By the end of this article 'How To Add Products And Collections To Your Shopify Store Step-by-Step', and the following series on Shopify, you would have created a full-fledged eCommerce store and also started a Dropshipping business.
And as always, for any one-on-one consulting and assistance, you may mail me at tariq@bloggersbloom.com
This article (and the series on Shopify) will cover how to add products and collections to your Shopify store. This article is part of a series of 7 articles. And by the end of these 7 articles, you will be able to start a Dropshipping business using Shopify.
Day #2: How to add Products and Collections to your Shopify Store
I do hope you have checked my previous article in this series, ‘How To Create An Online Store With Shopify’, and most importantly, started your free 14-day trial with Shopify.
Remember, if you want to see results, you must take action. And the first step towards creating a successful online store is starting your free 14-day trial with Shopify.
In this article, we will learn how to add products to your Shopify store and then create a collection.
If you want to sell a product online, then you must have a product page. And your product page is your best place to showcase the value of your products to your customers.
What we will learn in this article?
- How to add products to your Shopify store
- How to add photos
- How to add variants for your product
- How to include pricing for your product
- What is a Collection?
- How to add a manual or automatic collection
And before we start, a quick mention.
I hope you have a product identified and have some images for the same. I will be, after all, showing you how to add products and collections to your Shopify store.
Hence, it would be helpful if you do have a product ready. If not, follow along!
Let’s begin!
Step #1: Visit the Shopify Dashboard
Let us start on the Shopify dashboard.
Click on “Products” (left menu links). You may also click on “Add Product” tab that you see on the dashboard main page.
Step #2: Add the Product Title and Description
Start off by adding the title of your product. Remember, this is what the customer sees first. So, do make an impression and clearly state what the product is.
Once you are done with the title, the next will be your product description.
As mentioned in my previous article ‘How To Create An Online Store With Shopify’, put yourself in the customer’s shoes, when it comes to creating the content.
You should convey the features, benefits, and value adds to your product.
Remember, the customer can’t touch, feel, or even try out your product before they purchase it.
Hence, you must convey the message through your content and images. And do not write a thesis on the product.
Include concise and to the point content. Use bullet points and yes, be sure to use a spell-check.
Another key element while writing your content is to consider including keywords. You would like your products and pages to show up in the search engines.
And including keywords is very important. Keywords are words and phrases a potential customer may enter into a search engine.
[Related article: SEO Checklist To Increase Traffic For New Websites]
For the sake of this article, I have gone ahead and included the title and description for my product ‘Vitamin C Glow Boosting Moisturiser’, as shown below.
Step #3: Upload Product Images
The next step is to add images to your product.
If you scroll down a little, you will notice the following. Click on “Add file” or drop files to upload.
Ensure you have really high-quality product images. This is the key element in any eCommerce store.
Please note. The product and collection images need to be of a file size smaller than 20 megabytes (MB).
The first image you upload for each product is known as the featured image. This featured image will be shown on all the pages, e.g., on the collection pages, the shopping cart page, the checkout page, and on your home page.
Pick an image that clearly displays the product and matches the title of the product. Many a time, I’ve seen online stores having an image that is different from the product title and description.
Result? I’ve skipped buying the product.
It is important to be as transparent as possible when you are building an online business. These may appear trivial, but trust you me, these small and ‘trivial’ aspects eventually builds or breaks the trust in your customers, and eventually the business.
Once you have added the image edit the “alt text”. Alt text (or Alternate text) is used by search engines to understand what the image is about, in order to appear in image searches. This is also one of the on-page SEO factors.
[Related article: SEO Checklist To Increase Traffic For New Websites]
As shown below, I’ve added images to my product.
Step #4: Add Product Price
Now you need to add a price.
You can display the actual price and also a discounted price if you’re running a sale.
The ‘Cost per item’, as indicated, is a price the customer doesn’t get to see. It’s a nice indicator to understand your profit & margin.
Click “Charge tax on this product” if the product is taxable. We will be covering more on taxes in our Day 5 chapter ‘An Understanding of Taxes, Billing & Settings on Shopify‘.
