Trendy Foods: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Petit-Rechain-based marketplace Trendy Foods. Here you can find information on how to request a Trendy Foods account, how to configure this marketplace on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.

Table of contents

Commercial information

How to request an account

Associated costs

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

Commercial information

Founded	1970
CEO	Francis Plunus
Headquarters	Petit Rechain, Belgium
Area served (orders)	Belgium
Revenue	EUR 8.7 million (2021)
Number of monthly visits	circa 90,000
Website	Trendy Foods
Setup cost	none
Commission	8-15%
Other costs	see the Associated costs section
Payment	on the 10th, 20th, and 30th of every month
Product categories	books, erotic products, food, games/toys, healthcare, pets, office supplies/professional equipment, telecommunications equipment, video games
Input language	Dutch, French
Input currency	EUR
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	yes (banners, folders, newsletters, etc.)
Profile on ChannelEngine	Trendy Foods

How to request an account

To start selling on Trendy Foods, fill out the registration form on their website. There are few requirements to become a seller on Trendy Foods, other than having a targeted product range and competitive pricing. 

Associated costs

Trendy Foods does not charge a setup fee, but there is a monthly fixed fee of EUR 40.00 that is waived in the event that no products were sold during that period. In addition to the monthly fee, Trendy Foods charges a commission on products you sell at a rate between 8-15%, based on the product category.

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Orders	Automatic relationships
Product content	Bundles
Product offers	Product variations (size/color)**
Cancelations (merchant)	Carrier mapping
Returns (merchant)	Refurbished products
Returns (marketplace)	HTML formatting
Shipments	Repricing
Multiple stock locations	Pick-up point delivery
GTIN matching	Sales channels*
	Custom refund reasons
	Marketplace fulfillment service
	Cancelations (marketplace)

* A marketplace that supports sales channels allows merchants to list and sell products across multiple markets (e.g.: countries, regions, and states), all from the same connection. Trendy Foods does not support sales channels as the marketplace is only available in Belgium. 

** Trendy Foods does not support parent-child relationships for product variations. 

Settings and configuration

Setting up each marketplace on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, once you add the marketplace:

1. Go through the Setup.
2. Create a Product selection.
3. Complete the Categorization.
4. Set up the Mappings: content, offers, and carriers.
5. Configure the Pricing: rules and currency conversion.
6. Finish the Activation.
7. Check the Listed products overview.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

Trendy Foods is a Mirakl-based marketplace, so you can connect it with ChannelEngine using a Mirakl Connect SSO account. For more information on this, check out the Mirakl-based channels: SSO authorization article.

Invoice uploads

To configure your invoice settings, click Advanced settings. You can then click the dropdown menu Enable invoice uploading, which contains the following options:

• ChannelEngine invoices - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, it automatically generates an invoice and attaches it to the shipment before exporting it.
• Merchant invoices (optional) - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, it exports it – even if there is no invoice attached to it.
• Merchant invoices (required) - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, it only exports it if an invoice is attached to it. If not, you receive a notification.
• None - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, it takes no action other than notifying you that no invoice is present.

If you select one of the Merchant invoices options, make sure to enable the invoice upload to ChannelEngine via the Merchant API. For that, call the POST /v2/orders/{merchantOrderNo}/invoice endpoint. Note that only invoices in PDF are supported.

Invalid XML characters

To remove invalid XML characters from your product data, click Advanced settings and enable the Check and filter invalid XML characters setting. ChannelEngine checks product data submitted in the XML format for invalid characters (e.g.: Ã, ¢, â, etc.). Once identified, invalid characters are removed or converted to a valid equivalent.

Categorization

Categorization on Trendy Foods is straightforward, and all categories are provided in English. 

Mappings

Content

All attribute values must be provided in either Dutch or French. Trendy Foods does not support product variations, therefore attributes such as size and color can be specified in the product title and in the product long description. 

All products (required)

• Brand - the brand name selected from a set of fixed values. If your product's brand name does not appear, contact Trendy Foods to add it to the list. 
• Dutch/French product title - the product name in Dutch or French. The product name must be between 10-200 characters in length, and can contain information about the color or size. 
• EAN - the 13-digit GTIN for the product, which serves as the main product identifier on Trendy Foods. 
• Packaging language - the language displayed on the product's packaging. E.g.: Dutch, French, or bilingual. 
• Product image 1 - the main product image URL. Image requirements:
  • Format - JPG, PNG
  • Resolution - 1,024x1,024 px
  • Background - white
• Shop SKU - the product's internal unique identifier, usually the Merchant product number on ChannelEngine.
• Unit variable cost (UVC) - the number of products in a carton. 

