What is a Catalog Page?

This page type is for showcasing products and services and is completely integrated with the shopping cart. There are 3 different layouts to choose from so you can find one that best suits your business . For information about setting up payment processing, shipping, taxes, etc. for your store, please see Shopping Cart.

Recommended Uses

• Useful for selling products and services with our shopping cart.

Overview

1. Description & Screenshots of the 3 Catalog Layouts
2. Adding a Catalog Page
3. Editing Your Page
4. Setting Up Products and Services In Your Catalog
• Inventory Management
• Drop Down Menus
• Purchase Comments
• Send Email
5. Changing the Order of Your Products
6. Bulk Editing Your Products
7. Editing and Deleting Your Products
8. Turning On Your Shopping Cart
9. Editing Your Title Tag, Meta Tag and Header Info

 

1. Description & Screenshots of the 3 Catalog Layouts

Product Thumbnails

• Visitors see a preview picture, title of the item and price
• Layout is 4 products across
• This is a good choice if you have items which don't require explanation at first sight but may be chosen based on their presentation – e.g. dolls.

Product List

• Visitors see the product name and price
• Layout is product name on the left and price on the right.
• This is a good choice if your products do not need to be viewed -- e.g. Stanley 5/8” Nails.

Product Previews

• Visitors see product name, preview picture, price and summary.
• Layout is picture of product on left. Beside picture, product name, summary and price. One product per row.
• This is a good choice if your products have a lot of features, may require explanation and are useful for shoppers to see in order to decide if they want the product – e.g. telephones.

After you click on a product on any of the 3 layouts above, you see the product description page which looks like the image below. Note that you can have up to 3 photos on this page. The first image is a the full size version of your thumbnail and then optionally 2 more full size images below that.

You can switch between descriptions anytime by clicking on 'Edit Page' and then the 'Change Layout' tab. Next, click on the layout you wish.

 

2. Adding a Catalog Page

1. Under the 'Edit Site' tab, click 'Add Page'.
2. Click 'Catalog'.

3. Name your new page. This name is what will be shown in your navigation menu.By default, the 'Check to show this page in your navigation menu' box is checked. If you do not want the page to show in your menu, uncheck the box.
4. Enter a 'Page URL'. This creates the individual webpage address for that page. TIP: Use keywords or words that reflect the content that will be on that page.
5. Choose your layout.

6. Click 'Add Page'.

You'll then be on the editing page.

 

3. Editing Your Page

Any time you want to make changes to your page:

1. Click the 'Edit Site' tab.
2. Click 'Edit' beside the page you want to edit. .

Or, if viewing the page you want to edit, click 'Edit Page' on the toolbar.

You'll then be on the 'Header & Footer' section of the editing page.

Text that you put in the Title and Subtitle fields will be displayed at the top of your page, with the Title text also being automatically used as your Title Tag. For more information about Tags, please read Page Title, Meta & Head Tags.

The header and footer appear above and below the product listings. To edit the header and footer, add and make changes to text using the text editor and click 'Save Changes' when finished.

 

4. Setting Up Products and Services In Your Catalog

Adding a Product

1. Within the editing page, click 'Add Item' on the left.
2. Enter your info and click on 'Add Product'.

Below, there is a description of each of the product options you see. Please note that the shopping cart buttons: Add to Cart, Shopping Cart and Check Out only show when your shopping cart is turned on. Your shopping cart cannot be turned on until after you convert your site to paid.

Product Details

Product Code
If you have a product code, enter it here. If not, leave the text box blank.

Name of Product
Enter the name of your product or service.

Price
Enter your price. Please note that you cannot enter a range like $5.00 to $8.00. You have to pick an absolute amount. If you have several prices for a product, for example in different bundles, you should enter each bundle separately.

Selling Price (optional)
If you want to offer a sale price for your product, enter it here. If you complete this field, the original Price will be crossed out on the catalog page and the sale price will be displayed in red, making the savings more obvious for shoppers.

Full Description
Enter a description of your product or service. This description shows only when you click on the product from your product page to see the details of it.

Summary
Enter a summary of your product or service. This summary only shows for the layout Product Previews. It appears by your product on your product page. It does not show when you click on the product.

Product Images

You can add up to 3 images for each product. The image on the left labeled 'Preview Image' is the image that is seen on the product page on the Product Thumbnails and Product Previews layouts. It is automatically changed into a thumbnail size when shown on those 2 layouts. For all 3 layouts, when the product is clicked on, the visitor sees the image in its full view. The images labeled 'Image 2' and 'Image 3' are also seen when the product is clicked on from the product page.

For more information about managing your images, click here.

Upload Downloadable Products

If you have a downloadable product (ebooks, software, etc.), instead of a shipped product, upload it here.

1. Click 'Click to Select File' and a downloads window will open.
2. Click 'Browse', locate and double-click the file on your computer.
3. Click 'Save' in the downloads window. You'll now see the file in the field above the 'Click to Select File' button.

After your customer has paid for your product, they receive a login and password to access the files. For more information, please go to Download: Ebook and File Sales.

Shipping & Inventory

Shipping Weight
This is only relevant to fill out if you are charging your shipping based on per unit of weight. If you do not plan to do this, you do not need to fill in this text box. For your own information, the other 2 ways of charging shipping is per item purchased and per order.

