Imagine you have a new product for your physical store which you have to quickly get on your store shelf. But before you just add the product on the shelf, you would first need to make sure you add that product to your inventory system. This way, when the product is scanned all the information can be pulled up.
This is exactly what we have to do when we have to add a new product to your eStore. Now if your store is already operational, you probaby have quite a few similar products. I would suggest in such cases to just copy an existing product as a base. So let’s see how how you can add a new product with the eShop plugin in 3 easy steps.
- Step 1: Create a new post for the product
- Step 2: Add the product images
- Step 3: Add the Products Details
So let’s get started with a post.
Step1: Create a new post for the product
- Create a post in the usual fashion. In this example we will assume we are selling a DVD as a product. Don’t forget to add the SEO section if your theme supports SEO.
- Give the post a name. This name will appear as your product name.
- Make sure you are on the editor tab that you are familiar with. For most people this would be ‘Visual’.
- Assign a category this product as you would a normal post. If you have set up special categories for eShop then use one of these categories.
- Uncheck the ‘Comments’ section as this is a product and we don’t want people to comment on it (ofcourse you can always keep the comments on if you prefer it).
- Add the main product description. As this is a DVD, I have aslo added some standard information about the DVD.
- Add the eShop shipping shortcode to display this product’s shipping details. In eShop every product can have a shipping class defined for it. The shipping classes can be found under the eShop/Shipping menu option in the WP dashboard. In this case the Shipping Class is A. If the shipping class for a product was ‘B’ the shortcode would have been [eshop_show_shipping shipclass=”B”]
- Add the eShop add-to cart shortcode as is – [eshop_addtocart]. This will display the ‘price and and Add To Cart button’ on the post.
- Add an ‘Excerpt’. The excerpt is what usually appears in the post summary (archive) pages. In this case it will appear in the list of all products with the category DVDs. Just copy the product description entered in point 6 into the excerpt.
Step 2: Add the product images
- Add an image of the product to your post. Images are added like any other post.
- Add a featured image like any other posts. This theme is set up to have a featured image (which shows up in the product summary with the excerpt) and an image in the post. For most themes you just have to add the featured image. You do not have to add the image in the post too.
Step 3: Add the product details
- Add the SKU. This is a unique idetiication for this product. Have a standard naming convention and keep to it.
- Add the Product Description. Keep this the same as the post title.
- Add a sub description which appears with the price of the product.
- Add the price the of the product.
- Add the Option set if you have one. An option set are variations of the product. For eg. the DVD product can have option of PAL or NTSC. Option sets are setup in the eShop settings.
- Select the Shipping Rate of the product. All the shipping classes are defined under eShop in the WordPress dashboard.
- Check the ‘Stock Available’ option. Checking this option is very important.
- Add the SEO information like any other post. and publish your post.
And there you have it. In 3 easy steps you have added a new product using the eShop plugin. Remember the 3 steps are
- Step 1: Create a new post for the product
- Step 2: Add the product images
- Step 3: Add the Products Details