Product Manager – Advanced - Part 2

For the fundamental points on getting started using the product manager click here

We have already covered the basic points of adding products to your cart and now we will cover all of the other features of the product manager in this section. Forgive us if we cover a few points again that may have already been explained earlier in this manual.

2.9 Screenshot of add product admin area, this section is great when you only have a few products to enter / edit. For large additions or the editing of numerous products the Offline option would be much faster.

Add Product

Product Manager -> Add A Product

Product SKU

A product sku number is a way for the cart to uniquely identify a product in the database, no two products can have the same number, while letters will work, it is advisable to use numbers only for this field, because by keeping this simple you will make your job a lot easier.

Product Name

Use this field to describe your product to the customer, this description will appear on purchases, searches and also in the confirmation email that is sent to the customer after the purchase.

Inventory

If you run a Inventory system you can enter a stock value in this box, this will ensure that you always a enough stock to fulfil your orders

Product Weight:

The product field is detrimental if you are using any form of calculated shipping; the value entered here is added to the base value of the shipping region, while we have already covered this earlier in the manual, we shall just reiterate the points again.

If you had a product that needed to have extra shipping added to it, by entering a value for example of 20.00 to a product, when a shipping region is chosen that has a base rate of 8.00 the total cost would be 28.00.

Product Dimensions

Values can be entered here to allow shipping calculations to be carried out if your shipping agent charges by size. This feature can also be encompassed in custom shipping modifications.

Number of product options

Pre-set the number of values that can be associated with the product, useful if a certain product is available in different colours and sizes but the price stays the same. For more information on using this see the advanced option at the end of this manual.

Allow Quick Buy

Setting this to on by selecting the check box allows the customer to add the product directly to their cart after performing a search.

Allow Qty Modification

Checking this field allows the customer to change the Qty in their cart after adding the product.

Apply Tax 1 and Tax 2

You can set this product to have either Tax one, Tax 2, both Tax one and Tax 2 or no Tax at all applied to the value.

Upsell Product Codes

Six fields are available for sku codes to cross sell other products.

URL to Product

Enter the full product URL including http:// in this field, this allows the customer to select more information from within search results.

Product Keywords

Enter a string of Keywords that you think a customer would use to find your product, use only specific keywords, and don’t use noise words such like “and, the, in, all”.

V/E/D Products

Product Manager -> V/E/D Products

This section allows the online management off all the products in your cart. From this section you can view, edit, and delete products. You can also clone a product if you wish to add a product to your cart that is very similar to a product that already exists. Please note no two products can share a SKU number.

Find Product

Product Manager -> Find Product

Enter a known product SKU and select “Perform Search”, if the product exists it is listed and can be edited from within the search results. A search can also be performed using part of the product description as the search string.

Product Template

Product Manager -> Product Template

You have two options available to you “Download raw CSV File” and “Download .zip File”, while the .zip file will be smaller; some operating systems may have trouble opening the .zip file into Excel, if so you may wish to select the raw CSV file. Once downloaded, your current product list can be updated and uploaded to the server for inclusion into the database.

Upload Product List

Product Manager -> Upload Product List

While we covered this feature in an earlier chapter, we will just run over the details again for the sake of clarity. After you have saved the file in CSV format and it is ready to upload, select the “Browse” button and navigate to the file on your local machine. The two radio buttons carry out very different tasks, it is important that you select the correct one before uploading your amended / new product list.

Install Product List

Product Manager -> Install Product List

After uploading your list, you need to commit the changes to your database; all that is required to do this is to click the Install link.

Restore Product List

Product Manager -> Restore Product List

Every time you upload a new product list MercuryCart takes a copy of your old one, should the new list that has just been uploaded contain any mistakes, or you would just like to revert back to a previous list, selecting the required product list will restore the list that you have selected.

Appendix 2 - Product Upload Specification

Notes: The product upload must be a comma separated file. Each field is separated by a comma. If there is a comma within any field, then that field must be declared as a text field by placing double quotes (“) around the field, i.e. sku,”product, name”,price

All fields must be listed for each line, it will denote in the table below whether that field must have a value in it however. For fields that are not required, there need not be any value in the field.

However, note that due to a bug within Microsoft Excel, when you are exporting a CSV for which there is NO VALUE in the LAST field of a CSV Export, Excel may not include the required last comma. To avoid this potential problem, if you are not including any keywords for a line, place a space in the cell in Excel.

(table 1.1)

Legend information