Adding Products & Variations

Each product in your catalog gets its own page: photos across the top, the versions a customer can choose between, its details, and a form to ask about it. This article walks through adding a product, from the basics to variations, details and downloadable files. If you haven't switched the catalog on or set up your categories yet, start with Setting Up Your Product Catalog.

Creating a product

Go to Catalog → Products and choose Create new. Products work like blog posts: they save as you go, keep a version history, can be scheduled to publish later, and show a live preview of the real product page as you edit. Nothing appears on your site until you publish. See Drafts, Preview, Versions & Scheduling.

Start with the sidebar, because one choice there shapes the rest of the form:

• Category: decides which details this product lists. Pick it first, so the Details tab shows the right boxes.
• Brand: optional. The brand's logo appears beside its name on the product page and card.
• Badge: an optional short label, like "New" or "Special order".
• Related products: optional picks for the "you may also like" row at the bottom of the page. Leave it empty and other products from the same category are shown instead.
• Inquiry form: optional. Leave it empty to use the catalog's form from Catalog settings, or pick a different form for this one product.
• Price note: optional text like "Call for pricing". It only appears when price notes are turned on in Catalog settings.

The Content tab

• Title and Summary: the summary is one or two sentences, shown on product cards and under the product name.
• Gallery: the photos for the top of the page. The first one is the large one. Photos added to a variation show first when a customer picks that version.
• Description: the full write-up, with headings, lists and links.
• Feature highlights: short selling points shown with an icon, like "Easy to clean". Three or four strong ones do more than ten.

Variations: the versions a customer picks between

A product is one page, and its versions are Variations inside it: the colors of a sofa, the sizes of a hot tub, the door styles of a cabinet. Customers switch between them on the page without leaving it, and the photos and details update as they do. Keeping versions together on one page, instead of one page per color, keeps your catalog tidy and gives each product one strong page for search engines.

For each variation you can set:

• Name: what customers see, like a color or size name.
• Code: an optional code or SKU.
• Badge: optional, like "New", shown under the picker while this version is selected.
• Swatch color: used when the category's picker shows color dots.
• Swatch Image: used when the picker shows image tiles or image cards.
• Images: photos of this version. They move to the front of the gallery when a customer picks it.
• Details that differ: only fill in what's different for this version, like a different weight. Empty boxes use the product's own values, so you never type the same detail five times.
• Show this variation first: the version the page opens on.

The name customers see above the picker, like Color or Size, comes from the category. If one product needs a different word, set Variations are called on that product and it overrides the category.

Every version has its own shareable link. When a customer picks one, the page address updates, so sending it to a partner opens the page on that exact version.

Other options

Other options lists choices that don't change the photos, like available sizes or finishes. Give each list a label, then type an option and press Enter to add the next. They appear on the page as a simple list, for information only.

The Details tab

Product details shows one box for each detail your category lists. Fill in what applies; empty boxes are left off the page rather than shown blank. If a detail is marked for the summary line or as a filter on the category, this is the value that gets used.

Extra details is for anything only this product has. Each extra detail has a label, a value and an optional group heading, and it shows after the category's details.

Filling in details consistently is worth the effort. It's what powers the filters on your product list and the side-by-side comparison customers can make between products in one category.

The Resources tab

Add PDF files customers can open, like spec sheets, installation guides or warranties. Give each one a Title, which is the link text customers see, and choose the file. Only PDFs are accepted, so every link opens the same way for every customer. They're listed under a heading on the product page, which starts as "Resources" and can be changed in Catalog settings → Wording, for example to "Additional files".

The SEO tab

Each product has its own search title, description and share image, just like a page. Left empty, the product's title, summary and first photo are used. See SEO for Each Page.

A few good habits

• Photos sell the product. Lead with a room or setting shot, and give each variation at least one close-up so the picker has something to show.
• Keep summaries short. They sit on cards beside other products, where one clear sentence beats a paragraph.
• Reuse your details. If you find yourself adding the same extra detail to every product, add it to the category instead.
• A few addresses are taken. A product can't use category, quote-list or compare as its address, because the catalog uses those words for its own pages.