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Create, update, and relate products.
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Add Products
This is the main page that lists all products, active and inactive:
To Add a Product, click Add New Product.
Start with entering the Product Name, and then enter the Product Description. The second and third Description fields are optional, and they do not display on the site if they are left blank. Use the multiple Description fields to separate the aspects of the Product into sections describing shape, condition, size, etc. The (+) and (-) signs above the text box expand and shrink its size. All Description fields can contain HTML mark-up.
The next area is for the Sequencer setup. The Sequencer orders products in the product listing according to the number entered into this field if Products Sequencer Sort is enabled in Advanced Site Settings. The listing is sorted ascending, so lower numbers will be displayed first.
Uploading an image of the product allows customers to see what the product really looks like. If no image is uploaded for a product, then whatever has been specified in the Default Images section of the Merchant Admin for products will be used. To upload an image, click Upload a New Image. Locate the image file on the computer, and then click Open. The image will display immediately, but it will not be uploaded and saved until the Save and Continue or Save and Manage has been clicked at the bottom of the page.
The Thumbnail Image is added in the same way. The thumbnail is displayed in the product listing and is used as a link to the Product Description page. Make sure that the images are of desirable size and quality.
Next are the basic features of the product. Assign a Vendor ID by using the Lookup option to the right of the field. Vendors can be created in the Catalog Management section. The SKU Number is the Product Identification number, or the Merchant’s Product ID. The Retail Price is the current price for which the product is being sold, without discounts or coupons applied. The Base Price is the lowest price for which the product should sell. The Cost to Retailer is what it cost to obtain the product. Shipping Points is a scoring system to generalize necessary shipping standards for certain products. Set this field to however many shipping points the product is worth. Keeping a standard between all products is imperative, but whichever standard is used does not matter. Whether weight, retail price, or possibly a surface area, shipping methods may be assigned based on this number of points. The Length, Width and Height of the product are measured in inches. Do not use fractions, but use decimals instead. There are 7 options for Units of Measure and they are: carton, case, dozen, each, pair, pound, and ton.
Finally, checking the Product Active option enables the Product to appear on the site. If the Product is inactive, it will have gray shading in the Product listing and will not be on the site. Once finished creating the Product, save changes by any of the following three selections:
- Add and Manage saves the Product and returns to the main product list page
- Add and Continue saves the Product and allows the user to add a new product
- Add and Copy saves the Product and copies all of the information to a new form except
for the images
However, the product setup is not necessarily complete. In the main product listing page, click Edit to enter more aspects of the Product.
Edit Products
To modify a Product, click its Edit icon. The form looks similar to the Add New Product form, but with
additional fields.
In this section extra images may be added to the product. These images are optional and will not appear on the site unless implemented into a site's pages by a web designer. They exist to provide the Merchant with product display flexibility.
Inventory Quantities for a product can be viewed and modified. This will only take effect if the Track Inventory? option is activated in the Inventory Settings section of Site Configuration. MiDAS uses an automated declining balance that keeps track of how much of a product is left.
Enter the Quantity currently available. Next, enter the Minimum Quantity that allows an alert email to be
sent when the quantity available drops lower than the Quantity currently available. Quantity on Order signifies how many products have been ordered to add to Inventory. The Quantity On Order Arrival Date signifies when the products that were ordered will arrive. The Lead Time refers to the time lapse, measured in days, between the order date and the arrival of the product. As noted in the Inventory Settings section, the Lead Time can be linked to the Out of Stock Message, in order to give the customer an idea of how long it will take for the company to receive the product.
There are 4 selection options below these fields. The first is Product is Taxable. If this is true for the product, make sure that the box is checked. If this box is unchecked, then the product price will not be included in the tax calculation (if applicable to the customer and state he/she lives in).
The second option is Attribute Specific Inventory Handling. If the product needs to be inventoried by each variant (specific combination of attributes), then check this. The third option is Product Has Attributes [Variants]. Attributes can be created in the Attribute Setup step, which will be described later within this Product Management section. If this is checked, the Edit Variants button will appear:
Click Edit Variants in order to contribute Attributes to the product. The following window will appear:
Select the Attribute(s) to be added from the list at the bottom. When all desired Attributes for the product are selected, click Add Selected Attributes.
To Remove an unwanted Attribute, simply click the wastebasket icon to the left of the Attribute.
