One of the most useful aspects of the Yahoo Store interface is the ability to easily handle the use of product options.

Product options give your customers choices in what they want.  The product option box is typically a standard drop down box that details each of the available choices.

This quick tip will show you some of the key points when setting up an option box for a product.

First login into your store editor as previously described in the previous post.

Next, either create a new product or edit an existing product.  Scroll down to the text box called 'Options'

You need to setup a name for your option (like Size or Color) and then each of the option Values (like small, medium, and large; or red, white, and blue)

Ok, so you know what options you want your item to have.  How do you put them into the store?

The pattern that you should use is:

Name "Select an Option Below" Value1 Value2 Value3 etc

The "Select an Option Below" is very useful.  The first option value after the Name is the default value that shows in the option box prior to your customer selecting anything.  Sometimes customers are lazy and they don't select anything from option menu.  If they don't select anything, you will at least know they didn't because when you get the order, you will see "Select an Option Below". 

The "Select an Option Below" phrase also makes the select box the same size for different options, which cleans up the look of the site.

To be clear, you don't have to use "Select an Option Below" as your first value, it is just extra protection for you.

You will also note the use of quotation marks for "Select an Option Below". 

Quotation marks tell the Yahoo Store that anything inside them should be treated as a single word.  One could have two or three words inside the quotation marks and Yahoo will still see it as a single word.

Let's look at an example

Notice the use of the quotation marks around "Select an Option Below" and "Midnight Blue".  Even though there are multiple words in between the quotation marks, Yahoo still treats it a single word.

Also, multiple option types (Size and Color in the above example) can used.  Simply hit the Enter key to put a blank line between the options.  (For you advanced users doing uploads with Excel, use a combo of the Alt-Enter keys to put a linebreak within a cell)

So what does it look like?

Notice how the "Select an Option Below" is the default.  Also, if you want to upcharge for a particular option, then just add (+XX) to the right side of the option.  When the customer puts the item in the cart, the cost of the item plus the upcharge for the option will be included.

Options are very useful in the Yahoo Store and are very easy to implement.  This Y Store Tutorial provided some of the points to ensure that you use Yahoo Store options effectively.