Your products are the lifeblood of your business, for obvious reasons, and the need to ensure you add each new item into your point-of-sale correctly, is essential.
From customizable product tags and descriptions, to setting up things like inventory stock and pricing, you’ll need to ensure you have the right details stored into products, so that your transactions are done as smooth as possible.
Thankfully, Hike POS is the perfect solution to add, edit and delete products with its simple, yet intuitive design. Retailers enjoy a detailed view of their entire product catalogue, including functions to import, search & add products at their leisure.
There are two main options Hike provides retailers when adding a new product:
The distinction between the two are easy to identify as a product with variants will exist with multiple options such as size or color (i.e. T-Shirt/White/Large). A Standard product exists as a product on its own, with no other variants (i.e. a Handbag).
When creating a product, you’ll need to select which type of product you will be creating.
Important: Once you add a standard product to Hike, you cannot later add variants to that product. Find out how to add a product with variants here.
Before we look at how to how to create your own Products, let’s look at the Products section in Hike, summarizing the main points of interest for when you begin to add your first products.
To begin, select Products on the Hike menu and navigate to the Products screen.
This is where you’ll find all your created products, and where you’ll be able to add, edit or delete items, as per your requirements.
Used the FILTER search box, to find a product. You can search for products by their name, brand, product type, supplier, season or tag.
Select the +ADD PRODUCT button, to trigger a new dialog box to slide out, where you’ll be able to create a new Product.
The Products List View is in reference to the columns occupying this section. Below we’ll go through what each column means:
If you have uploaded an image of the product when you created it, the image will appear on the left of the product in the list view row.
The name of the item.
The Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) of the product. This is a unique identifier for the product that can be automatically generated by Hike.
The current stock count for that product.
How many variants exist of that product type.
Note: Only the parent product type will appear in the list view, and not every single variant.
Whether the product is currently active (able to be sold) or not.
When it comes to your products, Hike’s expansive POS system providers its users with a robust solution in which to insert their products in a complete and customizable fashion.
In this section, we’ll cover just how to create a new Standard Product in Hike, ensuring that you’re able to add existing or new products onto your sophisticated point-of-sale easily.
Important: Once you add a Standard Product to Hike, you cannot later add variants to that Product.
To begin, select Products on the Hike menu and navigate to the Products screen.
Click on the + ADD PRODUCT button to create a new item.
From here, let’s work through the various parts of the Product Page, starting from selecting the Product Type.
Fill out your product type field, by selecting one of the top options:
For a single product – i.e. handbag.
For a product with multiple variations – i.e. a shirt in small, medium or large sizes and in blue, yellow or green colours.
Note: If you have selected a Standard product, with no variants you will not be able to add variants later.
Note: Find out how to create a new product with variants
The Primary Information section is where you’ll create the name and descriptions of your new product.
Enter the name of your product. Note, this is the only mandatory field.
This is where users will enter their Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). If you do not have a SKU or one is not inserted, Hike will automatically create one for you.
If you upload data from spreadsheets or through our third-party integrations, Hike will use the SKUs from there as a reference, and update accordingly.
A field to enter the barcode number for the product. If no Barcode is entered, Hike will automatically create one for you. The barcode and SKU may be the same.
If you’ve got supplier codes, enter them here to make tracking your products via supplier, easier.
Use the custom field to label your products with your own in-house reference codes.
In the description text box, you can write a short summary of your product. This will be visible in Hike and through some third-party integrations.
The inventory field asks retailers whether they want Hike to track inventory movement for their newly created product.
If you don’t want to have inventory tracking on, click the OFF button.
If you do want to have inventory tracking, click the ON button.
This will open further options for you to manage your inventory stock.
Ticking this box will enable you to sell products, even if there is no stock of that product.
If you choose not to tick this box, Hike will prevent sales of this product from occurring when there is zero stock left.
The outlet of which inventory stock you are adjusting.
You can amend this field to show how much stock of this product your outlet is currently carrying.
Hike will display the current stock levels
By entering a value here, Hike will alert you when stock of this product falls tothis limit.
When re-ordering stock, you will be prompted on the Purchase order to buy the entered value of stock, if reorder point is reached.