To determine the Values of an Attribute, click on the desired Attribute. The Attribute Value Map works in the same way as the Attribute Map does.
Once a Value has been added to the Attribute, click on it to define further options:
The Option Price Delta field allows a product's price to be increased or decreased by entering a positive number for an increase and a negative number for a decrease.
By checking Custom Text Attribute, the Default Value and Sequencer options are no longer available. This is because the Custom Text Attribute selection creates a blank field on the website so that a customer may enter their specific requirements (such as a custom text engraving).
The Default Value specifies which, out of all the attribute values for an attribute, will be selected by default in the drop-down field within the Product Description page.
The Sequencer allows the values to be ordered according to rank, preference, etc. This is the order the Values will appear in within the drop-down field.
To save changes to this specific value, click Save Changes. Select Cancel if no changes are necessary for the Value. Modifications made to this Value only apply within this Product. Another Attribute and Attribute Value within a different Product will not retain the same settings as this one.
When finished, close the attribute setup windows before returning to the Edit Product page.
If the Product should be active, make sure that the Product Active option is activated.
Activate the Restrict Product view to logged-in Customers option to allow only logged-in Customers to view the Product. Activate the Restrict Product order to logged-in Customers option to allow all Customers to view the Product, but only logged-in Customers can order it and view pricing options.
Finally, click Save and Manage to save the Product and return to the Product management page, or click Save and Continue to save the Product and continue editing it.
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Variant Inventory
If a Product has Attributes and Attribute Specific Inventory Handling enabled, then it will be listed in the Variant Inventory menu. Click the Edit icon to modify the Variant options for a specific product.
A Variant Product can only be removed from the Variant Inventory section by unchecking Attribute Specific Inventory Handling option of the Product in the Add/Edit Products section.
At the top of the chart is a list of all existing Variant Products. The QOH (Quantity on Hand) has a declining balance that is automatically updated whenever a Customer makes an order. These fields may be replaced with updated information, and changes may be saved by clicking Update Quantities.
A new Variant can be added at the bottom of the screen. Select a combination of Attribute Values unique to this Variant Product.
To the right are 5 fields that define the status of the Variant Product.
QOH stands for Quantity on Hand. Enter here how many of this type of Product are readily available.
MinQOH stands for Minimum Quantity on Hand. This is the lowest amount of this Variant Product that can be on hand before the Product must be reordered. If the quantity on hand of this product drops below this amount, an email notification will be sent to the Primary and Secondary Merchant Email account. QOO stands for Quantity On Order. The amount of this type of product that has been ordered but has not arrived yet should be entered here. QOODate stands for Quantity on Order Date. This date shows when the special type was ordered. LeadTime signifies how long it will take for the Product to arrive.
QOD stands for Quantity on Demand. If orders for this Variant Product exceed the QOH, then the amount of excess will automatically appear to this field.
Click Add New Quantity to add this Variant to the list.
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Attribute Setup
Set up Attributes, and Values within the Attributes, to define what a variant product is like. Click the plus or minus to either show (plus) or hide (minus) the Attribute Options. Create an Attribute by typing
in the desired name and clicking Add New Attribute. Once the Attribute is created, value sub-points may be added. Simply expand that Attribute by selecting the plus icon, enter the value title in the field, and click Add New Value. The Value can be renamed by clicking on the desired Value, highlighting the current title, and replacing it with a new one. Then click Save Changes. Attribute Names are changed the same way.
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Product Category Map
Categories are created under the Catalog Management section. Use this mapping system to assign products to certain categories. To begin, click Lookup. A list of Categories will appear. Click on the desired Category, and then click Select Category.
The following screen will appear:
Search by a SKU number, Product Name, or Product Description, and then click Search.
Select the Products to be added to this Category, and then click Add Selected Products. In order to remove a Product from a Category, click the corresponding trashcan icon.
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Related Product Map
This tool allows related products to appear at the bottom of a product’s description page. A search tool is located at the top of the screen:
Search by entering SKU number or by Product Name, and then click Search. To view all of the products, click Show All. When a product is selected, a list of its current related products will appear on the right:
Click – Remove in order to remove the relation between the products.
To Add a related product, search for it using the search field, or click Show All. Click the corresponding + Add option to relate the product.
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Related Category Map
This section works in the same way as the Related Product Map, except that it pertains to Categories.
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