE CTRL V<br><br>
  
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=== Image Management  ===
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=== Editing your product information ===
  
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To entice people to buy your product, you should upload at least 1 or 2 photos of the product. For best results, images should be re-sized before uploading. As a general guide, images that are about 1280 pixels wide on their longest side are the best size to upload, as they are faster to upload, and still display as large images when people view them in your online store. Spiffy Stores automatically re-sizes images to fit in different areas of your store, as in some cases a smaller image is needed (like on collection pages), and other times a larger image is needed (like on a product page).  
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After adding a new product to your online store or by clicking on the product's icon in the main product list, you are able to edit any aspect of the item. In addition to the things you can change when first adding the product, there are a couple of new options which aren't available on the add product, such as reordering product images.
  
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You are able to drag and drop each of your product's images to put them in any order you like. The first image is labeled as "featured" and will be displayed more prominently on the product page in most themes, and will also display on any collection pages.
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=== Image Management ===
  
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=== Bulk Product Export and Import  ===
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To entice people to buy your product, you should upload at least one or two photos of the product. For best results, images should be re-sized before uploading. As a general guide, images that are about 1280 pixels wide on their longest side are the best size to upload, as they are faster to upload, and still display as large images when people view them in your online store. Spiffy Stores automatically re-sizes images to fit in different areas of your store, as in some cases a smaller image is needed (like on collection pages), and other times a larger image is needed (like on a product page).
  
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You are able to Export and Import your store products using CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files. This feature gives you the ability to perform a bulk import of new products into your store, or to update product attributes such as prices and inventory levels. The update capability is useful if you need to keep your store prices synchronized with an inventory management system, or if you have a large number of products and need an easier method for maintaing them.  
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You are able to drag and drop each of your product's images to put them in any order you like. The first image is labeled as "featured" and will be displayed more prominently on the product page in most themes, and will also display on any collection pages.
  
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==== Exporting Products  ====
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=== Product Variations ===
  
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
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File:Product export 1.png|Choosing the Export Products option
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Image:Product-variations.png|Product variations
 
</gallery>  
 
</gallery>  
 +
Variations could represent different sizes of a piece of clothing, different strains of sunflower seed, or different sizes of computer monitor. Each variation has its own price, weight, and inventory record, but they all share the same product page which lets the customer choose which one they want to buy. You can only add variations in the product management screen, after you have already added the product.
  
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Select the '''Export all products''' link on the '''Products''' page to download a CSV file containing all of the products in your online store. This file can be used as a backup for your product data, or as a template which you can modify to create an update CSV file to modify your product data.
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You can always decide to create a new product for every variation of this product, but this can result in a lot of time wasted for your customers as they browse your ecommerce store looking for exactly what they want. It's all up to you, but a good rule of thumb for many stores is to group products as variations when a single product description could fit for all of them.  
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Please refer to the following section on [[#Importing_Products|Importing Products]] for details on the format of the CSV file.  
 
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==== Importing Products  ====
 
  
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<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
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If your variations have visual characteristics which distinguish them from one another, then you may want to add an image to your product for each variation so that your customers can see exactly what they're going to get.
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File:Product import 1.png|Choosing the Import Products option
 
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</gallery>
 
  
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Select the '''Import more products''' link to go to the '''Product Import''' page.  
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As a rule of thumb, a product will need a variation for each physical version of the product that you are stocking.
  
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===== Product Import Page  =====
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Every product must have at least one variation. If a product has only one variation, the variation should have a title of "Default". If a product has more than one variation, then each variation can be given a title that represents the physical differences. For example, the variation title can be a colour, a size or a fabric, or combinations of physical attributes.
  
