In this article, you will learn how to create a basic product in Akeneo using families and attributes. This will speed up the process of entering products, as the attributes defined in the family will automatically be available for the new product. The article only covers the key steps, and more in-depth instructions are available in separate articles that focus on, for example, creating attributes and managing category trees.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Log in to Akeneo

• Go to the Akeneo login page in a web browser and enter your username and password.
• Once you are logged in, you will see several menus on the left side of the dashboard.

2. Open the Products section and create a new product

1. Select Products at the top of the page.
2. Click the Create button.
3. Next, choose whether to create a Product or a Product Model . This article will cover the Product option.

3. Enter family and product code information

1. Select the appropriate family. If you haven't created a family yet, see "Creating a family" below and then return to creating a product.
2. Give the product code a unique name:
   • To ensure compatibility between different software, use Latin alphabets, numbers and underscores or hyphens, if possible. The most important thing is to try to standardize the spelling of codes across all different product data (categories, attributes, families, etc.).
   • Avoid spaces and special characters. For example, the letters ääkköset (å, ä, ö) are written without dots (a or o). Akeneo and AI Commerce support a wide range of special characters, but third-party systems may not. Therefore, we recommend caution to avoid surprises later in ERP changes or new integrations. 
      

4. (If necessary) Create a new family

If you don't have a family ready yet, you can create one as follows:

1. Open a new tab and go to Settings > Families .
2. Click Create family .
3. Give the family a code according to the same rules as the product code (lowercase letters, underscores instead of spaces).
4. Click Save to save the family.
5. Add at least a Finnish name for the family (for example, Computers or Handbags ).
6. On the Attributes tab, select which attributes the products in this family contain.
   • You can start by importing a default group by clicking Add attributes , searching for Default , and clicking Add .

5. Fill in the product details

1. Return to the Products section and start creating a product from scratch so that the new family appears in the selection list.
2. Select a family you created (or an existing one) as the basis for the product.
3. Enter the required attribute information in the product details. Some of the attributes may be pre-defined in AI Commerce for business logic, so it is not recommended to edit them.
4. If you wish, you can add your own attributes and attribute groups at a later stage, as described in other help articles.

6. Define category(ies)

1. Select the category to which the product belongs on the left side.
2. If a suitable category does not exist, you can first create a new category using the instructions in the separate help article (Category Tree Management).

7. Select channels and localizations

1. At the top or next to the product information, you will see a drop-down menu for different channels (e.g. online store, different marketplaces).
2. Select the desired channel and enter any channel-specific attribute information.
   • Some attributes are shared across all channels, while others are channel-specific (you can identify them by the channel name in the attribute).
3. If Akeneo is configured to use multiple languages (locales), you can change the language from the language menu at the top and fill in the product information for different languages.

8. Track Quality Score

• The quality score (A–E) and completion rate next to the product information indicate how well the required attributes have been completed.
• The more information you fill in, the better the quality scale will appear, which generally improves product discoverability and customer understanding in the online store.

Additional tip: AI Commerce attributes

• Do not modify pre-built AI Commerce attributes, as they may have business logic built into them.
• When you need more customized data fields, you can create your own attributes and groups according to the instructions discussed elsewhere.

Summary

Creating a basic product in Akeneo always starts with selecting (or creating) a family, then defining a product code and entering the necessary attribute information. By managing categories, channels and language versions, you can optimize your product’s visibility across multiple online stores or marketplaces. Mastering these basics will streamline your product submission to Akeneo while ensuring better product data quality.