Opencart Ecommerce

8th August 2012

 How to use your Opencart site

Introduction:

This guide’s purpose is to provide a basic guide to using the admin area of Opencart, it will
highlight how to add, delete and amend categories, products and attributes. it will act as a
simple guide to help assist use in using Opencart, please do note our technical support team is
always available for you to ring if you have any concerns, or issues with your Opencart site that
are not answered in this guide.

Getting Started:

To log in to the backend of your Opencart site you must add “/admin” on the end of your website
address, like this “http://www.yoursitename.co.uk/admin”. This will then take you to a login
screen; from here you must enter your User details into the login boxes to access the admin area.

The below content will explain what each of the sections do in order to set up new categories,
products and information pages.

1. Catalog -> Categories:

Categories are a way of organising your products by placing them in a specific category. To
make a new category you click on Catalog -> Categories, this will take you to a page which shows
all of the categories you have requested us to create during the design stage of the project and
all of their sub categories and so forth.

If you choose to create a new category, click on Insert. From this screen you will be presented
with 3 tabs at the top (General, Data and Design).

General:

• Category Name: The name of the category.

• Meta Tag Description: Meta Tag Descriptions are used by search engines to describe the

1
 content of your web site.
• Meta Tag Keywords: Meta Tag Descriptions are used by search engines to describe the
content of your web site.
• Description: A description of the category.

Data:

• Parent Category: If you have a number of products that sit under one category you can
arrange them into sub categories, then choose what you want the parent category to be.
For example, if you had ‘Sports’ as a category, then ‘Football’ or ‘Tennis’ would be the sub
categories of ‘Sports’ and sports would be the parent category.
• Stores: If you have set up multiple stores in System - Settings, select the store name(s)
in which you want this product to display here, the products will only display in the stores
selected here.
• SEO Keyword: The keyword used for search engine optimisation. This must be globally
unique to the category.
• Image: Select the main category image. Click the photo to bring up the Image Manager,
then select photo from your computer files.
• Top: If you want this category to display in the menu bar, then click the selection box. This
only works for the top parent categories.
• Columns: Number of columns to use for the bottom 3 categories. Only works for the top
parent categories.
• Sort Order: Sort order determines what order the categories are displayed in the menu.
• Status: Enabled for category to display in the online store or Disabled to hide category.

Design:

Select a different layout that will override the main template for the following pages; Account,
Affiliate, Category, Checkout, Contact, Default, Home, Information, Manufacturer, Product,
Sitemap. There is never any real need to change this, unless you know what you have knowledge
on how Opencart works in terms of development.

Once you have gone through all the tabs in this section, and are happy with the selection choices
that you have made for the category, then click Save at the top of the screen.

2. Catalog -> Products

To insert your first product you need to go to the Products section which is under ‘Categories’.
Once you’ve clicked here, you will be taken the products section, which is where all of the
2
products that your site sells are listed. In this section, you can add, edit, and delete products.

To insert a new product, you can simply click on “Insert” which is located on the right of your
screen. Upon clicking that, you are then presented with a range of text fields which need to be
filled out accordingly. Each section is divided up accordingly in their appropriate tab at the top of
the screen:

General:

• Product Name: Name of the product.

• Meta Tag Description: Meta Tag Descriptions are used by search engines to describe the
content of your web site.
• Meta Tag Keywords: Meta Tag Descriptions are used by search engines to describe the
content of your web site.
• Description: A description of the product.
• Product Tags: These are words that customers may use to describe this product, or to find
the product in your store.

Data:

• Model: A unique model number for this product.

