Managing Products
This section describes how to create ***** and edit simple products. It also describes the difference between them and how to create and manage configurable (e.g., color/size selection), bundle (e.g., assembling a set or configuration), and grouped (e.g., displaying products from the same series or family together) products. Tip: You must first define the attributes of a product, as described in Managing Product Attributes, before you can ***** create products with that attribute.
Product Types
Magento offers a variety of product types that allow significant flexibility when creating new products. Below is a summary of the product types:
Simple Product: This is the simplest type of product. It is suitable for all kinds of physical (shippable) products.
Virtual Product: This is a product that does not require shipping or stock. It is usually used for warranties or services.
Downloadable Product: This is a digital downloadable product that sells one or more files of a product and provides samples of these files. These downloadable files can be on your server or as a URL to another server.
Grouped Product: This option allows you to display a number of similar products on the same page. For example, if you sell chef's knives and you have the same knife in 4 different sizes, you ***** can create a grouped product to display all four sizes. Customers can choose the size they want and then add it to the cart.
Configurable Product: This product allows your customers to choose the variant of a product they want through selection options. For example, you sell T-shirts in two colors and three sizes. You need to create six different variants (each with its own SKU) and then add these six to a configurable product where customers can choose a size and a color to then add the product to their cart. A nearly identical functionality is possible when using custom options for simple products. The difference between a configurable product and a product with custom options is that inventory is not checked or updated for individual options during the purchase, and it is not possible to go directly to a product with a given set of options. This also makes it difficult for a search engine to find a product option.
Bundle: This product is made up of components presented in different ways and derived from existing products. A good example of a bundle is a complete computer. For this computer ***** you specify how much RAM or what kind of monitor is included with this computer.
Creating a New Product
The following steps are the same for all product types. Subsections describe the differences between each product.
Creating a New Product:
In the Catalog menu of the admin panel, select the Manage Products option to display a list of products as shown in the example below:
Note: You ***** can duplicate the definition of a similar product to create a new product by editing the product and then clicking the Duplicate button.
Click the Add Product button at the top right of the page to display the following page:
First Product Wizard Page
This is the first page when creating a product that guides you through the creation process.
In the Attributes Set field, select the set that contains the attributes that describe this product.
In the Product Type field, select the type of product you wish to create.
Click the Continue button to display a page similar to the page below. (Differences arise from the different types of products you ***** choose):
General Product Configuration Page
Fill in all required fields indicated with a (*).
Select the Status option Enabled in the Status field to indicate that the product is available in the web store.
Select a tax rate group.
Leave the Visibility field set to Catalog, Search. This determines whether the product will be visible in the catalog pages and/or search results. The following describes the other fields on the page:
Name: The name of the product appears in the web store.
Description: The description that will appear in the middle of the product page.
Short Description: The description that will appear at the top of the product page.
SKU: The SKU of the product. Magento uses SKU as a unique identifier for this product. SKU is global, meaning that if you update the SKU of a product in one web store, it will also be updated in all other web stores.
Weight: The weight of the product. This value is typically used for shipping calculations.
Set Product as New From/To Date: The time frame within which this product can be promoted as a new product on various parts of your web store.
URL Key: The search engine-friendly URL identifier is the name used for this product in the product’s URL. You ***** should not use spaces in this field. If you leave the field blank, Magento will automatically create one.
Allow Gift Messages: This determines whether customers can add gift messages to this product at checkout.
Note: Additional fields may appear if you add attributes to the standard attribute set or if you base the product on a different attribute set. In the example on the previous page, the Manufacturer and Color attributes were added to the standard set using the sample data.
Note: Clicking the create new attribute button will bring up a pop-up window that allows you to add attributes to the standard attribute set. We recommend first setting up the attribute structure.
Price Product Configuration Page
Select the Prices option in the Product Data menu on the left side of the page to display the following page:
Fill in all required fields indicated with a (*). This section allows you to set the Price and Special Price information for this product. You ***** can also add tier prices as described in Promotions. The Special Price field is used for discounts and promotions as described in Promotions, Special Prices.
Meta Info Product Configuration Page
Select the Meta Info option in the panel on the left to display the following page:
Fill out the information that allows search engines to find and index the product more easily.
Image Product Configuration Page
Select the Images option in the panel on the left side of the page to display the following page:
Specify the image that should be displayed in the web store to represent this product. Use the Browse Files button to select a file.
Tip: You ***** can select more than one file to upload multiple files at once.
After specifying the file of the image for this product, click on the Upload Files button.
Select the appropriate option for each image as follows:
Label: Alternative text for the image label.
Sort Order: The order in which the image will be displayed in the slideshow and MORE VIEWS options.
Thumbnail: Used in the shopping cart and for related products.
Small Image: Used in the categories list, wish list, etc.
