Add your own products

To offer a new first- or third-party product on your marketplace, you must create a new product definition and integrate with the system that delivers the product services.

You can create a new product in the Staging catalog.

How a product is defined

There are many different aspects of each product that you must complete before you publish the final version. You can change many of them as you go. However some aspects of the product must be specified at creation, and you cannot change them later.

These are all aspects you should think about before you begin defining the product in the marketplace:

• Service type—Whether the product is a separate product (Standalone), or an accessory for another product (Add-on).
  If a product is an Add-on, the buyer must already have its supporting product in order to use it. For example, an Add-on could be reporting software that tracks the performance of its supporting product. For a more information, see Add products.
• Product type—The AppDirect platform is primarily intended to support digital products and services, particularly web applications and downloads. However, it does support some other types of products if you want to offer them on your marketplace.
• Usage model—Whether each instance of the product can be bought and used by a single user only (Single user), or multiple users can be given access to it based on a number of licenses (Multiple users).
  The usage model determines which marketplace users will be able to use the product. A Single user product is only available to users who have the permissions to purchase it for themselves, while a Multiple user product may be purchased by one user who then assigns it to others.
• Integration type—Whether the product listing will consist only of a link to a web site or download, or instead be fully integrated so it can be accessed on users' MyApps pages after it is bought on the marketplace.

If your product is only a listing, you do not have to integrate it with the marketplace. However, its sales won't be tracked or managed on the marketplace.

If your product is fully integrated, you can use all the powerful features of the marketplace to manage it and keep track of its sales. This requires more technical work, so you need to use AppDirect APIs to create a connector to manage communications between your marketplace and the product host. However, a product only has to be integrated once. When the integration is complete, the product can be sold on other marketplaces too.

Overview of steps

The main steps within the marketplace are:

1. Log in to the marketplace and navigate to the Staging catalog.
2. Create the initial product definition in the Staging catalog.
3. Go through the main tasks for creating a product:
   1. Create the marketing profile.
   2. Create the editions and pricing scheme.
   3. Complete the integration.
4. Test the integration.
5. When everything is confirmed, publish the product to the marketplace.

Steps 4 and 5 are only possible once the technical integration is complete.

Creating the initial definition

You can create a new product directly from the Staging catalog by clicking the Create Product button:

📝 Note: If the AppDirect logo appears in the upper-left corner of the page, when Manage > Marketplace appears in this topic, click the grid icon > Switch to | Store, instead.

1. Go to Manage > Marketplace > Products > CATALOG | Staging Catalog.
   The Staging catalog opens.
2. Click the Create Product button.
   The Create New Product page appears.
3. Specify a Product Name.
   This is the name that marketplace customers and Company Administrators see when they shop for, purchase, use, and manage the product. Note that this can be changed later, on the product's Listing Info page.
4. Select a Service Type (Standalone or Add-On).
5. Select a Product Type.
   The default product type is Web Application.
6. Select an Integration Type (Referral Only or Full Integration).
7. Select the Usage Model (Single user or Multiple users).
8. Select one of the Revenue Model options:
   • Free—Users don't have to pay for the product. It is free of charge.
   • One time—Users pay only once, up front.
   • Recurring—Users pay in regular installments, for example each month.
   • Tiered—Same as the Recurring model, but you can define different pricing plans. For example, you can charge one price for a monthly subscription and another price for an annual subscription.
     The Revenue Model can be changed as you develop the product. Also, it is possible to create different editions that use different pricing. For more information about these models, see the section on Revenue and Pricing.
9. Click Create Product.
   This redirects you to The Product Dashboard for the new product.

You can now work on the remaining parts of the product definition:

• Profile and branding
• Editions and pricing
• Integration