Listing Products

There are two types of products

• Simple – ready to just add to cart
• Variable – the customer needs to select options or customisations before adding to cart eg size, colour. Try to keep this as simple as possible.  In some cases it might be better to add another product if there are too many variables.

The product listing page will change a little depending on the type of product.

As this isn’t a search driven marketplace you don’t need long detailed titles to be found. A brief description is all thats needed e.g. if you are a shop selling hand poured soy candles, any one visiting your shop will already know this so you don’t need to add it all to your title – “Black Fig Candle” or “Lemon and Lavender Candle” would work well.

Customers can search inside your shop but this search will also search your product descriptions and tags so keep titles short and punchy. 

This is added later on for variable products. You also have the option to add a sale price and schedule when you want the sale to run.

You can add a main featured image and up to 5 gallery images. For a more professional looking shop listing, keep the images cropped to the same size and landscape orientation. Images sell, so make sure they are clear and well lit. Style your photos, but don’t clutter them up with things that aren’t included in the sale. Don’t be misleading. Make sure the photo represents the product you are selling to avoid disappointing customers.

Use your photos to give as much information as possible. Show variations, different angles, close up shots, product in use etc. Images may not display well in your seller dashboard as they are only compressed thumbnail images. They will be displayed in higher resolution in your listing.

This is a brief description that gives a little more info about your product and appears directly below the title on your product page. Keep it to a sentence or two. 

This will be displayed in the tabs below your product and can have as much info as you feel you need to share with your sellers about your product. What is it made of? How long will it take for you to get it ready? You don’t want to leave a customer with any questions.

You are assigned to a specific Craft Village and you will need to make sure your product is assigned to that Village to display in your store. If you have more than one option available to you, please let your Craft Village Manager know and they will make sure you are assigned. Please select the tick box for your Craft Village.

Tags are a really useful tool to help people find things inside your store and also for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO. When people search online eg in google, your tags will help your product to show. You can add as many tags as you want separating each with a comma. Although SEO is important, the aim behind Craft Village is to reduce SEO competition by bringing local buyers to your shop directly. Once in your store you do need buyers to be able to find what they want and so its important to complete this field.

Think of keywords people might search for. You don’t need to include what is already in your title.

Here are some tag examples for a personalised zebra soft toy – Personalised gift, baby shower gift, safari animal, personalised teddy, baby toy, African animal, safari nursery, zebra toy, Child’s gift, etc

If any one searches your store for personalised, teddy, toy, etc then this product will show.

Manage your stock so that you don’t sell what you cant fulfil. If you don’t have stock and make to order you can also control stock levels to keep order quantities manageable – only sell what you can realistically make. 

SKU (Stock Keeping Units) may be assigned to each item to help you keep track but aren’t necessary if you don’t use them.

If you only want customers to be able to buy one of this product, not multiple, then tick the sold individually option.

Your store’s shipping settings will be used by default – you set these under the settings tab. You can override the default settings for any product by ticking the box and adding shipping settings specific to each product if needed. Be sure to clearly state processing time.

When selling a variable product you need to set the attributes of the product first e.g. colour or size. You can set as many attributes as needed. You then need to set the variations (see next step) before the product can be purchased.

For example – setting the attribute Size

The name is “Size”
The values are A5|A4|A3. – always separate the values with a line “|”

Tick whether the attribute is active for that product and whether it is being used as a variation.

You need to specify each variation of a variable product. To keep it simple try and keep the variable attributes down to two or less. The more complicated it is, the harder it is for the buyers. You could always list another product for other variables. 

For example if your product comes in different sizes and colours, you will need to create a variation listing for each possible variation you offer
e.g. small pink, small blue, small green, medium pink, medium blue, medium green, large pink, large blue, large green. You will need 9 variations

For each variation you can specify a price, manage stock, and assign an image that shows when selected by the buyer. Adding variations may seem very complicated at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it. 

For example – I can generate the variations for the attributes I set (see step above) by choosing the option 

• create variations from all attributes

Then I want to make sure all variations show on the listing so I 

• Enable all variations

In this example all the variations are the same price. I set the price using the option

• Regular Prices

Then you can choose whether to manage stock, whether it is in stock etc.

Each variation can then be edited and managed separately rather than bulk by toggling the block open using the little arrow in the corner of the variation block. You can add different images for each variation that will show when the buyer has made their selection. You can set different prices for different variations. You can manage their stock level individually. We strongly advise checking each variation is set up as you wanted for price etc before publishing. If you see any red crosses through your options on publishing, this variation will not be available for sale. Check the price has been set and that you have marked it as in stock.

This section is very important if you offer personalisation, gift wrapping or need to get information from your customers. You can create questions, multiple choice drop-downs, tick boxes, text input boxes etc

For example – For a personalised mug you could do this add-on

• Create a short text box
• Restriction – only letters
• Title of box – Name
• Description – Please add the name you would like printed on your mug
• Tick required field (will need to be entered before purchase)
• Fees? You could charge flat fee – will be a one off fee no matter what quantity the buyer purchases. Quantity based – adds on the set amount for each of that item added to the cart. Percentage based – you charge a percentage of the final value of the products added to the cart.

In this example, quantity based is best. I will charge £2.00 extra to personalise the mug. If they buy 2 mugs it goes up to £4.00 etc

Another example of an add on using a check box and a text field is offering a gift wrapping service with a hand written card. 

• Check box – Would you like to add on gift wrapping
• Text field – for typing note to put in the card