Stage 5A: Add Non-Orgill Products Interactively: One at a time (Impact Transactional)

Stage 5A: Add Non-Orgill Products Interactively: One at a time (Impact Transactional)

Purpose

This article provides instructions for adding non-Orgill products interactively to your Endless Aisle transactional Impact catalog. Each product will be added one at a time using the admin interface.

Prerequisites

  • Completed instructions in Stage 1: Planning your New Categories {{{link}}}
  • Completed instructions in Stage 2: One-Time Set Up for Product Imports {{{link}}}
  • Completed instructions in Stage 3: Create New Categories in Catalog {{{link}}
  • Made a decision in Stage 4: Which Product Import Method to Use? {{{link}}}

Required Product Data Fields

  • Name (should be unique across all products, e.g., include specs, size, color, etc. at end of the product name)
  • Description (if there is no description, then just repeat the Name, expanding any short-forms)
  • Product Status (must be enabled)
  • SKU (must be unique across all products in the catalog, including Orgill and non-Orgill products, and should be the SKU used in your POS system if possible)
  • Commodity Type (must always be set to “physical”)

In addition to the basic product data fields listed above (e.g. Name, SKU, Description, etc.), there are a number of optional fields that can be populated. A few of these optional fields are highly recommended, as listed below.

Brand Name Field

The Brand Name is used in multiple ways within the Impact catalog. It is usually displayed above the product name in product listings and search results. It is also searchable by customers using the search box in the public site’s page header. And it can be used as a filter in the left margin in product listings and search results.

Actual field name: BRAND-NAME

Shipping Fields

You should enter the shipping dimensions and weight of each product so that shipping calculations can be performed if the customer selects FedEx shipping.

If any product does not have the dimension and weight fields populated, and that product is put into a customer’s cart with other products, the entire order will not be shippable if any of the products in the cart do not have the dimensions and weight populated.

The shipping fields are:

  • SHIPPING (checkbox to enable)
  • HEIGHT (enter decimal number in inches or centimeters)
  • LENGTH (enter decimal number in inches or centimeters)
  • WIDTH (enter decimal number in inches or centimeters)
  • WEIGHT (enter decimal number in pounds or kilograms)
  • HEIGHT-UOM (“in” or “cm”)
  • LENGTH-UOM (“in” or “cm”)
  • WIDTH-UOM (“in” or “cm”)
  • WEIGHT-UOM (“lg” or “kg”)

All 3 dimensions must be in the same Units Of Measure (UOM). In other words, HEIGHT-UOM, LENGTH-UOM, and WIDTH-UOM must all be either “in” or “cm”.

Gathering Product Data

Some people place the product to be added on the desk beside their workstation. Then they enter the product details from the product packaging into the admin forms to add that product. Save it, and repeat for the next product.

Other people gather all of the needed product data ahead of time and temporarily store it in a spreadsheet. This just helps to organize the data to make importing go faster. It also shows you, via gaps in the spreadsheet, where you need to dig further to find the missing details. When ready to add the products into the Impact system, you just copy/paste each field, one at a time, from the spreadsheet into the admin forms.

The data gathering approach is up to you.

You must gather the data for the Required Product Data Fields and the Recommended Product Data Fields if you want the product to be Shippable.

