Octopia: channel guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Octopia marketplace platform. Here you can find information on how to configure this platform to support the Cdiscount marketplace.

Table of contents

About the channel

Commercial information

How to request an account

Associated costs

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

About the channel

Similar to ChannelEngine, Octopia allows merchants to connect with multiple marketplaces from the same platform. On ChannelEngine, use Octopia to connect to:

• Cdiscount 

After installing the Octopia channel on ChannelEngine, the configuration for the Cdiscount marketplace is automatically added to your Octopia channel plugin. For detailed guidance on configuring the Cdiscount sales channel via Octopia, check out Cdiscount (via Octopia): marketplace guide.

To enable other sales channels via your Octopia plugin, make a request with your ChannelEngine customer success manager or the Support team.

Commercial information

* Although you can submit your product content to Cdiscount in three languages, Octopia strongly recommends submitting your content in French and using its automatic translation service.

Channel features

* Sales channels is a feature where sales-channel-specific attributes are available to map within a single channel plugin, instead of across individual channel plugins per sales channel.

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 Octopia

To connect your marketplace account with ChannelEngine, retrieve the Seller ID from Octopia API portal.

1. On the Octopia API portal homepage, click API, REST API credentials.
2. Select I am using a feed Aggregator, and then My aggregator only requests my Seller ID. 
3. Select ChannelEngine from the drop-down list.
4. Grant ChannelEngine access to your seller account.
5. Enter your Octopia seller zone credentials and receive your Seller ID. Copy and save it for later.

On ChannelEngine

1. On the Setup tab, enter the credentials in the Seller ID field.
2. Click Save to complete the authorization process.

Advanced settings

• Use fulfillment service - enable this setting to use the Octopia Fulfillment service. Once enabled, ChannelEngine imports orders fulfilled by Octopia. You cannot choose which party fulfills an order – merchant or Octopia; this is entirely up to Octopia. If Octopia has sufficient stock to fulfill an order, they handle it. When its stock is depleted, they check your stock (as communicated by ChannelEngine) and switch the order to merchant fulfillment.

Categorization

Categorization is mandatory if you want to create or update existing product information on Octopia. To see all possible categories, select Browse in the lower left-hand corner of the Categorization page. The category tree has three levels.

Mappings

Content

All products (required)

• Brand - the brand of the product.
• Description - the description of the product, in French. HTML is not supported. The requirements are:
  • Maximum character count - 2,000.
  • Forbidden characters - °, ©, ®, ™, C°, FK, cm², m², cm³, m³, ?, regular expressions, e.g.: \p{Ll}, \p{Lu}, \p{Lm}.
• Image URL (main) - the main image of the product. The requirements are:
  • Resolution - between 500x500 px and 3,000x3,000 px.
  • Formats - JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF.
  • Maximum file size - 5 MB.
  • URL - 'https://'. 
• Product GTIN/EAN - the 13-digit GTIN of the product, such as an EAN.
• Product title - the title on the product details page, in French. HTML is not supported. The requirements are:
  • Format - [Product type] - [Brand] - [Description keywords] - [Model, for technical products] - [Gender, if applicable].
  • Maximum character count - 132.
  • Forbidden characters - °, ©, ®, ™, C°, FK, cm², m², cm³, m³, ?, regular expressions, e.g.: \p{Ll}, \p{Lu}, \p{Lm}.
  • Must be unique across all products in your listing. If two or more products share the same title, the following error appears: "Le titre du produit est en doublon dans votre soumission". To check for duplicate titles, use the Export mappings button.

All products (optional)

• Export content - choose whether to export product content to Octopia.
  • Yes - export your product content to Octopia to create a product or make changes to its existing content. Make sure that all required attributes are mapped.
  • No - do not export product content to Octopia. Use this option to link your offers to existing product content. This option only applies if the product is known to Octopia.
• Image URL 1-5 - the additional images of the product. For image requirements, check Image URL (main).
• Marketing description - the long description of the product. Limited HTML is supported (only bold, strong, and br tags). The maximum number of characters is 5,000.

Category-specific

• International standard book number (ISBN) - only required if the product is a book.
• Labels et certifications (Labels and certifications) - represents the certifications that each product has, such as organic, fair trade, NF environment, etc.

