Managing your storefront data

Basic concepts

In order for you to understand what you can and cannot do with your storefront, let’s review some basic concepts.

Products: A product is everything that you can sell on your website
Categories: Categories organize the structure of products on a storefront. A catalog contains a category tree, a hierarchy of nested categories.
This category tree drives the storefront navigation, enabling the customer to browse the storefront from one grouping of products to the next.
This makes it easier to find products quickly.
Catalogs: Catalogs are flexible and extensible frameworks which:
- Act as a container for products, categories, and images.
- Support multi-site, multi-brand, and multi-language implementations.
- Provide access to business attribute definitions.
- Are assigned to a storefront to provide a structure for the storefront navigation and search.

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Storefront Site Organization

Catalogs

There are two types of catalogs: the master catalog and the storefront catalog. Each storefront site needs to have one and only one storefront catalog assigned to it that drives the navigation of the storefront.

Although this example uses only one catalog, it is possible to work with several catalogs at once – by using a master catalog. Master catalogs contain the products’ data.
A product that is owned by a master catalog can also be assigned to a storefront catalog so it will display online

You can share a master catalog between several sites. A set of products from a master catalog can be assigned to one storefront catalog and a different set in the same master catalog can be assigned to another storefront catalog.

In this way, you can present different products to your customers in two different countries but still manage the products centrally in one catalog.

The categories in a master catalog can be completely different from the ones in the storefront catalog. In fact, category trees cannot be shared among catalogs.

To find out if a catalog is a storefront or a master catalog, just click on it or on the Edit link related to it. On the Catalog edit page, the first section will tell you what kind of catalog it is.

Using Catalogs to Share Data Between Sites

The RefArch import contains both site-specific data and data shared among all sites in the organization. The RefArch catalogs are available to the empty site you created earlier.

There are two types of catalogs: master catalogs define all shared products of an organization, while site catalogs specific category navigation and products for a site. Therefore, a site can have only one site catalog.

A site can have one or more master catalogs.

Because multiple sites can share a master catalog, you can specify some attributes at the site level. For example, use the OnlineFlag attribute enables a product to be online in one site, but offline in another.

📝 Exercise: Share a Catalog between Sites and Set a Product Offline

In Business Manager, select RefArch > Products and Catalogs > Catalogs
Open storefront-catalog-m-en
Click on it or on the Edit related to it.
To share this catalog with the Training site:
1. Select the Site Assignments tab.
2. Check the Training site.
3. Click Apply.
Select Training → Search → Search Indexes.
Check the top index box to select all indexes.
Click Rebuild. This ensures that indexing occurs automatically after any changes that require it.
Select Training > Products and Catalogs > Products.
Find the P0048 product.
Lock the product for editing.
Locate the Online/Offline site attribute. Set the Online field to No for the Training site only.
Apply your changes and verify that the product is not available on the Training site. (Go to RefArch and search for P0048).

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Creating a Category

When you design your storefront site, you specify the main categories to include in the storefront’s navigation bar. As trends change, you can add or remove categories. To add a category:

Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Catalogs.
Navigate to the catalog where you want to add your category.
Click New.
When adding a new category, start with the General tab.
Enter the Category ID based upon the category naming convention that your team has defined. Do not use special characters in ID fields. Spaces are fine.
Check the Online box.
Optional: Enter the Online from and Online to dates to define a date range for the category. When you specify a date range, the category is displayed on the storefront only within the specified range. You can specify a start date, end date, or both. Leaving these blank indicates that the category display on the storefront continuously.
Name is the visually displayed name on the storefront navigation menu.
Parent Id identifies the category directory location. To view the category structure and select the parent id. Click Select.
Click Apply.
The other tabs of the new category are now accessible.
Click the Category Attributes tab.
Select Show in the menu navigation.

Products

Although you can create products in Commerce Cloud, often products and product attribute data are imported into the platform on a schedule.

This can be done automatically from a feed that is scheduled to take place overnight. Once imported, you can view products or modify them as appropriate to enhance the customer experience. For example, you can:

Add products (i.e. create product sets)
Update product descriptions
Add images
Tune Search Engine Optimization (SEO) attributes

Searching for Products

There are multiple methods to search for products in Business Manager:

Simple search when you know the product name, part of the product name, the ID, or part of the ID. Leaving it blank will return all products.
By ID search can find multiple products by ID. IDs can be pasted into this field as a list separated by commas, spaces/tabs, or newlines.
Advanced search to narrow results by attributes, catalog, status and/or product type. The asterisk (*) can be used as a wildcard.
Example: *shirt will match t-shirt and tee-shirt and nightshirt
Example: sweat* will match: sweatshirt and sweatpants and sweater
Example: *ear* will match: clear and earring

The search results can be ordered alphabetically and can handle attributes. Additional columns can be added to the list of results for all users.
The results list uses the following icons to show status: online/offline, in-stock, searchable and categorized.

