Create a simple product

How to add a basic item to your catalog — title, price, stock, images, SEO

The Add New Product screen is where you build your catalog. A simple product is the basic kind — one SKU with one price, one stock number, one image, one description. The Tote Bag you sell is a simple product. The Sticker Pack is a simple product. Anything you can buy without picking a size or color is a simple product. This guide walks you through writing the title, setting the price, setting stock, attaching an image, and writing the SEO copy. The whole flow takes about 5 minutes per product once you know the tabs.

What is this for?

The Add New Product screen is your catalog entry point. You reach for it every time you have something new to sell — a new season's merch, a new downloadable, a new accessory line. For products that don't need variants (no size picker, no color picker), this is the full setup flow.

When you click Create Product, the product is written to your store. If you chose Publish, it is visible on /products immediately — visitors can find it, view it, and add it to cart. If you chose Draft, it sits ready for you to polish before going live.

Good use cases

The Status dropdown on this form decides whether your product goes live on /products the moment you save, or sits quietly in Draft until you are ready. The Products list across the top of Store Management → Products shows a running count in each state — here is what those status tabs look like after you have seeded a handful of products through this form:

Example 1: The Tote Bag. A physical product with one price, one SKU, one image. Fill the Title (Canvas Tote Bag), the Description (what's it made of, how big is it, what fits in it), set Regular price to 30.00, open the Inventory tab to set SKU and stock, attach the photo from your Media Library, pick Apparel as the category, set Sort to 1, and click Create Product. The product appears on /products and on its own page at /product/canvas-tote-bag. Every simple and variable product you save from this form follows the same public-URL pattern — here is how your four keepers land on the public site:

/products # the store archive — every published product/product/canvas-tote-bag # simple product — Canvas Tote Bag ($30.00)/product/brewing-guide-2026 # digital download — PDF ($9.00)/product/barista-t-shirt # variable product — size + color variants/product/coffee-sticker-pack # simple product, on sale ($6.00 → $4.00)/product_category/apparel # category archive — Tote Bag + T-Shirt/product_category/digital # category archive — Brand Book/product_category/accessories # category archive — Sticker Pack

Example 2: The Brand Book. A digital downloadable. Same as a physical product, but on the General tab tick the Virtual checkbox (no shipping needed) and set the price to $9.00. The Brand Book is a PDF customers receive after purchase; your store categorizes it as Digital. Price the item at $9.00, pick the Digital category, set Sort to 4, and save — the result lands at /product/brewing-guide-2026 with no shipping line in the cart.

Example 3: The Sticker Pack on sale. Fill the form the usual way, set Regular price to 6.00, and fill Sale price as 4.00. On the public site the price displays with the original struck through and the sale price in brand color. The badge "Sale!" appears on the store listing and the product card. Your Products list shows the deal at a glance too — the Price column reads ~~$6.00~~ $4.00 so you can scan your catalog and see which items are discounted without opening each one.

Example 4: A product not quite ready to go live. You've got a new product but the photo shoot is next week. Fill everything you know now, set Status to Draft, click Create Product. The product is saved and editable but not visible on /products. When you're ready, flip Status to Publish either from Quick Edit on the Products list or from the product's edit page. After saving in Draft you'll see the confirmation flash below, and the Draft tab on your Products list ticks up by one.

What NOT to use this for

• Do not use this flow for products with size or color pickers. Those are variable products — they get their own create flow with attributes and a variant matrix. See Create a variable product.
• Do not treat Description as a specifications page. The Description is the narrative pitch — what the product is and why someone would want it. For spec tables (weight, dimensions, materials), use the Advanced tab's Purchase Note field, or add a content block in the rich-text editor.
• Do not leave SEO blank on a flagship product. The Page Title and Meta Description you write here are what Google shows in search results. A blank SEO Title falls back to the product name only — which is rarely enough to win a search click.
• Do not set Sort order to 0. Sort order 1 is highest priority; 0 is treated as "no priority set" and the product slots in by creation date. Use 1–5 for hero products, higher numbers for long-tail SKUs.

How this connects to other features

• Products list — after you click Create Product, you're redirected to the new product's edit page. Going back to Products → All Products shows the newly created row in the list.
• Categories — the Categories dropdown in the sidebar pulls from Products → Categories. If you type a new category name that doesn't exist, you can create it on the fly from this screen.
• Media Library — the Thumbnail picker opens your Media Library modal. Images you've already uploaded show up to pick from; you can also upload fresh images from here without leaving the form.
• Ecommerce → Configuration — the currency symbol on the Price fields, weight units on the Shipping tab, and default tax behavior all come from your store configuration. Set those before you seed your catalog.
• SEO → SEO Manager — the SEO card on this form flows into the site-wide SEO Manager. After you save the product, you'll see its SEO values in the SEO Manager grid alongside your pages and blog posts.

Before you start

• You are signed in to SGEN as an admin.
• You've set your store currency under Ecommerce → Configuration.
• You've created at least one category under Products → Categories (or you'll create one on the fly during this flow).
• You've uploaded your product image to the Media Library (or you'll upload during this flow).
• You have your product's title, description, price, and SKU ready to type in.

Where to go

1. Open the left navigation.
2. Click Store Management → Products → Add New (or from the Products list, click + Add New in the top right).
3. The Add New Product form loads.

Steps — Fill the product

1. Write the title and slug

The Title field is the name your product has on the cart, on the public product page, in order receipts, and in every email your site sends about that product. Write what a customer would recognize; avoid cryptic SKUs.

The Slug field is the URL path — whatever you set here becomes part of the public URL /product/<slug>. It auto-fills from your Title but you can overwrite it. Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Don't change the slug after visitors have bookmarked the page — you'll break those bookmarks.