Here you will adjust the pricing of your products.
The value entered here will be the tax-free cost of your product (used for reports & Purchase Orders).
This will display the percentage markup from cost (if the cost or tax rate is changed, this will be reflected in the mark-up % and final price).
This is the final purchase price and will not include tax if this option has previously been set in Store Setup > General.
Will display the default tax rate. Alternatively, choose from the tax rates you have created from the drop-down list.
This is the final retail price, and will include tax if this option has previously been set up.
To help you visualize your product on your Hike POS, you can add an image to your product. The image file needs to be in JPG/JPEG/PNG format, and with a maximum 1MB in size. This image may sync to connected third-party programs, but only one image is held by Hike.
The image will appear on the Enter sale screen, making it easier to find for you & your staff. Once you add an image, you can only replace it with another image or highlight color. You cannot delete the image, once you have added it in.
Alternatively, you can select a highlight color instead of an image. This may make it easier to color code, and help distinguish between products.
If no choice is made, the product will appear on the Enter sale screen with a grey highlight color.
Some retailers may not want certain products appearing on both point of sale and eCommerce channels. As a result, Hike lets retailers control who can see their products, with this easy function.
Tick this box to have your product appear in the Enter Sale screen, available to be sold. By unticking this box, the product will be hidden and will only be found in the Products section.
Visibility – If you have multiple outlets, choose which outlet will and will not see this product by clicking on the Visibility button. This will slide out a window, where you will see a list of all your outlets.
Tick this box to have your product also appear in your third-party online stores. Untick this box if you wish to hide it from your online eCommerce stores.
If the product already exists, Hike may not be able to hide it on the eCommerce sit. You may need to adjust it manually.
This is where you’ll be able to label your products, so that they will be easier to find.
Here you can group your products into types or even multiple product types. Simply enter the Product type name into the field, and click on + Add New when the field populates.
Alternatively, you can click on the field box and choose one of the existing product types that you have previously made.
Find out how to create, edit or delete Product Types, using the Product Types screen, accessed via the Hike Menu
Assign a product to the Supplier from which it was purchased from, by adding their name into the field. Simply enter the Supplier’s name into the field, and click on + Add New when the field populates.
Alternatively, you can click on the field box and choose one of the existing Suppliers that you have previously made.
Find out how to create, edit or delete Suppliers, using the Suppliers screen, accessed via the Hike Menu
If a product has a Brand in which you’d like to sort it by, you can do so here by adding its name into the field. Simply enter the Brand’s name into the field, and click on + Add New when the field populates.
Alternatively, you can click on the field box and choose one of the existing Brands that you have previously made.
Find out how to create, edit or delete Brand, using the Brands screen, accessed via the Hike Menu
You can assign a tag (or multiple) to a product, by adding one in the Tags field section. Simply enter the tags you want, into the field, and click on + Add New when the field populates.
Alternatively, you can click on the field box and choose one of the existing tags that you have previously made.
Find out how to create, edit or delete Tags, using the Tags screen, accessed via the Hike Menu
The season box is a custom field, that you retailers can use to further categorize their products.
You can override your standard loyalty rewards and specify more/less point for this product.
By adding optional extras, at the Enter Sale screen, when you choose the main product, a window will slide out, offering these optional extras. You can choose to close the window, they do not need to be added to the sale.
At the bottom of the screen are the CANCEL button and SAVE button
Click CANCEL button to delete everything. It cannot be recovered
Click SAVE button to create product. You can always return to edit the product at any time.
As you start selling products in Hike, you’ll undoubtedly come across times where you’ll need to edit or delete products. These can be easily done on Hike, and can be done directly using the Products page itself.
To begin, select Products on the Hike menu and navigate to the Products screen.
Select or search (using the FILTER search bar) the product you want to edit or delete.
Once you have selected the product and opened the screen, you’ll be able to EDIT the product as per your needs.
Note: You’ll be able to edit your stock counts and pricing from here as well.
When completed, click the SAVE button at the bottom of the page.
Following the same process as Editing a Product in Hike, deleting a Product requires the user to select a product and click on Delete Product.
A pop-up box will appear, asking you to confirm the deletion. Select Continue.