• SKU: SKU stands for “Stock Keeping Unit”, which is a unique, arbitrary number for this
product.
• UPC: UPC stands for “Universal Product Code”, which is a unique code and manufacturer
number assigned by http://www.gs1.org.
• Location: The location of where the product is kept.
• Price: The price that you want to sell the product for.
• Tax Class: If the product is taxable to charge tax or none if you don’t want the customer to
pay tax.
• Quantity: If you wish to track stock levels, then you need to specify the amount that is
currently in stock. The stock total will deplete naturally as customers purchase the product.
• Minimum Quantity: If you wish to force customers to have to purchase a minimum amount
of the product, then you need to specify the value of what you wish that to be.
• Subtract Stock: If you wish to track stock levels, then chose “Yes”, otherwise choose “No”.
• Out of Stock Status: Sets the stock status message customers will see when the stock
quantity reaches 0.
• Requires Shipping: Sets if the product requires shipping. Set to no if the product is
downloadable or if customers will pick up.
• SEO Keyword: The keyword used for search engine optimisation. This must be globally

3
 unique to the product.
• Image: Select the main product image. Click the photo to bring up the Image Manager, then
select photo from your computer.
• Data Available: Sets the date when you want the product to show on the front of your site
to customers.
• Dimensions: If you ship by a method that charges by package dimensions, the length, width
and height of the product.
• Length Class: Whether the numbers you entered in Dimensions are inches, millimetres etc.
• Weight: If you ship by a method that charges by weight, the weight of the product.
• Status: Select Enabled for product to appear in your store, or Disabled to hide.
• Sort Order: Sort order determines what order the products are displayed in this product’s
category. Leave blank for alphabetical order.

Links:

• Manufacturer: If you have specified manufacturer or brand names in “Catalog ->

Manufacturers”, then you can select the manufacturer or brand name you want to display
here.
• Categories: If you have specified category names in “Catalog -> Categories”, then select the
category name you want to display here.
• Stores: If you have set up multiple stores in System - Settings, select store name(s) in which
you want this product to display here.
• Downloads: If you have uploaded a file for customers to download after purchase, such as
an eBook or music file, select the file name from this box.
• Related Products: To suggest related products when customers are viewing this product,
begin typing the product name in the box, then select the related product from the drop-
down list that appears.

Attribute:

Attributes are features of the product that can be used to compared products side by side by
the customer; this is used when deciding on which item to choose using Product Comparison.
Attributes must be previously set up in “Catalog -> Attribute Groups and Attributes.”

Attributes for a product could be for example, the type of material that the product is.

To assign an attribute to a product you must enter the name of an attribute that has been
created already in the Attribute box, and then in the ‘text’ box, you need to type what the
attribute is. An example would be choosing ‘Material’ as the Attribute, and then typing in Glass

4
as the attribute text.

Option:

• Option Name: Begin typing the name of the option for this product, and a drop-down list will
appear with all the options that match.
• Required: Choose Yes if you want the customer to be forced to select an option, or No to let
them check out without choosing.
• Option Value: Examples could be the size of the product so, small, medium or large.
• Quantity: If you are tracking stock, how many of this option you have.
• Subtract Stock: If you wish to track stock levels of this item, leave at Yes. Otherwise select
No.
• Price: If you wish to charge extra (or less) for this product, enter the amount here. Example:
Men’s extra-large t-shirts cost £2 more from the manufacturer. The “+£2.00” will appear in
the option box of your store.
• Price +/-: If you wish to Add the extra amount, i.e. £2 more for this option, select “+” If you
wish to discount this option, select “-”.
• Reward Points: If you wish to give Reward Points for purchasing this option, which customers
can redeem for additional merchandise, enter the number of points. Turn Reward Points On
or Off in Extensions- Order Totals - Reward Points.
• Weight: Enter the weight of this option IF it is significantly heavier or lighter than the normal
option to charge extra (or less) in shipping this option.

Discount:

You can offer a discount on chosen products to all customers, to only customers in a customer
group you created in Sales -> Customers -> Customer Groups, or to customers who purchase at
least a minimum quantity that you specify.

Discounts for a customer group will display the special price only if the customer is logged in as
that group.

