Adding Products to your Zen Cart store

Add Products to ZenCart

Set up your categories categories carefully. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

**Most online shoppers do not want to click endlessly before they can purchase an item. Categories and sub-categories are necessary to keep your content organized but try to keep the levels of sub-categories to less than three. A customer should be able to add an item to their basket in three clicks or less.
** With Zen Cart, items can be linked to and listed in multiple categories, so best to only list an item in one category then go back and link them to another category later.
*Once a category is added at a level, products can not be added at the same level, (this is where it helps to revert to old fashion pen and paper to plan your category structure before hand)

With your category list in hand, log in to your Zen Cart admin panel and take the following actions:

* Hover over “Catalogue” and click on “Categories/Products” in the drop down menu that appears.
* If you are a novice a use the WYSIWYG editor, select “HTMLarea” from the “Text Editor” drop down box if you are confident in using the html editor.
* Click on “New Category”
* Fill in the “Name” field and add a Category Description if you wish.(remember thses at a later date if you do not use them to start they are a handy place to use keywords within a decent description to help with search engine rankings)
The category description will be placed above the sub-categories or products for the category.
* If you wish, assign a sort order for the the Category. If a sort order is not assigned then the categories will be listed alphabetically.
*upload an image if you desire one to represent the category.
* Click on the “Save” button.
* Repeat the steps for each category at the top level

To add sub-categories to categories follow these steps:

* Click on the folder icon for the category for which you would like to add a sub-category.
* Click on “New Category”
* Fill in the “Name” field and add a Category Description if you wish.(remember thses at a later date if you do not use them to start they are a handy place to use keywords within a decent description to help with search engine rankings) The category description will be placed above the sub-categories or products for the category.
* If you wish, assign a sort order for the the Category, as above.
* Upload an image for the ctegory if you wish,
* Click on the “Save” button.
* Repeat the steps for each sub-category at this level.
* Note that once there is a category present at any level, the “New Product” button is no longer available.

Your Categories and Sub-Categories are now set up.

In Zencart you can add manufacturers to a product listing but in order to do this you need to add the manufacturers to the database in order for them to appear as a drop down list in the add a product screen.

You really should do this before you add any products unless you dont mind editing each product at a later date.This will also give your visitors an alternative way to navigate to your produts.

** Hover over “Catalogue” and click on “Manufacturers”.
** Click on the “Insert” button
** Fill in the name field. If you have a logo for the manufacturer, you can browse and add that image here also.
** Click on the “Save” button.
** Repeat the above steps until all of the required manufacturers are added to the database.

With the category and subcategory structure in place and manufacturers added if required you can now go ahead and add your products.
**hover over catalogue and select categories and products from the drop down menu.
**from the resulting screen click on the top level category your product will appear in, then select the subcategory if applicable.
* If you are a novice use the WYSIWYG editor, select “HTMLarea” from the “Text Editor” drop down box if you are confident in writing html.
* Click on the “New Product” button, this will bring up an edit product screen.
* Fill in the fields in the following way:
– Products Status: select In Stock or Out of Stock
– If the item is Out of Stock, select the date available, Zen cart will automatically send the product live and change its status on the date entered.
– Products Manufacturer: Select the relevant manufacturer from the drop-down list or leave as none,(see now why we did that first )

_ Products Name: Enter the title of your product, (keep in mind the terms people will use to find your product when searching)
– Product is Free, Product is Call for Price, and Product Priced by Attributes Select Yes or No.
– Tax Class- Select None or Taxable Goods
– Enter the Products Price
– Product is Virtual, Always Free Shipping, and Products Quantity Box Shows- Select Yes or No for each. Virtual products are downloadable products such as eBooks or software.
– Product Qty Minimum – If you sell your items in lots, enter the minimum amount here.
– Product Qty Maximum – Maximum amount of items you will sell to a customer. This is not the same as Quantity in Stock.
– Product Qty Units – Do you sell your item in lots only? Enter the lot amount here.
– Product Qty Min/Unit Mix – Leave as yes.
– Products Description – Enter the description for the product. Add as much information as possible. Remember that search engines read like humans, make it informative and relevant.
– Products Quantity -Enter the amount of items in stock.
– Products Model: Does the manufacturer assign a model number for the product? If so, enter the model number.Remember, this information is picked up by search engines, and as such will allow people to compare products via a search by product number.
– Products Image- Browse your hard drive and select the correct image for the product.
– Products URL- entering a web site here will show the following text on the product information page, “For more information, please visit this products webpage.” and will create a link. Only use this field if you want people to leave your web site to purchase a product.
– Products Shipping Weight- If your shipping rates are based on product weight, enter the weight here.
– Sort Order- Enter the sort order of the product. If you want your products listed alphabetically, leave this field blank.
– Click on the “Preview” button.
– If all information is correct, click “Insert”.

You now have products available for purchase