LetMeShop User Manual

 Managing Products - Parent Records Return Home 

LetMeShop products uses two records to define a product. The Parent record is used to describe a product class...product name, description, manufacturer, product image, etc. The Child record is used to enter the specifics of an individual item or stock code. The example below shows how the two records work together.

Parent Record:
    Product Name: Walker Shoes Loafer
    Product Description: Leather shoes with tassels

Child Record:
    Size: 8
    Price: 45.00
Child Record:
    Size: 10
    Price: 50.00

The parent record defines the product and the child records define a specific stock code.

 

Entering your Product - Parent Records:

Entering a product starts with defining the product parent:

From the left navigation bar choose Manage Products. You are presented with a list of the categories you have defined for your catalog. Locate the category you want to place the product in and choose List Products for this Category. The resulting page will list all products already in this category. Choose the Add New Product link.

This is your product definition page and contains the following input options:
( See LetMeShop catalog parent product input page illustration below )

 

Input Option Description
New Product? Used in conjunction with the next entry (End Date)... If checked this product will be displayed in the "New Items" list (/_store/newitems.asp). It will also be used in the New Items Ad section of the navigation bar if you choose to include the section on your navigation bars. 
End Date This is the last date this product should be included on the "New Product" List. (See New Product)
Product ID The product ID is a unique ID code used to connect a group of individual products (stock codes or SKUs). This is not the product stock code that uniquely defines an individual product. Stock codes (SKUs) are entered in the Product Child record. You may create this code to fit your needs.

MAXIMUM 20 CHARACTERS: can be any combination of upper and/or lower case letters, numbers and the underscore ( _ ) character. Do NOT use spaces or other special characters.

Short Description The short description is used to describe the product in any situation where a list of products are displayed. For instance, if a person does a search for "Shirts" the resulting page will show a list of products that match the keyword search. The short description will be displayed for each product in that list. Maximum length: 255 characters.

Suggestions: 
The Shopper: When a shopper is looking through your catalog the short description and the thumbnail image will be their only indication of what the product is. You should use descriptive language that will let them immediately know if this is the product they are looking for and compelling enough to entice them to click to see the detail information. 
Search Engines: The short description is used in the product listing and the alt tag for any images associated with the product. It is also used in several optional search engine optimization processes included with LetMeShop ( see Search Engine Optimization ). Whenever possible, the short description should contain at least one or more of your primary keywords or key phrases.

Full Description: This description is only shown on the product detail page where the Buy button is displayed. For information on how to use the WYSIWYG editor see Using the WYSIWYG editor

NOTE: This field is used in our optional Froogle Feed which formats your catalog product information for a direct data feed into Google's Froogle database. This feed strips all HTML code from your content (required by Froogle).

Charge State/Prov Tax checkbox If you have set up a tax table for state or provincial tax selecting this check box will force LetMeShop to charge the appropriate tax to any order shipped to the state or province listed in the tax table. Do not select this option if the product is not taxable.
Charge Federal Tax checkbox If you have set up a country tax ( Canada Only ) selecting this check box will force LetMeShop to charge the appropriate tax as defined in your tax table.
Charge Shipping Checkbox If you wish to include this product in your shipping calculations you need to check this box.
Show product in catalog Selecting this option will force LetMeShop to show the product in your catalog. This allows you to remove a product from the catalog temporarily without deleting the product and product child information.
Sell product on web Selecting this option will force LetMeShop to display a Buy button on the product detail page. If you select Show on web and do no select Sell on web the product will display but will not include a Buy button
"Not For Sale" Reason This field allows you to enter a reason that this item is not currently available for purchase through the catalog. For instance, if a product requires customization you could enter "Call for pricing information" as the reason. This will show on the product detail page instead of the Buy button.
Manufacturer Enter the Manufacturer in this field. You should be consistent with your manufacturer names. LetMeShop creates a dynamic list of manufacturers from this table. If you have a manufacturer listed three different ways all three will show up in the manufacturers drop down search criteria.

MAXIMUM 35 CHARACTERS: Do NOT use HTML tags in this field.

Brand LetMeShop provides a search by "Brand" feature that can be included in your navigation bar. This feature uses the information you enter hear for the search. Be sure that you use EXACTLY the same spelling for all product brands.
Associate with Specials If you have added Specialty Categories you will have the option of adding this product to one of these specialty categories.
Associated Products
Product ID 1
Product ID 2
Product ID 3
Product ID 4
Each product in your catalog can be associated with up to four other products. For instance, if you are selling Cell Phones and Cell Phone AC adapters you can enter the Product ID of the Cell Phone in the associated product field of the adapter for that product.

