What’s a shop without products? What’s a product group?

Without products, your eCommerce solution is pretty dull and useless.

In Dynamicweb, products are very rich objects, with loads of properties, settings, options and abilities – and things can get pretty complicated.

In this article, you will learn more about products in Dynamicweb, starting with the basics – how to create and manage products – and all the way down to more advanced topics, like context sensitive pricing (the price matrix) or units and unit categories.

Products can be created from the product list toolbar of any product group (Figure 2.1), or by right-clicking a product group to open the context menu and then selecting New product.

Figure 2.1 Click the New product-button to create a new product

Creating a single product opens the product details view – where you can fill out the details of the product before saving it.

If you click Create multiple products in the toolbar you will be presented with a grid view like (Figure 3.1) where you can fill out the most basic details of the products.

Figure 3.1 Creating multiple products

To edit multiple products select a number of products in a product list and click Edit products (Figure 3.2). 

You will see the same grid as above – only with values already present. Change any values needed and click save to save your changes.

Figure 3.2 Bulk-editing products

You can customize the columns and fields in the grid-view by right-clicking a column in the product list and activate the columns you want to create or edit.

If you want to be able to bulk-edit extended variants go to Settings > Ecommerce > Advanced configuration > General and check the Include variants in bulk edit checkbox under the additional fields section.

From any product list you can right-click a product to open the context menu (Figure 4.1) and access a number of actions

Figure 4.1 The context menu allows you to access a number of actions related to products

With the context menu you can:

• Copy, edit, move or delete a product
• Add a product to or detach a product from a product group
• Activate or deactivate a product

You can link directly to a product from e.g. your ERP system by using the product ID or number in the URL, as in yourwebsite.com/admin/?ProductID=123 or yourwebsite.com/admin/?ProductNumber=123QWER. If following this link while not logged in or with auto login disabled, the user will be prompted to log in then redirected to the product in question.

If frontend editing is enabled on your solution, you can use the @Ecom:Product.EditInBackendUrl tag to add URLs pointing directly at the backend setting of the product you are editing. 

The Documents & Files fields (Figure 12.1) allow you to link to pages or files associated with the product, e.g. a datasheet, manual, etc.

You may also write additional texts and associate them with the product, although you do not have access to a rich text editor here.

Finally, you can add a link or an alternative link to the product - e.g. to link your product to other media types, like a datasheet, a pdf, etc.

Figure 12.1 The Documents and Files fields

With the advanced configuration options (Figure 13.1) you can set a number of important (but not often edited) settings for the product.

Figure 13.1 Advanced Configuration options

You can:

• View or edit the shop the product belongs to
• Set the default VAT group the product belongs to - learn about VAT in Dynamicweb here
• View (or select) a product type for the product

Dynamicweb operates with four types of product:

• A stock item is usually a physical product (which you can, in theory, run out of, i.e. it has a limited stock)
• A service is usually a non-physical product, like support or billable hours – if selected, stock level and stock status are unavailable in the default information panel
• A parts list consists of several products and/or product groups, e.g. a computer with defined/selectable parts
• A gift card allows the gift card holder to purchase other goods or services using a gift card code

Stock items and services are self-explanatory - and parts lists and gift cards are explained below. 

Parts list are occasionally also known also as BOM – Bill of Materials. A BOM is a list of materials and parts required to manufacture an end product. In our template tags, BOM is used instead of parts list. 

A parts list is a special product type, which enables you to create products consisting of a list of other products or product groups already present in your product catalog.

A parts list can have its own description, price, etc. – and can be added to the Shopping Cart as either an single product or a bundle of products.

To create a parts list product, follow the normal procedure for creating products, but select the product type parts list under Advanced configuration (Figure 16.2).

Figure 16.2 Select the parts list product type to start creating a parts list

Save the product to access two things particular to parts lists:

• The price calculation dropdown menu
• The parts list button in the ribbon bar and the associated parts list overview

Parts lists may be priced in several ways, and you can select the most appropriate one using the price calculation dropdown (Figure 17.1).

Figure 17.1 The price calculation dropdown

You can select the following pricing methods:

• Calculated price sums up the individual prices of all products added to the parts list
• Fixed price uses only the default price, which you enter in the Default information section below, and it ignores any individual pricing on products added to the parts list
• Fixed price plus changes combines the default price with the individual prices of all products added to the parts list

Parts lists may either contain a fixed set of products or a set of groups from which the customer can select products.

To add products or product groups to a parts list:

• Click the arrow on the parts lists button (Figure 18.1) and click either product or groups
• Select the groups or products you want to add

Figure 18.1 Adding products or product groups to a parts list

The selected products and product groups are then added to the parts list overview (Figure 18.2.

