METRO Markets: marketplace guide
About this guide
This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Dusseldorf-based marketplace METRO Markets. Here you can find information on how to request a METRO Markets account, how to configure this marketplace on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.
Table of contents
Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions
Commercial information
Founded | 2018 |
Headquarters | Düsseldorf, Germany |
Area served (orders) | France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain |
Area served (shipments) | France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain |
Revenue | circa USD 32 billion (2022) |
Number of monthly visits | circa 3 million |
Website | METRO Markets |
Setup cost | none |
Commission | 7%-15% (excl. VAT), depending on the category |
Other costs | EUR 49.00 |
Payment | weekly, though 25 calendar days after the customer has received the goods |
Product categories | cameras, auto/motorcycle parts, cooking, DIY/gardening, electronics, furniture/interior design, healthcare, household appliances |
Input language | Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish |
Input currency | EUR |
Content creation | yes |
Minimum number of SKUs | no |
Advertisement options | no |
Profile on ChannelEngine | METRO Markets |
How to request an account
Go to METRO Markets' Seller Office, read the information, and fill out the form.
Associated costs
METRO Markets does not charge a setup fee. However, it does charge a monthly fee of EUR 49.00 as well as a commission fee that varies between 7% and 15%, depending on the product category.
Marketplace features
Supported | Not supported |
Product content | Marketplace fulfillment services |
Product offers | Multiple stock locations |
Orders |
Split orders |
Cancelations | Refurbished products |
Shipments | Repricing |
Returns | Sales channels* |
GTIN matching | Product variations |
HTML formatting |
* 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.
Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions
Settings and configuration
Setting up each marketplace on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, though not every marketplace includes the steps listed below.
- Go through the Setup.
- Create a Product selection.
- Complete the Categorization.
- Set up the Mappings: content, offers, and carriers.
- Configure the Pricing: rules and currency conversion.
- Finish the Activation.
- Check the Listed products overview.
Setup
On METRO Markets
- Log in to METRO Markets' Seller Office.
- Go to Account settings, My account and open the API keys tab.
- Click the Generate API keys button and copy your Client key and Client secret.
On ChannelEngine
- Go to the Setup page of your METRO Markets marketplace.
- Enter your Client key and Client secret under the Connection section.
- Click Save.
Advanced settings
- Use shipping groups - enable it to use shipping groups on METRO Markets. For more information, check out the What are shipping groups? section of METRO Markets' API developer portal. To enable this setting, you must create at least one shipping group name in the METRO Markets back-end. This setting works together with the Shipping group name attribute on ChannelEngine.
- Upload invoice after shipments - if enabled, ChannelEngine automatically generates and submits invoices regarding shipped orders to METRO Markets.
Categorization
Categorization on METRO Markets is straightforward, and all categories are listed in English. However, you may encounter some country-specific categories and/or attributes.
Mappings
Content
All products (required)
- Description [country] - the product's description. The maximum number of characters is 4,000, and the following HTML tags are supported: p, ul, ol, li, span, br and b.
-
Image 1 - the product's main image. The requirements are:
- File formats - JPG, PNG.
- The image link should be a public URL, and URLs from popular cloud storage services (e.g.: Dropbox, Google Drive) are not supported.
- URLs must include https.
- Manufacturer - the product's maker or manufacturer. The maximum number of characters is 100.
-
Product name [country] - the product's title. The maximum number of characters is 150, and HTML is not supported. The guidelines are:
- Make it a short, concise title that contains the most important information.
- Pay attention to correct capitalization.
- Product titles are presented in German, with the only exception being proper nouns.
- The recommended structure is [manufacturer] [product type] [series] [other specifications] [MPN].
All products (optional)
- Brand - the product's brand.
- Image 2-8 - the product's additional images. For the requirements, see Image 1.
-
Key feature [country] 1-5 - a summary of the product's description, as short and descriptive as possible. Note that these are not used as keywords, so they should be written as sentences. The maximum number of characters is 200. E.g.:
- Intuitive operation, thanks to illuminated buttons and rotary knob.
- Make four coffees at the touch of a button.
- Removable, low-maintenance brewing section.
- Oat milk frothing pipe.
Offer
Required
- Origin - the country where the product is dispatched from (i.e.: the location of the warehouse). E.g.: DE_MAIN, IT_MAIN, etc.
- Price - the product's price, excluding VAT. If your prices include VAT, make sure to map the attribute VAT % so ChannelEngine can recalculate and submit the correct prices to METRO Markets.
