WebCommerce Back Office -- Products
(This page is part of WebCom's WebCommerce Help Guide.)
This page describes how to use a section of the WebCommerce Back Office. To access the Back Office, click here.
This is the section where you actually define the products that you will sell through your store. Hopefully you have already created your categories and your options. If you haven't, you will not be able to assign categories or options to your products. (Don't worry, you can always create categories and options later, and go back and apply them to your products.) The Back Office will use the information that you input in this section to create pages for the products in your online store.
When you enter this section of the Back Office, you will see a table listing all the products that you have defined. (Pictured below.) In this table are links to delete and edit your products. Below the table is the link to add new products. If you have not yet created any products, there will be no table present, but there will still be the link to add new products. Below are instructions for adding, editing, and deleting products.
Adding New Products (Product Details)
Clicking on "Add a New Product" brings up the Product Detail screen. Here is where you define everything about a product from its name to its status. To create a new product, fill out each of the input fields on this screen. Required fields are marked with asterisks (*). Each of the fields and their purposes are described below. When you are finished entering/updating the product information, be sure to remember to hit the "Update" button to commit your new product to the database.
Name
The name of your product. That simple. This name will be what appears on the pages of your store, and on orders and order confirmations.
Category
The category that this product falls under. If you do not select a category, it will default to "None". If you do not yet have categories for your store (or do not know what categories are for) please see our documentation on categories. If you have not yet defined categories, you can still continue with your product, and come back and edit it later when you have created categories.
Sort Order Integer
Field to input Sort Integer.
SKU
Field to input SKU of product. The SKU appears on orders and order confirmations. WebCommerce also uses the SKU as the file name of the product page when building the store. Because certain characters such as slashes are special in HTML and URL, the store builder will substitute them in file name with acceptable characters such as dashes and underscores. This will not change how the SKU appears in the Back Office or in orders.
Image URL
In this field input the URL of the image that you would like to use for this product. If you do not provide an image for the product, the product name will be used instead. More information about product images.
Thumbnail URL
Smaller image of product to use in upsell links. If you do not provide an image, the product name will be used in upsell links instead. More information about product images.
Short Description
Minimal description of product. Appears on orders and order confirmations, and under upsell links on product pages.
Long Description
Full description of product. This description appears below the picture of your product on the page for that product. This is your chance to pitch your product to your customer, so make the mose of the valuable space. There is currently a limit of 255 characters for the long description.
Price
The price of the product. (Before shipping and/or tax.)
Weight
Weight of product in pounds and ounces. This information is used if your shipping fees are according to weight.
Taxable
Check this item if it is taxable. If a product is marked as taxable, appropriate tax will be added to the total according to the state which the customer resides.
Upsell Links
On each product page is a place for up to 4 links to other related products. For example, if you sell T-shirts, you might want an upsell link to matching shorts. Each linked product is represented by the thumbnail image that you have indicated for that product, along with the short description. If you did not indicate a thumbnail image for the product, the upsell link will instead use the product name.
Options
This portion of the Product Details screen shows you which options you have configured for this product. To add options, click on the "Add" button. To delete options, click on the "Delete" button. If you do not yet have options for your store (or do not know what options are for) please see our documentation on options. If you have not yet defined options, you can still continue with your product, and come back and add options later.
When clicking on the "Add" button, you will be presented with a new window which allows you to add options along with option values. The left side of the window shows the options that are available, and the right side shows available values. Click on the option on the left that you wish to add, and check mark the desired values on the right. Click on "Update" to add the value and those value options to your product. You can repeat this until you have added all the options you want to add. When you are done, close the window by clicking on the close box in the title bar of the window.
Status
Status of this product. Allows you to set a product to be available or inactive. If a product is set to be available, it will appear normally in your stores and can be sold. If a product status is set to be inactive, it will be included in your store, but it will have a notice on the product page that it is not available, and customers will not be able to put it in their shopping carts. This feature is most useful for items that are temporarily out of stock.
Update
Remember to click on "Update" to save the changes you have made to your product. If you would like to discard all changes, click on "Cancel".
Editing Products
Clicking on the "Edit" link next to a product allows you to edit that product. When you do this, you are presented with the Product Details screen. (Described above.) Make the changes to the fields which need to be changed, and click on "Update" to save the changes to this product.
Deleting Products
To delete an products, click on "Delete" next to the products that you wish to delete. A dialog box will appear to confirm the deletion.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have already built your store, and have deleted a product, the page for that deleted product may still exist on your website, even though you may have since rebuilt the store. If you have removed products from your store, use FTP or the WebCom File Manager to delete old product pages if they still exist. (This is generally not a problem because rebuilding your store will remove links to old product pages, but previous visitors may still access the outdated pages if they have bookmarked them.)
Putting Changes into Effect
It's very important to remember two things about WebCommerce. Firstly, always remember to hit the "Update" button in the section you are working on when you are done. If you fail to do this, your changes will not be saved, and any work you just finished will be lost. Secondly, changes that you make in the Back Office will not occur to the pages of your store until you build your store again. If you change a price, option, product name, or anything else that appears in your store pages, you must build your store before your changes are visible to your customers.