Overview
The New Product page is where you create a product and everything a shopper sees about it.
This document covers:
Creating a New Product
- Navigate to Dashboard > Products > Products.
- Click New Product at the top right.
- Fill in the sections below, then click Save.
These three fields must be filled in before the product will save:
| Field | Section | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Details | The product name shoppers see. |
| SKU | Pricing and Inventory | Your product code. Must be unique across your store. |
| Sell Price | Pricing and Inventory | The amount the customer pays. |
Your store may also make one or more classification fields compulsory. See Product Classification below.
Details
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Required. Include the details a shopper searches by: type, colour, material, size. |
| URL | Filled in for you from the Name as you type it, and from the Category if your store includes it. Type your own if you want a specific web address. Once you do, it stops following the name. |
| Description | Optional. Measurements, material, care instructions and styling notes belong here. |
Some stores have up to three extra description boxes, set up for content such as delivery information or a size note. If yours does, they appear under Description with the names your store gave them, and a new product may open with default text already in them.
If the web address you type is already used by another page, the product will not save and you will be told the path is already in use.
Product Images
Upload your images in the Product Images section. Each image has an Alt box beside it. Describe what is in the picture, for screen readers and search engines.
Shopcada uses the first image wherever it shows a single picture of the product: the product listing pages, the shopping cart, the You May Also Like section and your admin product list. The rest appear in order on the product page.
Product Classification
Classification files the product so your website can list it, your shoppers can filter by it and your reports can group by it. All stores have Category, Collection, Brand and Colour, and your store may have more, such as Size Chart Group.
You can ask for another classification field whenever you need to group products a new way, for fabric, season, fit or anything else you list, filter or report on. Email support@shopcada.com with what you want to group by.
- Whether a field is compulsory depends on how your store configured it.
- For most fields you can type a value that does not exist yet and it will be created.
- The main Category field is the exception: you must choose from the categories that already exist. Create new ones first if you need them.
Availability
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Published in Online Store | Untick to keep the product hidden from your website while you finish setting it up. |
| Published in POS | Whether the product is available to sell at your outlets. Appears if your store uses Shopcada POS. |
| Schedule Publish in Online Store | Shown while Published in Online Store is unticked. Sets the date and time the product goes live on your website by itself. |
| Schedule Unpublish in Online Store | Shown while Published in Online Store is ticked. Sets the date and time the product comes off your website by itself. |
| Keep in display sequence while unpublished | An unpublished product normally drops out of the product display sequence. Tick this to keep its place, so you can still position it on the listing page and publish it later. |
| In Store Availability | A future date and time from which the product becomes available in POS. Leave blank for immediately. Only a future date can be chosen. |
If your store does not use Shopcada POS, the product follows Published in Online Store on its own.
Online Availability By Membership Status
Release the product to your members before everyone else. Set a date and time against a tier and the product is shoppable for that tier from then. Leave a tier empty and it is available as soon as the item is published online.
Product Settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Product is shippable | Tick for anything physical that has to be delivered. Untick for services and event tickets. |
| Track product inventory | Tick to have Shopcada count stock down as the product sells. Untick for items you never run out of. |
| This product has multiple options (e.g. sizes/colours) | Tick to build the product from options such as size and colour. See Options and Variants below. |
Pricing and Inventory
This section holds the commercial detail: product code, prices, weight and stock. A product sold as one item has a single set of these fields. A product with options gets the same set for every variant, filled in under Options and Variants below.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| SKU | Required. Your product code, unique across your whole store. Reuse one and the product will not save. |
| Barcode | Optional. The GTIN, UPC, EAN or ISBN printed on the product. |
| Weight | Optional, but required if you charge shipping by weight. Entered in grams, so enter 1500 for a 1.5 kg item. |
| Sell Price | Required. What the customer pays. |
| List Price | Optional. The usual price. When it is higher than the Sell Price, it is shown struck through. |
| Cost | Optional. What you paid for the item, used in profit reporting. Only staff with the Manage Products Cost permission can see this field. |
| Sale Price | Optional. A promotional price that replaces the Sell Price. |
| Sale Price Start Date / Sale Price End Date | Optional. Schedule the sale price to start and stop on its own. |
| Rack | Optional. The shelf or rack location, to help your packers find the stock. |
| Qty | The opening stock quantity. |
If your store holds stock in more than one location, you get a Rack and a Qty box for each one.
