Step 2: Add Products

Learn how to add a Product using images and information you received from the donor

Before you get started adding a Product, be sure you have images and the information you will need to add a Title, Description and a hyperlink to the donor’s website, if they have one.

To add a product:

1. In your Auction Admin Panel, Go to Catalog in the upper menu and click on Manage Products in the dropdown list.
2. Click on the blue Add Product button in the upper right.
3. Click on the green Continue button to proceed.
4. Select the Auction Event you created previously in the Event tab. If you did not yet create an Auction Event, you need to do so in order to continue.
5. Click on the General tab. Enter the Item Number–this is the number used to organize your items, it is NOT visible to your bidders, to create a visible 'item number', add it to the Name of the product in the next step. In the example a 1 is entered because it is the first item.
6. Enter the Name, or title of the item. This can be anything, but it is limited to 70 characters, including spaces.
7. Click on the orange WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get editor) button. The editing tools will open in a pop up. Here you can turn simple text into rich text that is created with html, requiring no knowledge of html (the code websites use to display web pages). The Description can be as long as you want. The tools to edit your content are too many to list. But some noteable tools are B (bold), I (italics), U (underline) and the button that looks like a chain link , which is the tool to create hyperlinks. To create a hyperlink, highlight the text you want to use as a link and click the link button. Then copy and paste the URL into the field and submit. When your description looks the way you want it, click Submit to continue. You will see a lot of weird text in the description box, this is html, don’t worry about it–however, you’ll want to make future edits in the WYSIWYG editor to keep from breaking the html code that was created.
8. Next you will need to address Shipping. You can leave this blank and toggle the Allowed Shipping Method menu to Pickup Only, or you can cover potential shipping costs by entering a value that will cover both your shipping and handling expenses. You’ll see the Allowed Shiping Method also has the Ship or Pickup option–this means that even if you add a shipping value, your item will display a note on the website saying that it can still be picked up for free to avoid the shipping charges.
9. The Visibility option allows you to choose if you want your product to be searchable or not.
10. Finally, you can set the product to Enabled, to make it visible on the website, or Disabled, which hides it from view–this is handy for items that are not ready to accept bids yet (e.g. if details are still needed from the donor, or the item is still awaiting donor confirmation). Never Disable a Product that has been won by a bidder but has not been paid for yet–if you change its status to Disabled, the item will be automatically removed from their shopping cart making it impossible for them to finalize their transaction.
11. Now you can add your images. You can add as many images as you wish. Click on the Images menu in the upper left to continue. Click on the Choose File button to find images on your computer (one at a time). Then click on the Upload button. Once they are all loaded, you can sort the order by changing the Sort Order number. Click the radio buttons (the circular buttons with dots in the middle) on the image you want to be the main image, this is usually the image you assigned to be 1 in the Sort Order.  Images WILL NOT DISPLAY until you click these buttons next to one of your images.  Note that if you upload only one image, you will not have to click the aforementioned buttons. You can just continue on to the next step.
12. Click on the Auction tab. You will see several fields to complete. Start with choosing your Country, then your State/Province from the dropdown menus. These values are used to display the location of your items, should a winning bidder prefer to pick up their item and avoid shipping fees. Also, this will inform a bidder (before they bid) the location of an Auction Item if the Product was set to Pickup Only and they discover they are nowhere near the location of the item to pick it up.
13. Enter the name of the Donor. Note, there cannot be any html (hyperlinks) added here, those should be added in the Description of the Product. If no donor, Anonymous works well as a value. Also be careful not to put the name of a consignment vendor here, Anonymous is more appropriate and will avoid any conflict with your consignment vendor.
14. Enter the Estimated Value. This value should be as close to the researched retail value you can find–keep in mind that your donors can research this value and will know if it has been artificially inflated. It is in your best interest to find an accurate value.
15. By entering the Estimated Value, the Starting Price will be auto filled with a value that is 20% of retail value. That is our default setting because we have found 20% to generate the best results by creating the most bidding activity, resulting in higher winning bids. If, however, the item is a consignment item, then you should either start the bidding over cost (so you receive at least some funding from the item if it sells), or use a Reserve, setting that at the same value you would set the Starting Price. Leave Reserve blank if you have no cost associated with your item.
16. The Bidding Increment is also auto filled based on a predetermined table. You can adjust it to suit your preference.
17. Click on Categories (Categories can be created following the steps in Advanced Settings at the end of the steps) in the upper left. Select the categories that apply to your product. Categories are not required.
18. Click the green Save button, DO NOT click on Save and Continue Edit, that button is for saving after making edits to an existing Product, allowing you to keep it open for more edits after reviewing the edits

 

Now you have created your first Product.  Repeat this step to continue to add more Products. Once you are done adding Products, then it is time to plan a marketing campaign for your Auction.

DO NOT market your auction until bidding opens!  Once bidding opens, it’s time to bring as many bidders as you can to your Auction. We recommend a ratio of bidders:items that is about 10:1. So if you have 10 items, you need 100 potential bidders looking at your items.

See our Email Helpful Guidelines to learn how to write the perfect email for your marketing campaign.