- Processing time max. - the maximum number of days for the product to be delivered to the buyer.
- Processing time min. - the minimum number of days for the product to be delivered to the buyer.
Optional
- B2B/B2C only - indicate if the product is available only for B2B, only for B2C, or both. The default is both.
- Freight forwarding - indicate if the shipment cannot be delivered via ordinary delivery services, due to the package being oversized or overweight – which increases the shipping costs to the customer.
- Shipping cost - the cost to ship the product, excluding VAT. If your shipping costs include VAT, make sure to map the attribute VAT % so ChannelEngine can recalculate and submit the correct shipping costs to METRO Markets.
- Shipping group name - the shipping group associated with the product. For more information, refer to the related Use shipping groups setting under the Advanced settings section of this guide.
- VAT % - the product's VAT percentage. If this attribute is not mapped, ChannelEngine assumes that your prices do not include VAT – and submits them as they are to METRO Markets. The same applies to the Shipping cost attribute.
- Volume price 1-3 - the price paid by the buyer when they purchase the quantity indicated in the related Volume quantity attribute.
- Volume quantity 1-3 - the quantity the buyer needs to purchase to pay the price indicated in the related Volume price attribute.
Carrier
Carrier mapping is not required on METRO Markets. However, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by METRO Markets. This allows for working tracking codes in the back-end, as well as for the buyer. If your default carrier is missing, contact METRO Markets.
Note that if you select Unknown as the carrier, you still need to provide a working tracking code.
Pricing
METRO Markets requires prices to be submitted in euros. If you do not have pricing attributes in euros, you must set a currency conversion.
Listed products
METRO Markets provides feedback via its API, so you can refer to the Listed products page to check the status of your products and troubleshoot any errors that pop up.
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
Keys | Description |
CommercialOrderNumber |
The order number received by the buyer. E.g.: OR-034-895103. |
PaymentAccountHolder |
The name of the buyer's account holder. E.g.: RatePAY GmbH. |
PaymentAccountBank |
The buyer's bank. E.g.: Commerzbank AG Berlin. |
PaymentAccountBic |
The buyer's bank identifier code (BIC). E.g.: COBADEBBXXX. |
PaymentAccountIban |
The buyer's international bank account number (IBAN). E.g.: DE50100400000201630100. |
AccountType |
The type of buyer. E.g.: consumer. |
eInvoice |
E.g.: ABC123 buyer@protonmail.ch. |
SalesChannelPlatform |
The platform where the order was made. E.g.: mobile, website. |
SalesChannelMarketplace |
The sales channel where the order was made. E.g.: makro.es. |
PromoDiscountCode #{x} |
The discount code used by the buyer. E.g.: code2021. |
PromoDiscountType #{x} |
The discount type used by the buyer. E.g.: fixed. |
PromoPercentage #{x} |
The value of the discount as a percentage. E.g.: 20. |
PromoMoneyValue #{x} |
The value of the discount in euros. E.g.: 19.99. |
ShippingGroupInfo #{x} |
E.g.: PARCEL MM 8931a22f-37af-45d7-9782-0a072e0aa4cd. |
Order line extra data
Keys | Description |
OrderLineDiscount |
The value of the discount for a specific order line. E.g.: 5.75. |
OrderLineMarketplaceTax |
The tax amount for this order line, as reported by METRO Markets. E.g.: 2.48. |
OrderLineDocument #{x} |
A reference to whatever document is attached to the order line. E.g.: invoice https://www.metro-marketplace.de/invoice/78367631.pdf. |
OrderLineOrigin |
The origin of the order line. E.g.: DE_MAIN. |
* Conditional fields are only displayed if the marketplace provides a value.
FAQs
I have mapped all required attributes, but my offers are not exported to METRO Markets. What is wrong?
If the products are new to METRO Markets (i.e.: they have yet to be reviewed), the offer export fails. Once the products are reviewed and receive METRO identifiers (MIDs), the offer export should be successful. Note that the review process can take up to seven days.
How can I delete a product from METRO Markets?
To delete a product on METRO Markets, submit an offer update with stock equal to zero.
How often does each task run on METRO Markets?
Tasks run according to the following schedule on METRO Markets:
Task | Frequency |
Export product content to channel | every 60 minutes |
Export product offers to channel | every 15 minutes |
Import product offers from channel | every 15 minutes |
Import orders from channel | every 20 minutes |
Import returns from channel | every 30 minutes |
Export order shipments to channel | every 30 minutes |
Export returns to channel | every 30 minutes |
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