Brand, or manufacturer, is not mandatory but if used, it is used in many features of the site and important to understand all the features that relate the Brand.
On a site which sells products from many different manufacturers, the site visitors are likely to use Brand as a search criteria.
Brand is imported with the product data. When the Get Products detects a new Brand, it will automatically create the Brand on the site. There is normally no need to Add or Edit the Brands data.
The Brands Sort Order controls the display of Brands in the Main Menu.
Features linked to a Brand:
All Brands: All Brands page URL: yourcompany.com/brands
All Brands are listed on this page. The page has an alphabetic register and search feature.
When clicking on a Brand, it will display all products with that Brand.
Brand listing page: Brand listing page URL: yourdomain.com/brand , e.g. onlinehifi.com/samsung
All products from the selected brand. This page has a boiler plate, which can be edited via Brands in Admin.
The Edit will open a page with a WYSIWYG Editor. The information and graphics entered here will be displayed at the top of the Brand listing page. See also Content Management.
Brand Name: Imported From ERP.
Brand Short Description: A short description of the brand
Brand Description: A description for the brand which can be displayed on the Brand boiler plate page.
Brand Hyperlink: URL to the brands website.
Default Product Image Directory: The default media library folder that will open when looking to select the brand image.
Brand Image: The image associated for the brand.
Search Filter "Brand" : The Brand Search filter is created automatically. See Filter Types
JSON search: The predictive search ( JSON) in the header, can be configured to display a list of brands that match the entered text.
Brands in the Main Menu: A Brands listing can be enabled in the main menu.
Product Images in Brand Sub-Folders: A site with multiple brands, and a large number of products can configure the site to organise the product images in folders matching the brand names. See Media Library - Product Images
Sites not using Brand:
On a site where all the products have the same brand ( e.g. the companys own brand), the site visitors are unlikely to use Brand as a search criteria, and it is not required to populate the brand name on each product.
For a site that does not use brand, the Brands field in the ERP system should be set to "none", or "nobrand" . Note: do not use N/A for Brand.
See also: Products, Product Images, Media Library, Filter Types