BigCommerce: channel guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on BigCommerce as a channel. Here you can find information on how to create an account on BigCommerce, how to configure this channel on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.

Table of contents

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

How to request an account

To start selling via BigCommerce, you need to create an account on their website.

Associated costs

The costs related to using BigCommerce can be found on the pricing section of their website. ChannelEngine supports connections with the Standard, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise plans. 

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product content	Sales channels1
Product offers	Marketplace fulfillment service
Orders	Repricing
Shipments	Returns (channel)
Cancelations (merchant)2
Cancelations (marketplace)
Returns (merchant)2
Product variations3
Carrier mapping
HTML formatting
Multiple stock locations
Shipment updates4

1. 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.

2. Merchant returns and cancelations are only supported in the form of refunds. To learn more, check out the Merchant cancelations/returns section of this article.

3. Variations are only supported as parent-child relationships. Grandparent products are not supported.

4. You can update a shipment after it has been created on BigCommerce – via the Merchant API or web interface. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: shipments.

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.

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.

Setup

On BigCommerce

To connect your BigCommerce store with ChannelEngine, you must create an API account in the back-end of your BigCommerce account, and copy the API credentials.

1. Log in to your BigCommerce account.
2. Go to Settings, Store-level API accounts, and click Create API account.
3. From the Token type dropdown, select v2/v3 API token.
4. Enter a Name for the account. E.g.: ChannelEngine.
5. Copy the API path. Your store hash is the value between /stores/ and /v3/ in the API path. I.e.: https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/f2u4cae3co/v3/.
6. Specify the API resources and permissions required for ChannelEngine to access:
   • Content - modify
   • Customers - modify
   • Information and settings - read-only
   • Orders - modify
   • Order transactions - modify
   • Create payments - create
   • Get payment methods - read-only
   • Stored payment instruments - read-only
   • Products - read-only
   • Themes - read-only
   • Carts - read-only
   • Checkouts - modify
   • Sites & routes - read-only
   • Channel settings - modify
   • Channel listings - modify
   • Storefront API tokens - manage
   • Storefront API customer impersonation tokens - manage
   • Store logs - read-only
   • Store locations - modify
   • Store inventory - modify
   • Fulfillment methods - modify
   • Order fulfillment - modify
   • Metafield ownership - manage
   • Metafields access - full
7. Once you make all the necessary changes, click Save. A pop-up window contains the required API credentials. Copy the API access token.

On ChannelEngine

Once your BigCommerce API account is active, add the channel to your ChannelEngine environment. The following connection settings must be configured:

1. Go to the Setup page of your BigCommerce marketplace.
2. Under Connection, enter your API access token and BigCommerce store hash.
3. Click Save.

Plugin-specific settings

• Order statuses new - select which BigCommerce order statuses should be imported as New on ChannelEngine. E.g.: awaiting fulfilment. 
  
• Shipping provider - select the shipping provider to be exported to BigCommerce as part of the shipment. Ensure this matches the carrier name on ChannelEngine.
  
• Extra metafields - select the custom attributes (a.k.a. product extra data) to be exported to BigCommerce as part of the product content. Note that the extra data names can be up to 64 characters long.
  

Advanced settings

• Refund shipping costs on cancelations - if enabled, any shipping and handling costs are refunded to the buyer when an order is canceled.
  
• Export child products as standalone - if enabled, ChannelEngine exports child products as standalone products. 

Categorization

The Categorization tab is missing because there are no category-specific attributes on BigCommerce. To map your product categories, use the Categories attribute under Mappings. Note that BigCommerce allows multiple categories per product. 

Mappings

Content

All products (required)

• Export content - set it to 'yes' to export the product's content to BigCommerce. To connect to the existing product offers, set it to 'no' and the product's content is not exported. The default value is 'yes', even if the attribute is left unmapped.
• Name - the product's name. The maximum number of characters is 255.
• SKU - the product's stock keeping unit, also known as Merchant product number on ChannelEngine.
• Type - the product's type, physical or digital (e.g.: ebook, video, etc.).
• Weight - the product's weight. By default, weight is measured in kg. However, a different unit of measurement can be configured in the BigCommerce back-end.

All products (optional)

