Every merchandise item has storefront settings that control whether shoppers see it, when they can buy it, whether it is featured or marked new, and where it appears in sorted lists. This article covers those storefront settings; creating and editing the merchandise item itself is covered separately.
Prerequisites
- You need access to Orders & Inventory’s merchandise setup to create or edit an item.
- The item must be active. An inactive item never appears in your store, regardless of these settings.
Where to Find It
Go to Orders & Inventory › Merchandise, then create an item or open an existing item for editing. You’ll find these settings in the Storefront Options section of the item form.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| This product should be visible and available in the portal | On/off | On for a new item | Publishes the item in your store catalog or withdraws it |
| Available Online From: / Available Online Until: | Date and time, either or both | Empty (no limit) | Limits when shoppers can buy the item online |
| This is a featured product and should be highlighted in the store | On/off | Off | Highlights the item in your store |
| Featured From: / Featured Until: | Date and time | Empty | Sets an optional window for the featured highlight |
| New Until: | Date and time | Empty | Shows a “new” tag on the item until this date |
| Product Sort Order: | A number | Empty | Controls where the item appears when your store sorts by sort order |
| Date Added: | Date | Today, if left blank | Sets the date used for “newest items” sorting |
Publishing and Withdrawing
Uncheck This product should be visible and available in the portal to withdraw the item, or check it to publish the item, then save. This setting takes effect when you save, so it does not schedule publishing or withdrawal for a future date. Use Available Online From: and Available Online Until: when the item needs to go on or off sale later.
Warning
Withdrawing an item does not remove it everywhere. After you uncheck this box, anyone with a direct link can still open the item’s product page, and the item may still appear when a Portal visitor browses by category. Use Available Online From: and Available Online Until:, or deactivate the item, if you need it fully off sale.
Deactivating the item works differently. When someone opens a direct link to an inactive item, Rhythm shows a message that the item is no longer available and sends the visitor back to your online store page instead of opening the item.
Limiting the Dates an Item Can Be Bought
Available Online From: and Available Online Until: only narrow what the item’s active status and publishing setting already allow. An item must be active and published before Rhythm offers it for sale on any date. Rhythm accepts the date range exactly as you enter it and does not check that the end date comes after the start date, so review both dates if the item does not appear or disappear when you expect. These dates, along with the featured window and the new-until date below, use the server’s clock instead of your Rhythm account’s time zone, so an item can go on or off sale a few hours earlier or later than your local midnight.
Featuring an Item
Turn on This is a featured product and should be highlighted in the store to highlight the item. Leave the featured window blank to feature it indefinitely, or set Featured From: and Featured Until: for a limited window.
Warning
On this form, Featured Until: edits the same date as Featured From:. Whichever of the two you change last is the value that saves, so you cannot set a true end date for the featured window from this screen today. If you need a real end date, remove the featured highlight manually when the window should end.
Marking an Item as New
Set New Until: to show a “new” tag on the item in your store until that date. Leave it blank if you do not want the item to show a “new” tag.
Warning
Portal store merchandise items always show a quantity selector. There is no setting on this form or elsewhere to hide it for a specific item.
Sort Order and Date Added
Product Sort Order: is the number that places the item when your store sorts by sort order. There is no minimum, no maximum, and no requirement that each item use a different number. Date Added: controls the “newest items” sort. If you leave it blank, Rhythm sets it to the day you save the item, so clearing it during a later edit resets it to that day.
Previewing Before You Publish
To see exactly how an item will look in your store before members do:
- Open the item’s 360 page from Orders & Inventory › Merchandise.
- Select Merchandise Options › Preview this Merchandise.
Result
A dialog shows the item the way your Portal store will show it, including pictures, description, price, and any size, colour, or personalization choices. The Portal’s own styling will look slightly different after the item is live.
The preview requires an active item. If the item is inactive, you see Unable to preview merchandise instead. The preview always uses the item’s last saved values, so it does not include unsaved changes still on the form.
Warning
If an item’s image loads in the Console preview but breaks in the public store, or shows in one browser but not another, the image’s own address can be the problem. For example, the address may have an access-token issue rather than a problem with the image itself. Browsers handle and reuse that kind of address differently, which is why the same broken image may still display somewhere else.
A product’s description is edited on the item’s own record, not here; see Add and Edit Merchandise Items. That description appears on the item’s product page and in this preview. It is separate from what prints on an invoice, so editing the product description does not change your printed invoice output.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Publishing, the selling-date window, and active status work together, from the most restrictive. An item must be active, published, and within its selling-date window, if one is set, before shoppers can buy it.
- Featuring and the "new" tag are independent of publishing. Setting either one does not publish an item; it only controls how a published item is presented.
Permissions
Creating, editing, and previewing merchandise items requires access to Orders & Inventory’s merchandise setup. See Orders & Inventory Staff Access Policies.
Validation and Errors
| Message contains | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Unable to preview merchandise | The item is not active | Activate the item, then preview it |
| Unable to save Merchandise | The save failed on the server | Correct the field named in the message, then save again |