Base Image: Large product image (zoomed in).
Exclude: Excludes the image from the slideshow and MORE VIEWS gallery.
Delete: Removes the image from the collection.
Description Product Wizard Page
Select the Description option in the panel on the left side of the page to display the following page:
Specify what is displayed on the product information page. The information you fill in the Description field will be displayed on the product page under the title Product Description. The information filled in the Short Description field appears on the product page under the title Quick Overview, as shown below:
The information you fill in the Short Description field will also appear as a list of products, as shown below:
Inventory Product Configuration Page
Select the Inventory option in the panel on the left side of the page to display the following page:
In the Manage Stock field, select Yes to specify that all stock options are available for this product, or select No to specify that you do not want to manage the product stock (in this case, the product will temporarily be available for your customers in the web store).
In the Quantity field, specify how many products you have in stock.
In the Availability field, select the In Stock option.
In the Decimals in Quantity field, select Yes to specify that the customer can use decimal quantities for this product instead of whole numbers. This is useful for a product sold by weight, length, or volume. For example: 2.35 kg of concrete or 3.75 meters of carpet.
The Backorders field allows your customers to place an order for a product with a quantity that is less than 0. This option also allows you to inform your customers that they can still place an order, even if there are currently no quantities available for that product. You ***** do this by selecting the Allow Qty Below 0 and Allow Qty Below 0 and Notify Customer options.
The Minimum/Maximum Qty in Shopping Cart field allows you to limit the availability of products that have a good price to retailers so that they are not sold at wholesale prices.
In the Minimum Qty for No Backorders Notification field, specify that when stock is below this quantity, the product will be presented as out of stock.
Category Product Configuration Page
Select the Categories option in the panel on the left side of the page to display the following page:
Specify the categories you want this product to belong to by checking the boxes.
Note: You ***** can add a product to more than one category.
Note: You ***** can also add a product to a category while editing a category.
Related Products, Cross-sell and Up-sell Configuration Page
Each of these pages is the same and allows the management of relationships between products. The following appears on each page:
To display all products in the list, click the Reset Filter button.
Check the appropriate boxes to add products. You ***** can use any of the available filters to make searching for products easier.
For more information about these pages, ***** you can refer to Promotions.
Product Review Configuration Page
This page provides a list of reviews that have been posted by customers about a product being edited or created. You ***** can use the Edit button to approve, edit, or delete a review.
Note: The RSS link of pending reviews makes it possible for you to gather all notifications of all pending reviews and approve them before they appear on the site.
Custom Tags Configuration Page
This page displays the tags assigned to a particular product by customers and how often the tags have been used.
Note: You ***** can click on the row of a tag to edit, decline, approve, or delete it.
Custom Group Configuration Page
Additional configuration pages may appear based on the definitions specified in the attribute sets. An example of a custom group T-shirt attributes can be seen below:
Custom Options Configuration Page
This page gives you the ability to easily create product variants or products where customer input is possible (such as stamps or gifts).
Product Type Dependent Configuration Page
Depending on the product type, additional configuration pages may appear. Here is a quick overview of such pages.
Downloadable Product – Downloadable Information Page
This page consists of two parts:
The Samples section allows you to display a sample of the downloadable product on the product information page. This could be a short snippet of an audio file, a few pages of a book, or a trial version of software. You ***** can add as many samples as you want by clicking the Add New Row button and filling in the fields. You ***** can add files in two ways:
Select the File option by clicking the … button and then clicking the Upload Files button. The file will be uploaded from your local computer or server. Or
Select the URL option and specify the link to a file that is already on a server or another location and click the Upload Files button. Samples added in the samples section will appear as follows on the website:
The Link section contains the actual products that can be purchased as well as the possible samples. The option Links can be sold separately determines whether the downloadable products can be sold separately or not. This allows you to sell the tracks of a music CD product separately, for example. If you select Yes for this option, you must specify the price for each individual item. Each item also has two options to control behavior. The option Max Downloads determines how many times a customer can download the product after purchasing it. The option Shareable determines whether the downloadable item is made available without needing to log in after each sale of the product or if a login is required. If the Shareable option is set to Yes , customers can download the product via a link in the confirmation email. However, this also makes it possible for anyone who receives the link to download the product. Setting this option to Yes creates a possibility for guests on your website to also download and pay for a product (without logging in). The configuration settings must then be properly set. The upload process is similar to uploading samples, as described above, except for the option to merge sample files for leak products. This option can be used to provide customers with a short sample of a music track, for example. The following shows a product with 3 links and samples for each link for which the setting Links can be sold separately is set to Yes.
