Creating a New Product
Products are the backbone of your online store. They are added to your website in the Catalog area of the Miva admin.
Adding a Product
To add a product, click Catalog in the Navigation Pane on the left of the home page. On the new page, click the Add Product button.
On the Add Product screen, fill in the fields with information about the product. Fields in bold are required. When finished, click the Add button to go back to the home page, or click Add+ to add the new product and add another product on the Add Product screen.
Product Details Fields
As noted above, Details Fields displayed in bold are required fields.
Required Fields
Product Code: This is a product's unique identifier in your store's database. Each product must have a unique code.
Product Code Rules
The code may be up to 50 characters long, but shorter codes are easier to work with.
Customers may be able to see codes, depending on your store settings.
Codes are NOT case sensitive. For example, CANDY, candy and Candy would all be considered duplicates and only one would be allowed.
Codes can contain letters, numbers, dashes and underscores.
Codes cannot contain spaces, decimal points, quotation marks and slashes.
Product Name: The name customers see for the product in your store. It will appear in many areas of your store, including the major heading on the product details page.
Product Name Rules
The name can be up to 100 alphanumeric characters long, and can be changed.
Upper- and lower-case letters, as well as numbers, spaces and symbols can be used in the name.
Product display order can be determined by name. It can be either ascending or descending on the product list screen, and in categories.
Price: This is the price that normally appears in the store. Discounts will be based on this price when the product is part of a price group or when the product is offered as an upsale product.
Cost: The cost may be different from the price. This field can be useful in various reports.
Weight: The amount entered for the weight of the product should be the "shipping weight," which is the product plus any required packaging. This is important because shipping charges are usually based on the combined weight of the product(s) ordered.
Note
The weight value, or unit, is specified in the Units of Measurement (Weight) field in Store Settings. This established one unit of measurement for all weights in the store.
Non-Required Fields
SKU: Stock Keeping Unit, an optional identifier you may use in your store. SKUs are often used to track inventory in accounting or back office systems.
Category Code: The Category Code field allows you to assign the product to a category in your store.
Description: While not required, the product's Description field is how you explain a product to your customers.
Product Description Rules
The description can be as long as you like.
It can be entered as plain text to use default formatting, or as HTML code, to format it exactly as you desire.
If Rich Text Mode is enabled, you can apply formatting or insert tables and images directly into the text box.
Taxable and Active Boxes: While not required, these two boxes are important.
The Taxable box should be checked if the product is subject to taxes.
The Active box MUST be checked for the product to appear on your website. If it is not, the product will be in your catalog, but will not appear on the site.