Shop-Apotheke: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Venlo-based marketplace Shop-Apotheke. Here you can find information on how to request a Shop-Apotheke 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
• Pricing
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

Commercial information

Founded	2001
Founder	Stefan Feltens
Headquarters	Limburg, the Netherlands
Area served (orders)	Germany, Austria
Revenue	1.0B USD
Number of monthly visits	48.4K
Website	www.shop-apotheke.com
Setup cost	none
Commission	to be discussed upon registration
Other costs	39.00 EUR
Payment	to be discussed upon registration
Product categories	books, electronics, erotic products, food, healthcare, household appliances, kids/babies, pets, sports equipment, optics.
Input language	German
Input currency	EUR
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	yes, via banner placement and sponsored listings.
Profile on ChannelEngine	[marketplace name]

How to request an account

To start selling on Shop Apotheke, create an inbound request via Mirakl Connect, or contact the marketplace via email. Note that Shop-Apotheke does not support sales channels, therefore, a new contract must be signed for each additional country or region you intend to operate in. 

Shop Apotheke may request that you send your product feed to them upfront for review by their onboarding team before your shop can be set up. To generate a product feed URL, go to the Product selection page and create a selection of products you want to offer on Shop-Apotheke. More information can be found in the article ChannelEngine: product selection. 

Associated costs

Shop-Apotheke does not charge a setup fee, but there is a monthly fixed cost of 39.00 EUR per month. In addition, there is a category-based commission charged at a rate to be discussed with the marketplace upon registering as a seller. 

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product content	Automatic relationships
Product offers	Bundles
Cancelations (merchant)	Product variations (size/color)
Returns (merchant)	Refurbished products
Carrier mapping	Repricing
Marketplace fulfillment service	Cancelations (marketplace)
HTML formatting	Returns (marketplace)
Multiple stock locations	Shipments
Orders	Sales channels*

* 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.

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

Shop-Apotheke 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 Shop-Apotheke is straightforward, and all categories are listed in German. 

Mappings

Attributes in Shop-Apotheke are listed in German. 

Content

All products (required)

• Einheit (Unit) - the unit of measurement, selected from a list of fixed values. E.g.: g, l, ml. 
• Hauptbild (Main image) - the product's primary image. The requirements are:
  • Background - white
  • File format - JPD, PNG, WEBP
  • Resolution - 1,000x1,000 px
  • Minimum resolution - 450x450 px
  • Recommended resolution - 1,000x1,000 px
  • Maximum size - 5 MB
  • Format - square
• Langbeschreibung HTML (Long description) - the product's main description, listing all relevant key features. Simple HTML tags are supported, such as p, br, strong, ul, ol, em, and table.
• Marke (Brand) - the brand of the product. 
• Menge (Quantity) - the number of products in the retail unit. A maximum of three numbers can be displayed, separated by an 'x' – decimal numbers must be separated by a comma (,).
• Product-ID/Shop SKU- the merchant's unique identifier or SKU for the product. On ChannelEngine, this is usually your Merchant product number. The maximum number of characters is 40.
• Produktname Shop (Product name store) - the product's title. The maximum number of characters allowed is 100, and HTML tags are not supported. Quantities are also not allowed.

All products (optional)

• Anwendung (Application) - instructions on how to use the product. E.g.: Apply it every morning to your face, after rinsing it with cold water.
• Bild 2 -6 (Images 2-6) - additional images for the product, following the requirements stated for Hauptbild (Main image). 
• Darreichungsform (Dosage) - the pharmaceutical dosage or product type. E.g.: lotion.
• EAN - the 14-digit EAN/GTIN. The main product identifier used by Shop-Apotheke. 
• Eigenschaften (Characteristics) - any additional properties of the product. E.g.: lactose-free, vegan, fair trade, etc.
• FAM-ID/Gruppencode (Group code) - used to create product variations. The same grouping code should apply to all child products within the same product range. 
• Farbnummer [hexadezimal] (Color number [hexadecimal]) - the main color of the product in hexadecimal format. E.g.: 233D1D.
• Hersteller (Manufacturer) - the product's manufacturer name. E.g.: NAÏF CARE B.V.
• Kurzbeschreibung (Brief description) - a short description of the product. The maximum number of characters allowed is 120, and HTML tags are not supported.
• Produktgewicht inkl. Verpackung (Product weight incl. packaging) - the total weight of the product in grams. E.g.: 300.
• PZN (AT/DE) - or Pharmazentralnummer, only relevant for pharmaceutical products. E.g.: BE04173357.
• USP/Key facts - keywords related to the product's usage and main features. Simple HTML tags are supported, such as p, br, strong, ul, ol, em, and table.
• Verpackungsmaß (Packaging size) - the size of the packaging in cm. E.g.: 140x140x45.

Offer

All products

There is only one required offer attribute for Shop-Apotheke, other than price:

• Produktsteuer (VAT) - the VAT rate that applies to the product. E.g.: 10, 13, 19, 20, 21, 7. 

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
klein	small (standard)
mittel	medium
groß	large
extragroß	extra large

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 mandatory on Shop-Apotheke, but it is required that you provide a tracking URL and tracking code for all orders. You can map your carrier to allow for working tracking links in the back-end, as well as for the buyer. If your default carrier is missing, contact Shop-Apotheke.

Pricing

While multiple currencies are available in offer mapping, Shop-Apotheke currently only accepts prices in  euros. Note that tax rates per product must be defined by providing a value for the mandatory content offer attribute Produktsteuer (VAT). 

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

There is no extra data contained in orders or order lines for Shop-Apotheke. 

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