Shopping Cart Manual



Shopping Cart Products & SKU Overview

Our shopping cart software is designed to handle all types of products, items are set up as Product IDs and SKUs. As you can see from the image below, a product can contain more than one SKU. A category contains product with a strong relationship to other products that you will be offering for sale. Multiple SKUs on the other hand can belong to the exact same product, but have one minor difference. For example, a Black T-Shirt will not have the same SKU as a White T-Shirt, yet they can have the same Product ID.

The software is flexible, so you are able to setup the T-shirts as separate products, or under the Product / SKU  relationship

The basic way the item structure works is, there is a Category, within one or more of those Categories is a Product ID, within that Product ID there can be several SKUs.

Category
 >>
 Product ID
 >>
 SKU
Difference Between Product IDs & SKUs SKUs Products
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Multiple products with similar characteristics but offered at a different price.

Products

Go to the Products page to learn how to set up a product.



A Product ID is like a parent to the SKU.  The Product ID can have several SKUs under it, but it still is the same product.  Using bottles of perfume for example, a 2 oz bottle of Ralph Lauren might have a Product ID of RL001, and a SKU of RL0012OZ, while a 4 oz bottle of the same perfume will have the same Product ID, RL001, but the SKU would be RL0014OZ.  Since the product is the same and the only change is the size, you can keep the same Product ID, this helps keep your store organized.



SKUs

Go to the SKU page to learn how to set up a SKU.


A SKU may be the same as other products that you sell but they may have differences such as price, color, and size. Good examples of Products that will have different SKUs are TV Sets. A merchant selling TV sets may offer the same brand, and model, though different sizes will sell for different prices. A Sony Wega 27" would sell for a different price than the Sony Wega 19" version. This is the reason that all items should have their own SKU it helps keep your site organized. Remember, a SKU can still have the same Product ID as other items.

SKUs are set up so that there can be different SKUs all under the same Product ID. Each SKU is setup and managed individually.

Definitions

Product ID A product ID is created by you, usually you would want to follow some kind of structure. Do not include spaces or special characters in a Product ID. For example a good product ID for a notebook might be "NB001"
SKU SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit, which is a number that is asssinged to one item and one item only. SKUs are not always physical items, but more appropriately anything that can be billed. Merchants assign their own SKU numbers, and each merchant has a personal approach on how they assign those SKU numbers.