B&Q: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Eastleigh-based marketplace B&Q. Here you can find information on how to request a B&Q 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
• Mappings
• Pricing
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

Commercial information

How to request an account

To start selling on B&Q, go to their Partner with Merchant Hub page and fill out the form. Note that you need to be VAT-registered.

Associated costs

B&Q does not charge a setup fee. However, it does charge a monthly fee of GBP 39.00 and a commission fee between 7% and 15% – depending on the product category.

Marketplace features

* You are not required to accept incoming orders; new orders are automatically accepted by B&Q.

** 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 channel on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, though not every channel includes the steps listed below.

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. Fill in the Stock settings.
7. Finish the Activation.
8. Check the Listed products overview.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

Connection

1. This channel is a Mirakl-based channel. Therefore, you connect to it with your Mirakl Connect SSO account. For more information on configuring Mirakl Connect SSO with ChannelEngine, check out the Mirakl-based channels: SSO authorization article.
2. If you would like to test the order flow with this plugin, contact the ChannelEngine Support team to configure the connection of your plugin to support testing. For more information on testing orders, check out the article ChannelEngine: how to create test orders.

Invoice uploads

To configure your invoice settings, go to Advanced settings. Then, select one option from the dropdown menu in the Enable invoice uploading field, which contains the following options:

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

If you select one of the Merchant invoices options, make sure to upload the invoice to ChannelEngine via the Merchant API or via the web interface. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: upload merchant invoices.

Mappings

Content

All products (required)

• EAN - the product's unique identifier.
• Main image 1 - the product's main image.
  • Resolution - at least 500x500 px, at 300 dpi.
  • File size - 10 MB at most.
  • Crops - all images to be squared. If using lifestyle images, make sure to use a full crop – suitable to either landscape or portrait formats.
  • File format - JPEG or PNG.
  • Cut-out images in JPEG must have an accurate clipping path embedded in the file, with a pure white background. PNG files must be provided with a transparent background.
  • Color space - RGB.
• Name - the product's title. The requirements are:
  • The recommended structure is [brand] [color] [product type] [size] [quantity in the pack].
  • The minimum and maximum numbers of characters are 30 and 130, respectively.
  • Include key details such as brand, color, and product type.
  • Do not repeat terms.
  • Do not use special characters. E.g.: ?, /, |. \, _.
  • Do not capitalize entire terms, except for LED.
  • Do not use trademarks or protected words (e.g.:. Velcro), unless you are legally allowed to do so.
  • Do not use terms from the banned list, which was shared with you by B&Q.
• Shop SKU - the product's Merchant product number.

All products (optional)

There are no optional content attributes under the All products category.

Category-specific

• Core pack quantity - the number of items in the package. The minimum value is 1.
• Product diameter - the product's diameter in millimeters. The minimum value is 0.01.
• Product length - the product's length in millimeters. The minimum value is 0.01.
• Product weight - the product's weight in grams. The minimum value is 0.01.

Offer

Required

The only required attribute on B&Q is Price, which is the desired selling price for the product in GBP.

Optional

• Discount end date - the date until when the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. E.g.: 2022-12-31 23:59:59 +00.
• Discount price - the product's sale price, if applicable. This attribute must have a lower value than the Price attribute.
• Discount quantity threshold - the minimum quantity required for the discount rate to be available.
• Discount start date - the date from when the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. E.g.: 2022-12-31 23:59:59 +00.
• Price establishment date - the date when the current price was set. This value is used to determine the next date when the Was price can be shown for this offer.
• Was price - the current Was price, also known as the 'from price' or the 'strikethrough price'. UK law requires a given price to be established for a period of 30 days before the strikethrough price is displayed on the website. 
• Was price expiry date - the date when the current Was price expires, if applicable.

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

• 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.
• Category-specific ECO attributes - depending on your sales country, you might be required to map additional ECO attributes for products in specific categories. Review which ECO attributes to map within each category.