If you have chosen to show Associated Products in the catalog the AC Adapter will show under the associated Cell Phone every time the Cell Phone product detail page is displayed.

Display Style This dropdown gives you three choices for displaying the product detail page...display left, right and center. This style is ONLY used if an image is entered in the Product Picture File field.

Display Left: If you want to show your product image to the left with your text information to the right of the image choose this option. If the text runs longer than the image it will wrap under the image.
Display Right: This choice places the image to the right and the text copy to the left.
Display Center: This choice centers the image and displays the product description under the image.

Page Title The text entered here is used as the page title on the product detail page for this product. It is primarily used to enhance search engine listings. It is strongly suggested that you use a keyword loaded page title. Maximum of 120 characters.
Additional Info Title LetMeShop gives you the option of letting your shopper provide information for each product they buy. For instance, if you are selling engraving you can request the user to input "Up to 12 characters to be engraved." When you enter copy in the Additional Info Title the copy is displayed directly above an input field on the product detail page.
Product Information File Name. Many catalog owners prefer to include minimal descriptive information on their products in the catalog and provide detailed descriptions or technical documents in separate HTML pages. LetMeShop allows you to do this with the More Information Link. 

This file must be located in the _sitefiles/productinfo folder on your web site. You only need to enter the name of the file in the input filed. If you need to connect to an external page use the Link to external Information and External Link URL.

Title for external link
AND
Link to external information
These two fields give you another way to link to product information from your product detail page. The text you enter in the Title for external link field will be displayed on the product detail page as a link to the fully qualified URL entered in the Link to external information field.
Product Picture File This field holds the name of the image file displayed in the product detail page.

LetMeShop lets you choose from three different layouts for each product: Photo left, Photo right and Photo center. ( see Product Page Layout below )

If you are using the built-in image upload feature you do not have to enter anything in this field. The upload feature will upload the image and rename it to match the product ID to insure that product images are never inadvertently overwritten by a file of the same name.

If you are not using the built-in upload feature, enter the file name of the thumbnail image and use any standard FTP program to upload the image to the _sitefiles/productimages folder.

Product Thumbnail File: This is the name of the thumbnail image file that will be displayed where the product is displayed in a list with other products.

LetMeShop lets you choose a one, two or three column layout for all product lists. The following thumbnail image sizes are recommended for each.
1 column: 150 pixels wide
2 column: 120 pixels wide
3 column: 90 pixels wide

If you are using the built-in image upload feature you do not have to enter anything in this field. The upload feature will upload the image and rename it to match the product ID to insure that product images are never inadvertently overwritten by a file of the same name.

If you are not using the built-in upload feature, enter the file name of the thumbnail image and use any standard FTP program to upload the image to the _sitefiles/productimages folder.

Pricing Attribute

Attribute Title 1
Attribute Title 2
Attribute Title 3
Attribute Title 4

LetMeShop allows you to define up to 4 custom attributes for each product definition (parent). For instance, you could use the Attribute Title to define Size, Width, Color or any attribute specific to the product.

The titles should be as short as possible to describe the attribute and can be no more than 30 characters. The title AND the values entered in the product child records are displayed in a series of dropdown box choices on the product detail page. (See below)

Downloadable LetMeShop allows you sell downloadable products. Check this box to indicate that this product is a downloadable product.
Download File Name This path / filename tells the program where to find the downloadable file. 
All downloadable files must be saved to the _sitefiles/productdownloads folder on your site.
In the "download filename" field enter only the file name of the downloadable file. Please do not use any spaces or special characters in the file name.

When a user purchases a downloadable product, they are notified on the receipt page and given a link to the download page. They are also notified in the receipt email with a link to the downloads page.

IMPORTANT: If you allow the download of a file that can be opened in a browser window (HTML, PDF, JPEG, GIF, XLS, DOC, PPT, etc.) the file will OPEN in a browser window.
We recommend that all files be saved in a .zip or other file format that will NOT open in a browser window.

Product Department Power Search Attributes This attribute option will only be available if you added category attributes when you set up the category this product is being added to. See Product Categories for more information.
Image Upload When you select this box prior to saving your changes the catalog software will redirect you to a page that allows you to find and upload a product thumbnail file and a product image file.

You may also use any standard FTP program to upload files to your site.

Save Record Button Clicking this button saves your changes and either returns you to the product listing page or redirects you to the image upload page if you have chosen to upload an image
Cancel Button Clicking this button returns you to the product listing page with out saving any changes you may have made.

 

 

Click on the entry field for a description.

 

LetMeShop User Manual ©2002/2003 Web Transitions, Inc.

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