Offer

While content mapping is only needed to create or update products on Octopia, some offer mappings are actually required to get your product online.

Required

• [Sales channel] price - the regular selling price of the product for the respective sales channel. The price before any discount is applied.
• Condition - sets the condition of the product; the default value is 'new'. Other options are new, as new, very good, refurbished, etc.
• DEA tax - déchets d'éléments d'ameublement (DEA) is a French tax related to the recycling of furniture products. If you are not certain of how to use it or have not registered for it, set the value to zero.
• Eco tax - a French tax related to the recycling of high-tech products. If you are not certain of how to use it or have not registered for it, set the value to zero.
• Preparation time - the time, in days, it takes to process an order and ship it. The value should range between 1 and 5 days.

Optional

• [Sales channel] Add [method] shipping cost - set it to 'Yes' to use the indicated shipping method in [method]. You must map this attribute for at least one shipment method. The shipment method is the "delivery mode" on Octopia.

• [Sales channel] Shipping cost [method] - the costs you submit per shipping method. Match the shipping costs that you configured on the Octopia platform. At least one is mandatory. You must enter a decimal value, e.g.: 7.95.

  Octopia shipping methods (a.k.a. "delivery modes")

  Shipping method	Description
  Standard*	Delivery without tracking or signature.
  Registered*	Delivery without tracking, but with the signature of the customer upon reception.
  Tracked*	Delivery with tracking, but no signature.
  Express*	Delivered to the customer strictly within the stated delivery time.
  Fast	The customer collects their order at your store within six hours.
  Mondial Relay	Delivered via the Mondial Relay network of pick-up points.
  Relais Colis	Delivered via the Relais Colis network of pick-up points.
  Relay	The customer collects their order at your store.
  So Colissimo	Delivered via the So Colissimo network of pick-up points.
  Big Parcel Comfort	Specific for bulky parcels (>30 kg). It must be delivered, unpacked, and installed at the customer's home – in the room of their choice.
  Big Parcel Eco	Specific for bulky parcels (>30 kg). It must be delivered in front of the customer's home.
  Big Parcel Standard	Specific for bulky parcels (>30 kg). It must be delivered at the customer's home, in the room of their choice.

• Max warehouse delivery time - the time, in days, it takes your carrier to ship the ordered product to the Octopia warehouse. Only map this if you work with fulfilment by Octopia.
• Offer comment - enter an optional comment to be displayed on the offer. The maximum number of characters is 200. E.g.: The box has been opened, and the product manual is missing.
• [Sales channel] - Price alignment enabled - if set to 'Yes', this attribute keeps your offer competitive by lowering its price according to the other offers for the product.
• [Sales channel] - Price alignment min. price - combined with the Price alignment enabled attribute, it sets the minimum value to which the marketplace can lower the product's price.
• Packaging unit - the packaging's unit of measurement, e.g.: kg.
• Packaging value - the packaging's measurement value, e.g.: 0.6.
• VAT rate - the product's VAT rate. Provide a value for this attribute unless the standard VAT rate applies.
• [Sales channel] - Striked price - the price attribute used to set up strikethrough pricing. The Striked price must be higher than the Price attribute or not mapped at all. It appears with a strikethrough next to your discounted price and is only used for display purposes. It has no impact on pricing calculations. 
• [Sales channel] - Sale reference price - the price attribute used to set up a discount. This is the original price, i.e.: the price before a sale. The discount percentage, Discount % (from reference price), is deducted from this value to calculate the final price of your discounted offer during a sales campaign.
• Discount % (from reference price) - the discount percentage used to set up a discount. Omit the percentage symbol and only indicate the numeric value as a dotted decimal between '1.000' and '100'. The maximum value is 100, and any value is rounded up to 2 decimals for the final discount calculation. 
• Sale end date - the date until which the product's discounted price is valid, if applicable. The supported format is YYYY-MM-DDT00:00. E.g.: 2023-12-31T23:59.
• Sale start date - the date from which the product's discounted price is valid, if applicable. The supported format is YYYY-MM-DDT00:00. E.g.: 2023-12-31T23:59.
• Sale type - set it if you want to configure a sale and, if so, what type. The options are no sale or discount %. Flash sales are no longer supported on Octopia.