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<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
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<html>
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File:Product import 2.png|Product Import page
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<h1>Adding a product with variations</h1>
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</gallery>  
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<div style="padding:57.35% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/572388901?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Adding a product with sizes and colours"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>
 +
</html>
  
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The '''Product Import''' page contains some instructions on how to use the product import process. In the side-bar are the answers to a number of commonly asked questions about importing products.  
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If you can't see the video above, you can also view it on [https://vimeo.com/572388901 Vimeo ]
  
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If you want a template CSV file to use to start building your product update CSV file, then click on the '''Download Template CSV''' button.
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<br>
  
 +
=== Product Variation Titles ===
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<br>
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
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File:Product import 8.png|Select the CSV file to import
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Image:Product-variations.png|Product variations
 
</gallery>  
 
</gallery>  
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Rather than display options with a label of "Title" in your store, you can change the label to display whatever text you like.
  
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Your CSV file needs to adhere to the following conventions in order for it to be used to import products.
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# Click the '''Edit variation titles''' link<br><br>
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# Click '''Rename''' next to your current option name<br><br>
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# Enter your new title<br><br>
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# Click the '''Save Options''' button
  
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You can freely use UTF-8 character encodings for product titles and product descriptions, but be sure to create them using a Unicode or UTF-8 enabled program. The OpenOffice.org suite of programs is suitable for this purpose.  
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<br><br>
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If you have a product that's available in multiple sizes and colours, you can create multiple options for your customers to select from.
  
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A CSV file (Comma-Separated Values) file is a plain text file with commas delimiting the fields. The first line of the CSV file is the header, and contains the name of the fields. The sample template CSV file can assist you with the correct heading values.
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# Click the '''Edit variation titles''' link<br><br>
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# In the new window, click '''Add new variation option'''<br><br>
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# Select or enter your new title.  e.g. Colour<br><br>
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# Enter a default value e.g. Blue<br><br>
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# Click the '''Save Options''' button<br><br>
  
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The first line of the CSV file must have the following heading columns.
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When you have your base selection set up, you can then add more colours/sizes according to what you have available and the fields for size and colour will appear when adding your variations.
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<pre>Handle
 
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Title
 
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Body
 
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Vendor
 
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Type
 
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Tags
 
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Option1 Name
 
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Option1 Value
 
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Option2 Name
 
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Option2 Value
 
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Option3 Name
 
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Option3 Value
 
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Variant SKU
 
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Variant Grams
 
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Variant Inventory Tracker
 
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Variant Inventory Qty
 
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Variant Inventory Policy
 
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Variant Fulfillment Service
 
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Variant Price
 
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Variant Compare At Price
 
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Variant Discount
 
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Variant Instalments
 
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Custom Option Name
 
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Custom Option Value
 
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Custom Option Price
 
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Image Src
 
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</pre>
 
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The fields are explained below.  
 
  
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;Handle
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<br><br>
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:The product handle is a unique identifier for a given product. The handle is used as part of the product's URL to identify that product. In the CSV file, each line must contain a Handle or Title. If the Handle is not provided, one is automatically generated from the Title.
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==== Adding or editing product variations ====
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<br>
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:This option is usually used when importing new products. For referencing existing products, it is necessary to specify the Handle of the product. A product definition may take a number of records in the CSV file, and each of these lines will contain the product's Handle. When a different Handle is encountered, a new product is being defined.
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<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
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Image:Product-variations.png|Product variations
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:The handle consists of lower-case letters and digits separated by dashes ('-'). No special characters or spaces are permitted. The handle must be unique for each product.
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</gallery>
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;Title
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Once you have created a product, you can then edit it and add new product variations (such as sizes or colours) by clicking on the "Add a new variation" link under the "Product Variations" title and list of current variations.
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:The product's title.
 
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;Body
 
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:The product's description. This field may contain Textile markup codes. It may also include UTF-8 characters.
 
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;Vendor
 
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:The name of the product's vendor.
 
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;Type
 
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:The product type.
 
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;Tags
 
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:This is a comma-separated list of tags used to tag the product.
 
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;Option1 Name
 
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:This is the name of the default option that is used to distinguish a product's variations. For products with only single option, this should be left as 'Title'. A value '''MUST''' be provided if a variation is being defined.
 