Qty can only be typed while the item is new.
Once it is saved, the quantity becomes read-only here and you adjust stock from the product’s Inventory tab instead, so the Inventory Movements Report records every change. A new variant added to a product you saved earlier still accepts its opening quantity the first time.
Options and Variants
Use this for a product that comes in more than one size, colour or other choice.
Tick This product has multiple options (e.g. sizes/colours) in Product Settings and an Options section appears.
Defining the Options
- Enter the Option Name, for example Size or Colour.
- Enter the Option Values. Type a value and press comma or enter to turn it into a tag. For example: S, M, L. A colon (:) cannot be used in a value.
- Click Add More Options if the product has a second or third choice, such as size and colour together.
- Drag an option row by its handle to change the order the choices are shown in.
- Click Generate Variants.
Shopcada creates one variant for every combination of your options. Size in S, M and L crossed with Colour in Black, Navy and Cream produces nine variants.
If you change the options later, the button reads Update Variants. Click it to rebuild the list, keeping the variants you have already filled in.
Filling In Every Variant at Once
Before you click Generate Variants for the first time, fill in the boxes shown under the options: Master SKU, Weight, Sell Price, List Price, Cost, Sale Price and its dates. Shopcada creates every variant with those values already in it. You then change only the ones that differ.
These boxes are only offered while the product has no variants yet. Once variants exist, use Batch Edit instead.
Filling in the Variants
Each variant carries the same fields as a single product: SKU, Barcode, Weight, Sell Price, List Price, Cost, Sale Price and its dates, and Rack and Qty per inventory location. Every variant needs its own unique SKU.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Master SKU | A code for the product as a whole, above the individual variant SKUs. |
| Available Online | Whether this particular variant is sold on your website. |
| Available in POS | Whether this particular variant is sold at your outlets. Appears if your store uses Shopcada POS. |
| Batch Edit | Tick several variants, then set a price, weight, sale price or availability across all of them at once. |
| Variants Summary | A table of the variants on the product. It is built from what has been saved, so anything you have just typed or generated does not appear there until you click Save. |
Use Batch Edit for anything shared across sizes, such as one price for every size of the same shirt. Edit individual variants only where they differ.
Supplier
One field, Supplier Name. Type who you buy this product from. It is for your own records and shoppers never see it.
If you do not see this section and you would like it, email support@shopcada.com.
Group Products By Colour
When the same design is sold as separate products, one per colour, this section links them so the product page shows “This product is also available in …”.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Colour Image | A small swatch image for this colour, up to 2 MB. When one is already uploaded, a preview is shown with a Remove tick box beside it, and the upload box is renamed New Colour Image. |
| Colour Name | The colour this product represents, shown to the shopper. |
| Product Series Code | The code that links the products. Every product with the same code is grouped together. |
For example, give the red and the blue version of the same dress the same Product Series Code, then set Colour Name to Red on one and Blue on the other.
Group by colour when each colour is its own product with its own images. If the colours are just options of one product, use Options and Variants instead.
Upsell / You May Also Like
Choose the products to show in the You May Also Like section of this product’s page.
- Start typing a product name and select it from the suggestions.
- You can add up to eight products.
Suggest what finishes the outfit: the matching bottom, the belt, the jacket worn over it.
Meta Tags (SEO)
These control how the product appears in search engine results. All three are optional.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Page Title | The title shown in search results. Keep it under 70 characters. |
| Description | One or two sentences shown under the title in search results. About 20 words, and no more than 160 characters. Plain text only. |
| Keywords | A comma separated list. Avoid repeating the same word, which works against your ranking. |
Leave them blank and the product page still works. Search engines fall back to the product name and description.
Not every section appears on every store. POS fields need Shopcada POS, the Cost field needs the Manage Products Cost permission, extra currency prices need multi-currency, and the extra description boxes, classification fields, supplier and inventory locations are all set up per store.