As shown below, I’ve added original price, discounted price and the cost to my product.
Note: These are not actual prices. 😉
Step #5: Add Product Inventory
The next step is to add the inventory of your product.
SKU (i.e., Stock Keeping Unit) helps you organize your inventory and fulfill the orders.
You also have the option to add Barcode. If you are just getting started, as would be the case for most of us starting out, you need not worry about this and have it included later on, if required.
The “Track quantity” setting allows Shopify to track the inventory for you.
You can also check the ‘Continue selling when out of stock’, if you are confident of fulfilling the order.
Next, enter the number of products you have in stock.
As shown below, I’ve added some dummy quantities.
Step #6: Add Shipping Details
Adding a Shipping address will be covered when we get to Day 4 with the article on How To Set-Up Payment & Shipping on Your Shopify Store.
For this particular section, indicate if your product is a physical or a digital product. Accordingly, the weight will need to be added, in order to calculate the shipping charges.
Also indicate the ‘Country of origin’ and the HS Code (if applicable).
Step #7: Add Product Variants
If your product has different variants such as size or color, you can check the option under ‘Variants’.
As shown in the image below, I have added three options in the size variant, i.e., S, M, and L.
I have also added three variants for color, i.e., Red, Blue, and Orange.
Separate each variant by a comma.
Once you have entered the variants, you have the option to ‘Preview’ each item and modify the price and quantity for each variant, if applicable.
Step #8: Edit Website SEO
What you see below is how your product will appear in the Search Engine Results pages, e.g., on Google.
You can edit the Page title, Meta Description, etc., by clicking on the ‘Edit Website SEO’ option on the right hand corner.
You now get to edit the page title, the description and the URL and handle of the page.
By default, the details are pulled from what you have entered above for your product. If you feel the same is fine, leave it as it is. Else, you can edit the same.
[Related article: SEO Checklist To Increase Traffic For New Websites]
Step #9: Click Save to Add Your First Product
Once you have completed all the above steps, go ahead and click on ‘Save’ (top right hand corner of the page)
Congratulations!
You have added your first product and you get confirmation of the same as shown below.
Click on the ‘Preview’ icon.
The product page I created is as follows.
How To Create A Collection
When a customer visits your online store, they want to quickly find the products they’re interested in. Shopify makes this easy by allowing you to create what is called a collection.
A collection helps you organize your products into structured groups. Your products can also be a part of more than one collection.
This is helpful to stay organized and it makes for an enjoyable experience for your customers.
Some examples of collections are,
- Products for men, women or children
- Best Selling Laptops or WiFi Earbuds
- Products Under $5
- Seasonal Products
- Products for special events
There are two types of collections you can create. The first is a manual collection and the other, is an automated collection.
A manual collection, as the name indicates, includes products that you select manually or individually. Manual collections take more time to create and maintain. However, manual collections are a good choice for small or specialized collections. Typically for small stores or stores with lesser products.
An automated collection on the other hand uses predefined conditions to automatically include the products. This is ideal for businesses and stores with a large inventory of products.
Let’s go ahead and set up a manual collection together.
From the Shopify dashboard, go to ‘Products’, then click on ‘Collections’. And then click on ‘Create collection’.
Craft out a very clear and descriptive title for your collection name.
In the ‘Collection type‘ section, click “Manual.” Now click Save.
For e.g., I have created a collection by the title ‘Product with Free Shipping’.
Once you have created the collection, scroll below to the Product Section.
In the Product section, search for the products or click “Browse” and then add the products that you want to have in the collection.
Since I have only one product available currently, I select that product and add it to my collection.
I could add a featured image for the collection I created.
Once done, click on ‘Preview’ and you will notice the page as shown above. This is how you create a collection in Shopify.
I hope you are now clear on how to add products and collections to your Shopify store.
In the next article, we will cover how to customize your Shopify store and use themes.
Hope this article helped you and if it did, please do leave your comments below.
Catch you soon!
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