Help:Products
From Shopify Wiki
This page is where you can see all the products that populate your shop. You can add new items here, and organize the product list using the controls on the sidebar. If you want to see how much of each product you have in stock, the sidebar also has a link to your inventory overview
Contents |
Adding New Products
After clicking the Add new product link, just fill in the appropriate fields with your product information and hit the Save product button. In order to be easily accessible to your customers, a product then needs to be "added to a collection":CollectionsHelp which is "linked from within your shop":NavigationHelp.
The only fields that you absolutely have to fill in before saving your product are Title, Product type, and Product Vendor, but you'll almost certainly want to enter more information than that.
Here are some tips for entering product information:
- SKU (Stock keeping unit): An SKU is a unique identifier for each of your product entries and "variants":#variants which you can use to better organize your inventory. You don't have to use SKU numbers, but they can be very helpful especially if your inventory gets to be large. There are a number of different ways you can write SKUs, but you should stick to the same format for each of your products.
- I have a limited number of this item in stock: If this option is checked, it means you want to keep track of how many individual products of this type you have available to sell. If you know that you will _always_ have stock easily available for sale, then you can safely leave this option unchecked. Otherwise, it's a good idea to keep track of your stock even if it doesn't take you long to make more of the product available.
- Deny/allow out-of-stock purchases: This choice should depend on how much time it takes you to restock. If you are selling glossy prints of a painting that you just finished, for example, you could allow people to always order more because the prints don't take you long to make. On the other hand, you would probably want to restrict people from ordering any more rare packages of baseball cards from the 1950s if you've just sold the last one you have.
- Tag your item: Customers can find products with particular tags using your shop's search page, and they can use tags to filter any "collection":CollectionsHelp views that are "linked to":NavigationHelp in your shop. You have complete control over how you want to tag each product: a pair of jeans could be tagged with "classic blue denim," or instead with "casual rugged pants," or you could use all of these. One important thing to remember is that you should reuse tags between products as much as possible by using your list of existing tags. You probably don't want to end up with a "tshirts" tag and a "t-shirt" tag, for instance, because your customers would have to select both of them in order to see all of your t-shirts in a given collection. In fact, you may want to limit the number of tags in your shop to just a handful for each of your main collections so that your customers don't get overwhelmed by options. More information on using tags with collections can be found on the collections tab help page".
- Weight: This is used to calculate shipping costs, so it's good to be as accurate as possible.
- Compare at price: If you want to brag about how much better your prices are compared to your competition, you can use this field to tell your customers just how much those swindlers are charging for the same product. Alternatively, you could use your compare at price to represent your "regular" price when you want to put a product on sale. You will need to make sure that the "theme":LookAndFeelHelp you are using displays the compare at price in such a way that it expresses the intended meaning.
- Product Options Product options are a way to distinguish your product variations. By default, every product's variations are distinguished by a single option. But, in many cases, you may wish to distinguish your product by more than one option; for example a T-Shirt has both a Size and Colour, and you are selling shirts in a variety of sizes and colors. You can create a product that can be distinguished by up to three unique options. See the screenshot below to see how to add new product options.
The units of measurement and form of currency used by the new product form are set automatically depending on the country selected during account creation, but the defaults can be changed in your General Settings area.
Managing Product Variants
There are a number of time-saving tools that will help you manage your product's variants.
- Bulk select and actions When your product has a number of variants, a helpful select bar will be available, just above the table listing of your product variants. By default, the 'all' and 'none' links will be available, as well as the values of each option's values. Selecting any of the links will select all of the relevant variants. As well, you can manually bulk select variants using the checkboxes beside each variant. The bulk actions select box will appear on the top right side of the table which has a number of options available.
- change price Sets a new price for all selected variants.
- change quantity Sets a new inventory quantity for all selected variants.
