Vendiro: overview of features with alternatives available on ChannelEngine

About this article

This article lists and describes the Vendiro features that are also available on ChannelEngine, but require a different approach. Features specific to a marketplace are listed as such, all other features should apply to two or more marketplaces.

Introduction

ChannelEngine and Vendiro provide different solutions to merchants facing the same problem: how to sell efficiently across multiple marketplaces. While Vendiro offers a simpler interface – though less customizable –, ChannelEngine's offer is more complex – but with plenty of room for customization.

Keep this in mind while you go through the feature breakdown in this article.

Table of contents

Amazon: business orders

Avoid cancelation

Carrier mapping

Shipping templates

Cdiscount: administration costs

Delivery promise

SKUs: fulfillment by marketplace/merchant

Sales tax/VAT invoices

New order alert

Product content

Rejected cancelations and refunds

Sales tax/VAT collected by the marketplace

Shipping services

Amazon: business orders

Amazon Business provides you with the tools you need to sell to companies and organizations. Both ChannelEngine and Vendiro support Amazon Business, but they do so differently.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, Amazon Business is set up as a separate marketplace. The B2B price is configured on this channel, while the B2C price is listed on the main Amazon channel. 

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, the B2B and B2C aspects are integrated under a single connection with Amazon. To enable Amazon Business, you need to configure two attributes on the Offer mappings tab of the Mappings page:

• Business price - the price for business customers. Note that the Business price must be lower than the regular price.
• List products on - define your target audience. The options are B2B, B2C, and both.

For more information on setting up Amazon Business and managing business orders, check out the article Amazon: marketplace guide.

Avoid cancelation

Certain marketplaces, such as bol.com, have strict fulfillment policies, automatically canceling orders once a certain number of days after the expected delivery date have passed. Both Vendiro and ChannelEngine have notification mechanisms to notify you of orders approaching their expiration date, but with different approaches.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, you can access an overview of overdue orders under Orders, Avoid cancelation. Once a day, Vendiro automatically sends an alert containing all orders at risk of cancelation by bol.com. No additional configuration is needed.

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, you need to configure the Notify of overdue orders after x hours setting to start receiving notifications of overdue shipments. However, this is only available on bol. To set it up:

1. Go to the Setup page of your bol marketplace on ChannelEngine and configure the Notify overdue orders after x hours setting.
   • To receive a notification before the order becomes overdue, enter a negative value. E.g.: -2, so you are notified two hours before.
   • To receive a notification after the order becomes overdue, enter a positive value. E.g.: 1, so you are notified one hour later.
2. Click your username in the top-right corner of the ChannelEngine interface. Then go to Account settings, Notification settings and enable the Orders overdue notification accordingly.
3. Click Update to save the settings.

Cdiscount: administration costs

French marketplace Cdiscount offers a multitude of options to buyers, both in terms of shipments and payment methods. ChannelEngine and Vendiro have different ways to allow merchants to keep track of the transaction costs related to payment methods, such as credit cards and multiple installments.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, Cdiscount's frais de traitement (processing fees) and INTERETBCA are handled as separate order lines. Apart from enabling support for alternative payment methods in the Cdiscount back-end, no action is required.

ChannelEngine

Although ChannelEngine also lists transaction costs as separate order lines, setting them up requires the creation of dedicated, non-sellable SKUs. This was done to facilitate the processing of these costs by your merchant system (e.g.: ERP, OMS, webstore, etc.).

For more information on how to set up the frais de traitement and INTERETBCA fees on ChannelEngine, check out the article Cdiscount: frequently asked questions.

Carrier mapping

Carrier mapping is often necessary to align your carriers with the carriers supported by a marketplace, which may be spelled differently, have subdivisions (e.g.: Hermes and Hermes UK), or have completely different names (e.g.: TNT and PostNL). ChannelEngine and Vendiro approach carrier mapping differently.

Vendiro

Vendiro manages and updates the list of carriers, which is accessible via the API and displayed in the web application. When creating a shipment, you must select a carrier and provide a tracking code.

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, you have more control over carrier mapping – which is done on the marketplace level. To map your carriers to the carriers supported by a marketplace:

1. Open the marketplace for which you want to map your carriers on ChannelEngine.
2. Go to Mappings, Carrier mappings.
3. Enter your desired values for the Your shipping method, Customer delivery country, and Channel fields. For more details on how to map carriers, check out the ChannelEngine: carrier mappings article.

