At this point, you are ready to set up your categories and start adding products and content pages to your store. Before doing anything in your admin area, it is important to remember the the "6 P's", Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Set up your categories categories carefully. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Most online shoppers do not want to click endlessly before they can purchase an item. Categories and sub-categories are necessary to keep your content organized but please keep the levels of sub-categories to less than three. A customer should be able to add an item to their cart in three clicks or less.
• With Zen Cart, items can be linked to and listed in multiple categories.
• Once a category is added at a level, products can not be added at the same level.

With your category list in hand, log in to your Zen Cart admin panel and take the following actions:

• Scroll over "Catalog" and clink on "Categories/Products".
• If you do not know html and would like to use a WYSIWYG editor, select "HTMLarea" from the "Text Editor" drop down box.
• Click on "New Category"
• Fill in the "Name" field and add a Category Description if you wish. The category description will be placed above the sub-categories or products for the category.
• If you wish, assign a sort order for the the Category. NOTE: Categories or Products with the same sort order will be listes alphabetically.
• Click on the "Save" button.
• Repeat the steps for each category at the top level

To add sub-categories to categories follow these steps:

• Click on the yellow folder icon for the category for which you would like to add a sub-category.
• Click on "New Category"
• Fill in the "Name" field and add a Category Description if you wish. The category description will be placed above the sub-categories or products for the category.
• If you wish, assign a sort order for the the Category. NOTE: Categories or Products with the same sort order will be listes alphabetically.
• Click on the "Save" button.
• Repeat the steps for each sub-category at this level.
• Note that once a category at any level, the "New Product" button is no longer available.

Your Categories and Sub-Categories are now set up. Before adding Products, we need to add Manufacturers if you would like to assign Manufacturers to your products. To add Manufacturers to your database, follow these steps:

• Scroll over "Catalog" and click on "Manufacturers".
• Click on the "Insert" button
• Fill in the name field. If you have a logo for the manufacturer, click on the "Browse" button and navigate to the image. Upload the image.
• If you would like to assign a web site for the manufacturer, enter the URL in the "Manufacturer's URL" field. NOTE: This url will be placed on product pages assigned to this manufacturer.
• Click on the "Save" button.
• Repeat the steps until all of your manufacturers are added to the database.

Now that all of your categories, sub-categories and manufacturers are set up, it is time to start adding your products. To add products, follow these steps:

• Navigate to the correct Category or Sub-Category for your product by clicking on the yellow folders or selecting the correct Category from the drop-down list.
• If you do not know html and would like to use a WYSIWYG editor, select "HTMLarea" from the "Text Editor" drop down box.
• Click on the "New Product" button.
• Fill in the fields in the following way:
• Products Status: select In Stock or Out of Stock
• If the item is Out of Stock, select the date available. The system will automatically add the product to the catalog on the specified date.
• Products Manufacturer: Make the selection from the drop-down list or leave as none.
• Products Name: Enter the name of your product
• Product is Free, Product is Call for Price, and Product Priced by Attributes: Select Yes or No.
• Tax Class: Select None or Taxable Goods.
• Enter the Products Price (Net), the system will automatically show the price with tax in the Products Price (Gross) field if the item is a taxable good. Tax will only be charged on items shipped within your state. All out of state items will not be charged tax.
• Product is Virtual, Always Free Shipping, and Products Quantity Box Shows: Select Yes or No for each. Virtual products are downloadable products such as eBooks or software.
• Product Qty Minimum: If you sell your items in lots, enter the minimum amount here.
• Product Qty Maximum: Maximum amount of items you will sell to a customer. This is not the same as Quantity in Stock.
• Product Qty Units: Do you sell your item in lots only? Enter the lot amount here.
• Product Qty Min/Unit Mix: Leave as yes. This prevents people from ordering an amount not entered in the above field.
• Products Description: Enter the description for the product. Add as much information as possible. This text is picked up by the search engines so it is important to make sure you have described the product properly and fully.
• Products Quantity: Enter the amount of items in stock. For items that are always in stock, enter a large number.
• Products Model: Does the manufacturer assign a model number for the product? If so, enter the model number. Again, this information is picked up by search engines.
• Products Image: Browse your hard drive and select the correct image for the product. It is best to have an image at least 500 pixels wide and tall but no more than 750 pixels wide or tall. The system will automatically resize the images for the different placements of the image but uploading images that are too large will cause slow load times.
• Products URL: entering a web site here will show the following text on the product information page, "For more information, please visit this products webpage." and will create a link. Only use this field if you want people to leave your web site to purchase a product.
• Products Shipping Weight: If your shipping rates are based on product weight, enter the weight here. Otherwise, leave blank.
• Sort Order: Enter the sort order of the product. Lower numbers are placed first. If you want your products listed alphabetically, leave this field blank.
• Click on the "Preview" button.
• If all information is correct, click "Insert". If edits need to be made, click the "back" button to make your changes.
• Repeat the steps for each product

Congratulations, you now have products available for sale! To learn to modify the Product Information page, visit our Product Layout Modification tutorial.