📝 Exercise: Search for Products

Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs
Try a Simple search.
Try a By ID search.
Try Advanced search:
1. Find all products that start with “s”.
2. Find all products that end with “ing”.
3. Find all golden products that have the color code JJ887XX.
4. Find all Variation Masters and order the results alphabetically by name.

Creating a Product

In Business Manager, there are two ways to find products:

To view the entire list of products, go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products.
To view the products that have been assigned to a category, go to: Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Catalogs > {category}.

To add a product:

Go to Merchant Tools >Products and Catalogs> Products.
Click New.
Set Select language to Default. This is also called the locale and allows each product to have attributes stored in multiple spoken languages.
For a single product, the attribute called “Description” could contain all of these:
- “These are classic shoes” in Default
- “Diese sind klassische Schuhe” when “Select language” is set to German
- “Ce sont les chaussures classiques” when “Select language” is set to French
Enter an ID and a Name for the new product. The ID must be unique.
Mark it as online and searchable.
1. Online/Offline: You can specify dates for when the customer can view and purchase this product.
2. Searchable: Controls whether or not a product is included in the search index.
3. Click Apply. The other tabs will be enabled.

📝 Exercise: Create a Product

Create a product with your first name in the fields: ID and Name.
Mark the product as online and searchable.
Select the Categories tab and put a checkmark next to your category.
View your product on the storefront.

Editing a Product

Search for the product that you would like to edit and click the product’s ID or name link.

Locking Products: Locking a product gives a Business Manager user exclusive access to edit that product and its variations. By default, the lock expires in an hour. The user must lock the product before submitting changes via the Apply button.

Set a Product Offline: If there is any reason that a product is not ready to be sold, you should take it offline. To take a product offline:

Search for the product that you would like to change.
Click on the Variations and click on the master of the product.
Lock the product.
Set Online to No.
Click Apply.

Delete vs. Offline vs. Unassign: Deleting a product removes it completely while setting it to offline only removes it from the storefront but does not remove it from the catalog.

However, removing the assignment of a product to a category removes the product from being displayed in that category on the storefront.
For example, if a product is in both the Men’s category and the Sale category, you can unsign it from the Sale category, while still keeping it in the Men’s category.

To delete a product:

Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products.
Select the product using the checkbox on the left.
Click Delete.

Business Manager prompts you to confirm the deletion. Click Ok.

Choosing a Category While Editing a Product: When assigning a product to one or more categories, use the Categories tab to identify the classification and the primary categories.

The Classification category defines the attribute set of the product.
The Primary category defines which category a product should appear in when accessed via search. It does not affect the category navigation hierarchy (the “home” of the product).

You could assign a new product to multiple categories (such as New Arrivals, Sale, Kids Shoes). The classification category would be Kids Shoes providing shoe attributes while the Sale category would be the primary category for people who search.

To change a category while editing a product:

Edit the product.
Click Edit Categories to assign the product to a certain category.

Assigning Multiple Products to a Category

You can assign products to categories manually, through the feed or in bulk. As trends change you can assign, move, or copy products to other categories. For example, seasonal products are often moved to Sale or Clearance categories.

To assign multiple products to a category via the category:

Go to a category and click Assign.
Select the products to add to the category.

To assign multiple products to a category via the products:

Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Categories > Products.
Select the products to assign to a category.
Click Assign.
Choose the categories that should contain the products selected and click Next >>
Specify the primary and classification categories.
Click either Finish: Return to Products or Finish: Go to Batch Process.

📝 Exercise: Assign Products to a Category

Assign the product you created earlier to your category.
Select additional master products and assign them to your category.
View your category in the storefront.

📝 Exercise: Moving Products From One Category to Another

Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Categories > Products.
Select a product.
Select the Categories tab.
Lock the product and click Edit Categories.
In the category tree, uncheck the current category, select one or more new categories. Click Apply.

📝 Exercise: Move a Product to Another Category

At the end of the season, a product is moved to the clearance category

Select a product from another category.
Move it into your category (as if your category was the clearance category).
Preview your category on the storefront.

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Copying Products

You can copy a product. For example, create a deluxe product based on a standard product.

Go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products.
Select the product to copy and click Copy.
Select the copy options to determine the features you want to copy.
Click Finish. Notice that the new product ID has “-1” at the end of the product ID to make the ID unique. But, you can create a new SKU for that product as appropriate.