Figure 18.2 The parts list overview shows what's contained in the parts list

From the parts list overview you can:

• Specify a quantity for each product in the parts list
• If product groups are added, open each product group and specify a selection text – e.g. ‘Select your bike here’ – and select the product that you want to use as a default selected product in the group
• Delete the product or product group from the parts list by clicking the red X-icon – or add additional products or product groups by clicking the plus icon.

Click the sort icon to sort the parts in the parts list. Product groups follow the sort order of the original group.

Once a gift card has been purchased, you should display the unique gift card code in the order receipt.

During the order receipt step, you can also list any gift cards used during the transaction – including initial amount, remaining amount and expiry date.

For an example, please see the ReceiptGiftCard.html template.

To enable your users to use a gift card, you must create a field in the checkout flow (e.g. during the Information step) allowing them to enter their gift card codes during checkout.

The field must be an input field with EcomOrderGiftCardCode as the name and ID, and <!--@Ecom:Order.GiftCardCode-- > as the value.

Dynamicweb provides an Information-template to use with Gift cards:

• Navigate to a page with the Shopping cart app and open the app settings
• As your Information step template, select InformationWithStatesGiftCards.html (Figure 23.1) – or modify or create your own template to suit your needs

Save the app settings

Figure 23.1 You must creat a gift card field in the checkout process - for instance during the information step

From the ribbon bar you have access to more advanced tools for working with products in Dynamicweb Ecommerce.

Using these tools you can:

• Assign discounts to a product
• View and edit related groups and related products
• Set up custom publication periods (campaigns)
• Work with languages and localize or delocalize products
• Access marketing tools such as personalization
• Work with prices, stock and VAT groups in an advanced manner using the matrixes

If any of your order discounts are set to be assignable from product catalog, you can use the discounts-button (Figure 25.1) to add it directly from the product details view.

Figure 25.1 Assign discounts to a product using the discounts button

To add a discount:

• Click the arrow-icon on the discount button and select Manage including discounts or Manage excluding discounts to view the assignable discounts.
• Select the discount(s) you want to add to the product
• Click save and close

The discount is then added to the discount matrix for the product (Figure 25.2)

Figure 25.2 The discounts overview

From the ribbon bar you have access to the related groups and related products buttons (Figure 26.1).

They are a convenient way for you to access information about how the product interacts with other parts of Dynamicweb Ecommerce. Specifically, you can see (and create) group membership and product relations – to both product relation groups and other individual products.

You can create and configure default related groups, products, product relation groups and searches at the group level, read about product groups here.

The related groups interface allows you to add the product to or remove the product from a product group.

You can also specify which product group is the primary group, which may be relevant for e.g. canonical URLs.

Figure 26.1 The ribbon bar gives you access to the related groups, products and searches buttons

The related products button (Figure 27.1) let's you select or create product relation groups for your products.

A product relation group is a kind of ad-hoc list with a label, like 'Matching ties' or 'Wheels for this bike', which you can add products to. 

Those products can then be displayed to customers visiting the product details page.

Figure 27.1 Create new related product groups with this dropdown menu

You can use the funnel icon at the related product to control which related products should be available in which language, country and shop context (Figure 27.3).

Product relation groups can be managed from Settings > Ecommerce > Product Catalog > Relation Groups.

Figure 27.3 The limitations window that opens when you click the funnel icon

Using the Options tab (Figure 28.1) you can:

• Set a custom publication period for a product using the start and end date selectors
• Add the product to a namned publication period/campaign

Figure 28.1 The options tab

To create a named campaign:

• Go to Settings > Ecommerce > Product Catalog > Publication Periods
• Click New Period in the toolbar to open the Edit campaign view (Figure 28.2)
• Configure the campaign settings

Figure 28.2 Creating a campaign

You must:

• Specify a name (e.g. ‘Christmas’ or ‘Halloween’)
• Set a start date and end date for the publication period (or, if you want no end date, check the always valid checkbox).
• Make it active (or deactivate it) for selection on your products
• Choose to show products after the publication period has expired, if you want to show the product with the default price outside the publication period.

From the product ribbon (Figure 29.1), you have access to the Language and localization settings for the product.

Figure 29.1 The Language and Delocalize buttons

The Language dropdown shows the current working language. New product are created in both the default language and in the working language, but are only localized to the working language. To localize a product to another language, switch working language using the dropdown and save the product.

The Delocalize button can be used to remove a product from a non-default languages again.

Read more about working with languages under Internationalization.

To create a new price row in the price matrix, click Click here to add a new row on the price matrix.

This opens the edit price view (Figure 31.1) which allows you to specify a price and a number of criteria for the price to trigger.

Figure 31.1 Creating a row in the price matrix

You must provide a price and select a currency - read about currencies in Ecommerce.

You must then provide a number of price matrix criteria which will control when a price is triggered.