ChannelEngine does not map carriers automatically, even if your system does not support carriers. However, if the carrier names provided by you are exactly the same as the ones used by the marketplace, carrier mapping is not required.

Shipping templates

When it comes to shipping arrangements, ChannelEngine and Vendiro have very different approaches. While Vendiro offers a page dedicated to the setup of shipping templates, ChannelEngine makes it part of the mappings process per marketplace.

Vendiro

Different delivery times for different products, marketplaces, and carriers can be configured on the Shipping templates page. Depending on the marketplace and the country associated with it, multiple options are available – such as delivery times, lead times, and pickup points.

These templates can then be linked to products via the country feed.

ChannelEngine

To configure shipping policies, go Mappings, Offer mappings on one of the marketplaces you are connected with. Depending on the marketplace, you may find one or multiple attributes related to shipping.

bol.com, for instance, has the Shipping time attribute. Select one of the supported values (e.g.: 1-dd) and bol.com converts it to one of its buyer-friendly policies (e.g.: voor 23:00 uur besteld, morgen in huis). On the other hand, Allegro requires the creation of a shipping template in its back-end, as well as the mapping of the Handling time and Shipping rate name attributes on the Offer mappings tab on ChannelEngine.

If the configuration of shipping policies requires a process other than the mapping of one or two attributes, you can find an article covering it on ChannelEngine's Help Center. E.g.:

• Allegro: how to set up shipping time and costs
• Amazon: how to set up shipping time and costs
• bol.com: marketplace guide

Note that if a marketplace does not expose a shipping time attribute, it is because ChannelEngine uses the value mapped to the default attribute Shipping time (days). This is the process on Mirakl-based marketplaces and Zalando, for instance.

Delivery promise

Some marketplaces, such as bol.com, allow you to set up a delivery promise. E.g.: ordered before 17:00, delivered tomorrow. Offering a delivery promise can positively impact your sales, as buyers tend to prefer products shipped promptly. ChannelEngine and Vendiro approach delivery promises differently.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, the delivery schedule feature is supported on bol.com and Cdiscount. You can create a suitable schedule on the Delivery schedules page by specifying the day of the week, the time of the day, and the delivery promise. A maximum of two schedules can be created for one day. E.g.: 00:00 = ordered before 23:00, delivered tomorrow, and 16:30 = ordered before 17:00, delivered tomorrow.

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, you can establish a delivery promise by applying advanced date/time rules to the offer attributes on Amazon and bol.com. Advanced date and time rules are presented on a separate page that allows for the setup of delivery schedules. On top of Vendiro's Delivery schedules functionality, on ChannelEngine you can:

• Configure rules for unique occasions or events. E.g.: specific date ranges or individual days.
• Apply rules to a selected group of products. E.g.: products with a certain name or brand.
• Create multiple schedules within a single rule. E.g.: two or more schedules applicable to the same day.

For more information on how to configure and use date/time rules, check out the article ChannelEngine: replacement tags and advanced rules.

SKUs: fulfillment by marketplace/merchant

Both ChannelEngine and Vendiro support marketplace fulfillment services, such as fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and logistiek via bol.com (LVB) – as well as an automatic switch from stock held by the marketplace itself to stock held by you, the merchant.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, stock held by different parties needs different SKUs. By default, products destined for the marketplace's warehouse have priority. Once this stock is depleted, Vendiro switches to the secondary SKU (i.e.: related to the stock held by the merchant themselves). This order can be changed when the products are set up in Vendiro's product feed module.

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, it is not necessary to set up different SKUs for the same product. Default fulfillment types can be set on the Setup page of marketplaces that support fulfillment services, and overrides can be applied to specific products on the Mappings page. Once the stock held by the marketplace itself is depleted, ChannelEngine automatically switches it to the stock held by the merchant.

As this single-SKU approach may cause issues for merchants using FBA, ChannelEngine can automatically append SKUs with a code indicating the product is fulfilled by the merchant – and on which Amazon sales channel it was sold.

For more information on how ChannelEngine handles marketplace fulfillment services and how to use the SKU suffix feature on Amazon, respectively, check out the articles Marketplace fulfillment services: FBA, LVB, FBC, and ZFS and Amazon: SKU suffix.