An example would be:

Price: 100.00
Quantity: 5
Discount: 10
New Price: 90.00

5
Click the Add Discount Button, then optionally select a customer group you want this special to
apply to.

• Quantity: If you want to require a minimum purchase for the customer to get this discount,
enter the minimum number of items.
• Priority: If you will offer multiple discounts and/or specials, enter 1 for this to be applied first,
2 for this to be applied second.
• Price: The price you want the customer to see.
• Date Start: When you want this special price to appear.
• Date End: When you want this special price to disappear.
• Special: Special prices change the value of the product price to the new special price. Specials
for a customer group will display the special price only if the customer is logged in as that
group.

Click the Add Special Button, then optionally select a customer group you want this special to
apply to.

• Priority: If you will offer multiple specials and/or discounts, enter 1 for this to be applied first,
2 for this to be applied second.
• Price: The price you want the customer to see.
• Date Start: When you want this special price to appear.
• Date End: When you want this special price to disappear.

Image:

This area allows you to add additional product images in addition to the main product image.
These images will appear on the product page in the Images tab.

To add additional images, click the Add Image Button to bring up the Image Manager, and
select the additional image from your computer.

To replace an additional image, click the picture and select the photo from your computer.

To remove an additional image, click the Remove Button.

Reward Points:

Customers can earn loyalty points for buying products from your store, then redeem them after
they have accumulated sufficient points. Customers can check the number of points awarded

6
in your store by logging onto My Account and clicking the Reward Points Link. After a customer
makes a purchase, activate that number of points in the customer order page Sales -> Orders -
order number.

Turn On or Off in Extensions - Order Totals -> Reward Points - Uninstall.

• Reward Points: Specify the number of points this item will cost a customer who wants to
purchase it using rewards points.
• Customer Group: Set a different number of points a member of a customer group will earn
for purchasing this product.

Design:

Select a different layout that will override the main template for the following pages; Account,
Affiliate, Category, Checkout, Contact, Default, Home, Information, Manufacturer, Product,
Sitemap. There is never any real need to change this, unless you know what you have knowledge
on how Opencart works in terms of development.

Once you have gone through all the tabs in this section, and are happy with the selection choices
that you have made for the product, then click on Save at the top of the screen. From that, your
new product has just been added, and will now appear on your site under the category specified.

3. Catalog -> Attributes -> Attribute Groups:

Attribute Groups allow you to ‘group’ a range of similar attributes together.

To insert a new Attribute Group, go to Catalog -> Attributes -> Attribute Groups and click the top
right Insert Button.

Give your new attribute group a name, and if your products have multiple attributes and they
need to be displayed in a particular order, then simply type in the number (so 1 for first and so
forth) this will prioritise the ordering of your attributes.

When you have finished, click the Save Button.

4. Catalog -> Attributes -> Attribute:

Now that you have made an attribute group, you need to actually define the attributes that
belong to this group. To create an attribute, if you go to Catalog -> Attributes -> Attributes and
7
click the top right Insert Button.

Attribute Name: The name of this attribute.

Attribute Group: The group that this attribute belongs to.
Sort Order: If there needs to be a particular order, then you can configure the sort order for the
attributes within a group.

Once you are happy with the attribute, just click Save at the top of your screen.

5. Catalog - >Options:
Options are choices that customers have to select to personalise a product during the checkout,
an example of an Options would be the Size and/or the Colour of the product.

To create an Option click on Catalog - > Options, you will be presented with a list of options
currently available like, ‘Checkbox’ and Date. These are already predefined for you to use, but
most of the time, you would need to have your own options available for your stores products.

To create a new option, just click Insert at the top of your screen.

From here you will be taken to a screen which allows you to create a new Option for your
products by filling out the required sections:

• Option Name: Give the option a name (Colour, Size is examples).

