Managing Your Products

What This Page Does

Your Products page is where everything you sell lives. Add new listings, edit existing ones, set prices, manage inventory, and control what shoppers see in your store. Getting your product setup right is the single biggest driver of sales — good photos, clear descriptions, and properly configured options make the difference between a browser and a buyer.

Adding a New Product

1. In your dashboard, go to Products and click Add New Product.
2. Fill in the Product Name — be specific. “Wildflower Honey — 12 oz jar” beats “Honey” every time.
3. Write a Description — how it’s made, key ingredients, what makes it yours. This is your selling space, not a food label. Use it.
4. Add a Short Description (the excerpt field) — this appears in search results and category pages. 1–2 punchy sentences.
5. Upload at least one Product Image. Natural light on a clean wood or marble surface. More is better — label shot, lifestyle shot, contents shot.
6. Set your Price. Don’t guess — use the Pricing Calculator if you’re unsure what to charge.
7. Set Stock Quantity if you want inventory tracked. Leave blank for unlimited.
8. Choose a Category — Baked Goods, Preserves, Honey, etc. This is how shoppers browse and find you.
9. Set status to Published when you’re ready to sell. Products stay invisible until then — use Draft to save work without going live.

Product Types

Simple Product

One item, one price. Best for most things — a jar of jam, a loaf of bread, a bag of granola. Choose this if your product doesn’t come in different sizes or flavors.

Variable Product — Sizes, Flavors, Options

A Variable Product lets one listing cover multiple options (size, flavor, scent, etc.) with different prices and stock for each. This is what most vendors need, and it’s also the trickiest part of product setup. Here’s exactly how to do it:

1. In the Product Data section, change the type dropdown from “Simple product” to Variable product.
2. Go to the Attributes tab.
3. Click Add, give the attribute a name (e.g., Size or Flavor), and enter the values separated by the pipe character ( | ) — e.g., Small | Medium | Large or Mild | Medium | Hot.
4. Check Used for variations for each attribute you added. Click Save attributes.
5. Go to the Variations tab.
6. From the dropdown, choose Create variations from all attributes and click Go. The system will generate one variation for each combination.
7. Expand each variation and set its price, stock quantity, and optionally its own image. Every variation needs a price or it won’t show at checkout.
8. Click Save changes.

🐝 Ask Bea — If you have many variations or you’re not sure you’ve done it right, ask Bea — she can set up your attributes and variations from a description of your product options.

Digital / Downloadable Products

Selling a recipe PDF, a meal plan, a workshop recording, or a printable label template? Set the product to Downloadable (or both Virtual and Downloadable):

1. In Product Data, check the Downloadable checkbox.
2. Upload your file in the Downloadable files field that appears.
3. Optionally set a download limit (how many times the file can be downloaded per purchase) and a download expiry (days after purchase).
4. Set the price and publish as normal.

Customers receive a download link in their order confirmation email automatically — no shipping, no pickup needed.

Enabling Custom Orders on a Product

Custom Orders let customers submit a request with specific details — “I need 3 dozen cookies, half chocolate chip, half snickerdoodle, delivered Saturday.” You set up the request form; they fill it out; you review and send a quote or confirm the price.

To do it yourself:

1. Open the product in your product editor.
2. Add the Custom Order category to your product (in addition to the product category -for example for a custom order cake you would add Baked Goods, Cakes, Custom Order).
3. Find the Custom Orders section in the product form.
4. Toggle Enable Custom Orders — the system handles everything else automatically (including marking it for marketplace discovery). You must also add the Custom Order category
5. Choose your Pricing Model:
   • Quote — customer submits their request, you review and send them a price. Good when every order is different.
   • Fixed — you set a starting price upfront. Customer pays it when they submit.
   • Configured — price builds automatically based on their answers (e.g. +$50 for a 3-tier cake, +$15 for fondant). Requires setting price modifiers on your form fields.
6. Set your Lead Time (display text, e.g. “At least 2 weeks”) and Minimum Notice Days (enforced in the date picker).
7. Build your Request Form: the system seeds a default set of fields (Event Type, Date Needed By, Quantity, Attendees, Tell Us More) that you can modify, reorder, add to, or delete. Field types: text, textarea, number, date, select, multi-select, yes/no, file upload.
8. Optionally turn on Wizard Mode to walk the customer through one question at a time instead of showing all fields at once.
9. Save — a “Request a Custom Order” button now appears on your product page.

Managing Existing Products

• Edit any product by clicking its name in the Products list.
• Duplicate a product to use it as a starting point for something similar — saves time on repeat setup.
• Draft a product to hide it temporarily (seasonal items, things you’re reformulating) without losing all your setup work.
• Trash a product only if you’re sure — trashed products can be restored but it’s extra steps.