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;Option1 Value
 
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:This is the value used to distinguish between a product variations. A value '''MUST''' be provided if a variation is being defined.
 
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;Option2 Name
 
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:If a product has a second option used to distinguish a product's variations, then enter the name of the option here.
 
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;Option2 Value
 
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:If a product has a second option, enter the value of the option for this variation here.
 
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;Option3 Name
 
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:If a product has a third option used to distinguish a product's variations, enter the name of the option here.
 
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;Option3 Value
 
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:If a product has a third option, enter the value of the option for this variation here.
 
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;Variant SKU
 
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:This is the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) identifier used to identify the variation.
 
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;Variant Grams
 
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:This is the weight of the product variation. If your store uses metric weights, then this is the weight in grams. Alternatively if your store uses imperial weights, this is the weight in 1000ths of a pound.
 
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;Variant Inventory Tracker
 
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:This specifies how the tracking of inventory is managed. Valid values are "spiffy" or blank
 
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;Variant Inventory Qty
 
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:This is the number if items in stock for this variation.
 
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;Variant Inventory Policy
 
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:This specifies how to handle orders when inventory level for this variation reaches zero. Valid values are "deny", "continue" and "archive".
 
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;Variant Fulfillment Service
 
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:This determines how the product is fulfilled and if a fulfilment service is being used. Valid values are "manual", "shipwire", "webgistix" and "amazon".  
 
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;Variant Price
 
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:This is the price of the product variation.
 
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;Variant Compare at Price
 
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:This is the compare at price for the product variation. It is used to provide a comparison price to show the amount of discount that is being offered.
 
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;Variant Discount
 
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:This is a discount price for a variation that can be used in conjunction with Shopping Cart discounts.
 
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;Variant Instalments
 
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:Payment for a product may be offered in instalments. This field specifies the number of payments required for the variation. Note, it is the store owner's responsibility to bill the customer for all instalment payments after the first.
 
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;Custom Option Name
 
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:This field defines the name of a Custom Option.
 
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;Custom Option Value
 
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:This field add a value for a Custom Option.
 
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;Custom Option Price
 
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:This field specifies the additional price for a Custom Option Value.
 
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;Image Src
 
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:Since images cannot be placed directly into a CSV file, you can sepecify the URL of an image to be attached to the product definition. Spiffy Stores will download the image during the import from the server specified by the URL. Images must be hosted on a publicly accessible web site, and cannot be uploaded directly from your computer by the CSV import method.
 
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:You may not import images from your own Spiffy Store. Any such images will be ignored by the import process.
 
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===== CSV File Usage Notes  =====
 
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The first record for a given handle must contain the product data section (Title, Body, Vendor, Type and Tags). Title, Vendor and Type must be specified.
 
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Optionally this record and subsequent records with the same handle can contain Variant, Image and Custom Option records.
 
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As many secondary handle records are included as necessary to list all possible variant, image or option records.
 
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If the product is new, the first record must contain at least the product data, a variant record and optionally an image or option record. This and subsequent records will define the product and all its variants, images and options.
 
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If the product is being updated, then the product data in the first record will replace the existing product data. The variant, image and option data are optional on the first record. If a variant, image or option is specified on the first record, then '''ALL''' existing variants, images or options are deleted and replaced by the data from the CSV file.
 
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If there is no variant, image or option on the first record, but data appears on subsequent records, then these records are used to update or add new records. Thus, if there is no variant on the first record, but one appears on the second record, then this data replaces any existing variant with the same title or adds a new variant if it doesn't already exist.
 
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The same rules apply to options, and also to images. However, for images all images are treated as new images and an attempt is made to upload them to the product.
 
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If a product exists and the overwrite option is not specified, then the product is skipped entirely.
 
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NOTE: If the first record does not contain product data, it will be skipped.
 
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NOTE: Only the product data on the first record for a handle will be used. It will be ignored on all other records.
 
