Managing your storefront data

Categories

When you begin your storefront site implementation, you identify the structure and hierarchy for your categories. Categories and products are frequently imported from a legacy system.

Access categories through their respective catalogs. Editing Categories in Business Manager:

1. Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Catalogs > {select a catalog}.
2. Click the Edit button of a category.

The following screen displays:

It contains the following tabs:

General Tab: This tab identifies the general attributes for the category (for example, category ID, name, description, online, and online dates).

Select Language (Locale), selecting language enables you to enter the text for a language. When you enter French text, the customer must switch their storefront language to French to view that text. This is used in categories, products and elsewhere in Business Manager.

Example: If your site has both English and French, then you would enter the category name “Men” in English then switch to enter “Homme” in French.

Category Attributes Tab: This tab enables you to specify Search Engine Optimization, Sitemap Attributes, Presentation Attributes, Search Ranking, and other custom attributes.

Product Attribute Definition Tab: This list shows attribute groups attached to this category. Category attribute groups define product attributes for all products bound to this category. Provide an ID and click Add to add a new attribute group to the category.

Search Refinement Definitions Tab: This tab identifies the search refinements for each category. This enables customers to refine a search using multiple attributes, such as price, category, or a product attribute. This reduces the quantity of products displayed on the storefront.

• Customers may use search refinements to find TVs based on screen size, price and manufacturer. This is particularly useful to filter a large catalog when a customer is looking for very specific product.
• Customers may use search refinements to reduce the quantity of products displayed so that only women's shoes in size 4 ½ are displayed on the storefront.

Page Meta Tag Rules: This tabs shows you the rules applied for current category to display meta tag values for name, description, robots, title and so on.

Categorization Rules: This tabs allows you to define some rules to add products to this category.

Magnifying Glass Icon: This icon enables you to preview the category on the Storefront.

Creating a Category

When you design your storefront site, you specify the main categories to include in the storefront's navigation bar. As trends change, you can add or remove categories.
To add a category:

1. Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Catalogs.
2. Navigate to the catalog where you want to add your category.
3. Click New.
4. When adding a new category, start with the General tab.
5. Enter the Category ID based upon the category naming convention that your team has defined. Do not use special characters in ID fields. Spaces are fine.
6. Check the Online box.
7. Optional: Enter the Online from and Online to dates to define a date range for the category. When you specify a date range, the category is displayed on the storefront only within the specified range. You can specify a start date, end date, or both. Leaving these blank indicates that the category display on the storefront continuously.
8. Name is the visually displayed name on the storefront navigation menu.
9. Parent Id identifies the category directory location. To view the category structure and select the parent id. Click Select.
10. Click Apply.
11. The other tabs of the new category are now accessible.
12. Click the Category Attributes tab.
13. Select Show in the menu navigation.

Editing a Product

Search for the product that you would like to edit and click the product's ID or name link.

Locking Products: Locking a product gives a Business Manager user exclusive access to edit that product and its variations. By default, the lock expires in an hour. The user must lock the product before submitting changes via the Apply button.

Set a Product Offline: If there is any reason that a product is not ready to be sold, you should take it offline. To take a product offline:

1. Search for the product that you would like to change.
2. Click on the Variations and click on the master of the product.
3. Lock the product.
4. Set Online to No.
5. Click Apply.

Delete vs. Offline vs. Unassign: Deleting a product removes it completely while setting it to offline only removes it from the storefront but does not remove it from the catalog.

However, removing the assignment of a product to a category removes the product from being displayed in that category on the storefront.
For example, if a product is in both the Men's category and the Sale category, you can unsign it from the Sale category, while still keeping it in the Men's category.

To delete a product:

1. Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products.
2. Select the product using the checkbox on the left.
3. Click Delete.

Business Manager prompts you to confirm the deletion. Click Ok.

Choosing a Category While Editing a Product: When assigning a product to one or more categories, use the Categories tab to identify the classification and the primary categories.

• The Classification category defines the attribute set of the product.
• The Primary category defines which category a product should appear in when accessed via search. It does not affect the category navigation hierarchy (the “home” of the product).

You could assign a new product to multiple categories (such as New Arrivals, Sale, Kids Shoes). The classification category would be Kids Shoes providing shoe attributes while the Sale category would be the primary category for people who search.

To change a category while editing a product:

1. Edit the product.
2. Click Edit Categories to assign the product to a certain category.

Assigning Multiple Products to a Category

You can assign products to categories manually, through the feed or in bulk. As trends change you can assign, move, or copy products to other categories. For example, seasonal products are often moved to Sale or Clearance categories.

To assign multiple products to a category via the category:

1. Go to a category and click Assign.
2. Select the products to add to the category.

To assign multiple products to a category via the products:

1. Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Categories > Products.
2. Select the products to assign to a category.
3. Click Assign.
4. Choose the categories that should contain the products selected and click Next >>
5. Specify the primary and classification categories.
6. Click either Finish: Return to Products or Finish: Go to Batch Process.

