|
| | 
This page explains how to create a store using
Yahoo! Store.
You'll need three things to run an online store using Yahoo! Store:
- A computer with a Web browser and Internet access.
- A Yahoo! ID. If you don't already have on, you'll be prompted to create one before you create your store.
- A merchant account with a credit card processor. Any business
that takes credit card orders already has such an account. If
you don't have a merchant account, you can apply for one online.
You need the merchant account to take orders, not to build your
site. So if you're waiting for your merchant account to be approved,
you can still go ahead and work on your site.
When you want to work on your site, go to
the Yahoo! Store home page (http://store.yahoo.com),
and log in using your Yahoo! ID and password.
Once you log in, you'll see your store account name in the left hand column. Click on it to go to your store's Manager page.
You will be able to choose between three editing interfaces: Simple, Regular,
and Advanced. You may want to use Simple the first time you
log in.
In the Simple interface, some of Yahoo! Store's features are hidden.
As you get used to the software, you may want to switch to the
Regular interface, which shows all the buttons.
The Advanced interface is for programmers, and is not described here.
This page and the next assume that you have logged in with the
Simple interface.
The next thing you'll see after logging in is the front page of
your site. Initially, you'll see four things:
- Your name at the top of the page.
- A button bar down the left side.
These are the navigation buttons.
- A row of buttons at the bottom of the page labelled Edit,
New Section, etc. These are the edit buttons.
- If you log in with the Simple interface, help will be turned
on, so at the bottom of the page you'll see an explanation of
what each of the edit buttons does.
Except for the edit buttons and the help, your site will look the
same while you are editing it as it will later when your visitors
see it.
If you log in with the Simple interface, you will start with help
turned on. Almost every page has a button you can use to turn help
on or off. When help is turned on, there will be explanations
describing what each button or field does. You can toggle help on
and off depending on whether you want explanations or not.
There are three major kinds of pages you'll see in the Simple
interface: the front page, sections, and items.
Items represent products for sale, and
sections are categories of
related items. For example, if you were creating a store selling
food, you might have a section called Fruit, with three items in
it, Apples, Oranges, and Pears.
Item pages and section pages look different.
Item pages
usually contain a single big image, some text describing the item, and an
Order button.
Section pages
usually have a series of links to the
items that they contain, with smaller versions of those items'
images.
If you plan to have less than a dozen items in your store, you may
not want to have sections at all. Instead you might just list all
the items on the
front page. Whatever
you decide, you can always change your mind later, because it is
easy to move items from one place to another.
In this guide, we'll assume you're going to have sections on the
front page, and items within the sections. Whatever you plan to
do, the best way to learn Yahoo! Store is to follow the instructions
here, and then delete the pages you've created if you decide later
that you want to organize your site differently.
If you've just logged in, you should be on the front page, and in
the edit buttons you should see one labelled New Section. Click
on that, and you will see a page containing two fields, Name and
Caption.
Whenever you add something to your site, you'll see a page like
this, though the specific fields you'll see depend on what you are
creating.
In the Name field, enter a name for the section you are creating.
For example: Gifts.
If you have any text you want to appear at the top of the section
page, you can enter it in the Caption field, but usually you will
leave the Caption field blank.
Finally, click on the button labelled Update, and you will see your
new section.
The name of your site should appear at the top of your new page.
Click on it to return to your
front page.
In the navigation buttons, on the side of your page, you should
see a button with the name of your new section. Click on it
to go to the section.
Now let's try adding an item. At the bottom of your section page,
you should see a link labelled New Item. Click on that, and you
will see a page with fields to fill out, like the fields you just
filled out to create the section.
This time there are more fields. As well as Name and Caption, you
should see fields labelled Code and Price.
In the Name field, enter the name of your item. For example:
Gadget.
The Code field is where you put the item's SKU, stock number, ISBN,
or whatever code you use to identify products. You can use any
format you want. For now, enter something random. For example:
X123.
The Price field, of course, is where you put the item's price.
Enter any number. It doesn't matter if you include a dollar sign.
As with sections, the Caption field is where you put descriptive
text, if any. Type whatever you want. If you want to have several
paragraphs of text, just separate them with blank lines.
Tip: When you're typing text in the big fields, hit return
whenever you get near the edge of the field, so that
all your text remains visible. The carriage returns you
type won't appear in your site.
When you're done, click on the Update button, and you should see
the page of your new Item.