- delete Deletes all select variants
- Duplicate variants in another ... Will duplicate selected variants and set given Option on all new variants to a new value. This option will only be enabled if all the selected variants have are all of the same option value for a particular option.
- Reordering/Reorganizing Variants Variants can be reordered easily by dragging the variant into the position you want within the table list, by dragging the 4-arrow icon on the far right of a particular variant. Variants can also be reorganized by clicking on the top right icon (seen in screen shot below), which will bring up a Reorganize Variant window. This allows you to reorder all the variants based on the order of the product's options.
- Reordering Product Options The order a product's options can be changed by hovering the mouse over the Inventory table headings, and clicking on the left/right arrows that appear. This will move the order of the selected option to the left or right. See the "Reordering/Reorganizing Variants and Options" screenshot above.
Editing your product information
After adding a new product to your shop or by clicking on the product's icon in the main product list, you are able to edit any aspect of the item. In addition to the things you can change when first adding the product, there are a couple of new options which aren't available on the add productsuch as reordering product images.
- Renaming Product Options The name of options can be changed in the product edit screen. Options names must be unique within a product (ie: you cannot have Size and Size).
- Deleting a Product Option While uncommon, it is possible to a product option (as long as it's not the last one). In order to be able a particular option (for example, Color), all your existing product variant's must have the same Color. That is, you will only be allowed to delete an option if all the values for that option are the same.
Product Variations
Variations could represent different sizes of a piece of clothing, different strains of sunflower seed, or different sizes of computer monitor. Each variant has its own prices, weight, and inventory record, but they all share the same product page which lets the customer choose which one they want to buy. You can only add variants in the product management screen, after you have added the product.
You can always decide to create a new own product for every variation of this product, but this can result in a lot of time wasted for your customers as they browse your shop looking for exactly what they want. It's all up to you, but a good rule of thumb for many shops is to group products as variants when a single product description could fit for all of them.
If your variants have visual characteristics which distinguish them from one another, then you may want to add an image to your product for each variant so that your customers can see exactly what they're going to get.
Image Management
You are able to drag and drop each of your product's images to put them in any order you like. The first image is labeled as "featured" and will be displayed more prominently in most themes.
Bulk Importing Products
Notice: Changes to CSV file format on Export
The export format of CSV for products has changed in preparation for the release of multiple option support for products.
The CSV Bulk Import will support both the new and old formats of the CSV product import file, so there will be no impact to users using the old format. The current CSV Import format is still supported.
For those who have exported their products, and need to update their products by re-uploading their file (with the new CSV format), please read the following notes. This wiki will be updated once multiple option support for products has been released.
- The old Variant Title field has been mapped to Option1 Value.
- For existing rows, no further changes are required.
- For adding new products using the new CSV format, ensure that the Option1 Name field is set to the value "Title", and fill out Option1 Value field to your variant title.
The following is an example of the new CSV format:
Handle,Title,Body,Vendor,Type,Tags,Option1 Name,Option1 Value,Option2 Name,Option2 Value,Option3 Name,Option3 Value,Variant SKU,Variant Grams,Variant Inventory Tracker,Variant Inventory Qty,Variant Inventory Policy,Variant Fulfillment Service,Variant Price,Variant Compare At Price,Image Src pano-3,pano3,"My Cool New Product",Landscape,Fine Art Print,"tag",Title,Default,,,,,,0,,1,deny,manual,40,, pano-3,,,,,,Title,big,,,,,pano31,0,,1,deny,manual,45,,
You can bulk import products by preparing and uploading a CSV file with your products.
From the Products tab, select Import More... on the bottom right.
You will be directed to the Product Import page as shown below:
Preparing the CSV file
NOTE: All files should be encoded in UTF-8 and (if possible) use Unix-/Mac-style linefeeds. Read Help:UTF-8 for more info on how to save files as UTF-8.
A CSV file (Comma Separated Values) file is a plain text file with commas delimiting the fields. The first line of the CSV file is the header, and contains the name of the fields. A sample template CSV file is available to assist you, which you can download from the link in the Product Import section of the admin.