2. Write the description

The Description field is the rich-text pitch on the product's public page. One or two paragraphs about what the product is, who it's for, and what makes it worth buying. Use the formatting toolbar to bold key phrases, add bullet lists for specs, or add section headings for longer descriptions.

3. Pick the product type

Below the Description you'll see the Product data panel with a type selector in its header. Leave it on Simple for this guide. If your product has variants (different sizes, different colors), stop here and read Create a variable product instead.

Next to the Simple / Variable selector are two checkboxes:

• Virtual — tick for anything that doesn't ship (downloadable PDFs, digital products, services). Virtual products skip shipping calculations at checkout.
• Downloadable — tick if the product gives the customer a file to download after purchase. The delivery flow for downloadable files is managed separately by your store operator — the checkbox itself doesn't prompt for a file here.

Steps — General tab (pricing)

4. Set the regular price

The Regular price ($) field is the standard price — what customers pay when nothing else is going on. Type a number with up to two decimals — the field accepts values like 30.00, 12.50, 100.

5. Optionally set a sale price

The Sale price ($) field is the discounted price — leave it blank for a product not on sale. If you fill it, it must be less than the regular price; the form will reject equal-or-higher sale prices.

When Sale price is set, the public product page shows the regular price struck through alongside the sale price in brand color, and a "Sale!" badge appears on the store listing and product cards.

Steps — Inventory tab

Click Inventory in the Product data tab row to open the stock controls.

6. Write the SKU

The SKU field is your internal product code — warehouse reference, supplier code, whatever you use. It's optional for a simple one-off product but required if you want to track inventory across multiple systems.

7. Decide whether to manage stock

The Manage stock? checkbox controls whether this product has a tracked inventory count:

• Off — the product is always available. No "in stock" label on the public page; customers can always order. Use this for made-to-order items, services, and digital products with unlimited supply.
• On — a Stock quantity field appears. Type your current inventory. When a customer orders, the count decrements. When it hits zero, the product shows "Out of stock" on the public page and the Add to Cart button disables.

8. Set Sold individually (optional)

The Sold individually checkbox limits each customer to buying exactly one of this product per order. Useful for limited editions, signed copies, giveaways, and ticketed items.

Steps — Images

The right-hand sidebar has a Thumbnail card with a Choose Image button.

9. Attach the main product image

Click Choose Image. Your Media Library opens as a modal. Pick an existing image or drag a new one into the upload area.

The thumbnail is the hero image on the product's public page and the cover on the store listing. Use a high-quality image at roughly 1–2x the size it will render (so it stays sharp on high-DPI screens). A square image (400x400 or 800x800) works well because the public product card is usually square.

Steps — Categories

The sidebar has a Categories card with a type-to-search selector.

10. Pick one or more categories

Click the selector and pick your category. You can pick multiple. If the category you want doesn't exist, type its name and you can create it on the fly without leaving this screen. Categories determine which category archive page your product appears on (for example /product_category/apparel).

Steps — SEO card

Scroll down. Below the Product data panel is the SEO card.

11. Write the Page Title

The Page Title is what Google shows as the bold headline in search results, and what the browser tab shows. A good Page Title includes the product name plus a short qualifier — Canvas Tote Bag — Heavyweight Cotton. Keep it under about 60 characters.

12. Write the Meta Description

The Meta Description is the one-sentence summary under the title in search results. Write one natural sentence describing the product; include a reason to click. Keep it under about 160 characters.

13. Write the Featured Image ALT text

The Featured ALT field is the alt text for your thumbnail. Screen readers read it aloud; search engines use it to understand your image. Describe the image, not the product — "SGEN tote bag in natural canvas, held by a model on a street" is a good alt text.

Steps — Status and save

The sidebar Status card has a dropdown.

14. Pick Publish or Draft

• Publish — the product is live on /products as soon as you save.
• Draft — the product is saved but hidden from the public store. Flip to Publish when you're ready.

15. Click Create Product

The Create Product button sits in the sticky sidebar. Click it. The form submits; the page redirects to the new product's edit page where you can keep tweaking. A success message confirms the product was created.

What success looks like

• After clicking Create Product, you land on the new product's edit page. The header changes from "Create a new product" to "Update a product" and a Permalink link appears under the title.
• A system note appears in the right sidebar's Logs panel reading "Product has been updated!" with the author and timestamp.
• Going back to the Products list shows the new row with its title, price, category, and Sort badge.
• If you picked Publish, opening /product/<your-slug> in a new tab shows the public page with your image, title, description, and Add to Cart button.

What to do if it does not work

• The Create Product button saves but I land on a form with red errors. One of the required fields is missing or out of range — read the red message. Title must be 2–350 characters. Description must be at least 3 characters. Price is required for a simple product.
• My Sale price is rejected. Sale price must be strictly less than Regular price. If your sale is the same price as regular (clearance at list price), leave Sale blank.
• The product saved but isn't on /products. Check Status — Draft products don't appear on the public store. Flip Status to Publish on the edit page and save again.
• The image I attached isn't showing on the public page. Hard-refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). If the image is still missing, go back to the edit page, click Thumbnail Choose Image, confirm an image is selected, click Update Product.
• The price displays rounded up. If a product you saved at $29.99 shows as $30.00 on the public product page or the cart, contact support — this is being addressed.
• Stock count is one less than I entered. If you entered Stock Quantity 100 and the edit page shows 99, contact support — this is being addressed. You can increment the count manually to correct it.
• I checked Virtual or Downloadable but the behavior isn't what I expect. Downloadable product delivery is managed separately. Contact your store operator if digital file delivery needs configuration.

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