In the lower left of your new item page, you should see a link
labelled Up. The Up link always leads up to whatever contains the
page you're on. So click on it, and you will go up to your section
When you get there, you'll see that the section page is no longer
empty. There should be a link to the item you just made.
Let's make one more. To create another item in this section, click
on New Item again, and fill out the fields describing the item.
Then click on Update, and you'll see the page of your second item.
In the lower left of your new item's page, you'll see a link labelled
Up. Click on it, and you'll go back up to your section page. Now
you'll see two links there, to each of your two items.
That's how you build your site: whenever you want to add an item,
just go to the section where you want to put it (or to the front
page, if you don't want sections) and click on New Item.
If you want to change an existing section or item, all you have to
do is go to its page and click on Edit. Let's change the first
item you created. Click on the navigation button that leads to
your section, and then click on the link that leads to
your item.
At the bottom, you should see a link labelled Edit. Click on that,
and you'll see the fields you filled out to create the item. If
you want to change something about this item, just change what is
in the fields.
Try changing the text in the Name field from "Gadget" to "Super
Gadget", then click on Update. After you do this, you'll notice
that the name of the item is changed everywhere it is referred to.
Not just on its own page, but on every other page that has a link
to it.
Now we are going to try uploading an image for an item. If you
don't plan to have product images in your site, you can skip this
part, but we recommend that merchants include product images if
they can.
At this point, you should be on one of your items' pages, and you
should see a link at the bottom labelled Image. Click on that,
and you will see a page where you can upload an image.
Note: You can only upload images with Netscape (version 2.0 or
later) or Explorer (version 3.0 or later). If you're using an
older browser, you should get the latest version.
If you are using Microsoft Explorer 3, you will see a notice at the
top of the screen explaining that you need to download our Java
applet for uploading files. Click on the link in the notice, and
it will take you to a page where you can download the applet.
Follow the instructions on that page, and afterward you will find
yourself back on the Image upload page. You don't need the applet
with MSIE 4 and later, so you may be better off simply upgrading
if you have MSIE 3.
On the image upload page, you should see a button labelled Browse.
Click on it, and you will get a popup window where you can select
a file from your own local hard disk. Select an image, preferably
not too big. You may have to tell the popup window that you want
to see "All Files", not just "HTML Files". After you select a
file, its name should appear in the box next to the Browse button.
Once the name of a file appears in the box next to the Browse
button, you are ready to upload it. To upload the image, click on
Send. You may have to wait for a while while the image uploads,
especially if it is a big one. Be patient. If you have a 28.8kb
modem, you can transmit a maximum of 3k per second, so if the image
you chose was 60k, it will take a minimum of 20 seconds to upload.
Nearly all online stores have a page with the company's contact
info, shipping rates, return policies, etc.
In your Yahoo! Store, all that information can be put on the
Info
page. You can get to the Info page by clicking on the Info button
on the side of any page.
Initially your Info page will be empty. Click on the Edit button
to put text on it. You'll see a number of blank fields.
In the field labelled Greeting, you can include some introductory
text about your company.
In the field labelled Address-phone, enter your company's address
and phone number. Any linebreaks you put here will be preserved
when this text appears on the page, as usual in an address.
In the field labelled Info, enter whatever information you need to
give customers about your store. You should probably mention at
least shipping, tax, guarantees, and return policies. You can get
multiple paragraphs by separating them by blank lines.
When you're finished, click on Update, and you'll see your new Info
page.
The last step before publishing your site is to choose a look. On any
page, click on the Look button and you'll see a number of choices.
Try several until you find one you like. Click on Hide to get rid of the
Looks buttons when you're done.
Many users find that one of the predefined looks is perfect for them.
If not, don't worry: you'll see later that you are not limited to this
predefined set.
Congratulations! You've mastered all the basics of creating an
online store. There is a lot more you can do to customize your
site, but you now know everything you need to build a simple site.
To make your store bigger, all you have to do is add more sections,
with more items in them.
When you are working on your store, you are editing a copy of your
site, separate from what visitors see. This way, visitors won't
see your site while you are in the middle of changing something.
When you're done with a batch of changes and ready to let visitors
see the latest version of your site, you can publish it.
Note: Publishing your site does not commit you to anything, nor
does it make your site visible to others, unless you tell them the
URL.
Go to your front page (by clicking on the name of your site)
and in the lower right you should see
a button labelled Publish. Click on that, and after a few seconds
(or longer as your site grows), the Publish button will change to
read "Published".
If your account name is acme, you should now be able to visit your
store at http://store.yahoo.com/acme.
Next: Place a Test Order
|
|
|