If pricing v2 is activated in your environment, you will see the following offer attributes, which are common to all Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• Allow promotion below min price - set it to ‘true’ to allow the promotion price to drop below your product's minimum price. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: promotions.
• Strike price - the regular selling price. Use it in combination with the Price attribute to set up a discount/strikethrough pricing. To learn more, check out the 'Working with discounts' section of this article. 
• Additionally, the Fee groups attribute appears in Mappings, Fee group mappings, if pricing v2 is activated. Map the marketplace fee group ID of the product there.  

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

• Discount start date - the date from which the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. Input the date as a fixed value. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. All dates follow ISO month-day formatting, and all times follow 24-hour formatting in the UTC timezone. E.g.: 2026-10-25 15:30:00 +01 will start your discount on 25 October 2026 at 3:30 PM, one hour ahead of UTC time.
• Discount end date - the date until which the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. Input the date as a fixed value. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. All dates follow ISO month-day formatting, and all times follow 24-hour formatting in the UTC timezone. E.g.: 2026-10-30 23:59:59 +01 will end your discount on 30 October 2026 at 11:59 PM and 59 seconds, one hour ahead of UTC time.
• Discount price - the product's sale price, if applicable. This attribute must have a lower value than the Price attribute. This attribute only applies if you use pricing v1.
• Discount quantity threshold - the minimum quantity required for the discount rate to be available.
• Leadtime to shipment - the number of days before you ship the product. You can create your own unique rules, if applicable. For more information on this, check out the article Lead time to ship in Mirakl's help center.
• Minimum quantity alert - map this attribute to receive a notification from Mirakl 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 the shipping class using the marketplace’s codes and not with the labels that are visible in the partner portal's user interface. These codes vary per marketplace. If this marketplace makes use of logistic class codes, they can be found below.

Working with discounts

These instructions apply to most Mirakl marketplaces. If there are any exceptions on this marketplace, these are noted below. 

Pricing v1

• To set up a discount, 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.
• The discounted price is only exported if it is lower than the base price.
• If you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped.
• To set a bulk discount, the Discount quantity threshold must be set to a value higher than 1. For example, a value of 2 indicates that the buyer must purchase two or more products at the same time to benefit from the discount.

Pricing v2

• To set up a discount, in the Offer mappings step, map the Strike price attribute to your regular price. Then, map the Discount start date and Discount end date attributes to indicate the start and end dates of your discount.
• If you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped. To learn how to set up a bulk discount, check out Bulk discounts.
• In the Pricing step, go to Price rules. Map the Price attribute to the discounted price. Both Min. price and Base price fields must be mapped. Note that ChannelEngine exports the higher of the two values – typically the Base price. To learn more, check out ChannelEngine: price rules v2.
• The Price and Strike price attributes cannot be mapped with the same value. ChannelEngine only sets a discount if the value in Price (Base price) is lower than the value in Strike price.
• If set up correctly, your product displays a discount label and a strikethrough price on the channel.

Carrier

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

Note that B&Q does not offer shipping options. The only delivery promise available is 'delivered in 7 days', and the shipping cost is included in the cost of the product.

Pricing

B&Q requires the prices to be submitted in GBP. If you do not have pricing attributes in GBP, you need to set a currency conversion.

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. Use the Channel status filter or the Validation and feedback tab to view all known errors for specific products.

If you see either of the below statuses, refer to the article ChannelEngine: why is my product listed as 'Product not found' in the inventory report?:

• Product not found in inventory report
• Product not in offer file

Products that ChannelEngine has failed to export are shown as Invalid, e.g.: products with an empty GTIN or that do not yet exist on the marketplace.

Alternatively, download the error report generated by Mirakl. To do so:

1. Log onto the Mirakl platform and go to Catalog, Product imports.
2. Identify the latest report and click the See details button.
3. Download the CSV file Non-integrated products report.

Additional information

Order extra data items

When an order is imported to ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine also retrieves 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

* Conditional fields are only displayed if the marketplace provides a value.

FAQs

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

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