For Shopify, we require the following fields to be present (as per the sample CSV file):
Handle,Title,Body,Vendor,Type,Tags,Option1 Name,Option1 Value,Option2 Name,Option2 Value,Option3 Name,Option3 Value,Variant SKU,Variant Grams,Variant Inventory Tracker,Variant Inventory Qty,Variant Inventory Policy,Variant Fulfillment Service,Variant Price,Variant Compare At Price,Image Src
- Handle
- Handle is a unique name for a given product. They are used in the URL to link to that product. (e.g. handle: snowboard will have the url /products/snowboard). In the CSV, every line starting with a unique handle is treated as a new product.
- Title
- Product title
- Body
- Product description
- Vendor
- Name of the vendor (min. 2 characters)
- Type
- Product type
- Tags
- Space-separated list of tags used to tag the product.
- Option1 Name
- Name of the default option that is used to distinguish a product's variants. For products with only single option, should be left as 'Title'. If the row is either a product or variant, there MUST always be a value for Option1 Name.
- Option1 Value
- value to distinguish a product variant. If the row is either a product or variant, there MUST always be a value for Option1 Value.
- Option2 Name
- If a product has a second option used to distinguish a product's variants, enter the name of the option here. ie: 'Size'.
- Option2 Value
- If a product has a second option, enter the value of the option for this variant here.
- Option3 Name
- If a product has a third option used to distinguish a product's variants, enter the name of the option here.
- Option3 Value
- If a product has a third option, enter the value of the option for this variant here.
- Variant SKU
- Variant Grams
- Weight of the product in grams (will be converted to shop's default unit of measurement
- Variant Inventory Tracker
- Who handles the tracking of inventory. Valid values ["shopify", "shipwire"] or blank
- Variant Inventory Qty
- Quantity of this variant you have in inventory.
- Variant Inventory Policy
- How to handle orders when inventory level for this variant has reached zero. Valid values are ['deny', 'continue']
- Variant Fulfillment Service
- Fulfillment service. Valid values are ['manual', 'shipwire', 'webgistix', 'amazon']
- Variant Price
- Variant Compare at Price
- Image Src
- Since images cannot be placed directly into a CSV file, we accept urls of images in the Product Image column. Shopify will download the images during the import. (e.g.: http://my-server.com/images/product1.jpg)
Example CSV files
CSV of 1 product with several variants, distinguished by a title.
Handle,Title,Body,Vendor,Type,Tags,Option1 Name,Option1 Value,Option2 Name,Option2 Value,Option3 Name,Option3 Value,Variant SKU,Variant Grams,Variant Inventory Tracker,Variant Inventory Qty,Variant Inventory Policy,Variant Fulfillment Service,Variant Price,Variant Compare At Price,Image Src tulip-print-12,Ready to Frame Tulip Print 12,"These prints ready to frame",Tajima Photography,matted_print,"flowers, ready-to-frame, tulips",Title,11x14 Ready-to-Frame Print,,,,,"",2000,"",1,deny,manual,40.00,60.00,http://static2.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/040509_181714.jpeg?1239908015 tulip-print-12,,,,,,Title,16x20 Ready-to-Frame Print,,,,,"",3000,"",0,deny,manual,60.00,80.00, tulip-print-12,,,,,,Title,5x7 Ready-to-Frame Print,,,,,"",1000,"",0,deny,manual,60.00,80.00,
CSV of 1 product, two variants and several images
Handle,Title,Body,Vendor,Type,Tags,Option1 Name,Option1 Value,Option2 Name,Option2 Value,Option3 Name,Option3 Value,Variant SKU,Variant Grams,Variant Inventory Tracker,Variant Inventory Qty,Variant Inventory Policy,Variant Fulfillment Service,Variant Price,Variant Compare At Price,Image Src prints,Sample Print,"An image of the cottages at Lake O'Hara, just at sunset.",Tajima Photography,Poster,"lakeohara, landscape, sunset",Title,Landscape Artwork,,,,,"",2000,"",1,deny,manual,100.00,,http://static1.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/2006_lake_ohara_sunset_poster_1.jpeg?1239984371 prints,,,,,,Title,Flower Artwork,,,,,"",2000,"",1,deny,manual,100.00,,http://static0.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/redyellow_tulips.jpg?1239984371 prints,,,,,,Title,Clothing Artwork,,,,,"",2000,"",1,deny,manual,100.00,,http://static1.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/shopify_blue_shirt_1.png?1239984371 prints,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://static3.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/tulip_print2.jpeg?1239984371 prints,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://static3.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/tulip_dreams_1.jpeg?1239984371 prints,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,http://static0.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/library.jpeg?1239984371