Sales tax/VAT invoices

Most marketplaces do not calculate sales taxes/VAT due to country-specific differences. ChannelEngine and Vendiro approach VAT invoices differently.

Vendiro

Given that only a handful of marketplaces calculate costs (e.g.: shipping cost) while taking into account the sales tax/VAT (e.g.: Amazon), Vendiro only communicates values excluding and including sales tax/VAT if the marketplace performs this calculation. This is done because Vendiro's customers have to take this difference in values into account in their merchant integrations – while on ChannelEngine all values reported by marketplaces include sales tax/VAT.

You can identify such orders by the additional field invoiced_by_marketplace, which is accessible via the API. If the marketplace does not perform this calculation, you need to handle the VAT calculation on your end.

ChannelEngine

ChannelEngine has a mechanism that guarantees costs, both inclusive and exclusive of sales tax/VAT, are always available. If the marketplace does not calculate these values, ChannelEngine handles the calculation – enabling you to access the required fields via the Merchant API or the Order details page. To achieve this, you must set up the automatic sales tax/VAT calculation on ChannelEngine by navigating to Settings, VAT rate settings.

Prices including and excluding sales tax/VAT on the Order details page.

      "SubTotalInclVat": 112.5,
      "SubTotalVat": 17.96,
      "ShippingCostsVat": 0,
      "TotalInclVat": 112.5,
      "TotalVat": 17.96,
      "OriginalSubTotalInclVat": 112.5,
      "OriginalSubTotalVat": 17.96,
      "OriginalShippingCostsInclVat": 0,
      "OriginalShippingCostsVat": 0,
      "OriginalTotalInclVat": 112.5,
      "OriginalTotalVat": 17.96,
      "SubTotalExclVat": 94.54,
      "TotalExclVat": 94.54,
      "ShippingCostsExclVat": 0,
      "OriginalSubTotalExclVat": 94.54,
      "OriginalShippingCostsExclVat": 0,
      "OriginalTotalExclVat": 94.54,
      "Lines": [
        {
          "Id": 167650,
          "ChannelOrderLineNo": "17451169495691",
          "Status": "IN_PROGRESS",
          "IsFulfillmentByMarketplace": false,
          "Gtin": "1234567891011",
          "Description": "Furmidable cat tree",
          "StockLocation": {
            "Id": 1,
            "Name": "turbo.nl"
          },
          "UnitVat": 17.96,
          "LineTotalInclVat": 112.5,
          "LineVat": 17.96,
          "OriginalUnitPriceInclVat": 112.5,
          "OriginalUnitVat": 17.96,
          "OriginalLineTotalInclVat": 112.5,
          "OriginalLineVat": 17.96,
          "OriginalFeeFixed": 0,
          "BundleProductMerchantProductNo": null,
          "JurisCode": null,
          "JurisName": null,
          "VatRate": 19,
          "UnitPriceExclVat": 94.54,
          "LineTotalExclVat": 94.54,
          "OriginalUnitPriceExclVat": 94.54,
          "OriginalLineTotalExclVat": 94.54,

Prices including and excluding sales tax/VAT in the API response.

For more information on how ChannelEngine generates sales tax/VAT invoices, check out the article ChannelEngine: automated VAT invoices.

New order alert

Both ChannelEngine and Vendiro offer notification mechanisms that alerts you about new orders, so you can acknowledge them if this part of the process is not handled automatically by your systems.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, pending orders can be found under Orders, Pending. To be notified when an order is ready to be picked up but its export to your system has failed, contact your account manager at Vendiro. It is also possible to mark this type of order for a re-export.

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, there are multiple ways to keep track of incoming orders:

• Notifications - click your profile name and go to Account settings, Notification settings, where you can select which types of events you want to be notified of. E.g.: new orders, orders overdue, failed order export, etc. You can also determine the frequency of notifications, such as per day or per order. Fore more information on how to set up notifications on ChannelEngine, check out the article ChannelEngine: how to configure notifications.
• Webhooks - you can configure a webhook that sends you a notification each time an order is created or updated. This can be done via ChannelEngine's web application or the Merchant API. For more information on how webhooks work on ChannelEngine, check out the article ChannelEngine: webhooks.