Bundle Product – Bundle Items Configuration Page
An example of a bundle product is this ‘build your own computer’ offer in the demo web store: For bundle product types, the differences in the General and Price pages are as follows:
SKU Fixed or Dynamic: Specifies whether the entire product receives a SKU assigned based on the components of the product or if the SKU applies to the bundle.
Weight Fixed or Dynamic: Specifies whether the weight of the entire product is based on the weight of the components or if the weight applies to the whole bundle.
Price View: Specifies whether the price of the product shows as a row from the cheapest to the most expensive price or if only the cheapest price is displayed.
Ship Bundle Item: Specifies whether individual components are shipped separately or if the product is shipped as a whole.
Bundle Items: Bundled items appear in the web store as a list of available items. You ***** can add a new option by clicking the Add Option button. For each option, ***** you must define a title, input type (single and multiple selection fields are available), whether the field is required or not (for example: it can be True for a computer and False for an optional battery of a laptop), and the position on the page. You ***** can see an example of this by viewing the page in Magento > My Computer > Sample Product > Bundled Items page.
You ***** can now determine the individual values for each option. Click the Add Selection button to open a selection area as you see below:
You ***** can select any product you want by checking the boxes. Click the Add Selected Product to Option button to confirm the addition. For each selection, ***** you must define the following options:
Default Qty: Specifies the default quantity that appears on the product page.
User Defined Qty: If you select Yes for this option, it allows customers to enter a quantity for a given selection.
Position: Specifies the order of a selection.
Default: Specifies the predefined value.
Grouped Product – Associated Products Configuration Page
A grouped product allows you to sell all items separately. In the web store, a grouped product will be displayed as follows:
When you create a grouped product, the related products page allows you to specify which products belong in this group, along with the quantity of each product and the position on the page.
Note: There is no global price for grouped products. The price of these products can only be managed by the individual elements that you sell.
Complete the Product Wizard
Click the Save or Save and Continue Edit button at the top right of the page. If you choose the former, after you save the product, you will be redirected to the product page. Editing an existing product: 1. In the Catalog menu of the admin panel, select the Manage Products option to display the following screen:
2. Click the Edit button behind the relevant product.
Mass Update Products
Magento offers various options to update multiple products or product attributes at the same time. In the product list, select products by checking the boxes. Then select one of the actions from the Actions dropdown menu and click the Submit button:
Delete: Removes the selected products from the web store.
Change Status: Enables/disables multiple products at the same time.
Update Attributes: Updates the attributes of multiple products. When you click the Submit button, a new page will open where all attributes of all selected products are displayed. You ***** can change all attributes and then check the Update box to inform Magento which attributes were changed. Then click the Save button to confirm the changes.
Create Variants of a Product
This section describes how to create variations of a product by adding input options to a product page. An example of a variation of a product is the same product in a different color or size. In this case, a custom field needs to be added to allow the customer to select the color and size.
Tip: If you want to keep track of the quantity of each sold product of every type, you need to create a separate product for each variant of the product and then group the products into a configurable product and not use the variation options as described here.
Creating Variants of a Product:
1. In the Catalog menu of the admin panel, select the Manage Products option to display a list of products. 2. Click the Add Product button to create a new product or click the Edit button on the right side of the relevant product to display the edit page. 3. Select Custom Options on the left side of the page to display the following:
4. Click the Add New Option button at the top right of the page to display the following:
5. In the Title field, specify the name for this new property such as Size. 6. In the Input Type field, select the type of input that can be given in this field, such as text or dropdown menu as you ***** can see above. 7. In the Is Required field, select Yes to indicate that this is a required field, meaning the customer must select an option in this field to purchase this specific product. 8. If there is more than one option, specify the order in which the options should appear in the Sort Order field. 1 indicates that the option appears first. 9. Click the Add New Row button to display the next row where you can define the new variation of this product. For example, the product in a certain size and the corresponding price.
10. In the Title field, specify the name of this variation of the product such as Size XL. 11. All prices in this row are related to the product as determined on the Prices page. In the Price Type field, select one of the following options:
Fixed: This allows you to specify that the price of this variation differs from the price of the base product by a fixed amount, such as €1,-.
Percentage: This allows you to specify that the price of this variation differs from the price of the base product by a percentage, such as 10%.
12. In the Price field, specify the difference between the price of the variation and the price of the base product. Specify a fixed amount or a percentage based on the value you entered in the Price Type field. You ***** can also fill in negative values. 13. In the SKU field, specify a SKU for this variation. 14. If there is more than one variation, specify the order in which the variations will appear in the web store in the Sort Order field. 1 indicates that the variation appears first. 15. Click the Save button. This sample product will be displayed in the web store as shown below:
In the example above, ***** you can see that the price is €13.50. If you select the green color, the price will be €18.75 as you ***** can see below:
Note: When this product is added to a customer's shopping cart, the variation information will be displayed as follows:
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