The price matrix can apply prices based on:

• Product Variants
  • ​All Variants means the quantity criteria must be met using the same variant (e.g. 5 green shirts)
  • Any Variants all variants count towards the quantity criteria (1 yellow, 2 blue, and 2 green shirts)
• User and user groups – or customer number
• A specific time span
• Whether a specific campaign is running or not
• The product unit
• The Ecommerce language or country
• The particular shop the product is bought from
• The quantity in which a product is bought

Don’t forget to save the product after you have created your price matrix rows.

Back-in-Stock notifications are a feature, which lets customers add themselves to a notification list when they are interested in a product which is temporarily out of stock.

You can then set up a scheduled email to alert users on the notification list once the product is back in stock.

To set up Back-in-Stock notifications:

• Edit your product details template to let both registered and anonymous users add themselves to the notification list
• Create a recurring email using the back-in-stock recipient provider

Once a user – anonymous or registered – has signed up for a back-in-stock notification, they will appear on the Notifications list, which is accessible from the Notifications node in your backend product catalog area (Figure 33.1).

For anonymous users, the notification is tied to an email they provide – for registered users it is tied to the UserID. Once a notification has been sent, it is automatically removed from the list. In the notification email, you should include an unsubscribe link – this will cancel all pending notifications tied to the email or userID in question.

Figure 33.1 The Notifications-node and -list

Back-in-Stock notification entries are created by your users from the frontend, when they add themselves to the notification list for an out-of-stock product.

To allow them to do so, you should render an appropriate input (for anonymous users) or link/button (for registered users) once a product is out of stock:

Once you have made it possible for your users to add themselves to the Notifications list, you must create a scheduled email in the standard manner, using the back-in-stock recipient provider to pull recipients from the Notifications-list.

With the VAT group matrix you can assign country-specific VAT groups to a product in order to account for differences in how a product is classified by countries - read more about VAT and VAT groups in Dynamicweb.

To use the VAT Group matrix click the VAT Groups button in the ribbon bar (Figure 34.1).

Figure 34.1 The VAT Group matrix

To add a new VAT group to the product:

• Click Click here to add a new row
• Select a VAT group and a country and click OK
• Click Save or Save and close

To edit a VAT group on the product click it and make your changes – to delete VAT group membership click the red X in the delete column.

The Marketing tab (Figure 35.1) gives you access to two of our marketing tools; Personalization and Social media publishing.

Figure 35.1 The Marketing tab

Some products are sold by the kilo, some are sold in pairs, and others are sold in boxes.

In Dynamicweb, you can create product units – like kilo, pair, and box - and use them both to render the correct term for a particular product (like a pair of glasses) and to make multiple product units available for one product and let customers choose between ordering e.g. a pack, a box and a pallet of pencils.

You can select a default unit for a product using the advanced configurations group box - and render the alternative unit options using a loop.

To create a product unit:

• Go to Settings > Ecommerce > Product Catalog > Product units
• Click New product unit in the toolbar
• Provide a name for the product unit
• Save

You can only create new product units when your default language is selected in the toolbar.

Once a product unit has been created, you can create language-specific version of it by changing the language and saving the product unit in the new language.

If you don’t, no unit category label will be rendered in the frontend for that language. Read more about localization in Dynamicweb.

There are several ways to use product units:

• You can set a default unit for products which are customarily sold as e.g. pairs of trousers, glasses, gloves etc.
• You can make a product available in several product units, and price them accordingly using the price matrix

To set a default unit on a product, go to the product and select the default unit under advanced configuration. It is then available from your product list template using the StockUnits loop, and from the product details template using the Units loop.

To use several units for a single product:

• Open the stock matrix
• Create a row per unit you want to make available (Figure 39.1)
• Save

The units are now available from your product templates.

Figure 39.1 Making more that one unit available for a product

Adding a unit selector to the Add to cart form in the Product details template:

Adding a unit selector to the Add to cart form in the Product List template:

Different product units usually mean different prices per unit – you usually want a box of items to be more expensive than a single item.

To make that possible, open the price matrix and create one price per product unit (Figure 40.1) – if you can’t select any of your units, it’s because you haven’t added them to the stock matrix for the product as outlined above.

Figure 40.1 Creating prices based on stock units

You now have access to product unit prices from the Units loop in the product details template:

To add comparisons to your product catalog, you must select or modify the product list template and use the compare template.

To do so:

• Go to the paragraph with your Product Catalog app and open the app settings
• Scroll down to the Templates section and:
  • Select the list-template ProductListCompareAndRating.html
  • Select the compare-template CompareProducts.html (Figure 45.1)

Figure 45.1 The Product List template and the Compare template

On the frontend, you users will now be able to click compare on products to add them to a compare list (Figure 45.2).

Figure 45.2 Adding products to a compare-list

From the compare list, they will be able to click compare to go to a compare screen (Figure 45.3).

Figure 45.3 An example of two products compared

These are the database tables associated with Products and related features in Dynamicweb.

These are the database tables associated with product units and stock:

These are the detabase tables associated with the Gift Cards product type:

These are the database tables related to custom product fields: