The manual does not appear to explain.
On add/edit product:
What is the difference between 'Make this Product available for sales' & 'Approved'?
The reason to do this for the first is obvious but what is the implication of checking NO for the second?

just tried - same effect - both hide it from visitors... Actually would be much more useful if one would hide, while the other one - put a message like "currently not available", but show the product...

Hello,
 
The purpose of the "Approved" button is to allow a site administrator to approve or not approve products posted on his site by the merchants. When a product is added by a merchant it is automatically added with "Non approved" status. As a site owner you can review product(s) and decide whether to approve it(them) or not.
 
The option "Make this Product available for sales" permits to choose whether to show your product on your site.
 
With kind regards,
ViArt Support Team
 
 
 

... but there must be a functional reason to have both these options?

Thanks Viart - I think we were both posting at the same time.
That all makes sense - just could not find an explanation in the manual.