Managing Product Attributes

Some clients have hundreds of product attributes. You can define attributes at different levels. Products inherit their attributes from the catalog; however, they can be overridden at any level.
To view product attribute definitions by category:

Go to Products and Catalogs > {catalog} > {category} > Product Attributes Definition tab

Usually, you define the most generic attributes at the catalog level, and get more specific in the categories.

Product Attributes	Inherited by	Examples
Product System Object Level	All products	Name, Long Description, HTML Page Title
Category Level	All products assigned to the category	TVs: diagonal, brightness, resolution Shoes: color, size, heel height
Catalog Level	All products assigned to the catalog	Electronics catalog includes height, depth, width while the Apparel catalog does not

Custom Attributes

You can create custom attributes to suit the needs of your storefront site. You should understand the use of custom attributes in your storefront and the maintenance responsibilities of filling in relevant attribute data.

An Administrator or Developer can add custom attributes. To add a custom attribute:

Go to Administration > Site Development > System Object Types > Object > Attribute Definitions tab. Click New.
Once the attribute has been added, you may add it to an attribute group.

Managing Variation Masters and Variation Products

Use variation masters to display a product in the product listing page and the variation products are the SKUs with specific variations (like size and color) that are purchased by the customer:

Variation Master	Variation Products
Has no values for the varying attributes (like color, size)	Have values for the varying attributes (like color, size)
Has no SKU, and cannot be bought by the customer	Have a SKU and can be bought by a customer with a price
Determines the attributes	Inherit their attributes

This is a variation master:

Attaching Variation Products to a Variation Master

Most systems import products with the variation products already assigned to a variation master. Some systems require that you create the variation master then attach the variation products to it. To attach a variation product to a variation master:

If it doesn’t exist already, create a variation master.
Lock it
Select the Variations tab.
Scroll to the New Variation Product section.
Select the variation product to add to the variation master.
Click Add.

Selecting a Default Variation Product

Select one of the variation products as the default by clicking on the variation and selecting the radio button. That variation displays in the search results and on the product detail page.

Product Sets

A product set is a group of related products presented together. It is sometimes known as a Merchandizing Set, Retail Set, or Promotion Set. You can display product sets in a category to create a “look book” with images that display how the products are related to each other.

For example, a product set could contain a sweater, pants, and shoes. Customers can purchase each product separately.

A product set:

Contains multiple products that customers can purchase individually
Each product in the set has its own individual SKU and price
Is not a product itself – the set cannot be ordered and does not have a price
Can have its own display attributes such as name, images, and merchandising links to other products or product sets
Has a primary category assignment – if a Product Set is in multiple categories, this assignment enables you to identify which category should result from a successful search for this product set.

To create a product set:

Go to Merchant Tools > Products & Catalogs > Product Sets.
Click New.
Fill in the required fields.
Click Apply.
Select the Product tab.
Click New to add products to the set.
Choose the products to add.
Click OK.

📝 Exercise: Create a Product Set

How do you offer a coordinated outfit that includes a sweater, pants, and a necklace? You want to allow your customers to buy each product separately.
Create a product set.
Place it into your category.

Preview the product set on the storefront. You can create a look book by inserting a number of product sets into a category.

Product Bundles

A bundle is a separate product with its own SKU and price that combines the offering of multiple products for one price. To view them go to Merchant Tools > Products and Catalogs > Products > Advanced Search

A bundle can include products of different types: master products with variations, even other bundles. You manage the bundle’s attributes within the bundle product, while you manage the attributes for the included products within the products themselves.

Creating a promotion for the Warhawk game will not change the 449.99 price for the Playstation 3 Bundle. Promotions applied to bundled products do not affect price of individual products contained with the bundle if purchased separately. Creating a promotion for the Playstation 3 Bundle will not affect the price of the Warhawk game.

Just like for Product Sets, to check if a single product is part of a set, use the Bundles tab inside the product itself.

To create a new product bundle:

Create a new standard product without variations.
Go to the Bundles tab inside of this product.
Click New to add products to this bundle.
Select some products and click OK.
Sort the products if necessary.
Preview the bundle on the storefront.

📝 Exercise: Create a Product Bundle

Create a complete outfit that includes a sweater, a pair of pants, and a necklace at one fixed price.
View it on the storefront.

Using the Storefront Toolkit

The storefront toolkit enables you to jump directly into edit mode for a product in Business Manager. It is located on the top left corner of your storefront. (It is available in every instance except for Production.)

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