LeeFee Market ~ Adding and Managing Products

This guide is for adding or changing a product while using a desktop/laptop computer. The product add/manage page we’re talking about here may look different on another device like a phone or tablet.

Before You Begin

We recommend writing your product information down in a separate document (notes, text editor, google docs, etc). You can copy it into LeeFee Market as you go along. That way, if something happens while you’re working (power outage, “help” from pets or children, etc.), then you’ll still have a copy of your work, and won’t have to start over. It’s also a good idea to save once in a while (by clicking DRAFT or SUBMIT at the bottom of the screen).

DRAFT will save your information, but hide your product from searches and from your store page.
SUBMIT will publish your product for everyone to see.

Getting to your Product Add page

If you just signed up to be a vendor or you just logged-in as a vendor, you should be automatically taken to your dashboard.

Otherwise, you can find to your store dashboard here:

Once you’re on your Store Dashboard, look for the Product Tab on the lefthand side

If you hover over “Products“, the “Add New” button will appear. Click on Add New to begin listing a product.

(If you click on Product, it will take you to a screen where you can view and manage all of the products you already have listed.)

PRODUCT TYPE

Simple Product

When in doubt, just leave it set as Simple Product. You can probably use Simple for every single product you add now and forever.

Variable Product

Variable products can be a little more complicated to work with, but they can be useful. If you think you want to give them a try, you can find out more information on adding variable products here.

PRODUCT TITLE

This will the name for your listing.

If you’re adding any plants, seeds, cuttings etc, we suggest the following format:

Name of the Plant (Latin Name) – Quantity or Size

For example:
Wild Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) – 1 plant
Wild Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) – 1/2 gallon pot
Wild Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) – 25 seeds

PRICE

The regular price for your product.

SALE PRICE

If you want to advertise your product as being on sale, just enter a sale price here. If you want a sale to start or finish based on a schedule, the click Schedule.

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Just one or two lines about your product. To make your plants easier to find, be sure to include any Common Names here as well.

DESCRIPTION

Include here whatever it is that your customers need to know. Be as detailed as you like.

A few things to note:
It doesn’t hurt to have the same information in multiple places, but before you put your heart and soul into it, you should know that there are separate areas for you to input a Growing Guide, Product Instructions, Unpacking & Storage Instructions, and any Shipping Restrictions.

Remember to Save!
(Click DRAFT or SUBMIT)

PHOTOS

Add one or more pictures of your product. For pointers on taking pictures of your plant, see Vendor Resources

Remember to Save!
(Click DRAFT or SUBMIT)

VISIBILITY

This is where you can choose to hide your product from view.

Shop & Search Results
Your product will show up in searches on LeeFee Market, as well as on your Store Page (Your Store Page is a publicly facing page that highlights your store.)

Hidden
Hidden will hide your product everywhere. You can still edit it, but it won’t be visible in searches, nor on your store page. Any direct links to your listing will redirect to leefeemarket.com

There are also two other options that you can use to hide products from view:

Archive – If you want to stop selling something for an indefinite period of time, and don’t want it to be visible on LeeFee Market, BUT you want to keep the listing information for future use, you can Archive ay number of products. Archiving products will remove them from your normal product dashboard, and automatically hide them. You can restore them any time. (You can archive products from your products manage page)

Draft – If you’re working on a listing, and want to see how it looks, but not have it show up in searches or on your Store Page, then you can save it as a Draft. To save a listing as a draft, click the DRAFT button at the bottom of the page. Any fully published listings can be made into a draft by clicking DRAFT, and any drafts can become fully published by clicking SUBMIT. PLEASE NOTE: products that are saved as a draft are still fully functional and can be purchased – even though it won’t show up in searches, anyone with a direct link to the listing will still be able to access it.

If you have a product that’s available seasonally, then we recommend you leave your listing fully visible, and change its availability by managing it’s stock (you can manage stock in the Inventory Tab – see more further down this page)

PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES

You can find out more information on using our product attributes here. People may use the attributes to find the plants, seeds, etc that best fit what they’re looking for. Please be thorough and accurate. These attributes will be listed on your product page, e-mailed to customers when they order, and can be used to fine-tune search results. We have plans on incorporating our own plant encyclopedia (LeeFee Wiki). Until then, there is a lot of information available online. One place to find excellent plant information is the Missouri Botanical Garden website.

(Attributes for things other than plants.)

For now, you can add as many custom attributes as you’d like for each product, but we’d eventually like to include site-wide attributes for mushrooms/mycelium, and if there’s enough of a need for it: other categories on our site as well. So, if you know about mushrooms (or other goodies), and would like to help us out, we’d love to hear from you. Please be in touch!

Remember to Save!
(Click DRAFT or SUBMIT)

CUSTOM ATTRIBUTES

If you want to show an attribute that we haven’t (yet) included, you can add it to your listing. Custom attributes are specific each individual product – any that you add for one product will not show up automatically on another. (If you would like to suggest an attribute for our site-wide list, let us know about it here.).

Active
Any attributes that are not marked “Active” will be deleted.

Name
A name for your attribute. For example:
Root Color
Requires Minerals
Leaf-Type
Poisonous to
Dangerous

Values
Separate values with the ‘|’ character (look above the ‘enter/return’ button on your keyboard). Following the above name examples, you might enter:
Blue
Magnesium|Phosphorous
Smooth
Humans|Sheep|Horses
Touching leaves causes severe blistering

TABS at the bottom of the screen

INVENTORY

If you have a limited amount available, you can Manage Stock which will allow you to select the number of items you have available. We highly recommend that you choose to manage stock! It can be very frustrating for customers and a lot of extra work for you, if you have to give refunds for something that you ran out of. You can always come back to this page and update the amount. You can also choose to allow backorders.