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Policy for updates -
 
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*If a product is new, then obviously all the data in the CSV will be added to the product.
 
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*If a product already exists and the overwrite flag is not set, then the product will be skipped and no changes will be made to the product, its variants, options or images.
 
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*If a product exists and overwrite is specified, then the main product attributes will be replaced. Also, all variants, options and images will be deleted and replaced by the ones specified in the CSV. This is equivalent to the product being deleted and replaced with a new version.
 
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With the addition of the Option1, Option2 and Option3 fields, the variant title is replaced by up to three of these pption names (and values).  
 
  
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The Option Names are the titles of each of the options and are specified by "Option1 Name", "Option2 Name" and "Option3 Name". Only the values on the first record will be used when creating a product. All the names on subsequent lines are ignored, and are assumed to be the same as the first record. An error will be issued if the names change. When a product is being updated, then an error will be issued if the names do not exactly match the existing option names.  
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Alternatively, you can edit an existing variation, by clicking on the variation row in the list of current variations.
  
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If you are using your CSV file to update variant data such as prices and inventory levels, then we'd recommend deleting the '''Image Src''', '''Custom Option Name''', '''Custom Option Value''' and '''Custom Option Price''' fields as these won't be changing your product images or custom options and it's not necessary to update them every time you make minor changes to the product and variation settings.  
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When you do either of these things, a variation dialog box will appear on your screen which will allow you to add or edit fields for your variation.
  
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===== CSV File Examples  =====
+
The variation dialog box is divided into three parts, "Pricing", "Shipping" and "Inventory" and you can select each section by clicking on the relevant heading to open up the form fields for that section.
  
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====== Identification Section  ======
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===== Pricing =====
  
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
−
File:Product import 3.png|Handle Section in CSV File
+
Image:Variation edit 1.png|Editing a variation - Pricing
 
</gallery>  
 
</gallery>  
  
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The CSV file is divided into five main sections.
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The fields in the "Pricing" section describe how much the customer must pay for a variation, including other pricing information.
−
 
 
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The first section consists of the first two columns, the '''Handle''' and the '''Title''' fields.  
 
  
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These two fields identify each product, and either a Handle or Title '''MUST''' be specified for each product. The values are repeated for every line of the product definition.  
+
; Title
 +
: The first field in the pricing section is the title of the variation. When there is only one variation, the variation should be titled "Default". Otherwise, select a description of the attribute(s) that make this variation different from the other product variations. The title attribute can be renamed and this is done by editing the product and selecting from one of the predefined attributes, or by adding your own custom attribute.
 +
; SKU
 +
: The "SKU" is optional and allows you to specify a Stock Keeping Unit identifier for this variation.
 +
; Barcode
 +
: The barcode is optional, but may be required by some product data feeds, such as Google Merchant Center. Specify the UPC/EAN or ISBN number of the product.
 +
; Price
 +
: The variation's "Price" is a required field. This is the price that the customer must pay.
 +
; Original price
 +
: The "Original price" is used for price comparison to let your customers know how much they are saving when comparing the price with the recommended retail price available elsewhere or the normal price when products are on sale.
 +
; Cost price (Advanced setting)
 +
: The wholesale or cost price of the item can be recorded here.
 +
; Discount
 +
: The "Discount" field is used to specify a discount amount that is applied to the variation when it is eligible for a shopping cart discount. This field is optional and is only used when you offer shopping cart discounts that use a fixed discount price rather than a percentage or flat amount discount.
 +
; Tax Free item
 +
: Finally, you can indicate whether this variation is tax free or not. You do not need to charge tax on a variation if this item is regarded as tax free. For example, some goods such as food items may be tax free in some countries. Some small businesses and sole traders do not need to register for GST or sales tax purposes and do not need to account for taxes in their sales. Whether your business is registered or not has no impact on the tax setting for a product variation. The item should be marked as tax free only if it really is regarded as tax free by your local tax legislation.
  