• Type: This is what type of options are allowed to be chosen, so for instance, if it was Colour,
and you had Red, Blue, Green, you could choose it to be a Dropdown, and it will display
those options as a dropdown selection choice.
• Sort Order: If there needs to be a particular order of your options, then you can specify.
• Option Value Name: If you click on the Add Option Value, you will then be presented with 3
more fields to fill out for this value. The fields to fill out are:
• Option Value Name: The name of the option value (Red or Blue for example).
• Image: You can choose an image for this option to be displayed when they choose it as a
selection.
• Sort Order: If the Option Values need to be in a particular order, then you can specify.

When you are happy with the Option you can now click Save at the top of your screen.

8
6. Catalog -> Manufacturers:
In some instances, you may want to show who the manufacturer is for particular product(s). To
create a new Manufacturer, all you have to do is go to Catalog -> Manufacturers, and then click
Insert at the top of the screen.

This will then present you with some fields to fill out to define the manufacturer and its
properties. The following fields are:

• Manufacturer Name: The name of the Manufacturer

• Stores: If you have multiple stores, then you can select which stores the manufacturer will
appear on.
• SEO Keyword: The keyword used for search engine optimization of the manufacturer.
• Image: Sets the image to use for the manufacturer. Click image to start Image Manager,
then select the image from your computer.
• Sort Order: Determines what order the manufacturers are displayed in.

Once you are happy with the manufacturer you have created, simply click Save at the top of the
screen.
7. Catalog -> Downloads:
If your product comes with a download upon purchase, this is where you can create the
download for a product.

To create a download, you can click on Catalog -> Downloads, and then click Insert.

On clicking that you will be presented with fields to fill in which are as follows:

• Download Name: The name of the Download.

• Filename: This is where you would upload the file for them to download, if you click on
Upload then you can choose a file (or files, but if it is more than 1 file, then they need to be
in a ZIP folder) from your system to upload.
• Mask: What you want to be displayed as the text for the download
• Total Downloads Allowed: This sets the total amount of downloads a customer is allowed
in a single order. If however, more than one download is made, or if the quantity of a
downloadable product is higher than one, then the number of the number of downloads
permitted will be added together.

Once you are happy with your download, click the Save button at the top of your screen.
9
8. Catalog -> Review:
On your Opencart site, you might have reviews of a product enabled, which allows customers to
leave reviews of a particular product. To Insert a new review for a product, you can click Catalog
-> Reviews.
Upon clicking that you will be presented with either a list of all the reviews that people have
made, or an empty list if no reviews have been made. If you want to add a review, you can click
Insert at the top of your screen.

Clicking on insert will take you to a page where you can insert the data related to the review. The
following fields are:

• Author: The author of the review.

• Product: The product related to the review.
• Text: The actual review itself.
• Rating: You can rate the product using the buttons to score how highly, or lowly a product is.
• Status: If you want the review to be published, then choose enabled. If for whatever reason
you need to disable it, then simply choose the disable option.

Once you are happy with the review, you can simply click Save, and the review will be saved.

9. Catalog -> Information:

On your Opencart site you may have pages that are not related to the products, and only
display information related to your site. For instance, you will most probably have a Terms and
Conditions page for customers. As this page isn’t actually a product as such, it needs its own
information page.

To create a new Information page, simply go to Catalog -> Information, and click Insert. Upon
clicking that you will be taken to a page with tabs at the top (General, Data, and Design) which
all have fields that need filling out. They are as following:

General:

Information Title: What you want the title of this information page to be called.
Description: This is where all the text would go regarding the information page you are creating.

10
Data:

• Stores: If you have multiple stores set up, and you only want the information page to be
shown on certain stores then you can easily choose which stores to display the information
page on.
• SEO Keyword: The SEO keyword for the page would go in here.
• Bottom: If you want this link to be placed in the footer of your site, then you can select it to.
• Status: You can choose if this page is enabled, or disabled.
• Sort Order: If you have multiple Information pages, and they need to be in a specific order,
then this is where you can specify.

Design:

Layout Override: If for whatever reason you need to choose a different template that has been
set up, then this is where you can choose on from. If you don’t need too at all, or aren’t sure on
this, then simply leave it as it is.

11
12
13
14
15