Shipping Dimensions
If you know the size of the package to be shipped, enter it here.

Availability Text
Displays the availability of the item on the product description page and is auto-filled with "in stock".

Inventory Management

For each of your products you have the option to have automated inventory management. This means you enter in the number of items you have and anytime they are bought, the number is reduced. When you run out of items, the product can be made invisible to visitors or you can have an out of stock message display. You can have some items with inventory management and some without it if you choose.

To enable inventory management for a product, go to the catalog page where your product is listed, click on your product and then click 'Edit Page'. Under 'Shipping & Inventory', you'll see the following:

1. Check mark the box 'enable inventory management for this product'.
2. Beside 'Items in Stock', enter in the number of items you have available.
3. Select your 'Action if item is out of stock?':
   • Display out of stock message: Product is visible to your customers, but your 'Out of Stock' message is shown.
   • Hide product: Product doesn't show once there are none left to sell.

   If you decide to have an out of stock message, a default message of:

   This product is back-ordered; it is unavailable for ordering at this time please come back or continue shopping.

will show or you can edit this to a different message.

Note: If you have 1 item left and the customer adds 3 of these to his/her cart, when they go through the checkout steps, they will see that 2 of the items have been removed and there is a message that they have gone over what you have in stock.

Options
Checkmark 'Check to make this item invisible' if you do not want your visitors to see the product. Please note that you will be able to see the product when you are logged in.
Checkmark 'Check to make this item unavailable' if you want your visitors to be able to see the product, but be unable to purchase it. This is ideal if you have a product out of stock, but are expecting more.

Please note that 'Options' are available with or without Inventory Management enabled.

Product Options

Options Dropdown Menus
These options allow you to add up to 3 drop down menus. When used, a visitor can make choices for items like size and color. All these choices are then shown with the order so you will know what choices they made. To use this, enter the title of the option under 'Description of List of Options' and then fill in the options you provide under 'List of Options'. In 'List of Options', please ensure you keep 1 option per line. Leave blank if you do not wish to use the drop down menu.

The result of adding a drop down menu is:

Purchase Comments
With this option, you can add a comment box to collect information from the purchase. For example, a message to go with the product or the words a visitor wants printed on a shirt. In the text box, type out the instructions you want for the comment box.

The result of adding a comment box is:

Send Email
Customers are sent an email automatically with the text you enter in this box. This option only works if you have your cart setup to process credit cards with Authorize.net. It is ideal for:

• e-book and file download sales so your customers are sent the web address of where to retrieve their file and the password to access the information
• special instructions that go with a product or service
• subscription sites which only members can access after they have paid so your new members are sent the access information

To set it up, enter in the note you would like to have appear in the email. Make sure you hit enter when you get to the end of a line.

The format of the email received is:

This information is provided with your purchase:

Your 'Toaster' radio comes with a 2 year warranty. If there
are any problems with it, please call us with your order
receipt number at 1-800-123-4567.

The email is sent via the same email you entered for Email Notification. If several items with the 'Send Email' part filled out are bought, the customer is sent ONE email that contains all the messages separated by a doublespace between like this:

This information is provided with your purchase:

Your 'Toaster' radio comes with a 2 year warranty. If there
are any problems with it, please call us with your order
receipt number at 1-800-123-4567.

Your 'White Dial' radio comes with a 2 year warranty. If there
are any problems with it, please call us with your order
receipt number at 1-800-123-4567.

 

5. Changing the Order of Your Products

1. Within the editing page, click 'Edit Items' on the left.
2. Click and drag your Products up or down to where you'd like them. Click 'Save' when finished .
   
   

6. Bulk Editing Your Products

Once you've filled your catalog(s) with products, you may want to move them between catalogs, manage your inventory, or change item pricing of many products at the same time. All of this can be done through the 'Bulk Edit' feature.

1. Click the 'Edit Store' -> 'Products' -> 'Bulk Edit'.
2. You'll then see a list of your catalogs and products. Make changes as necessary and click 'Save'.

Items with inventory control enabled will have the inventory amount listed in the box under 'Inventory'.
Items that do not currently have inventory enabled will have an empty box, although placing a number in the box will enable inventory.

 

7. Editing and Deleting Your Products

1. Within the editing page, click 'Edit Items' on the left.
2. To the right of your Product listing, click 'Edit' to modify or the red 'X' to delete it. If you edit a Product, make sure to save. If you delete a Product, confirm or cancel on the following page.

You can also edit a product by clicking 'Edit Page' under the 'Edit Site' tab while viewing the product page.

 

8. Turning On Your Shopping Cart

Your shopping cart buttons will not appear for each of your products until after your shopping cart is switched to 'Open Store' mode. This can only be done after your site is converted to paid. This is in the step Opening Your Store.

 

9. Editing Your Title Tag, Meta Tag and Header Info

To help with search engine ranking you can customize your title, description, and keyword tags for individual pages. Advanced users can also place code between the <head> tags. This feature is available through the editing page under 'Internet Marketing' on the left of the editing page. To learn more, please read Page Title, Meta & Head Tags.

Alternatively, you can apply the same description and keyword tags site-wide, which is great if you don't yet have time to do them for individual pages. To learn how, please read Marketing Your Site: Meta Keywords and Meta Description.