Product content

Both ChannelEngine and Vendiro allow you to import your product content. However, ChannelEngine offers some additional functionality in this aspect.

Vendiro

Depending on the type of content, you can import it into Vendiro via:

• A content feed in the XML format (e.g.: description, height, weight, image URL, etc.)
• A core feed in the CSV format  (e.g.: brand, SKU, GTIN, stock, etc.)
• A country feed in the CSV format (e.g.: maximum/minimum price, shipping costs, VAT/sales tax, etc.)

To update attributes, you can either modify the product feed or adjust the imported attributes directly on Vendiro. It is not possible to create or update product content via the API.

Additionally, the automatic translation of attributes to a different language is not possible. Instead, you need to provide additional product content for each language in your product feeds.

ChannelEngine

You can send product content to ChannelEngine in CSV or XML format via a product feed or the Merchant API. Content updates can be applied via either of these methods, as well as via the web interface. 

It is not necessary to provide content in all the languages required by the marketplace. You can provide ChannelEngine with content in one language, and later request automatic translations. For more information on how automatic translations work on ChannelEngine, check out the article ChannelEngine: product translations.

The maximum length of attributes on ChannelEngine varies per marketplace and per attribute. However, certain attributes have character limits imposed by ChannelEngine. Below is the comparison table that lists the differences in character length between Vendiro and ChannelEngine.

Attribute	Max. number of characters on Vendiro	Max. number of characters on ChannelEngine
Product title	255	256
Merchant product number (a.k.a. SKU)	100	64
Brand	255	256
Size*	255	64
Color*	255	64
URL (e.g.: image URL)	255	512
GTIN (e.g.: EAN, UPC)	100	64

* The color and size attributes do not exist by default on Vendiro. However, they can be set up via a custom attribute – which has a limit of 255 characters.

Rejected cancelation/refund

When you cancel an order or an order line, certain marketplaces might reject this cancelation. ChannelEngine and Vendiro approach rejected cancelations differently.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, you receive an automatic daily email notifying you of rejected cancelations or refunds.

Besides, you can check if the cancelation or refund was rejected by the marketplace by navigating to Orders, Cancelations or Orders, Refunds (respectively). You can then filter the overview by the status Rejected to see the list of rejections along with the related reasons.

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, you can configure the 'Failed cancelation export' notification in Notification settings to keep track of cancelations rejected by the marketplace. You can determine the frequency of notifications – once a day or per cancelation – as well as where you want to receive the notification.

If the status of an order needs to be reset (e.g.: set to New or In backorder), please reach out to the ChannelEngine support team.

Sales tax/VAT collected by the marketplace

Certain marketplaces, such as Amazon and Reverb, can automatically calculate the sales tax/VAT related to an order, withhold the amount due, and report it to the relevant tax authority. Both ChannelEngine and Vendiro show this information on the order level, but in different ways.

Vendiro

On Vendiro, you can refer to the following fields on the order level:

• vat_collected_by_marketplace - the amount related to the sales tax/VAT collected by the marketplace.
• invoiced_value_ex and invoiced_value_vat - that is, the invoiced values excluding and including sales tax/VAT.

ChannelEngine

On ChannelEngine, you can refer to the VAT_CALCULATION_METHOD_KEY field on the order level. The following values are available for this field:

• FROM_PRICE_INCL - calculates sales tax/VAT using the provided OriginalUnitPriceInclVat and configured sales tax/VAT rates.
• FROM_PRICE_EXCL - calculates sales tax/VAT using the provided OriginalUnitPriceExclVat and configured sales tax/VAT rates.
• FROM_VAT_RATE - calculates sales tax/VAT using the provided VatRate.
• NO_CALCULATION - calculates only the rate based on OriginalUnitPriceInclVat and OriginalTotalVat. This value is only available if the setting Enable new tax calculation path is enabled under Settings, Settings.

Shipping services

Both ChannelEngine and Vendiro support shipping services, such as verzenden via bol.com (VVB).

Vendiro

Order lines that qualify for shipment via a shipping service include the shipping_service field on each order page. You can then use a third-party solution to generate the required shipping labels. E.g.: bol.com - VVB.

ChannelEngine

ChannelEngine supports the entire VVB flow, so you can retrieve the required shipping labels within the platform. For more information on this, check out the article bol.com: verzenden via bol.com (VVB).