−
====== Product Section  ======
+
===== Shipping =====
  
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
−
File:Product import 4.png|Product Section in CSV File
+
Image:Variation edit 2.png|Editing a variation - Shipping
−
</gallery>  
+
</gallery>
  
−
The next section of the file contains the product description.  
+
This section allows you to specify all of the shipping options for a variation.
  
−
The four fields in this section include the '''Body''', '''Vendor''', '''Type''' and '''Tags''' fields.  
+
; Shipping option
 +
: The first option you have in this section is to determine whether or not shipping is required for this variation.
 +
: Shipping is not required for services or items that can be delivered electronically. Shipping is usually only required for physical goods that require delivery.
 +
; Weight
 +
: If shipping is required, then you need to specify a weight for the variation.
 +
; Width/Length/Height
 +
: Optionally you can also specify the width, length and height of the item. The dimensions are used if the item is bulky and requires separate shipping. Most shipping agents use a volumetric weight calculation for bulky items as the shipping cost is determined by the space the item occupies rather than just its weight.
 +
; Shipping Code (Advanced)
 +
: If this item requires a special shipping rate, then the shipping rate code can be specified here.
 +
; Ship Separately
 +
: When using a shipping agent to calculate the shipping rates, you can specify that an item requires separate shipping, and in this case, the shipping rate calculation is performed separately for this item. The Width/Length/Height values must be provided.
 +
; Free shipping
 +
: An item can have free shipping, but this is only available to countries and regions that have been configured to accept free shipping options. The free shipping option for countries and regions is configured in the "Shipping & handling" section of the "Preferences".
  
−
This data is only required only on the '''FIRST''' record in a product definition. If any of these fields are specified on subsequent records for the product, they will be ignored.  
+
When you have one or more fulfilment services configured, an additional selection box will appear that will enable you to specify which fulfilment service to use for this variation.
  
−
====== Variations Section  ======
+
===== Inventory =====
  
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
 
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
−
File:Product import 5.png|Variations Section in CSV File
+
Image:Variation edit 3.png|Editing a variation - Inventory
−
</gallery>  
+
</gallery>
−
 
 
−
The next 16 fields define each variation.
 
  
−
Each product variation requires one record in the CSV file, so include as many entries as necessary. Remember to include the '''Handle''' and/or '''Title''' fields for the product at the start of each record.  
+
The inventory section allows you to configure the inventory options for this variation.
  
−
====== Custom Options Section  ======
+
If you choose to track the inventory for the variation, then you need to specify the quantity of items that you have in stock and available for sale.
−
 
 
−
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
 
−
File:Product import 6.png|Custom Options Section in CSV File
 
−
</gallery>
 
  
−
The following 3 fields define all the custom options and their values.  
+
Secondly, you need to specify the action to be taken when the item has sold out.
  
−
An entry is required for each custom option name and each of the values and prices for that name. Each combination requires one product record, and you need to include as many records as necessary to define all custom option combinations.
+
The following "out of stock" options are available to determine what happens when a customer attempts to purchase a variation with a zero stock level:
  
−
It doesn't matter if you have more or less Custom Options than Variations. In the example on the right, there are 3 variations, but 4 custom options, so we need a total of 4 product records for the first product.  
+
* Prevent further purchases of this variation until it has been restocked.
 +
* Allow purchases even if you do not have any items currently in stock.
 +
* Select the "Archive" option which prevents further purchases of the item, but also automatically hides the product so that it is no longer visible to your customers. The archive option is useful for limited availability or one-off items that cannot be restocked.
  
−
====== Images Section  ======
+
'''Note:''' If you select the "Archive" option and the product has multiple variations then if the variation sells out, the whole product will be hidden, even if there is stock available for other variations.
  
