Overview

The Item Management page is your main hub for managing your store's product catalog in UltraCart. From this central location, you can view, search, organize, and modify your items. This page is essential for day-to-day product operations, whether you’re adjusting a price, uploading new inventory, or managing options.

You'll also find a suite of tools at the top of the page, allowing you to take action on multiple items at once—such as importing data, generating barcodes, creating kits, or deleting items. This guide walks you through each available feature to help you work more efficiently.

Core Concepts:

• Item: A single product you sell in your store.

• Item ID: A unique identifier assigned by you to each item (used internally and in links).

• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique code used to track inventory and sales.

• Folder: A way to group and organize items in your catalog.

Prerequisites:

• You must have an active UltraCart store.

• You must be logged into the UltraCart administrative dashboard.

Navigation

To view, add or edit your store items, log in to your account and navigate to:

Open

Understanding the Item List View

The Item List View displays your items with key details:

• Columns shown: Item ID, Description, Cost, and Actions

• Actions: Use the action icons to perform tasks such as editing, deleting, or copying items.

Open

The Item ID, item Title and Cost are entered when the item is created. The Action icons, when clicked, will take you to new screens with the appropriate information.

Items Section Screen

At the top of the page, you'll find a toolbar with icons for performing batch actions. These tools include:
Add, Import, Export, Add StoreWide Option, Generate Barcodes, Move, Copy, Search, Tools, and Delete.

Open

New Item

Use the Add icon to create new items, folders, or kits. If your catalog is empty, you'll see a prominent "Add Item or Kit" button.

To add a new product:

1. Click the Add (+) icon.

2. Select Add Item from the dropdown.

3. You’ll be taken to the Item Editor, where you must enter:

   • Item ID

   • Title (short description)

   • Cost

   • Weight

Open

Import Items

Clicking the Import icon will take you to the Item Import Wizard, a powerful tool for bulk creating or updating items in your store using a CSV file.

At a basic level, you can upload a simple spreadsheet containing just Item IDs and Prices—enough to create new items or update pricing. For more advanced needs, the wizard supports managing your full item catalog, including options, attributes, and other detailed configurations.

Open

Export Items

The batch item export utility allows you to quickly generate an Excel Spreadsheet or CSV file of all the information contained with your items that can be imported through the batch item import utility. A quick way to update a lot of information is to generate a spreadsheet with this utility, edit the spreadsheet, and then import the information back into UltraCart.

Open

Add Store Wide Option

You may have an option (such as Color) that applies to a large set of their inventory. To keep from having to define the same option repeatedly for each item, UltraCart supports the concept of store wide item options. Merchants define the option and associate it with multiple items.

Open

Create a Kit

You can convert items into kits by selecting one or more items and clicking the Convert to Kit icon. After selecting these items, you’ll be taken to an interface to add one item to each kit to start with and you can add additional items to the kit by editing the kit after it is created.

Open

Generate Barcodes

You can quickly generate and print barcodes for a group of items by selecting the items you’d like to generate barcodes for and hitting the generate barcodes icon.

Open

Moving Items

At times you may have the need to move your items from one folder to another. You can move multiple items at a time.  In the items list, click the check box to the left of each item you wish to move and then click on the Move icon at the top of the page.

Open

Next the "Item Move" screen will appear.

Open

All your folders will be listed in this screen. Click the radio button to the left of the folder you want to MOVE your item(s) to (New Folder in the above example). Then click on the "Move" button. You will be returned to the Item List.

Copying Items

It's sometimes easier to copy (duplicate) an Item rather than create a new one. After copying, you can change the attributes of the item in the Item Editor.
From the items list simply select the item you wish to copy and then click the Copy icon from menu.

Open

After clicking the "copy" icon. The following screen will appear.

Open

Because you cannot have two store items with the same Item ID, you will be asked to enter the new Item ID into the box. The screen shows the original Item ID to the left. If you want to create more than one copy, separate the new Item IDs with a comma.

If you’d like to include the reviews from the original item into each copy, simply select the “Copy Reviews” option.

Click on the "copy" button when finished. Your newly created (copied) items will now be displayed in the item list.

Item Search

If your account has numerous items, it can sometimes be difficult to locate them, especially if you've nested them into folders. The Item Management Item Search (the ‘Magnifying Glass’ icon in the menu in the upper right side of the Items list) feature turns that chore into a simple task. It will search all folders at all levels regardless of what level you are presently at.

To start the search, click on the "search" icon in the Items heading.

Open

This will bring up the following Item Search form.

Basic Search Form

Open

Item Search Form
The Item Search form under the "Item Management" area includes the following fields:

• Item Title: A text field to input the title of the item to search for.

• Item ID: A text field to enter the specific ID of the item.

• Folder: A text field that populates with the folder or sub-folder name once the search is initiated after navigating to a specific folder.

