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Help Centre - Selling - Trade Services - Create Product Page

Help Centre Home > Selling - Trade Services > Create new product page directly


Trade Services Guide - Table of Contents
  • Introduction
  • Add single issue - Submit details
  • Add single issue - Create page directly
  • Adding issues in bulk
  • 'About this Title' pages
  • 'Current Issue' pages
  • Promotion Pages
  • (Click links above to jump to that page)



    Before you proceed...

    ...You may find it helpful to first read this summary of the three ways of adding new magazine issues to the website:

    Click Here


    Creating a new product page directly - Introduction

    This facility is accessed from Tools > Create Product Page within a Seller account and allows a new product page - ie. a page either for a new magazine issue or another type of product - to be created directly on the Magazine Exchange website.

    Once created the new page will be immediately visible to customers and may be used both by the Seller who created it and other Sellers to list their examples of that product for sale.

    If the new product page requires a category page to house it that doesn't already exist then that category page can also be created as part of the same process. Finally, and again as part of the same process, the Seller creating the new product page can simultaneously also create their own sales listing for that product to appear on that page


    Note: Magazine Exchange restricts the use of the Create Product Page facility only to selected Sellers in order to ensure that the facility is not misused or used incorrectly, and that for instance standards are maintained in the preparation of images. Usually the facility will only be available to trade Sellers, although experienced private Sellers are also welcome to Request Access.



    A SELLER CAN LATER EDIT A PAGE
    THEY CREATED, BUT CANNOT DELETE IT.
    (BUT OF COURSE THEY CAN DELETE
    THEIR SALES LISTING FROM THAT PAGE)

    Creating a new product page - Step 1 - Select Category
    The first step in creating a new product page is to choose the category in which the new product is to appear. This is done using the Select Category tool.

    Note that this tool is also used to restrict the access of different Sellers to the Create Product Page facility generally, and to individual categories specifically.

    If you wish to create new product pages in categories which already exist but which you cannot access please use the Suggest Category / Request Access form

    Alternatively, if currently no suitable category exists for your new product then see the yellow panel below..:


    If your product needs a new category...

    Sometimes there won't already be a suitable category page on the website for your new product, so you will need to create one:-




    'Higher Level' Categories

    A Seller may wish to add a new 'Higher Level' category in order to sell a magazine title which doesn't currently appear on the website at all, or a new genre of magazines (ie. covering a new topic), or even another type of product altogether;

    You are welcome to suggest that such a category be added to the site and if Magazine Exchange agrees they will set it up for you. To do this just click the orange "Suggest New Category" button where appropriate and send in your suggestion using the form provided.



    'Bottom Level' Categories

    A 'Bottom Level' category is the category in which the product pages themselves sit. For magazine issues this will typically be a 'Year' category.

    New Bottom Level categories can be created directly by the Seller using the yellow "Create New Category" button, but this should be done with care and only when strictly necessary because once created a category page cannot be deleted.

    Creating a new Bottom Level category page:

    The first step in creating the new category page - before the yellow button is clicked - is to select one of the existing Bottom Level categories that appear in the column, which will become the 'master' from which the new page will be cloned.



    In most cases it won't matter which of the existing categories you choose to be the master since they will likely all have the same format and layout, but we recommend choosing the one most similar to the new page you wish to create - for example, if you are setting up a "2021" category then use the existing "2020" category as master.

    To complete the process simply enter a name for your new category (ie. "2021") and click "Save". Once created the new page will be immediately available for you to create product pages within it, but note that the category page itself won't appear on the website until it does contain at least one product.



    Creating a new product page - Step 2 - Product Names
    The Full Product Name will appear on the new product page itself, with the Short Product Name appearing under the product's thumbnail image on the category page within which the product page sits.

    The product names for magazine issues especially should follow the format used throughout the site, and note in particular that care should be taken that magazine titles are entered in a consistent manner to enable those items to be reliably found when (for instance) customers use the keyword search facility.









    Creating a new product page - Step 3 - Product Images
    Main Product Image
    This is the primary image that will show by default on the product page. For magazine products this image should be in a portrait format, but other product types may have either a portrait or landscape image format depending upon the product page layout being used. Sellers wishing to create pages for non-magazine products should contact Magazine Exchange first to discuss the best image format / page layout for that product.



    Alternative Thumbnail Image
    A thumbnail image for the product appears on the category page and will usually be created automatically from the main product image. This process can be over-ridden if necessary though by use of the Alternative Thumbnail Image option, in which case this alternative image will be used to create the thumbnail image instead. This allows a different image to be used for the thumbnail, should this be desired.

    Note that when using the Alternative Thumbnail Image feature the image which is uploaded should still be 'full size' as the re-sizing required to create the thumbnail version will still happen automatically.

    Additional Product Images
    Adding further product images to the page to provide more information to potential customers is optional but highly recommended. Up to six additional images can be uploaded.

    Image sizes and standards
    To maintain the overall integrity of the website It is vital that all images are of the required standard, as described on the Add single issue - Submit details page



    Creating a new product page - Step 4 - Product Description
    Every product page contains two text boxes in which a description of the product appears. The Left box is intended to provide the primary description of the product, with the Right box containing additional information which might be relevant or helpful to the customer.

    It it strongly recommended that maximum use is made of the product description boxes since a customer's buying decision will largely depend upon the information provided here. In addition, this information also largely determines whether a potential customer might visit the product page at all, since it is this text which will be picked-up both by website's own keyword search facility and also Google and other external search engines.

    For specific advice about making best use of the description boxes when creating product pages for magazine issues see also the Adding issues in bulk page
    Note: In order to improve formatting and readability it is acceptable and recommended to use limited, basic & simple HTML within product description text when appropriate - be aware however that the careless insertion of code into a page can cause unintended consequences elsewhere, so HTML should be used with care and restraint and the page checked before it is published.



    Creating a new product page - Step 5 - Product Weight & Pages
    Item Weight
    The weight of the product alone should be entered, without any attempt to also include the weight of packing materials.

    It is in the Sellers' interest to ensure the entered weight is neither too high or too low as otherwise lower sales and/or additional costs will result.

    Number of pages
    This field only applies when creating product pages for magazine issues








    Creating a new Product Page - Step 6 - Create a sales listing simultaneously

    As part of the process of creating the new product page the Seller can also choose to simultaneously create a sales listing that will appear on that page immediately.


    This facility is provided simply for the purposes of time-saving and the Seller can instead choose to create a sales listing at a later time in the usual way. Note that listings created using the 'simultaneous' method can also later be edited or deleted in the usual way.



    Creating a new product page - Step 7 - Previewing and Publishing
    It is strongly recommended that the new page should be previewed in order to check for errors, before finally being published

    Remember again that, once published, the Seller who created a page can further edit it if required (see below), but cannot delete it entirely. If it should be subsequently found that the page does need to be deleted - for instance if it is discovered that another website page already exists for the same product - then please contact Magazine Exchange to request that the page be removed.



    Editing the page AFTER publication
    The original creator of a product page can subsequently edit that page if necessary, but this must be done responsibly if significant changes are being made - in particular this means first checking to see whether other Sellers already have their own sales listings on the page, which might be rendered invalid by changes to the page itself.
    To edit a product page a Seller first searches for that product in the same way that they usually would when wishing to create a sales listing. Within the search results an "Edit page" button will be seen for those products for which that Seller originally created the product page.

    Note also that the product search itself can also be simplified by use of the "Only show product pages I created" checkbox within the search facility.


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