Castorama: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Templemars-based marketplace Castorama. Here you can find information on how to request a Castorama 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

FAQs

Commercial information

Founded	13 June 1969
Headquarters	Templemars, France
Area served (orders)	all EU countries
Area served (shipments)	France
Revenue	USD 2.9 billion (2023)
Number of monthly visits	circa 8.3 million
Website	www.castorama.fr/marketplace
Setup cost	none
Commission	not disclosed
Other costs	EUR 39.00/month (excluding VAT)
Payment	thrice/month
Product categories	garden, home and living, sports and outdoor recreation, tools and home improvement
Input language	English, French
Input currency	EUR
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	yes
Profile on ChannelEngine	Castorama

How to request an account

To start selling on Castorama, fill out the form on their website. Afterwards, wait for Castorama’s business development team to review your application and conduct necessary checks.

The requirements to sell on Castorama are as follows:

• Be a registered merchant in an EU country.
• Have a warehouse located in an EU country.
• Comply with the French law against waste and for a circular economy, i.e.: AGEC law. Your products must have respective AGEC identifiers.

Associated costs

Castorama does not charge a setup fee. However, it charges a monthly fee of EUR 39.00 (excluding VAT) and a variable commission based on the merchant.

Marketplace features

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

* 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, 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.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

Castorama 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 upload the invoice to ChannelEngine via the Merchant API or via the web interface. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: merchant invoices.

Mappings

Content

Although not all attributes are mandatory, it is recommended to complete them as much as possible to enrich the product page and maximize the conversion rate.

All products (required)

• Boutique SKU - the product's internal identifier, such as its SKU. 
• Image principale 1 - the URL of the product's main image. The requirements are:
  • Minimum resolution - 1,000x1,000 px, at 72 dpi.
  • Maximum resolution - 2,000x2,000 px, at 300 dpi.
  • Formats - JPEG and PNG.
  • Background - white.
  • No logos or marketing copy.
• Nom - the product's title. The requirements are:
  • Character count - between 36 and 130 characters.
  • Structure - [product type] [specific qualities/features] [brand].
  • Do not place the brand name at the beginning.
  • Start with a capital letter. Do not use punctuation at the end.
  • Be concise and catchy. Include keywords at the beginning.
  • Avoid special characters or punctuation. E.g.: slash (/), colon (:), or period (.). 
• Texte description - the product's long description. The requirements are:
  • Do not include HTML tags; HTML formatting is not supported.
  • Start with a capital letter and end with a period (.).
  • Maximum character count - 2,000.
  • Do not mention your company.
  • Avoid references to offers, such as price or delivery.

The following required attribute is common to all Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• Export strategy - choose a strategy for exporting the product data. You can select from the following export strategies:
  • Yes - export all of the product content to the marketplace, including its EAN (GTIN), category, and other mapped attributes. This option is ideal if you manage both product content and offers through ChannelEngine for the marketplace. Before you set this option, ensure that you map all required attributes.
  • No - do not export product content to the marketplace. Choose this option to keep the product content excluded from exports and only export the offers. This option is ideal if you do not want to export the product content yet, or you want to export only the product offers because the product content already exists on the marketplace.
     
    NB: the default export strategy is Yes, even if the Export strategy attribute is left unmapped.

Offer

Required

• Price - the product's regular selling price. Make sure shipping costs are included in the price.
• EAN - the product's valid GTIN. E.g.: 13-digit EAN. This attribute links product data to product offers on Castorama.

Optional

To comply with the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), in the Mappings, provide the contact details of a product manufacturer as well as warnings and safety information. To check GPSR compliance requirements for each marketplace, refer to the article ChannelEngine: GPSR compliance.

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.

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

• 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.
• 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. 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 it using the marketplace’s codes, not the labels visible in the front-end. These codes vary per marketplace. If this marketplace makes use of logistic class codes, they can be found below.

Code	Label	Description
INIT	XS	Packages weighing less than 30 kg, with dimensions no larger than 34 cm on any side
S	Small	Packages weighing less than 30 kg, with dimensions no larger than 100 cm on any side
M	Medium	Bulky goods weighing less than 100 kg, with dimensions no larger than 200 cm on any side
L	Large	Bulky goods weighing less than 250 kg, with dimensions no larger than 450 cm on any side
XL	Extra large	Bulky goods weighing more than 250 kg, with at least one dimension larger than 450 cm
OUTSIZED	Outsized	Requirements not covered by previous logistic classes

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.
• 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 – otherwise, the export is broken.
• 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 required on Castorama. However, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by Castorama. This allows for working tracking codes in the back-end, as well as for the buyer. If your default carrier is missing, contact Castorama.

Pricing

Castorama requires prices to be submitted in EUR. If you do not have pricing attributes in EUR, you must set up 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.

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.

Alternatively, you can access the marketplace's back-end and download the error report generated by Mirakl. To do so:

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

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

Can I map attributes on ChannelEngine and in the Mirakl back-end?

No. Mapping attributes in the Mirakl marketplace back-end interferes with ChannelEngine's content export. Therefore, it is recommended to stick to categorizing and mapping content only on ChannelEngine.

Why am I not receiving feedback on my content and/or offer exports?

Chances are you are receiving the feedback. However, different types of error report can take a couple of hours or several days to be generated:

• Offer feedback
  • Error reports are mostly generated automatically, and are imported quickly.
• Content feedback
  • Transformation error report - this is automatically generated, and usually imported within a maximum of one day.
  • Conventional error report - this requires a manual review by the Mirakl-based marketplace, and not all do so. It can take several days for this report to be imported.

Note that the previous feedback report is not removed from ChannelEngine until both the latest transformation and conventional reports have been fully processed by ChannelEngine – or no new reports have been generated because there are no errors to report.