All products (optional)

• Display - whether the products are in display format, e.g.: yes/no. 
• Dutch/French product description - the long description of the product, in either Dutch or French. You should include all additional information that is relevant to the product in this description, such as color, weight, dimensions, or other specifications. 
• EAN carton - the EAN number specific to the package containing the units. 
• Layer per pallet - the number of layers per shipping pallet. E.g.: 8. 
• License - indicate via yes or no if the product is associated with a registered trademark or license. E.g.: Bret's. 
• Packaging/condition - the type of packaging of the product, selected from a range of fixed values. E.g.: drum, box, canister, etc. 
• Pallet - the number of products contained in a shipping pallet. E.g.: 108. 
• Product images 2-4 - additional product images to support the main image. For the image requirements, refer to Product image 1.
• Product origin - the location where the product was manufactured or produced. 
• Product unit weight - the weight of the individual product units in grams. E.g.: 250.
• Themes - the theme of the product, which is an additional category on Trendy Foods. E.g.: salty drinks, gluten-free, trendy bakery, etc. 
• Unit product liter - the measurement of the individual product unit in milliliters. E.g.: 330.

Offer

The only mandatory offer mapping is Price. This is your desired sale price, after (re)price rules are applied.

The following offer attributes are common to some Mirakl-based marketplaces, particularly in France and Germany:

• ECO #1-5 - Amount - the amount due for the eco-contribution related to the product. E.g.: 2.50.
• ECO #1-5 - EPR category code - the extended producer responsibility (EPR) code that applies to the product. For a list of category codes, check out the article Providing data to comply with circular economy regulations in Mirakl's help center (note that you need to be logged in to Mirakl to access this page). E.g.: DE-WEEE, FR-DEA, etc. 
• ECO #1-5 - Producer ID - your producer ID, received upon registering with a packaging register, such as Germany's LUCID. The maximum number of characters is 255.

The following offer attributes are common to Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• Leadtime to shipment - the number of days before you ship the product. By default, this is set to two. You can create your own unique rules, if applicable.
• Minimum quantity alert - map this attribute to receive a notification from ChannelEngine if your stock drops below the threshold defined.
• Offer state - the product's condition. Find your option from the dropdown menu by selecting the fixed value to apply to all.
• Product tax code - the taxation code applicable to the product.
• Logistic class - your optional shipping class. Make sure to map it using the marketplace’s codes, not the labels visible in the front-end. These codes vary per marketplace. Below you can find the codes used by this marketplace:

Code	Label	Description
xs	Extra small	Longest side + shorter side = max. 35 cm. Between 0 and 2 kg.
s	Small	Longest side + shorter side = max. 50 cm. Between 2 and 5 kg.
m	Medium	Longest side + shorter side = max. 65 cm. Between 5 and 10 kg.
l	Large	Longest side + shorter side = max. 80 cm. Between 10 and 15 kg.
xl	Extra large	Max. circumference from 3 m, between 15 and 30 kg.
oversized	Oversized	Special format, up to 30 kg.

Working with discounts

• To set up a discount, you must map the Discount price, Discount start date, and Discount end date attributes. If you want to set a permanent discount, map the Discount end date attribute with a date in the far future instead of leaving it unmapped. Otherwise the offer is not exported, and errors are shown on the Validation and feedback tab.
• If your discounted price is not lower than the base price, it is not exported.
• If you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped – otherwise the export is broken.
• If you do want to set a bulk discount, the Discount quantity threshold must be set to a value higher than 1. E.g.: a value of 2 indicates that two or more of the product must be purchased at the same time for the buyer to benefit from the discount.

Carrier

Carrier mapping is not required on Trendy Foods. However, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by Trendy Foods. This allows for working tracking code links in the back-end, as well as for the buyer. If your default carrier is missing, please contact Trendy Foods.

• bpost
• DHL
• DPD
• GLS
• Mondial Relay
• PostNL
• UPS

Listed products

If you have problems with products not appearing on Mirakl-based marketplaces – especially if you are trying to create products – check the Listed products page for more information.

You can either filter on Channel status (select Invalid to show all products that ChannelEngine has not exported, such as products with an empty GTIN or that currently do not exist on the marketplace) or use the Validation and feedback tab to see all known errors for specific products.

For detailed status reports, go to the Mirakl back-end. Their reports contain specific errors if a product or product offer cannot be created. To find them, go to My inventory, Import from file, Track offer imports/Track product imports. By hovering over the 'i' under the Status section, you can see how many products in the file were processed correctly and how many had errors, etc.

If there are errors, the last column shows a downloadable file in which they are listed. The same goes for the product file import, but this can contain multiple files because processing goes through several systems. There is also a manual check of your submitted content, which, once approved, goes to staging as well. Note that you need to map as much as possible to prevent products from not being created.

Additional Information

Order extra data items

When an order is imported to ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine also fetches extra data items related to the order itself – or to order lines. This extra data is specific to this marketplace. An explanation of each can be found below: 

Order extra data

Key	Conditional	Description
creditnotenumber	Yes	The credit note unique reference number

FAQs

How often does each task run on Mirakl-based marketplaces?

By default, Mirakl-based marketplaces follow the schedule below:

Task	Frequency
Export product data to marketplace	every 60 minutes
Export product offers to marketplace	every 15 minutes
Import product offers from marketplace	every 15 minutes
Import orders from marketplace	every 15 minutes
Export order shipments to marketplace	every 15 minutes
Export returns to marketplace	every 30 minutes