Adding, editing and removing productsMatrix pricingShipping options and calculationsImage managementFeatured productsCross selling
At its very basic level, the facility to add, edit and remove products does exactly what it describes: it allows you to add new items to your range, edit product descriptions, assign product categories, amend prices and remove items from display.
However, features such as cross-selling and managing sale items are also, by and large, built directly into the same product administration page. These are equally important as they are the merchandising tools that you use in the day-to-day marketing of your product catalogue.
Another group of product details that you may also need to maintain are those that are very specific to the type of goods you sell. The most common examples are:
If you sell a large range of products then your online retail operation will end up in total disarray without an effective product reference system.
You will also need to ensure that your eCommerce system allows you to specify variants of the same product. Otherwise, your catalogue will simply become too large and unmanageable if you have to create an individual item for every single combination of colour, dimension or specification. This may also call for a separate internal product reference for each individual item combination.
By contrast, if your shoppers have a relatively small catalogue to choose from then it will make more sense to create one item for each individual combination, as they will find it much more straightforward and convenient if each variation is presented to them separately.
Most eCommerce start-ups set out with only a modest-sized product catalogue. But an online retail business has the potential to grow very quickly, which can lead to some product catalogues running into thousands of different items with almost countless permutations of colour, size or specification.
Therefore it is important to think about what might happen in the future by making sure that your eCommerce application lets you quickly and easily add, edit and remove items from day one.
Any respectable eCommerce system will allow you to create your product descriptions using a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) rich-content editor.
This means that you can style your content in much the same way you can with a word processor like MS Word, using text enhancements such as bold, italics, bullet points, hyperlinks and different font sizes. These editors then reproduce those styles in your product details page so that they look just like the way you edited them.
Text styling not only gives your product pages a more polished appearance, but also helps to bring your product descriptions to life.
Our powerful administration system follows a familiar, intuitive interface that makes adding, editing and removing products effortless and simple.
Tasks such as adding a product to a category or removing an item from display are as simple as a click of a button. And every one of our systems offers you a rich-text editor so you can create eye-catching and professional product descriptions that can really make your products stand out.
Whether you want a few simple styling tools, such as bold and italic text, or a fully featured text editor, simply choose the level of functionality you require.
A Rapid Web Services system also offers you a high degree of automation. Just choose what you need it to do and your system will take care of it – from the standard built-in processes such as updating your database, fixing links, modifying navigation and even creating search engine optimised code to bespoke features such as suggesting alternative products when an item is out of stock.
When you remove an item from your catalogue using Rapid Web Services’s administrator control panel you don’t actually delete it from your product database.
Instead, it’s simply deactivated. This means that you can reinstate products that you previously removed from your shop front any time at the click of a button – without having to re-enter your product details all over again.