CSV of 1 product with multiple options (Size, Color, Material) and several variants and images
Handle,Title,Body,Vendor,Type,Tags,Option1 Name,Option1 Value,Option2 Name,Option2 Value,Option3 Name,Option3 Value,Variant SKU,Variant Grams,Variant Inventory Tracker,Variant Inventory Qty,Variant Inventory Policy,Variant Fulfillment Service,Variant Price,Variant Compare At Price,Image Src sample-t-shirt,Sample T-shirt,"100% organic, bio-degradeable, enviromentally friendly t-shirt. Comes in a variety of beautiful colors.",shopifywear,t-shirt,"casual, earth-friendly, organic, tshirt",Size,Large,Color,Red,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,,http://static3.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/shopify_shirt.png?1239908015 sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Large,Color,Green,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,,http://static3.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/shopify_blue_shirt.png?1239908015 sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Large,Color,Blue,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,,http://static2.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/4202/products/shopify_red_shirt.png?1239908015 sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Medium,Color,Red,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,, sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Medium,Color,Green,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,, sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Medium,Color,Blue,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,, sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Small,Color,Red,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,, sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Small,Color,Green,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,, sample-t-shirt,,,,,,Size,Small,Color,Blue,Material,Cotton,"",1000,"",1,deny,manual,20.00,,
Uploading your CSV File
Once you have created your CSV file, you can upload it from the Product Import page. Once it has been uploaded, Shopify will validate the file.
All files should be encoded in UTF-8 and (if possible) use Unix-/Mac-style linefeeds.
Validating CSV File
Once your CSV file has been uploaded, Shopify will validate the format for errors. If all goes well, you will presented with a preview dialog screen, which lists the approximate number of products, variants and images that will be imported.
It will also display a preview of the first product, including it's variants the way Shopify sees your CSV. This is an opportunity for you to double check to make sure that your CSV file will be imported the way you expect.
If you are satisified with the preview, you must select Start Import to begin importing. If you leave this page, and come back at a later time, the import job will be saved, and you will be required to either continue importing, or cancel the import job before you can upload another CSV file.
If there were errors in the format of your CSV file, you will be shown the following error page. At this point, you'll need to review your CSV file and you can re-upload your file and try again.
Importing
Once you select Start Import from the preview dialog screen, the job will be sent to Shopify and our servers will begin importing your products. You will be redirected back to the Product Import page, and a progress dialog box will appear at the top of the page (as shown below).
An email will be sent to you once the import job has completed. The email will contained a detailed explanation of the products that were imported, ignored, or failed to import.
Updating prices after a bulk upload
To make price changes, you should export your current products as a CSV file and modify that CSV file. Do not remove the image URLs from your newly exported CSV file, unless you want to delete those images.
You will notice that the image URLs from your exported CSV will point to Shopify addresses, rather than your original image location.
If you import your CSV file without image URLs, and you your products already have images, it will actually delete the existing images. To replace your product images, you can put in a new image URL and it will download the new images, and delete the old ones.
