Add a product people can actually buy
Title, images, price, stock, variants and the checks that tell you a product is really on sale.
A product is on sale when a visitor can find it, understand it and put it in the cart. Everything below exists to get to that point.
What a product needs
Title — what the thing is, in the words a buyer would use. Not a slogan.
Images — at least one, on a plain background, square if you can. The first image is the one that shows in search results and in the cart.
Price — in the store's currency. Changing the store currency later does not convert prices already saved.
Stock — leave tracking off if you always have the item; switch it on and set a number if you don't. Tracking off means the store will keep selling it, which is the right answer for made-to-order goods and the wrong one for a single antique.
Variants
Use variants when the same product comes in sizes, colours or capacities. Each variant carries its own price, SKU and stock.
Do not use variants for things a buyer chooses that do not change what you ship — a gift message is a line property, not a variant.
Check: on the storefront, pick each variant in turn and confirm the price and the availability change as you expect.
Categories
Group products into categories so people can browse instead of searching. A store with fewer than about ten products usually reads better without them.
What to check before you call it done
- The product can be found by searching the storefront, not just the admin.
- Its price shows in the store's currency.
- It can be added to the cart, and the cart total matches.
- On a phone, the images are not cut and the description is readable.
A product saved in the admin is not proof of any of these. Open the shop and look.