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Hi and welcome to the ECP tutorials. In today’s lesson we are going to be discussing how to add product to the back end to your Ares cart system. As always we will begin by logging in, and once you are logged in you will land on the dashboard. From the dashboard, we hover over Catalog and select Products. You can see there are already a number of products that have been created, but in this lesson we want to create a new product from the ground-up.

Creating a Product:

The first thing to do is to click on the Insert button. This will load a blank product screen.

Product Name -

Type in the name of the product.

Meta Tag Description and Meta Tag Keywords -

The simplest thing you can do is to copy the product name into each of the fields. If you would like to add additional information here, please feel free to do so.

Product Description -

You can find your product description from various places. Ideally the drop shipper will provide you with that product description. If that’s the case, you simply go to the drop shipper’s description of that product, copy it, and paste it into the product description field. Notice there is a text editor above the product description. Use this to stylize and format your description as necessary.

Product Tags -

This is for the internal search bar found on the front of the website. The search bar is very intuitive but if you want to add additional tags/keywords to help the customer find that product, you may enter it in this field, and you can continue to add them as long as they are comma separated. After this, click on the Data tab.

Data Tab:

Model Number -

This is a required field. This value must be unique to any other model numbers entered.

SKU, UPC, and Location are all optional fields.

Price -

To enter in the price, you simply type in the amount with no dollar signs. Just dollars and cents.

Tax Class -

Should always be set to Taxable Goods. This allows you to set a tax rate for the state you live in and if anybody is making a purchase from that state, it will add the appropriate tax.

Quantity -

If you are having the Ares Cart System keep track of your quantity, enter the number of products you have. Set the ‘Minimum Quantity’ to ’1′ and the ‘Subtract Stock’ would be left at ‘Yes’.

If you are dealing with a drop shipper, the ideal thing to do is to put a quantity of ’99′, a Minimum Quantity of 1, ‘Subtract Stock’ set to ‘No’.

Out of Stock Status -

This is only relevant if you have ‘Subtract Stock’ set to ‘Yes’. When you are out of stock you can have various messages displayed to the customer to let them know. Out of Stock, In Stock, Pre-Order, and 2-3 Days.

SEO Keyword -

The SEO keyword field generally uses the name of the actual product. You may add additional keywords to this if you like.

There are three rules to the SEO Keyword field:

-The first rule is the SEO Keyword must be globally unique; meaning you cannot use the word ‘microphone’ in any other SEO Keyword area or it will create a conflict with the backend of the site.

-The second rule is no special characters. Alpha Numeric characters only. So if you happen to have any ‘special’ characters in this field, remove them.

-The third rule is no spaces. They must be replaced with dashes or underscores. So if you have a SEO Keyword that has two words or more in it; you’d simply replace the space with a dash or an underscore. And again feel free to add as many SEO Keywords as applicable to the name of this category.

Image -

To upload an image of your product, select the Browse Files button below the image icon. This will bring open your image manager. Now to upload an image to your Image Manager from your computer, simply select the upload button. Once you do that, it will bring open your computer’s browser window asking you to direct it to where the image is. Find and double click on the image to upload it to the Image Manager. Find and select the image by double clicking on it and you will be greeted with a success message. Once you have downloaded the image, you must find it. Everything listed here is listed alphabetically. Find your uploaded image and double click on it. Once that is done, the image appears on the page, verifying that the image has been uploaded successfully.

Date Available field -

If you notice, it will always display the day before you are working on it. Today’s date is January 5, 2012. The system will automatically make the date available for the product the day before, that’s why it says January 4, 2012. If you need to extend this Date Available, you simply click on the calendar and select the date you would like it to be. Typically it can be left at default, ensuring your product will display right away.

Dimensions -

Fill out the length, width, and height fields of the shipping box for this product.

Length Class -

Can be set to Centimeter, Millimeter or Inch.

Weight Class -

Can be set to Kilograms, Grams, Pounds, or Ounces.

Status -

By default Status will always be enabled. If you would like to hide this product from the customer’s point of view until you are ready to display it, simply select Disabled. This product will not show until you enable it.

Sort Order -

Always leave at default. Now that you have completed the Data tab, click on the Links tab.

Links Tab:

Manufacturer -

This is a list of Manufacturers to assign to a product If that manufacturer is not in the list or that list has not been populated at all, please review the section below titled ‘Adding Manufacturers’.

Categories -

Simply select the check box for the appropriate Category or Sub-Category this products should be found under. If your product falls under multiple Categories, you are free to check as many categories as appropriate.

Stores -

Leave it checked at Default.

Downloads -

Refers to any downloadable product that you may have been offering. How to set up this field will be covered in a later lesson.

Related Products -

This is the way to tell the customer “If you like this product, you might want to see the accessories.” or “If you like this product, you might like these products as well.”
Notice that it says Autocomplete below the Related Products Title. That means as you start to type in the name of the product, it will show you a list of products based on what you have typed in. Select the appropriate products and you will see them listed in the box below. To remove any, simply click on the red icon to remove it.

Save -

Click on the save button in the top right hand corner to save your product.

That is it for the minimum requirements to create a product. In the next lesson we will go over the advanced product upload dealing with the remainder of the tabs for Products.

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Adding Manufacturers:

To add a manufacturer to the list, simply hover over Catalog and scroll down to Manufacturers. Start by hitting the Insert button. Type in the Manufacturer name, the Manufacturer SEO Keyword, and select an image if applicable. Leave

the Sort Order at default. Now hit Save and there should be a success message. Now you can add this Manufacturer to any product under the Manufacturer drop down list under the Links Tab.

Editing an Existing Product:

Hover over Catalog, select Products, and find the product to be edited. After locating the product, follow the line to the right and click Edit. This will allow you to Edit any of the fields under any of the tabs. If you misspelled something in the description or want to stylize it with some text layout options, if you forgot a Meta Tag Keyword, if you need to change the price, this is the time to do so. This can be done at any time.

Save -

Make your changes to the product fields and click Save.

Deleting Product:

Hover over Catalog and select Product. Locate the product(s) to be deleted and very simply check the box next to the corresponding product(s) and select delete button in the top right hand corner. It’s going to ask you if you are sure you want to do this, and if you are sure, select OK. If not, just select cancel. No harm done.

For additional information for tutorials, simply go to ecommercepositioning.com. Here you will find all of the information necessary to make your website a success.