Lesson 23. Products — General. Part 2

Product settings are the thing that make each product unique. So it would wise to spend some time to learn them all. This is the second part of this journey through settings of CS-Cart web shopping cart program.

This time we discuss Availability and Extra sections of the General tab in the ultimate ecommerce software.

First of all, at the Availability section you can specify groups that have access to the product’s page. It is useful when you have VIP products for VIP customers in your store. Set up the creation date to sort out products by date.

The Available since setting determines the date when the product becomes available for purchase. Out of stock actions. The Buy in advance option is good for combining it with the Available since setting. This combination is good for pre-order campaigns. The Sign up for notification option can be used when the product is out of stock. Customers can subscribe to a product only if it’s tracked without options in the shopping cart system.

Then there is Extra settings.

Product details view allows you to choose among templates that define the general look of the product page.

Short description is used for the product list on a storefront. If you leave the field empty the short description will be taken from the full product description.

The Popularity setting works automatically based on the number of purchases, views, and cart additions. But you can tweak it by entering the desired number. It can be used for sorting product by popularity.

Search words. The list of words for the built-in search of the php shopping cart system. Promo text is an additional block with information that appears on the top right side of the product page. Use it to attract attention to a product and therefore increase sales.

This was the second part of the General tab overview for CS-Cart open source shop software.