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.

Most businesses renew their product portfolio over time; new products are added and old products are removed. Where this happens depends on the solution architecture:

• On an integrated solution products are typically created on an external system, and then imported/deleted on a schedule when the import job runs
• On a non-integrated solution products are created directly in Dynamicweb

You can add products directly in Dynamicweb from any product list using the ribbon bar buttons New product and Create multiple products (Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1 Creating products

Creating a single new product opens the product details view so you can add data to the product fields.

Creating multiple new products opens a grid view where you can enter product data into the selected product list columns (Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2 Creating multiple new products at once

Once products have been created, you can edit them to update their prices, descriptions, product images and so on.

If the solution architecture supports doing this directly in Ecommerce (instead of e.g. Dynamicweb PIM or a remote system), this can be done simply by clicking a product in the product list and changing product field values (Figure 4.1).

Figure 4.1 Editing product fields

You can also edit multiple products – select them in the product list and click Edit products to open grid containing the selected product list columns (Figure 4.2).

Figure 4.2 Editing multiple products at the same time

A standard product field is a fields which are present on all products.

Standard fields are typically universal or very commonly used properties such as Name, Price, Stock level, etc. They are usually supplemented by one or more custom fields, which can be used to store additional industry- or solution-specific information.

Below you will find an overview of all standard product fields. You don’t have to provide values for all standard fields – in many cases it makes for a much smoother editor experience if you configure the Fields settings to make some fields required, hidden or read only.

The first section of product fields contains the most commonly edited product data (Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 The first section contains the most commonly edited product fields

The images and stock fields (Figure 5.2) deal with the physical look, dimensions, and availability of the product.

Figure 5.2 The Images & Stock fields

The Documents & Files fields allow you to associate one or more links, files, images or texts with the product (Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 The Documents & Files fields

The Advanced Configuration section allows you to set a number of important (but not often edited) properties on a product (Figure 6.1).

Figure 6.1 Advanced Configuration options

The Meta information fields are used to enrich the product with information which may have an effect on how your website is ranked in search results (Figure 6.2).

Figure 6.2 The Meta Information fields

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 state 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. 

A stock item is a physical product, which means that it has limited stock. This is the default product type – unless another product type is specifically selected, new products will be created as stock items.

A service is a non-physical product, like support or billable hours. Service-type products are identical to stock items except that stock-related fields (Stock level, Stock state, Units & Stock) are unavailable.

A parts list is a special product type, which consists of a set of other products. The products included in a parts list can be both fixed and configurable, and the contents may be added to cart either as a single product or as a bundle of products, depending on the configuration. 

Parts lists are created in the standard manner, but you must select the 'Parts list' product type in the Advanced configuration section of the product details. Once saved, two properties unique to parts lists appear:

• A price calculation field under Advanced configuration
• A parts list button in the ribbon bar

The price calculation field (Figure 10.1) allows you to choose between several price calculation methods:

• Calculated price sums up the individual prices of all products added to the parts list
• Fixed price uses the Price field on the parts list product, and ignores the price of all included products
• Fixed price plus changes combines the regular Price field with the individual prices of all included products

Figure 10.1 The Price calculation dropdown

A parts list may contain both fixed products - i.e. products which are always part of the parts list - but it's also possible to make a parts list configurable; this is done by letting the customer choose between items in a product group.

To configure the parts list contents (Figure 10.2):

• Click the Parts Lists button in the ribbon bar
• Use the green plus-icon to add a number of products or product groups to the parts list 
• Specify the quantity of each product to include

Figure 10.2 Adding products to a parts list

If a product group is selected the quantity indicates how many products from this group can be included in the parts list. You can preselect a default option using the radio buttons, and also write a nothing selected text (e.g. Select your helmet here).

The sort icon can be used to sort the individual products added to the parts list - product groups follow the sort order of the group selected.

A gift card is a special product type which generates a unique code when sold. The code can then be used to pay for other products in your web shop. It must be shown to the customer on the order receipt or in an order confirmation email – preferably both.

A few things to note about gift cards:

• Gift card products are created in the standard manner, but you must select the ’Gift Card’ product type in the Advanced configuration section of the product details.
• Since a gift card is a digital product, stock is unlimited and so all stock related fields (Stock level, Stock state, Units & Stock) are unavailable on this type of product.
• Gift cards also don’t work with the following Ecommerce tools & features; Variants, the Price Matrix, Discounts, Parts lists, Units, and VAT Groups.

Whenever a gift card is sold and a gift card code is generated, it is added to the Gift cards list in Ecommerce (Figure 11.1). You cannot generate gift cards manually – they must be generated by a sale from frontend.

Figure 11.1 The Gift Cards node lists all gift cards sold on a solution

In the gift card list you can see information about all gift cards sold on the system:

• The name of the product sold
• The gift card code
• The currency – gift cards can only be used to buy products in the same currency as the gift card
• The creation date and expiry date (the default is 24 months after the creation date, but this can be changed)
• The initial amount and the remaining balance

You can select any number of gift cards and click cancel gift card – this sets the expiration date to ’now’.  You can also click a gift card to see a list of transactions where the gift card was used (Figure 11.2).