Advanced Item Search Form

Open

Advanced Search & Filtering Options section includes:

• Attribute Name: A text field to specify the name of an attribute to filter by.

• Attribute Value: A text field to enter the corresponding value for the selected attribute.

• Tag Type: A dropdown field to select the type of tag for filtering.

• Tag Value: A text field to input the value associated with the selected tag type.

• Price Range: Two text fields to define a minimum and maximum price range for filtering (e.g., "from" to "to").

• Include Inactive Items: A dropdown field to choose whether to include inactive items in the search results.

The form also features a "Clear" button to reset all fields and a "Search" button to execute the search.
You can search for items by Description, Item# (ID). Along with this criteria, you can specific a price with "less than" or "more than" parameters. You can specify how you want your items sorted; normal, by description, by item# or by price. Lastly, you can specify if the items are Inactive (yes or no). Once you have entered your search criteria, click on the "Start Search" button. If you want to clear the form to enter new search criteria, click on the "Clear Form" button.

Item Search Results Table

Open

The search results will display a table with Item Id, Price, Description, And Folder columns, which are sortable, by clicking on the ‘-' that appears to the right of the column name.
You can download the search results to spreadsheet by clicking the blue button 'Download Results Spreadsheet’ button at the top right of the search results table.

Hover Bar Search and Filtering
You can also search for a specific Item or Kit ID, Cost or description in the currently displayed item table by hovering over the light blue bar at the top of the table to activate the inline search.

Open

Open

Item Tools

The Tools section offers a set of utilities to simplify and speed up store management tasks like inventory updates, bulk item imports, barcode generation, and more. These tools are designed to save time, reduce manual work, and help keep your store data accurate and organized.

Open

Deleting Items

To delete one or more items from your store, navigate to the folder the items reside in. Click the checkbox to the left of each item desired and then click the "Delete" Icon.

Open

You can also delete items one at a time by using the Delete icon next to each item in the list.

You will be presented with the following confirmation dialog.

Open

Make certain the warning dialog says "Item(s)" not "Folder". Click the "OK" button to delete the item(s) or the Cancel button to abort the process.

Editing Items

All changes to a store item are done in the Item Editor. This is the same editor that you utilized when creating new items. There are several different ways to view an items detail in the Item Editor:

1. click on an Item ID link from the Item list or search results screen.

Open

Item Buy and Reviews Links

When your customer wants to buy a product from your online store, they typically navigate your website to find the item they wish to buy. If your website is hosted externally to the UltraCart platform, you will use Buy Links to get products from your external site into your UltraCart checkout (also known as the shopping cart).

Buy Links offer a straightforward method for your customers to add products from an external site directly into their UltraCart shopping cart. UltraCart automatically generates a Buy Link for each item you add to the system. When a customer clicks this link on your external website, the corresponding product is added to a shopping cart session within UltraCart.

On the Item Management page, you will see a list of your created items. Next to each item is a set of action icons.  

Open

Clicking on the Links icon for a specific product will direct you to the Buy Links page for that item

A "Buy Link" is essentially an HTML snippet designed to be embedded on your web page, often alongside an "Add to Cart" button graphic. This HTML snippet contains the necessary code to ensure that when clicked, the correct item and its associated attributes are added to the shopping cart.  

Buy Links

When customers browse your web site (store) and find an item to purchase, they generally click on a button that will place the item into a shopping cart for checkout.
Some buy button examples are shown below.

Open

A "Buy Link" is the HTML code (snippet) that is inserted onto your web page along with the button graphic. This HTML snippet contains the code that insures the appropriate item and its attributes are placed into the shopping cart (when clicked on).

Elements of a Buy Link

Below is an example snippet of html code for a buy link.

<A HREF="http://secure.ultracart.com/cgi-bin/UCEditor?MERCHANTID=DEMO&ADD=DOGBONE">Buy Now</A>

There are three key elements within any buy link, shown above.

• The first element is your StoreFront URL. In this example, the StoreFront URL is secure.ultracart.com. Replace this with your StoreFront url.

• The second element is the Merchant ID. In this example, the merchant ID is DEMO. Replace the merchant ID with your merchant ID (chosen during signup).

• The third element is the Item ID. Each store item has a unique item ID associated with it. The item ID is included in the link's target. In the example, replace DOGBONE with your products item ID.

Buy and View Cart Link

Open

You or your web designer can copy all the text within the red box and paste it into your web page. With just a little editing it can be turned into the appropriate and complete HTML code.

Advanced Buy Links

Within the Item Links / Buy Links page, there is also a section dedicated to Advanced Buy Links. This section allows you to include additional parameters in the buy link. For instance, you can add a coupon code so that it is automatically applied when the customer clicks the link. Including a coupon in the link will automatically add that coupon to the customer's cart.  