• Availability - the product's availability. Indicate whether the product is available for purchase, out of stock, or available for preorder.
• Availability description - the message about the product's availability. The maximum number of characters is 255.
• Bin picking number (BPN) - a unique identifier to specify a product's location in a warehouse. This number appears on packing slips. For product variations, assign BPNs to individual SKUs.
• Brand - the product's brand or manufacturer.
• Categories - the product's category or multiple categories.
• Condition - the product's condition. E.g.: Refurbished, Used, New.
• Depth - the product's depth.
• Description - the product's detailed description. HTML formatting is supported. Use relevant keywords for search engine optimization (SEO).
• Gift wrapping options type - the product's gift wrapping option.
• GTIN - the product's unique identifier or barcode.
• Height - the product's height.
• Image description 1-6 - the alternative text that describes an image for users who cannot view it.
• Image thumbnail index -  the index of the image that is used as the product's thumbnail.
• Image URL 1-6 - the product's images. The requirements are:
  • File formats - JPEG, JPG, GIF, WebP, and PNG.
  • Resolution - 1280x1280 px.
  • Maximum file size - 8 MB.
  • Image URL cannot be longer than 256 characters.
• Is condition shown - specify whether the condition should be displayed on the product page.
• Is featured - specify whether the product is marked as featured. Featured products can be on sale, in season, or back in stock. Fore more information, check out the Featured products article.
• Is preorder only - specify whether the product can only be purchased as preorder. Preordering means buying a product that has not yet been released or produced.
• MPN - the product's manufacturer part number (MPN).
• Order quantity maximum - the maximum number of items that can be ordered in a single order.
• Order quantity minimum - the minimum number of items that can be ordered in a single order. This is useful for low-priced products, which are only profitable when sold in large quantities.
• Page title - the title of the product page, used as an HTML title tag. Make sure that your page title includes relevant keywords.
• Preorder message - the preorder message that is displayed instead of the Add to cart button.
• Preorder release date - the date when you expect the product to be in stock.
• Product tax code - the product's tax code, which is assigned by the tax provider.
• Product variant aspect name 1-2 - the product's attribute that sets variations apart. E.g.: color, size. This is a required attribute if your product is a variation, and it is used in combination with the Product variant aspect value attribute.
• Product variant aspect value 1-2 - the attribute's value that differs per variation. E.g.: red, S. This is a required attribute if your product is a variation.
• Search keywords - the product's search keywords, separated by a comma (,).
• Sort order - the product's sort order, which determines where the product appears relative to other products. Sort orders can be negative, but must be whole numbers. For more information, check out the Sort order article.
• Tax class - the product's tax class.
• UPC - the universal product code (UPC). The maximum number of characters is 32.
• Warranty - the product's warranty information. HTML formatting is supported.
• Width - the product's width.

Offer

All products (required)

• Is visible - indicate whether the product is visible in your store.
• Price - the regular product's price, B2C price. The price may include or exclude tax, depending on your BigCommerce store settings.

All products (optional)

• Cost price - the price at which you purchased the product. This price is not visible to buyers but can be used for accounting purposes.
• Fixed cost shipping price - the fixed shipping cost for the product, regardless of the buyer's location. If defined, this value is used during checkout instead of the standard shipping cost calculation.
• Inventory tracking - select the type of inventory tracking for the product. Options are no inventory tracking, tracking of standalone products, or tracking of product variations.
• Inventory warning level - a threshold that triggers a notification when inventory levels fall below a specified amount. Inventory tracking must be enabled for this to function.
• Is free shipping - if enabled, the product is shipped for free.
• MAP - the product's minimum advertised price.
• Retail price - the product's B2B price. 
• Sale price - the product's discounted price. If the Sale price is set, it overrides the regular Price.

Carrier

Carrier mapping is required on BigCommerce. Map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by BigCommerce. This allows for working tracking codes in the back-end, as well as for the buyer.

The mapped carrier must match the selected Shipping provider on the Setup page. Otherwise, the shipment cannot be exported. 

Pricing

BigCommerce requires the prices to be submitted in USD. If you do not have pricing attributes in USD, you need to set a currency conversion.

Listed products

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

You can either use the Channel status filter (e.g.: products that ChannelEngine has failed to exported, such as those with an empty GTIN or that do not exist on the marketplace yet, are shown as Invalid) or the Validation and feedback tab to see all known errors for specific products.

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	Conditional*	Description
ShippingAddressId	Yes	ID of the shipping address, which is used for the shipment export
CustomerMessage	Yes	Message that the customer entered during checkout
StaffNotes	Yes	Any additional notes for staff
GiftCertificateAmount	Yes	Total gift certificate amount for the order
DiscountAmount	Yes	Amount of discount for this transaction
CouponDiscount	Yes	Total coupon discount for the order
Handling costs	Yes	Extra costs to handle this order

Order line extra data

Keys	Conditional*	Description
WrappingMessage	Yes	Message to accompany a gift-wrapping option
WrappingCosts	Yes	Extra costs charged for gift wrapping

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

Merchant cancelations/returns

Merchant cancelations and returns are supported only as refunds on BigCommerce. BigCommerce offers five types of refunds:

• Product - refunds the price of the product. ChannelEngine always refunds this type.
• Gift wrapping - refunds the extra costs for gift wrapping. This is refunded only if the buyer used the gift wrapping option.
• Shipping - refunds the shipping costs. This is refunded only if you enable the Refund shipping costs on cancelations setting.
• Handling - refunds extra costs related to shipping. This is refunded only if you enable the Refund shipping costs on cancelations setting.
• Order - custom refund amount. This is not supported by ChannelEngine.

Nota that BigCommerce may reject a refund. If a refund is rejected, the export for this return fails, and the reject reason(s) is recorded as an error.

FAQs

How often does each task run on BigCommerce?

By default, BigCommerce follows the schedule below:

Task	Frequency
Export product data to channel	every 60 minutes
Export product offers to channel	every 15 minutes
Import product offers from channel	every 20 minutes
Import orders from channel	every 20 minutes
Export shipments to channel	every 60 minutes
Export returns to channel	every 60 minutes

How to synchronize stock levels between ChannelEngine and BigCommerce?

To ensure ChannelEngine can export stock updates to BigCommerce, enable the Track inventory for this product setting for all products in your BigCommerce store. To learn more, check out the article Inventory tracking.