Products are at the heart of everything you do on Catlog. Whether you sell food, fashion, or handmade crafts, your products are how customers discover and buy from you. This guide explains what products are, how they work, and how the different product features can help your business grow.
What Is a Product?
A product on Catlog represents any item you sell to customers. Once you add a product, it appears on your storefront for customers to browse and purchase. Products aren't just for your storefront, though — you can also use them when creating invoices, booking deliveries, or recording orders manually on the platform.
Imagine you run a fashion business. Every dress, handbag, or accessory you sell would be set up as a product on Catlog. When a customer visits your store, they see your products displayed beautifully — and with one tap, they can place an order.
The Building Blocks of a Product
When creating a product, there are a few essential details you'll need:
Name — What is this item called? Keep it clear and descriptive so customers know exactly what they're getting.
Price — How much does it cost? This is what customers will see and pay.
Cost price — If your account has bookkeeping enabled, you'll need to add the cost price of the item. This is what it costs you to produce or acquire the product, and it's used to calculate your profit. See the Bookkeeping guide for more on this.
Description — Tell customers about the product. What makes it special? What should they know before buying?
Images — Great photos sell products. You can upload multiple images to show your item from different angles.
Videos — You can also upload videos to bring your products to life. Show how a dress flows, how a gadget works, or how food is prepared. (Available on Business Plus plan and above.)
Product Options (Variants)
Many products don't come in just one version. A shoe might come in sizes 38–45. A phone case might come in ten different colours. A shirt might have different patterns. This is where product options come in.
Product options let you define the different variants of a product so customers can choose exactly what they want before buying. On Catlog, there are two types of options:
Custom options are text-based variants — things like size (Small, Medium, Large), storage capacity (128GB, 256GB), or color names (Blush Pink, Midnight Black). These work well for most products.
Image options are visual variants — instead of just listing "Floral Pattern" or "Striped Pattern", you upload actual images of each variant. When a customer is browsing, they can see exactly what each option looks like before choosing. You can even combine image options with custom options — for example, showing pictures of different shirt patterns and letting customers pick a size.
An important thing to understand: options are not add-ons. They're true variants. If a product has options, a customer must choose one before they can complete a purchase. Each variant behaves like its own product — with its own price, quantity, and availability.
Product Availability and Quantity
Controlling when and how customers can purchase your products is important — especially when you're managing stock. Catlog gives you two tools for this.
Availability toggle — This is a simple on/off switch. When a product is toggled off, it's hidden from your storefront, and customers can't buy it. Use this when you want to temporarily take something off sale without deleting it.
Product quantity — This controls how many units of a product are available. There are two ways to handle this:
Numeric quantity — Set a specific number. When stock runs out, the product is automatically marked as unavailable.
Always available — Mark the product as having infinite quantity. This is perfect for made-to-order items, food that's continuously prepared, or any product where stock is not a constraint. When a product is set to always available, all its variants are automatically treated the same way.
If you use variants and want to track quantity, each variant has its own quantity, and the product's overall availability is determined by the individual variants.
Organising Your Products
As your store grows, keeping your products organised helps customers find what they're looking for quickly. On Catlog, you can sort products on your storefront and arrange them in the order you want them to appear. You can also feature specific products to give them extra visibility.
Tiered Pricing (Wholesale Pricing)
If you sell to both retail and wholesale buyers — or if you want to reward customers who buy in bulk — tiered pricing is a powerful tool. You can set different price tiers based on quantity. For example, a customer who buys 1–4 units pays the regular price, but a customer who buys 5 or more gets a 5% discount, and someone buying 10 or more gets 10% off.
This makes it easy to serve different types of buyers without creating separate product listings or manually negotiating prices. (Tiered pricing is available on the Business Pro plan and above. See the Tiered Pricing guide for full details.)
How to Add Products to Catlog
There are several ways to get your products onto Catlog:
Manual creation — Type in all your product details yourself. Great for adding products one by one.
Bulk create — Add multiple products at once using the bulk creation interface, so you don't have to save and start over for each item.
Instagram import — Connect your Instagram page and import your posts directly. Catlog's AI will read your captions and automatically extract product names, prices, descriptions, and images. You just review and save. This is the fastest way to get started if you already have an active Instagram business page.
Spreadsheet import — If you have a product list in a spreadsheet, you can import it directly.
Third-party platforms — Already selling on Shopify, WooCommerce, or Bumpa? You can import your products from those platforms.
Menu import — For restaurants and food businesses, you can upload a photo of your menu, and Catlog will extract your items automatically.
Plan-Based Feature Summary
Feature | Plan Required |
Products & product options | Basic |
Product videos | Business Plus |
Tiered pricing | Business Pro |
Products are the foundation of your Catlog store. Getting them set up well — with clear names, great images, accurate prices, and the right options — makes everything else easier, from selling to fulfillment to bookkeeping.