While a basic buy link is simple (containing only the merchant ID and item ID), the advanced buy link builder allows you to configure many more options and generates the appropriate link for you.

Open

As illustrated, by simply entering the desired coupon code into the field, the link builder automatically incorporates the correct code into the generated link. From here, you can copy and paste this link into the element on your website that you wish to link to the checkout.  

Getting all your buy links at once

Clicking on the links icon for each individual product to retrieve its buy link can be time-consuming, especially if you have a large number of items. To simplify this process, UltraCart provides a button at the bottom of the Item Links page that allows you to download all of the buy links for your current items at once.  

Open

Review Links

If you want to embed reviews on your site you can do this by using the review display script snippet or including an easy link over to the review:

Open

Inventory History Link

This feature applies only to those merchants that have the Track Inventory enabled at each item level (see page ). It basically provides an accountability method to show when, how much, and who adjusted the inventory level of a particular store item.

Adjustments to any item's inventory will be logged along with the date and time of the occurrence, adjustment amount, total (inventory count) and Reason (by whom). This activity can be viewed by merchants at the Item Level.

Open

Navigate within the Item List to locate the item you want to view. Click on the "view" link (the watch icon) under the Action column in the row of the item desired (bordered in red box above). The Inventory History screen will appear.

Open

Merchants Using Frames

UltraCart will work effectively with web sites that use frames, but there are some additional configuration requirements to ensure a consistent customer experience.
When the customer clicks the buy link on the merchant's web site their shopping cart displays inside the frame. In order for the secure checkout to take place without showing the customer a warning message, the system must stop using frames. This presents a problem because UltraCart by default returns them to the page that they clicked the buy link on once they've completed the order. This happens to be the contents of the frame instead of the parent URL of the frame.
There are two additional parameters to the buy link that determine where the UltraCart will take the user to:

• OVERRIDECONTINUESHOPPINGURL - determines where the user will be taken to when they click the continue shopping button after viewing their shopping cart.

• OVERRIDECATALOGURL - determines where the user goes after they view their invoice at the end of the checkout process.

Below is an example of a buy link that uses the override parameters (there should be no line break after the merchant ID in the actual html code):

Place the OVERRIDECATALOGURL and OVERRIDECATALOG parameters in the middle of the link so that only the end of the URL changes for each item.

FAQ

How can I exclude inactive items from my search results?

When using the Advanced Item Search Form within Item Management, set the Include Inactive Items filter to No.
This ensures that only active items appear in your search results, helping you quickly locate items currently available for sale.

Tip: The Include Inactive Items filter is located in the Advanced Search & Filtering Options section. Choosing “Yes” will include both active and inactive items, while “No” will limit results to active ones only.

How do I mark an item as inactive?

To set an item as inactive:

1. Navigate to Items → Item Management.

2. Open the item in the Item Editor.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the Item Tab.

4. Locate the Inactive checkbox under the Advanced Checkbox Settings section.

5. Check this box to deactivate the item, then click Save.

Inactive items will no longer appear in your StoreFront, but they will remain available in your administrative tools for reporting or reactivation.

Can I deactivate multiple items at once?

Yes. Use the Batch Item Updates tool to efficiently toggle the Active/Inactive status for multiple items:

1. Navigate to Items → Tools → Batch Item Updates.

2. Select the “Active” column from the available fields.

3. Apply the update to switch the desired items to inactive.

Tip: Batch updates are ideal for managing seasonal or discontinued products in bulk without editing each item individually.

What happens to inactive items in StoreFronts or Buy Links?

Inactive items:

• Will not appear in StoreFront product listings or search results.

• Cannot be added to the cart via Buy Links.

• Remain visible in the admin interface for reporting and editing.

Note: If you reactivate an item, it will immediately become available again for StoreFront display and purchase.

In the XML postback, each item has a field called item_reference_oid. Can you describe this data? Is it unique for each item in the order? Is it unique to the item across all orders?

The item_reference_oid in the XML postback is a read-only field that references UltraCart's internal object identifier (merchant_item_oid) for an item. This field is not intended for use as a unique identifier by merchants. Use merchant_item_id instead.

• Uniqueness: The item_reference_oid is tied to the merchant_item_oid, which is unique to each item in your UltraCart catalog across all orders. It does not vary per order; it remains consistent for the same item across different orders.

• Recommended Practice: Merchants should use the merchant_item_id field as the unique identifier for items. The merchant_item_id is designed for merchant-facing identification and is more suitable for tracking and managing items in your workflows.

• Limited Use: The item_reference_oid is primarily used internally by UltraCart, such as in specific API calls like ItemApi.updateItem(). For most purposes, you should rely on merchant_item_id instead.

Related Documentation

• Item Editor

• Batch Item Import

• Batch Item Export

• Item Tools

• Using buy links

• Parameters that can be passed to UCEditor

• Advanced Links - JavaScript