−
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="right">
+
Optionally, a Location Code can be specified. The location code can be used to specify a physical location for the item, such as a row or shelf number, or some other label that lets you know where the item is located in your inventory. The packing list and order view will be sorted in Location Code order, so that you will be able to find all the items in the order that are physically in the same location. This makes picking large orders significantly easier.
−
File:Product import 7.png|Images Section in CSV File
 
−
</gallery>
 
  
−
The final field defines the images for the product.
+
=== Custom Options ===
  
−
Each entry is the URL of the image on a web server. Each product image is listed on a single record. You need to include as many records as you have product images to define.  
+
Custom Options are useful for products that can be customized or created after they have been ordered by the customer. In this case you often don't have a physical item in your inventory, but will create or modify the product after the customer has selected the options and ordered the product.
  
−
It doesn't matter if you have more or less Images than Custom Options or Variations. In the example on the right, there are 3 variations, 4 custom options, but only 1 image, so we need a total of 4 product records for the first product.
+
Read more about Custom Options on the [[Custom_Product_Options|Custom product options page.]]

Latest revision as of 12:14, 29 May 2023

The Products section is where you can see all the products that populate your ecommerce store. You can add new items here, and organise the product list using the controls on the sidebar. If you want to see how much of each product you have in stock, the sidebar also has a link to your inventory overview

Adding New Products

If you can't see the video above, you can also view it on Vimeo

After clicking the "Add a new product" link, just fill in the appropriate fields with your product information and hit the Save product button. In order to be easily accessible to your customers, a product then needs to be "added to a collection" which is "linked from within your shop".

The only fields that you absolutely have to fill in before saving your product are Title, Product type, and Product Vendor, but you'll almost certainly want to enter more information than that. You will also need to specify the price and weight for the default variation.

Hints for Adding New Products

Here are some tips for entering product information:

SKU (Stock keeping unit)
An SKU is a unique identifier for each of your product entries and "variants" which you can use to better organise your inventory. You don't have to use SKU numbers, but they can be very helpful especially if your inventory gets to be large. There are a number of different ways you can write SKUs, but you should really stick to the same format for each of your products.

You can make up your own SKU's, but for data feeds it's sometimes best to use the barcode number on a product if that product comes with a bar code.
Track this variation's stock level
If this option is selected, it means you want to keep track of how many individual products of this type you have available to sell. If you know that you will always have stock easily available for sale, then you can choose "Don't track stock level" instead. Otherwise, it's a good idea to keep track of your stock even if it doesn't take you long to make more of the product available.
Deny/allow out-of-stock purchases
This choice should depend on how much time it takes you to restock. If you are selling glossy prints of a painting that you just finished, for example, you could allow people to always order more because the prints don't take you long to make. On the other hand, you would probably want to restrict people from ordering any more rare packages of baseball cards from the 1950s if you've just sold the last one you have.
Tag your item
Customers can find products with particular tags using your store's search page, and they are also used to display related items. You have complete control over how you want to tag each product: a pair of jeans could be tagged with "classic blue denim," or instead with "casual rugged pants," or you could use all of these. One important thing to remember is that you should reuse tags between products as much as possible by using your list of existing tags.

You probably don't want to end up with a "tshirts" tag and a "t-shirt" tag, for instance, because your customers would have to select both of them in order to see all of your t-shirts in a given collection. In fact, you may want to limit the number of tags in your ecommerce store to just a handful.

When entering your product tags, they should be separated by commas.

Product Tags are also used in the keyword meta tags for SEO purposes.".
Weight
This is used to calculate shipping costs, so it's good to be as accurate as possible.
Original price
If you want to brag about how much better your prices are compared to your competition, you can use this field to tell your customers just how much those swindlers are charging for the same product. Alternatively, you could use your "Original price" to represent your "regular" price when you want to put a product on sale. You will need to make sure that the "theme" you are using displays the original price in such a way that it expresses the intended meaning.
Location Code
This optional field can be used to indicate where you store the item in your inventory. It may be something like a shelf or box number, or some other identifier that will enable you to find the item quickly. The packing list and order view will be sorted in location code order, so that all items located in the same location will appear together, making order fulfilment easier.