📝 Exercise: Assign Products to a Category

1. Assign the product you created earlier to your category.
2. Select additional master products and assign them to your category.
3. View your category in the storefront.

📝 Exercise: Moving Products From One Category to Another

1. Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Categories > Products.
2. Select a product.
3. Select the Categories tab.
4. Lock the product and click Edit Categories.
5. In the category tree, uncheck the current category, select one or more new categories. Click Apply.

📝 Exercise: Move a Product to Another Category

At the end of the season, a product is moved to the clearance category

1. Select a product from another category.
2. Move it into your category (as if your category was the clearance category).
3. Preview your category on the storefront.

Copying Products

You can copy a product. For example, create a deluxe product based on a standard product.

1. Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products.
2. Select the product to copy and click Copy.
3. Select the copy options to determine the features you want to copy.
4. Click Finish. Notice that the new product ID has “-1” at the end of the product ID to make the ID unique. But, you can create a new SKU for that product as appropriate.

Managing Variation Masters and Variation Products

Use variation masters to display a product in the product listing page and the variation products are the SKUs with specific variations (like size and color) that are purchased by the customer:

This is a variation master:

These variation products correspond to the variation master:

Each variation product has an SKU and can have an individual: price, inventory, and promotions. To manage the assignment of variation products to variation master products, use the Variations tab.

Attaching Variation Products to a Variation Master

Most systems import products with the variation products already assigned to a variation master. Some systems require that you create the variation master then attach the variation products to it. To attach a variation product to a variation master:

1. If it doesn't exist already, create a variation master.
2. Lock it
3. Select the Variations tab.
4. Scroll to the New Variation Product section.
5. Select the variation product to add to the variation master.
6. Click Add.

Selecting a Default Variation Product

Select one of the variation products as the default by clicking on the variation and selecting the radio button. That variation displays in the search results and on the product detail page.

Product Sets

A product set is a group of related products presented together. It is sometimes known as a Merchandizing Set, Retail Set, or Promotion Set. You can display product sets in a category to create a “look book” with images that display how the products are related to each other.

For example, a product set could contain a sweater, pants, and shoes. Customers can purchase each product separately.

A product set:

• Contains multiple products that customers can purchase individually
• Each product in the set has its own individual SKU and price
• Is not a product itself - the set cannot be ordered and does not have a price
• Can have its own display attributes such as name, images, and merchandising links to other products or product sets
• Has a primary category assignment - if a Product Set is in multiple categories, this assignment enables you to identify which category should result from a successful search for this product set

To find product sets use either: Advanced Search or go to Merchant Tools > Products & Catalogs > Product Sets.

To check if a single product is part of a set, use the Product Sets tab inside the product itself.

To create a product set:

• Go to Merchant Tools > Products & Catalogs > Product Sets.
• Click New.
• Fill in the required fields.
• Click Apply.
• Select the Product tab.
• Click New to add products to the set.
• Choose the products to add.
• Click OK.

📝 Exercise: Create a Product Set

1. How do you offer a coordinated outfit that includes a sweater, pants, and a necklace? You want to allow your customers to buy each product separately.
2. Create a product set.
3. Place it into your category.

Preview the product set on the storefront. You can create a look book by inserting a number of product sets into a category.

Product Bundles

A bundle is a separate product with its own SKU and price that combines the offering of multiple products for one price. To view them go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products > Advanced Search

A bundle can include products of different types: master products with variations, even other bundles. You manage the bundle's attributes within the bundle product, while you manage the attributes for the included products within the products themselves.

Creating a promotion for the Warhawk game will not change the 449.99 price for the Playstation 3 Bundle. Promotions applied to bundled products do not affect price of individual products contained with the bundle if purchased separately. Creating a promotion for the Playstation 3 Bundle will not affect the price of the Warhawk game.

Just like for Product Sets, to check if a single product is part of a set, use the Bundles tab inside the product itself.

To create a new product bundle:

1. Create a new standard product without variations.
2. Go to the Bundles tab inside of this product.
3. Click New to add products to this bundle.
4. Select some products and click OK.
5. Sort the products if necessary.
6. Preview the bundle on the storefront.

📝 Exercise: Create a Product Bundle

1. Create a complete outfit that includes a sweater, a pair of pants, and a necklace at one fixed price.
2. View it on the storefront.

Using the Storefront Toolkit

The storefront toolkit enables you to jump directly into edit mode for a product in Business Manager. It is located on the top left corner of your storefront. (It is available in every instance except for Production.)

Now it's deprecated but you can still use it - Merchant Tools > Site Preferences > Deprecated Storefront Toolkit. To view information on products, check Content Information:

The new Toolkit tool can be find in top menu in Business Manager. It allows you to navigate in your strontfront as usual but top toolkit toolbar is enabled with same options as deprecated toolkit has.