Adding a Product

To add a product to your web store under Catalog, choose the Products tab.

Choose the Add New Product Button on the sidebar to get started.

Under the Edit Product page you have many choices for adding and configuring products. You may not need all of these options. You can choose to enter the product information that you want and also choose to leave what you want blank.

Remember to click the Update or Save Changes button after making any changes.

Click Go to Store to see the changes reflected on your store. We recommend opening your store in a new tab so you can toggle back and forth between your BV Commerce admin page and your web store. Using the back button to go between pages is not recommended. You can also use your View in Store button, which will open up a new browser window for you to see your store.

Deleting a product in your web store? Click the Delete button at the bottom of the Edit Product page.

Active and Featured Products

An Active product means that the product will be live on your store. Uncheck the box if you do not want to show the product on your web store.

A Featured product will show up on the homepage of your web store. Be aware that only some themes display featured products. You can check as many as you like.

SKU, Name and Product Type

Each product should have a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) and a Name.

The Name is what the product will be called on your store. You can choose your SKU number. SKUs should only use letters, numbers, dashes and underscores for best results.

The Product Type is a way for you to define additional information that you’d like to track about your product. You can choose to create unique Product Types or just leave the default setting of generic.

For example, if you sell books you might create a book type which has properties for author and publish date. If you create a new product and select your book type, BV Commerce will ask you to enter author and publish date on the Edit Product page.

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You can crate new Product Types under Catalog: Product Types.

Adding an Image

As soon as you click the Browse button to locate the image you want on your computer, BV Commerce will automatically upload the image. BV Commerce automatically resizes the picture for you to the correct size.

Use the Alternate Text information to give a text description of your image for search engines and accessibility.

Pricing

The MSRP is the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. If you enter an MSRP that is higher than the site price, the MSRP will be shown as strikethrough text, with your site price displaying below.

The Cost is what the item cost you to purchase. You can enter this to help track your profitability or to make sure discounts don’t go below your cost.

The Price is what will appear to customers as the selling price of your product.

You can also choose to enter a Text price rather than using numbers. This is useful for products for which you don’t want to advertise a price. For example: “Call for Pricing.” The Text price will override the numerical price and customers will not be able to see how much the item costs.

Properties

You can enter the Manufacturer or the Vendor of the product. Initially, you will not see any manufacturers or vendors listed because you haven’t entered them yet. You can add manufacturers and vendors under the People tab at the top of your BV Commerce admin screen.

Description

This is the text describing your product that customers will see on their store.

 

Search Keywords are descriptive words for your product that customers might search for. For instance, you might enter the search keywords “beach toys” for a child’s bucket and shovel set. Any words that show up on the name or description of the product don’t need to be included in the search keywords. Use this field for alternate terms or common misspellings.

Meta Title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords are all used for search engines. Accurately describing your product using these tags can help you rank highly in Google and other search engines. For more information about using meta tags, try this tutorial:

http://www.pagetutor.com/meta_tutor/index.html

Tax

To create a new tax class, go to Options at the top of the screen on your BV Commerce admin page and then Tax Schedules. A tax schedule is a list of tax rules applied to a product.

Check the Tax Exempt box if your product is tax exempt. (Picture will change.)

Shipping

Enter your product’s shipping information here. Use the Ship Mode to choose from where the item will be shipped.

For digital products, warranties and other services, choose the Non-Shipping Product checkbox.

If you want to guarantee that this product always ships in its own box for shipping price calculations, click the Ship Separately checkbox.

Advanced

Click the Allow Reviews checkbox if you want reviews of this product to appear on your store. If you don’t check this button, this product will not be able to have any reviews.

Page Name is the URL for this product. The first time you enter a product name, the page name is automatically generated for you. But you can change it any point. This is very important for search engines.

Determine a Minimum Qty. that a customer needs to order to purchase this product. This is useful for bulk items.

The Pre-Content and Post-Content Columns allow you to insert predefined HTML or controls above or below your product page. For example, you can create a content column that contains a monthly advertisement. By assigning that content column as the pre-content column your advertisement will show up above the product on the store. By assigning that content column as the post-content column your advertisement will show up below the product on the store.