[intro] When you have completed this guide, you will have installed the Advanced Inventory Manager feature and will have learned all of the different things you can do with it to build your Obodo shop. [/intro]

[summary]

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The Advanced Inventory Manager is a feature that allows you to create and edit Categories and Products all from a single page. You can also use this feature to manage your stock levels, move products into different categories, initiate bulk price changes, and lots more.

Installing Advanced Inventory Manager

1. From the Dashboard, click the Features tab:

2. Click the Advanced Inventory Manager icon:

3. Click the green Install Feature button:

4. You can now begin populating your Obodo shop using the Advanced Inventory Manager.

Adding Categories

Before you begin to add Categories and Shop Categories to your Obodo shop, it’s a good idea to read our Guide on Navigation first - this will ensure that you don’t create any superfluous Categories which will need to be deleted later on.

1. To add your first Category, click Add Category in the top right-hand corner:


2. This will open the Add Category Window. Give your Category a Name and Description in the field provided, and then click the Save & Close button:

4. You’ll then see your new Category listed on the left-hand side of the Advanced Inventory Manager as a folder:

As you create more Categories, they will be listed in this column.

Creating Subcategories

1. If you need to create a Subcategory, you need to have created the main Category first. Then you need to click that Category folder within the left-hand column within Advanced Inventory Manager, so it displays a green highlight:

2. Now you need to click the Add Category button on the top right-hand corner:

3. Give your Subcategory a name in the field provided and then click the Save & Close button:

4. After a few moments, the page will automatically refresh and you’ll notice that now on the left-hand side, your main Category now has a plus symbol next to it, indicating that it has Subcategories. Click the plus symbol:

5. You will now see any Subcategories displayed:

Arranging your Categories

During the creation of Categories and Subcategories, you may need to move the different Category folders around. You can do this quite easily by clicking a Category folder to make it highlight green, then by keeping your finger pressed, you can drag the Category folder elsewhere:

To make a Subcategory a main Category, simply drag it onto the Home symbol, which represents the Homepage of your Obodo shop. To make a main Category a Subcategory, simply drag the folder on top of an existing main Category.

[remember] When you have created all of your required Categories and any Subcategories you need too, it’s important to flesh these out with images and descriptions, which will improve your customer’s experience in your Obodo shop and encourage it to display in search engine results. You can read more by clicking here. [/remember]

Adding Products

1. To add Products to your Obodo shop using the Advanced Inventory Manager feature, click Add Product in the top right-hand corner:

2. This will open the Add Product window, where you can add a minimum of a Name and a Price for your Product using the fields provided, before clicking Save & Close to create the Product:

It is highly recommended however, that you take a look at this Guide which will let you know all about the fields you need to complete for each Product within the Edit Product window.

Displaying your Products

You can choose what details of your Products are displayed in Advanced Inventory Manager by clicking the burger menu (the three horizontal lines) in the top right-hand corner:

This will reveal a list of check boxes next to each different Product detail. Simply tick the boxes for the details you would like your Products to display within the Advanced Inventory Manager:

This is useful if you want to quickly locate Products without a Product Description or Brand Attribute applied, as you can quickly scroll down the page to find the Products with these missing details in order to edit them and amend the issue. You can also filter your Products using the Filter button towards to top right. Click it:

This will reveal checkboxes where you can select to see all Products or a variation. Select a box and allow the screen to automatically refresh the filtered results to be displayed. You can also choose how many Products are listed on the page, by clicking the drop-down menu to the bottom left:

You can then select whether to show 10, 25, 50 or 100 Products per page.

Hiding Products from Display

To hide Products from display simply click the Show/Hide Switch on the far right for each Product you want to hide:

Featured Products

To make one or several Products into Featured Products, tick the box next to the Products and then click the Quick Options menu to choose ‘Yes’ next to Special Offers to make these Products Featured Products:

Deleting Products

To delete one or many Products, simply tick the box next to the Products you’d like to delete and select the Quick Actions menu:

Adjusting Prices

To adjust the prices of one or several Products at once, tick the boxes next to the Products you would like to adjust and then click Product Actions, then Adjust Prices:

You can increase or decrease the prices according to an actual amount or a percentage:

Copying Products

To copy one or more Product into another Category, tick the boxes next to the Products you would like to copy, and select Product Actions and then Copy:

In the window that appears, select from the list of Category folders where you would like the Products copied to and click the blue Copy button.

Category Management

You can move one or more Products from one Category to another, or instead, add an additional Category to those Products, tick the boxes next to the Products you would like to move and click the Product Actions button. You need to select either Move Products or Additional Categories from the window that appears:

[remember] Products can display in more than one Category at once. The Master Category is the ‘main’ place where the Product ‘lives’, whilst the Additional Category (and there can be more than one of these) are other Categories where the Product will also be displayed. Bear in mind too, that deleting the Product from the Master Category will delete is from all of the Additional Categories too.[/remember]

[more]

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[contact]If you need our help with your Obodo shop, contact our Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm on the weekends. If you have a non-account specific question ask the Obodo Team, join us in the Obodo Community on Facebook. [/contact]