Six Easy Steps to Start Selling Online with OXID eShop

Create eShop Product Categories

In most online stores, products are arranged in categories so that shoppers can easily find them. OXID eShop also supports this kind of categorization. In this step, you’ll learn how to define product categories as a prelude to actually listing products for sale.

To begin, visit the OXID eShop administration panel at http://yourservername/admin (assuming you installed OXID to your web server’s document root) and log in as the administrator. There is also a link to the administration panel on the final configuration screen above.

You’ll be presented with a login form; log in as admin, with password admin, and you should see a screen similar to the image below:

Select the eShop Admin > Administer Products > Categories menu, and you’ll be presented with a form to define product categories, as seen below:

Let’s say that our store will be selling a wide variety of children’s toys, and they’ll be categorized by age suitability. So our products could be arranged in the following categories:

• Infants (aged 0–2)
• Boys (aged 2–5)
• Girls (aged 2–5)
• Boys (aged 5–8)
• Girls (aged 5–8)
• and so on ...

Before we add anything, make sure to set the language to English in the top right-hand corner. To define these categories, set a title for each category and mark it Active. You can add an optional description as well. Once the category is defined, it will appear at the top of the page. To create a new category, use the Create New Category link at the bottom of the page.

Some useful tips when defining categories:

• You can create subcategories by assigning each new category to a parent category. But be warned about creating too extensivea category tree, as your visitors will find it confusing and hard to navigate.
• You can attach an image or icon to each category by using the Picture tab of each category. This is useful in making your store more visually appealing.
• You can define the order in which categories are displayed by setting a value for the Sorting field. Smaller values are sorted first.

More information on how to handle product categories is available in the OXID manual.

Add Products for Sale

Once the product categories have been defined, the next step is to populate them with actual products. This is accomplished by using the eShop Admin > Administer Products > Products menu, which provides a tabbed form to input product records.

Of the various tabs shown, the four most important ones are as follows:

• Main: allows you to set basic information for each product, such as name in the product catalogue, the internal product number (SKU), search tags, the price, and both short and extended descriptions. You can also specify which category this product should appear in.
• Extended: lets you define product attributes, including its dimensions and weight. You can also specify whether the product is eligible for free shipping, and define an external URL (such as the manufacturer’s web site) for the product.
• Inventory: enables you to specify how many units of the item are available in stock, and define an email alert when inventory falls to a particular limit. You can also specify volume discounts for the products, either in absolute or percentage terms.
• Pictures: lets you upload pictures of the product. This is a key tab, as users will rely on these pictures when deciding whether or not the product fits their needs. OXID eShop allows you to upload thumbnail images, regular product pictures, and magnified (zoomed) product images, so you can give customers as much visual information as possible.

Once you’re done saving the product, it will appear at the top of the page. You can create a new product listing via the Create New Product link at the bottom of the page. To see the result, visit the shop homepage, choose the appropriate category, select the product.

Some useful tips when working with products:

• Ensure that you categorize your products correctly, and enter a few search terms for each so that customers can find them easily. You should also take advantage of OXID’s multi-category system, which allows you to list a product in more than one category.
• Upload as many product pictures as possible, so that customers have a clear idea of what they’re purchasing.
• Use the Crosssell tab to link two or more products together, and the Statistics tab to see how well a particular product is selling.

More information on product management is available in the OXID manual.