Figure 11.2 A list of all transactions involving a particular gift card

A gift card may be sold with either a fixed amount, or a variable amount where the customer enters a sum before completing the purchase:

• A fixed amount gift card is simply sold for the price, as per any other product
• To sell a variable amount gift card, check in your template if the product type is 3 (for gift card), and if it is replace the price field with an input field with the name and id ‘amount’

When a gift card is sold, the unique gift card code should be shown to the customer on the receipt and in an order confirmation email.

You must also modify the checkout flow and add an input field (name and id = EcomOrderGiftCardCode) so a customer can use a gift card to pay during checkout.

All Ecommerce solutions have a default language and optionally a number of additional languages.

When more than one language is present on a solution you can use the language selector dropdown (Figure 12.1) in the ribbon bar to change the language context.

Figure 12.1 The Language selector allows you to switch language contexts

A new product is always created in the default language, as well as in the current language context.

To localize the product to additional languages:

• Switch to the language context
• Translate the product field values as appropriate
• Save

To remove a language version again:

• Switch to the language context
• Click the Delocalize button

You can’t remove a language from the default language – but you can deactivate it (depending in your Fields settings, of course)

The discounts dropdown (Figure 14.1) is used to include or exclude a product from order discounts.

Figure 14.1 You can include or exclude a product from certain order discounts

To include a product in or exclude a product from a discount:

• Click the arrow-icon and select Include in or Exclude from
• Select one or more discounts (they must have the ’Assignable from product catalog’ flag set to true to appear in this list)
• Save

After saving – or if you click the Discounts button – you can see a list of discounts which this product has been included in or excluded from (Figure 14.2).

Figure 14.2 The discounts overview

The related groups dropdown and interface (Figure 15.1) allows you to add a product to, or remove it from, other product groups. You can also specify which group is the primary group, which is relevant for generating canonical URLs.

Figure 15.1 Related groups

The Related products button makes it possible to relate a product to other products – with a label from a Relation group. Related products can then be rendered on the product page in frontend using the ProductRelatedGroups loop.

Clicking the Related products button opens an interface for adding and managing related products (Figure 16.1).

Figure 16.1 Related products

To add related products:

• Click Add related products
• Select or create a relation group
• Fold out the tree structure and select a number of products to relate this product to
• Save and close

To further control/specify how the relation should be used, use the funnel-icon to setup filters on a relation (Figure 16.3).

Figure 16.3 Further control of product relations

Using the Options tab (Figure 17.1) you can:

• Set a publication period for a product using the start and end date selectors
• Add the product to a predefined, named publication period

Figure 17.1 Custom or predefined publication periods

The Price Matrix is a flexible and powerful way of creating differentiated product prices according to various criteria, in a format similar to classic ERP systems.

Click the Prices button in the ribbon bar to open the price matrix view (Figure 18.1).

Figure 18.1 The price matrix for a product

The price matrix consists of a number of rows, each with associated criteria and a price:

• If the criteria for a row are fulfilled, the price will be used by the system.
• If more than one price row has fulfilled criteria, the lowest price will be used.

The columns in the price matrix can be customized by right-clicking a column and selecting or deselecting individual columns.

To create a new price row:

• Click Click here to add a new row on the price matrix
• Set a price and a currency
• Define the criteria for triggering the price (Figure 19.1)

Figure 19.1 Creating a row in the price matrix

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.

Stock may physically be located in more than one location, and this may impact many things, e.g. shipping fees, delivery times, local availability, etc.

In Dynamicweb, you can create stock locations and use the stock matrix (Figure 20.1) to help you manage stock levels across locations and display the relevant information to your customers.

Figure 20.1 The stock button opens the stock matrix

When creating a new row in the stock matrix you can:

• Specify a stock location
• Specify a unit type, a variant, and an amount of this unit type you have in stock
• Specify the weight and volume of the unit type – this is important if you use weight and volume to calculate shipping fees.
• Provide a description (e.g. 5 pieces or 6 bottles for a stock unit called 'box')

You can limit the stock locations available here at the shop level. If a product belongs to more than one shop, the stock locations selected for both shops will be available.

Stock locations can be created from Settings > Ecommerce > Product Catalog > Stock location.

With the VAT group tool 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 tool, click the VAT Groups button in the ribbon bar - this opens the interface used to add the product to VAT groups (Figure 21.1).

Figure 21.1 The VAT Group matrix

Add a new VAT group to the product:

• Click New VAT Group
• Select a VAT group and a country and click OK
• Click Save or Save and close

You can also click an existing row to edit it – and delete it from the edit interface.

The Marketing tab (Figure 22.1) gives you access to the marketing feature called Personalization.

Figure 22.1 The Marketing tab