The units of measurement and form of currency used by the new product form are set automatically depending on the country selected during account creation, but the defaults can be changed in your "General Settings" page.

Formatting your content

  • Textile guide to formatting your content

We introduced a WYSIWYG editor in 2020, which makes it much easier to format your text.

You can also use HTML in the editor if you click the "Source Code" button. In the new editor, right click is disabled for copy & paste, so you'll need to use your computer's shortcut keys...

COPY SHORTCUT KEYS ARE CTRL C
PASTE SHORTCUT KEYS ARE CTRL V

Editing your product information

After adding a new product to your online store or by clicking on the product's icon in the main product list, you are able to edit any aspect of the item. In addition to the things you can change when first adding the product, there are a couple of new options which aren't available on the add product, such as reordering product images.

Image Management

To entice people to buy your product, you should upload at least one or two photos of the product. For best results, images should be re-sized before uploading. As a general guide, images that are about 1280 pixels wide on their longest side are the best size to upload, as they are faster to upload, and still display as large images when people view them in your online store. Spiffy Stores automatically re-sizes images to fit in different areas of your store, as in some cases a smaller image is needed (like on collection pages), and other times a larger image is needed (like on a product page).

You are able to drag and drop each of your product's images to put them in any order you like. The first image is labeled as "featured" and will be displayed more prominently on the product page in most themes, and will also display on any collection pages.

Product Variations

  • Product variations

Variations could represent different sizes of a piece of clothing, different strains of sunflower seed, or different sizes of computer monitor. Each variation has its own price, weight, and inventory record, but they all share the same product page which lets the customer choose which one they want to buy. You can only add variations in the product management screen, after you have already added the product.

You can always decide to create a new product for every variation of this product, but this can result in a lot of time wasted for your customers as they browse your ecommerce store looking for exactly what they want. It's all up to you, but a good rule of thumb for many stores is to group products as variations when a single product description could fit for all of them.

If your variations have visual characteristics which distinguish them from one another, then you may want to add an image to your product for each variation so that your customers can see exactly what they're going to get.

As a rule of thumb, a product will need a variation for each physical version of the product that you are stocking.

Every product must have at least one variation. If a product has only one variation, the variation should have a title of "Default". If a product has more than one variation, then each variation can be given a title that represents the physical differences. For example, the variation title can be a colour, a size or a fabric, or combinations of physical attributes.

Adding a product with variations

If you can't see the video above, you can also view it on Vimeo


Product Variation Titles


  • Product variations

Rather than display options with a label of "Title" in your store, you can change the label to display whatever text you like.

  1. Click the Edit variation titles link

  2. Click Rename next to your current option name

  3. Enter your new title

  4. Click the Save Options button



If you have a product that's available in multiple sizes and colours, you can create multiple options for your customers to select from.

  1. Click the Edit variation titles link

  2. In the new window, click Add new variation option

  3. Select or enter your new title. e.g. Colour

  4. Enter a default value e.g. Blue

  5. Click the Save Options button

When you have your base selection set up, you can then add more colours/sizes according to what you have available and the fields for size and colour will appear when adding your variations.



Adding or editing product variations


  • Product variations

Once you have created a product, you can then edit it and add new product variations (such as sizes or colours) by clicking on the "Add a new variation" link under the "Product Variations" title and list of current variations.

Alternatively, you can edit an existing variation, by clicking on the variation row in the list of current variations.

When you do either of these things, a variation dialog box will appear on your screen which will allow you to add or edit fields for your variation.

The variation dialog box is divided into three parts, "Pricing", "Shipping" and "Inventory" and you can select each section by clicking on the relevant heading to open up the form fields for that section.

Pricing

  • Editing a variation - Pricing

The fields in the "Pricing" section describe how much the customer must pay for a variation, including other pricing information.