The following offer attributes may appear on this channel if this channel uses pricing v2:

• Allow promotion below min price - set to true to allow the promotion price to drop below your product's minimum price. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: promotions.
• Allow repricer exclusion rule above max price - set to true to allow the repricer to override your maximum price limit and export a higher price.
• Flip protection time - how long ChannelEngine should keep your price steady after winning the buy box. Use this attribute in combination with the Offensive strategy in repricing. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: repricing v2.
• Repricer strategy - the strategy you want to apply when repricing the product. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: repricing v2.

In Mappings, Fee group mappings, map the marketplace fee group ID of the product. 

To learn more about strikethrough pricing and setting up discounts on Octopia, check out the article Cdiscount (via Octopia): frequently asked questions.

Carrier

Octopia has a list of supported carriers that you can choose from. Tracking information is required to successfully export shipments.

Note that shipments can only be exported within 14 days of the initial order creation. If you ship an item after that period, your shipment returns an error, and a notification is created.

Listed products

If you have problems with products not appearing on Octopia, check the Listed products section for more information.

You can either filter on Channel status (Invalid for all products that ChannelEngine has not exported, such as products with an empty EAN) or use the Validation and feedback tab to see all known validation/feedback errors for specific products.

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 Octopia-based marketplaces?
By default, Octopia-based marketplaces follow the schedule below:

For answers to the most commonly asked questions and error troubleshooting guidelines, check out the Cdiscount (via Octopia): frequently asked questions.

Why are my product categories different from those I selected on ChannelEngine?
Octopia automatically re-categorizes your products when they are exported. To prevent your selected product category from changing:

1. Remove any languages other than French from your product content. Your product content must be in French only.
2. Add the product's lowest level of category to the title. E.g.: for products in the 'Fashion > Trousers > Shorts' category, add 'shorts' to the title.
3. If Octopia re-categorizes a product to one that you do not agree with, contact Octopia support. Octopia will update the category manually.

Can I connect my offer to an existing product on Octopia?
Yes. To link your offer to a product that is already available on Octopia, set the Export content setting to 'No'.

How does Octopia communicate stock across sales channels?
Octopia sends the same stock level to all connected sales channels. It does not allocate stock per specific channel. E.g.: if you have 100 items in stock, Octopia reports a stock level of 100 to each sales channel.

How do I remove an offer from a specific sales channel on Octopia?
To remove a product from a sales channel, set its (Sales channel) price value to 0. This automatically removes the product listing from that channel.

Why do I see the error "[Product] non existent - request its creation in the ‘product creation’"?
This error occurs because the product has been exported to Octopia, but it is not yet available on the platform. Octopia's team must review and approve the product before it can be published.

Why do I get the error "Product refused: the quota of products to create sent over the last hour has been exceeded"?
This error appears when you exceed Octopia’s product creation quota. The quota limits the number of new products you can create per hour, day, or year. Once this limit is reached, Octopia does not accept new products until the quota resets.

To resolve this, you can:

• Wait for the quota to reset.
• Contact Octopia to request an increased limit.

Why do I get the error "This channel could not be activated. Invalid response for GetSellerInformationAsync"?
This error occurs when you try to activate the Octopia channel on ChannelEngine, but your Octopia account does not have the required permissions to manage resources, such as products and orders.

To resolve this, redo the setup steps from the section Setup, On Octopia. If the error persists, contact the Octopia team and ask them to grant the necessary permissions.

Why do I get the error "Variant grouping reference already associated to category [number]"?
This error occurs when products within the same variant group (grandparent-parent-child) are mapped to different categories. Octopia does not support assigning different categories to products in the same group. As a result, the affected products are not exported to Octopia and remain in the Under review status.

To resolve this:

1. Make sure that all products in the variant group are mapped to the same category on ChannelEngine. This includes grandparent, parent, and child products.
2. Do not remove parent or grandparent products from the product selection.
3. If the error continues to occur, the issue likely originates on Octopia's side. Contact Octopia to correct the category assignment.