So you are ready to start selling either products/merchandise or tickets on your site! Woohoo! Below you will find the necessary information on how to get started setting up products/tickets, how to edit products/tickets and manage your eCommerce system.
Selling Products and Merchandise >>
Having the ability to sell products and other merchandise on your site opens up another revenue stream and marketing channel for your business.
The screenshot below gives you an idea of what a product landing page will look like on your site:
Setting-up Products and Merchandise ::
Step 1 >> Collect the following information for each product up-front to make the data entry portion that much easier:
- Product Name
- Product Description
- Price Per Product
- Shipping Costs (Recommended to add this cost into the retail cost of the product for easier management)
- Inventory Including Inventory By Size
Step 2 >> To add a new product, go to the Products tab and select Add Product.
Step 3 >> Then in the Add Product page, enter in all the product information you collected in Step 1.
Basic Product Information >>
- Title (Product name as it will appear)
- Description (Product details could include additional images)
- Featured Image (Product image)
- Product Gallery (Add multiple images for product)
- Product Category (Category product should be assigned to; i.e. T-Shirt or Apparel)
- Product Tags (Tags describing more about product; i.e. Dallas T-Shirt, Motherhood T-Shirt, etc.)
Advanced Product Information >>
- In the Product Data box, you will enter in all the inventory and size information for a given product.
- General :: Here you can set a unique SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) number for each product to manage inventory.
- Inventory :: Here you can set how many products you have as to not over sell. You can allow for backorders as well as for only one item per customer.
- Shipping :: Here you can set product weight and dimensions. We actually recommend you factor shipping costs into the cost of the product for easier management.
- Linked Products :: Here you can set up-sells (recommending “better” products instead of the current product) and cross-sells (recommending “other” products in addition to the current product) to promote other products you are offering.
- Attributes :: Here is where you add product attributes like Size and/or Color
- Variations :: Are the variations to those attributes you set, like size: small, medium, large, xlarge. You can also set the Default variation like “Medium”. When adding variations, price must be set on each variation in order for it to show up on the front end. Also variations don’t show up in preview mode. The product must be published.
- Advanced :: Here you are able to “Enable” product reviews as well as add special Purchase Notes to send to customer after purchase.
Step 4 >> In the Product Short Description field, you can set a brief description that will appear on your main store landing page.
Step 5 >> Select SAVE and you have your product ready for purchase!
Selling Event Tickets On Your Site >>
Just think how nice it will be to handle all ticket sales for your event right within your site. You can sell various ticket types, prices points and quantities. Each ticketed event can be linked to your Event Calendar as well.
The screenshot below gives you an idea of what a product landing page will look like on your site:
Setting-Up Event Tickets ::
Adding an Event Ticket is much similar to adding a Product. In fact, Event Tickets are considered Products.
Step 1 >> First you must create your Event in the Event Calendar by going to Events > Add New or you can create your Event and set-up your Tickets at the same time.
Step 2 >> Once you get your event basics set, find the Tickets section on the Event edit page.
Step 3 >> In the Tickets section, fill out the following information:
- Ticket Header Image :: Upload an image for the ticket header which will be included in the email to ticket purchasers
- Select Add New Ticket to create a ticket for the event and then fill in the following Ticket information:
- Ticket Name :: VIP, Early Bird, General Admission
- Ticket Description :: Cut-off dates for Early Bird Registration, Ticket holder benefits, etc.
- Price :: Cost per ticket
- Start Sale :: When ticket sales should begin
- End Sale :: When ticket sales should stop
- Stock :: How many tickets are available
- SKU :: A unique SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) number for each ticket
- Select “Save this ticket”
Step 4 >> Update or Save your Event. Your Event Tickets will automatically get saved as a Product once you hit Save.
Managing Products, Tickets and Orders >>
Reviewing and Editing Products / Tickets ::
You can easily track inventory and availability for products or tickets on your site.
Step 1 >> Go to Products >> Products. Here you will see a list of ALL products, including event tickets available on your site.
Step 2 >> By hovering over a product/ticket you can select from the following options: Edit, View, Duplicate, Quick Edit, Delete.
- Edit :: This will bring you to the individual Product/Ticket edit page where you can change product details, pricing etc.
- View :: This will bring you to the output of your individual Product/Ticket page as readers can view.
- Duplicate :: Allows you to easily replicate a product/ticket for faster set-up.
- Quick Edit :: Allows you to quickly edit basic product/ticket information including name, quantity, visibility, SKU, price, in stock, categories, tags, etc.
Managing Orders for Products / Ticket Sales ::
WooCommerce allows you to easily track, manage and complete orders that come in through your shop or event calendar.
To view your orders to go WooCommerce > Orders.
Here you can easily see the following:
- Order status (Processing, Cancelled, Completed)
- Name (with Email Address)
- What they purchased and quantity
- Ship to address
- Customer message
- Order notes
- Order date
- Total paid (via PayPal or Check or other payment method)
- Actions (Complete or View)
To view an individual order, simply click on the eyeball icon in the Actions column and it will take you to the Edit Order page.
From this Edit Order page, you can manage this individual order by setting:
- Order Status :: Pending Payment, Processing, On Hold, Completed, Cancelled, Refunded, Failed
- Adding Notes :: These notes can be used for management of a particular order. For example, tracking information on shipments, dates shipped, customer communication, etc.
- Shipping Information :: What you would use for products needing to be shipped out.
Promoting Products and Event Tickets >>
So you’ve set-up your product or event and now it is time to start promoting and selling!
You can easily insert a specific product, product category or group of featured products through the use of shortcodes.
This can be done based on product ID #s or product SKU #s as shown below. First go to your Product List (Products > Products in your left-hand black toolbar).
Then you will see your entire list of products including merchandise and event tickets. Find the products you are wanting to insert and follow one of the methods below.
Shortcode For Product IDs ::
[products ids=”79, 82, 86″]
Shortcode For SKUs ::
[products skus=”LBD-02, LBDEB01″ orderby=”date” order=”desc”]
Shortcode For Product Category ::
[product_category category=”tickets”]
** If the product is not showing, make sure it is not set to Hidden in the Catalog Visibility.
Quick Edit > Catalog Visibility: Set it to “Catalog”
Once you’ve got your shortcode determined, copy and paste it into your Page or Post and done!! Simple as that!
Of course if you get stuck, please email me – [email protected]!