Title
The first field in the pricing section is the title of the variation. When there is only one variation, the variation should be titled "Default". Otherwise, select a description of the attribute(s) that make this variation different from the other product variations. The title attribute can be renamed and this is done by editing the product and selecting from one of the predefined attributes, or by adding your own custom attribute.
SKU
The "SKU" is optional and allows you to specify a Stock Keeping Unit identifier for this variation.
Barcode
The barcode is optional, but may be required by some product data feeds, such as Google Merchant Center. Specify the UPC/EAN or ISBN number of the product.
Price
The variation's "Price" is a required field. This is the price that the customer must pay.
Original price
The "Original price" is used for price comparison to let your customers know how much they are saving when comparing the price with the recommended retail price available elsewhere or the normal price when products are on sale.
Cost price (Advanced setting)
The wholesale or cost price of the item can be recorded here.
Discount
The "Discount" field is used to specify a discount amount that is applied to the variation when it is eligible for a shopping cart discount. This field is optional and is only used when you offer shopping cart discounts that use a fixed discount price rather than a percentage or flat amount discount.
Tax Free item
Finally, you can indicate whether this variation is tax free or not. You do not need to charge tax on a variation if this item is regarded as tax free. For example, some goods such as food items may be tax free in some countries. Some small businesses and sole traders do not need to register for GST or sales tax purposes and do not need to account for taxes in their sales. Whether your business is registered or not has no impact on the tax setting for a product variation. The item should be marked as tax free only if it really is regarded as tax free by your local tax legislation.
Shipping

  • Editing a variation - Shipping

This section allows you to specify all of the shipping options for a variation.

Shipping option
The first option you have in this section is to determine whether or not shipping is required for this variation.
Shipping is not required for services or items that can be delivered electronically. Shipping is usually only required for physical goods that require delivery.
Weight
If shipping is required, then you need to specify a weight for the variation.
Width/Length/Height
Optionally you can also specify the width, length and height of the item. The dimensions are used if the item is bulky and requires separate shipping. Most shipping agents use a volumetric weight calculation for bulky items as the shipping cost is determined by the space the item occupies rather than just its weight.
Shipping Code (Advanced)
If this item requires a special shipping rate, then the shipping rate code can be specified here.
Ship Separately
When using a shipping agent to calculate the shipping rates, you can specify that an item requires separate shipping, and in this case, the shipping rate calculation is performed separately for this item. The Width/Length/Height values must be provided.
Free shipping
An item can have free shipping, but this is only available to countries and regions that have been configured to accept free shipping options. The free shipping option for countries and regions is configured in the "Shipping & handling" section of the "Preferences".

When you have one or more fulfilment services configured, an additional selection box will appear that will enable you to specify which fulfilment service to use for this variation.

Inventory

  • Editing a variation - Inventory

The inventory section allows you to configure the inventory options for this variation.

If you choose to track the inventory for the variation, then you need to specify the quantity of items that you have in stock and available for sale.

Secondly, you need to specify the action to be taken when the item has sold out.

The following "out of stock" options are available to determine what happens when a customer attempts to purchase a variation with a zero stock level:

  • Prevent further purchases of this variation until it has been restocked.
  • Allow purchases even if you do not have any items currently in stock.
  • Select the "Archive" option which prevents further purchases of the item, but also automatically hides the product so that it is no longer visible to your customers. The archive option is useful for limited availability or one-off items that cannot be restocked.

Note: If you select the "Archive" option and the product has multiple variations then if the variation sells out, the whole product will be hidden, even if there is stock available for other variations.

Optionally, a Location Code can be specified. The location code can be used to specify a physical location for the item, such as a row or shelf number, or some other label that lets you know where the item is located in your inventory. The packing list and order view will be sorted in Location Code order, so that you will be able to find all the items in the order that are physically in the same location. This makes picking large orders significantly easier.

Custom Options

Custom Options are useful for products that can be customized or created after they have been ordered by the customer. In this case you often don't have a physical item in your inventory, but will create or modify the product after the customer has selected the options and ordered the product.

Read more about Custom Options on the Custom product options page.

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