Product variants, refers to item modifiers or options, that gives you variations on your products, so that your customers have more options to choose from. Examples of such modifiers could include different colours, sizes and material, just to name a few.
Variants don’t have to be restricted to just clothing however, but could also be utilized by value numbers. For example, a café would have various options for its customers when ordering a coffee. As such you could label items, like sugar, with variants:
E.G. Ordering a Latte
By adding variants for milk, and numbered variants for sugar quantity, café store owners can customize variants to their specifications.
Any modifiers applied to items, will be displayed on your Hike Enter Sale Screen and on the customer’s receipts.
To begin, select Products on the Hike menu and navigate to the Products screen.
Next click on the + ADD PRODUCT icon to create a new item.
Fill out your product type field to create variants, by selecting:
From here, you will continue to build your product details through Product Name, SKUs, Images, Inventory & Tags. To see a detailed view of each of the sections on the Products page, see our section on creating a Standard Product in Hike.
To add variants however, you will need to fill out the Variants section. Click on +Add Variant to get started.
This will drag a new window into the screen where you will be able to choose the variant you want, by using the drop-down box, and add the options on the right. Each option should be separated by a space.
Click on ADD ANOTHER VARIANT to include another modifier for your product.
Once you have completed your variants, hit the SAVE button.
If you have activated the tracking inventory movement feature, you will be able to manage the stock and price levels for each product variant.
Note: If you wish to EDIT your Product Variants after you have created and saved your Product for the first time, this is where you will do it.
Edit the Cost Price and Retail Price in this section. You can use the Copy to All function, this option allows you to make changes to a first variant and copy the change to all variants. You can select exactly which change/s you want to copy and paste to other variants.
The selectable options include Retail ex. Tax price, Retail inc. tax price, tax value and stock (inventory)
To edit your Stock Levels, simply click on the + icon to open a new window, where you will be able to edit the inventory for all your outlets, as well as the Pricing.
Note: If you only have one outlet, you’ll be able to enter your current stock level in the Stock column. To edit the re-order points for your stock however, you’ll need to click on the Variant’s name.
Once you have finished adding your pricing and stock levels, as necessary, click on the SAVE button to complete your Product Variant.
Much like editing or deleting Standard Products without variants, there will times when you may have to delete specific variant products on Hike. This is easily done, and can be done directly using the Products page itself.
To begin, select Products on the Hike menu and navigate to the Products screen.
Select or search (using the FILTER search bar) the Product Variant you want to edit or delete.
From the Variants table, simply click on the Product Variant you want to Edit or Delete
This will slide open a new window, where you’ll be able to edit any of the product variant’s details.
Click on the SAVE icon at the top right once you have completed all your edited changes.
To delete the variant, click on the specific variant and click Delete This Variant, located at the bottom of the screen.
A pop-up box will appear, asking you to confirm the deletion. Select Continue.
That variant, will now be deleted from the system. You can of course, always add the variant again, or another, by clicking Add Variant.
Manually adding inventory to products in Hike, refers to users editing the stock levels of their created products, on the Products page in Hike itself.
We’ve previously covered how you can do that through our Editing & Deleting a Standard Product page, but to quickly summarize those steps:
Composite Products are a useful feature for businesses and customers, whereby two or more, different products, are bundled together to create one singular product bundle.
For example, to sell a Latte you need 1 shot of coffee, 1 dose of milk, 1 plastic cup and a straw. When a single cup of latte is sold, the number of inventory for coffee, milk, plastic cup and straw will be deducted altogether. Before creating the composite products, please make sure you have created all the component products that will be included in the bundle.
To begin, select Products on the Hike menu and navigate to the Products screen.
Next click on the + ADD PRODUCT icon to create a new item.
Fill out your product type field to create a composite, by selecting:
To create a composite product however, you will need to select items from existing products to be used as components. Click on the Search for Product drop-down box and type in the product name to get started. Please note, only simple and variant products can be added. As of now, unit of measure is not supported to be added into a composite product.
Hike now allows you to convert a composite product created as a discount offer into a composite product, To do so, select Products on the Hike menu and navigate to the Discount Offers screen.