SKU – (purely optional.) Currently, SKUs must be unique compared with any other product on LeeFee Market. We’re planning to allow for Vendors to have their own set of SKUs, regardless of whether they overlap with other stores.
Manage Stock – Enable to allow the LeeFee market system to keep track of how many are still available
Stock Qty – The number of items currently available. This will drop automatically when someone places an order. Normally, when it reaches zero, your listing will show out of stock, and will not allow any more to be ordered.
Allow Backorders – If you want to allow people to continue ordering even after you run out of stock, you can allow backorders. If you just choose ‘Allow’, then customers will not be made aware. If you choose ‘Allow, but notify customer, then a message will be displayed above the ‘Add to Cart’ button that says “Available on Backorder”
Stock Status – Even if you do not choose to Manage Stock, you can still show customers whether an item is out of stock or on backorder. Items on backorder can still be purchased; items that are out of stock cannot.
Sold Individually – If you choose to sell a product individually, then customers can only buy one at a time. If you have something that’s extremely rare and/or limited, you may want to sell it individually so that more people can have access to it.

NOTE: if you’re working on a variable product, you will instead configure inventory for individual variations under the Variations tab. This inventory tab we’re describing here won’t necessarily do anything for you.

SHIPPING

Weight – Weight in ounces. (Used for shipping calculations)
Dimensions – Length, width & height in inches. (Used for shipping calculations)
Processing time – The longest time it may take for you to ship an order. If you’re taking orders ahead of time (like taking orders in the winter for things that will be available in the spring), then select ‘Seasonal’.

Calculating Shipping:

Live Rates – ‘Live Rates’ will display actual shipping rates from shipping carriers (like UPS and USPS) based on the weight and size of your item. In order to use live rate shipping options, you must include weight and dimensions for your listing, and have Live Rates configured in the shipping section of your Store Settings. You can find more information on using live rates here.

Flat Rate – In order to use Flat Rate shipping for a listing, you must first create a Shipping Profile. This can be as simple as one flat rate everywhere, or can more nuanced if you want to charge different rates for specific states. You can find out more information on flat rate and shipping profiles here.

Free Shipping – Free shipping.

(Use Your Store Default will calculate shipping cost based on the default setting that is set in the shipping section of your Store Settings.)

Remember to Save!
(Click DRAFT or SUBMIT)

TAX

Every state (and sometimes every county) can be different in terms of their sales tax laws. In general, when selling things online, you only need to collect sales tax in a state if you have a “nexus” there. Whether you ave a nexus depends on which state it is. Normally you have a nexus if you are either selling from within that state or sell over a certain amount in a year.

States also each have their own laws about what types of plants and plant material are taxable. In most cases, plants used for food are not.

Tax Status – Choose whether you want to automatically add any sales tax to this item.

Tax Class – Choose how you want that tax applied. If you pick your state from the list, then the state-wide tax rate will be applied to anyone ordering from within your state. Since tax rates can change depending on what county you live in, if you need something other than what’s on this list, please let us know. To see how the rates that we’ve included work, click here.

You can find more information about state sales tax requirements here.

PRODUCT POLICIES

We recommend that you first set up policies for your store. If you’ve set any of these policies in your Store Settings, then they’ll show up here automatically, and you can over-ride them if you like. (See our Sample Policies) To set up your Store Policies now, remember to save what you’ve done so far by clicking either DRAFT or SUBMIT at the bottom of the screen, and head to your Store Settings.

Policy Tab Label
These will appear at the bottom of your product listing (in a tab). So, if you want to change the name that tab to something different than the default, you can enter something here.

Shipping Policy
Anything customers would need to know about your shipping policy. Do you only use certain shipping services, or ship on a particular day of the week?

Refund/Return Policy
Do you issue refunds? When and why do you (or don’t you) give refunds?

Replacement Policy
Are there situations when you would offer a replacement?

Remember to Save!
(Click DRAFT or SUBMIT)

GUIDES & INSTRUCTIONS

These guides are not necessary to complete your listing, HOWEVER, we have created them to make your life easier. They provide information for your buyer to be successful growing or using your products and can help save you time and energy later on. When someone purchases a product from you, if there is a Growing Guide, Product Instructions, or Unpacking & Storage Instructions, then they will automatically be emailed to your buyer. This allows your buyer to be ready for their purchases before they arrive, and to have something they can refer back to later on. (If you do not include anything in a section, then it will not show up at the bottom of your listing nor be emailed.)

Growing Guide

This could include seed growing information, how to root your cuttings, seed germinating etc.

Product Instructions

(Mostly intended for products other than plants.) Any instructions specific to the particular item you are listing.

Unpackaging & Storage Instructions

What customers should do when this arrives – How to safely unpack; What care should be given right away; How to store (if appropriate).

Remember to Save!
(Click DRAFT or SUBMIT)

SHIPPING RESTRICTIONS

Let customers know if there are places you can’t ship to.
(This will show in a tab at the bottom of your listing, as well as prevent customers from having this item shipped to restricted states)

Remember to Save!
(Click DRAFT or SUBMIT)