Required Product Data Fields Recommended Product Data Fields
Name

 		BRAND-NAME
Description

 		SHIPPING
Product Status

 		HEIGHT
SKU

 		LENGTH
Commodity Type

 		WIDTH

WEIGHT

HEIGHT-UOM

LENGTH-UOM

WIDTH-UOM

WEIGHT-UOM

Add a Product

  1. Log in to your Elastic Path account {{{link}}}
  2. Click “Merchandise” in the left margin
  3. Click “Products” in the left sub-menu
  4. Click [+ New product] button in the top-right corner
  5. Populate the following required fields:
    1. Name
    2. Description
    3. SKU
    4. Commodity Type (must be set to “physical”)
  6. You should let the “Slug” field auto-populate (it should usually not be changed)
  7. Populate the following optional fields if you have the info:
    1. UPC or EAN number
    2. MPN (Manufacturer Part Number)
  8. Set the Product Status indicator to enabled/green
  9. You are not done yet
  10. Notice the tabs across the top. You are in the “Product Details” tab
  11. You still need to add info into the Hierarchies, Product Templates, Pricing, and Media Management tabs
  12. Click the “Hierarchies” tab
  13. Open the “Dealer-Hierarchy” line using the angle bracket (“>”) and continue in the next column, opening subcategories until you find the category that this product should be added to
  14. Click the “[ ]” checkbox in the lowest subcategory level where this product should live
  15. Click the [Confirm] button in the pop-up to confirm the category assignment
  16. Click the “Product Templates” tab
  17. Click the “Add Templates” link to display the list of available templates
  18. Click the (+) beside only the “products(Details)” entry
  19. You should now see the “products(Details)” entry show up below the “Templates List” heading
  20. Click this “products(Details)” entry below the “Templates List” to display its available fields
  21. Scroll down and populate the highly recommended BRAND-NAME field with this product’s brand name in title case or mixed case
  22. If you are populating the highly recommended shipping fields, then populate the following fields:
    1. HEIGHT (a decimal number)
    2. LENGTH (a decimal number)
    3. WIDTH (a decimal number)
    4. WEIGHT (a decimal number)
    5. SHIPPABLE (enable the checkbox)
    6. HEIGHT-UOM (“in” or “cm”)
    7. LENGTH-UOM (“in” or “cm”)
    8. WIDTH-UOM (“in” or “cm”)
    9. WEIGHT-UOM (“lb” or “kg”)
    10. Scroll down and click the [Save products(Details)] button
  23. Scroll back up and click the “Pricing” tab
  24. Under the “Pricing” heading (not the “Advanced Pricing” heading), under the “Price Book” column, select the “LOCAL-PRICEBOOK” option
  25. Depending upon the currency of your Impact site, enter this product’s retail price in the “CAD” or “USD” column. Enter it in cents (it won’t let you enter a decimal), e.g., enter “2500” to represent $25.00.
  26. Click the [Save] button in the “Action” column
  27. Click the “Media Management” tab
  28. If you have a product photo for this product:
    1. Click the “Choose File” link to locate and open the photo of this product
    2. Click the [Done] button after selecting the product photo
  29. Important: Whether you did or did not load a photo, scroll to the bottom and click the [Save] button to save all of the product details you have loaded into all of the tabs
  30. If you have more products to add, then loop back and restart this list of steps for the next product

Publish Updated Catalog

You have finished adding products, but this only adds the products to the admin area. To make the updated admin catalog available on your public Impact catalog, you need to publish it.

  1. Click “Catalogs” in the left sub-menu.
  2. Find the category entry named “PROD-SBT-nnn”. It is usually the first or last category entry in the list.
  3. On the far right side of the “PROD-SBT-nnn” entry, click the “...” menu and select the “Publish” option.
  4. In the “Publish Confirmation” pop-up window, click the [Publish] button.
  5. In the bottom-left corner, click the Activities bell icon (above the Settings gear icon):
  6. At the top of the Activities pop-up window, if the “Activity Type” drop-down is set to [Jobs], then change it to [Catalog Publication].
  7. Click the “PROD-SBT-nnn” entry to display its details.
  8. Find the “Latest Release” heading, which should be the instance at the top of the list.
  9. Its current status is displayed on the right side of the instance and will be one of the following values:
    1. [PENDING] - The publish request is waiting in a queue to execute (it has not yet started)
    2. [IN PROGRESS] - The publish request is currently executing and can run for between 10 minutes and two hours; usually 10-15 minutes once it starts.
    3. [PUBLISHED] - The request is done, and the changes have been published.
  10. The “Activities” pop-up status will not dynamically refresh over time. Periodically, close the “Activities” pop-up window ([X] or [Esc]), and re-open it by clicking the Activities bell icon in the bottom-left corner to check the updated status of the Latest Release until it becomes [PUBLISHED].
  11. Once the new categories are published, close the Activities pop-up window ([X] or [Esc]).

Test Public Catalog

Go to your public Impact catalog and search for a few of the newly added products to ensure that they are there.