Knowledgebase
How to add and edit products in PrestaShop 1.5-1.6
In this article we'll go over the basic options that can be configured when adding or editing a product in PrestaShop. To add a new product, log into the admin panel of your PrestaShop and go to Catalog menu>Products sub-menu and click on the Add new product button (in PrestaShop 1.5 it's labeled Add new). To edit an existing product, after you go to Catalog menu>Products sub-menu find the product in the table that's on the page and click on its Edit button. On the add/edit product form there are a bunch of tabs on the left (e.g. Information, Prices, SEO, etc.). Each of them displays various product settings. Note that when you add a new product only some of the tabs will display their settings (Information, Prices, SEO, Shipping). The rest of the settings will become accessible once you save the product.
Here we'll quickly go over those settings that are first accessible when adding a new product. And we'll also go over some of the other basic options.
Information
When you first open the add/edit product form the Information tab page is the one that's displayed by default. These are the most general settings. At the top of the page you can choose the type of product. By default, it's set to Standard. Another type is a virtual product. This can be a downloadable product or any type of service. If you want to create a product pack, there's an option for that as well. If you select the pack or the virtual product type, a tab with some additional options will be included on the left.
Type the name of the product in the Name field. This is the most important option since you won't be able to save the product at all without specifying its name. Under it there's an option Reference code. If you want to, you can type some code that's only for internal use. There are also some optional barcode settings. You can use them to type the barcode digits of the product. Below them there's an option for the status of the product; depending on the PrestaShop version it's labeled either Status or Enabled. The product is enabled by default which means it's visible on the frontend and can be ordered. From the Visibility drop-down menu you can select where on the frontend the product is visible. By default, it appears in the catalog, on search result pages and can be accessed directly with the URL address of its page. If you want to, you can limit its visibility only to the catalog, only to search result pages, or you can make it invisible on both and allow access only by directly using its URL.
From the Options setting you can select whether the product can be ordered (if not, you can hide its price), and whether it's sold only online (in case you have an actual store, where people can physically go and shop). From the Condition drop-down menu you can select whether the product is new, used or refurbished.
There are built-in text editors for the short description and the more detailed description of the product. At the bottom there's an option for product tags. You can type any words or phrases related to the product. They are shown in the Tags block on the frontend and can be used to filter products based on the tag.
After you're done with these options you can click on the Save and stay or on the Save button. This will make all product settings available. Even if you don't save the product at this point you'll be able to configure some of the options displayed by the other tabs on the left.
Prices
On the add/edit form of the product click on the Prices tab on the left to configure its price and tax. There's a field in which you can type (optionally) the wholesale price at which you bought the product, and another one for the retail price at which you're going to sell it on your site. From the Tax rule drop-down menu you can select the tax rule to be applied to the product. If the product consists of more than one unit, there's an option with which you can specify the price per unit.
After you save the product a couple of blocks with settings will become available on the same page: Specific Prices and Priority Management. You can use the options in the Specific Prices section to add discounts based on the quantity the customer buys, on the used currency, on the country of the customer, on the user group they belong to, etc. If you add more than one discount rule, from the Priority Management section you can set the order in which the discount criteria should be applied.
SEO
The SEO tab displays some options related to search engine optimization. You can use them to improve the ranking of your product page. There are options for meta title and description. The title and description that you type are shown on search engine result pages. There's also an option from which you can specify the friendly URL of the product page. By default, the name of the product is used. If you change it, separate words with hyphens. Friendly URLs can be enabled and disabled from Preferences menu>SEO & URLs sub-menu.
Associations
With the options displayed by the Associations tab you can assign the product to one or more categories. If you associate it with more than one category, there's a drop-down menu from which you can select the default category. From the Manufacturer drop-down menu you can select the manufacturer of the product. Manufacturers can be added and managed from Catalog menu>Manufacturers sub-menu.
If you want other products that are related or similar in any way to the product you're adding/editing to be listed on the product's page on the frontend, you can select these products using the Accessories option.
Shipping
Click on the Shipping tab to specify the dimensions and weight of the product package. This is optional. If there are any additional fixed fees for this particular product that have to be added to the carrier fees, there's an option for that as well. You can also choose the carriers that can be used to ship this product. By default, all existing carriers can be used. You can add and manage carriers from Shipping menu>Carriers sub-menu in the admin panel.
Quantities
The quantity of the product can only be configured after the product is saved/added. You can do this from the Quantities tab on the left side of the add/edit product form. On the page that opens after you click on the tab there's a field in which you can type the number for the quantity of the product. In case you have created product combinations you can specify the quantity for each combination. In case you want to specify a minimum product quantity that customers have to order, there's an option for that as well; if you do this customers will not be allowed to purchase fewer units than the specified minimum. There's also an option from which you can choose whether or not the product can be backordered when it's out of stock. If you allow backorders, there's an option which you can use to type a message to be displayed to customers informing them that the product can be backordered (it's only shown when the product is out of stock).
There's also an option from which you can enable advanced stock management for the product. To be able to do this advanced stock management has to be enabled for the whole store. This can be done from Preferences menu>Products sub-menu in the admin panel.
Images
To upload images of the product, on the add/edit product form click on the Images tab on the left. Images can be uploaded only after the product is saved. You can upload one or more images. If you upload more than one, from the table that lists the images you can select which is to be the cover image. The cover image is shown on category pages on the frontend, and it's the main image shown by default on the product page.
For more details and screenshots read the tutorial on how to add and manage products in PrestaShop.
There are more options available on the form for adding/editing products. For information on those check the following tutorials (or the respective shorter article versions):