ChannelEngine: how ChannelEngine works

About this article

This article explains what ChannelEngine does, what data it moves between your systems and the marketplaces you sell on, and the three ways you can connect.

Table of contents

Introduction

Overview

What data is exchanged

How data flows through ChannelEngine

Connecting your system to ChannelEngine

• Merchant plugin
• Merchant API
• Product feed

Connecting ChannelEngine to marketplaces

Marketplace-specific requirements

Synchronization tasks

Example: order and shipment flow

Cancelations and returns

Next steps

Introduction

ChannelEngine is in the middle of the information exchange: it sits between your own system – an ERP, an OMS, a PIM, a WMS, a webstore, or another ecommerce platform – and the marketplaces that you sell on (channels).

Acting as middleware, ChannelEngine keeps data in sync in both directions, so marketplaces receive the correct product, price, stock, and fulfillment data, and you receive marketplace orders, cancelations, returns, and any other operational data in one central place.

In this exchange, systems usually send data via API calls: one system sends a request and the other responds with data or performs the requested action. For instance, ChannelEngine can send Amazon a request to update prices, and Amazon updates them and displays the change on its website.

Learn how the data travels between your system and the marketplaces, and what role ChannelEngine plays.

Overview

Refer to the diagram below to see how ChannelEngine connects your systems to marketplaces. Data moves continuously in both directions: your system to ChannelEngine to the channel, and back.

Instead of building and maintaining a separate integration for every marketplace, you connect once to ChannelEngine and manage all of your marketplace operations from a single platform.

What data is exchanged

The data exchanged between your systems and channels is usually grouped into three categories.

How data flows through ChannelEngine

A simplified end-to-end data flow looks like this:

1. You send product data, prices, and stock to ChannelEngine.
2. ChannelEngine prepares and exports the data to the selected channels.
3. A customer places an order on a marketplace.
4. ChannelEngine imports the order from the marketplace.
5. Your system receives or retrieves the order and processes it.
6. You send shipment, cancelation, or return updates to ChannelEngine.
7. ChannelEngine sends the relevant updates back to the channel.

Connecting your system to ChannelEngine

There are three ways to connect your system to ChannelEngine: a merchant plugin, the Merchant API, or a product feed. You can combine them to fit your setup.

The methods differ mainly in who starts each data exchange. With some, ChannelEngine reaches out to your system on a schedule to send or fetch data. With others, your system decides when to send data to, or fetch data from ChannelEngine. Each method is explained below.

Merchant plugin

Instead of building directly against the Merchant API, you can use a merchant plugin. It provides a ready-made or custom connection between ChannelEngine and ecommerce systems such as webstores, ERPs, OMSs, WMSs, and PIMs, and automates the synchronization between them. A custom connection requires development work on your side. Plugins can handle orders and shipments, resolve inventory issues, or act as your single source of product information.

Plugin types include:

• Web store plugins (WooCommerce)
• PIM plugins (KatanaPim)
• WMS plugins (Picqer)
• ERP plugins (Exact Online, Logic4)
• OMS plugins (Adobe Commerce)

Depending on the plugin, ChannelEngine either sends and fetches data from your system on a schedule, or waits for your system to send or fetch data. When ChannelEngine handles the timing, it usually sets up tasks to automate the exchange. A plugin can synchronize product content, product offers, orders, shipments, and stock updates.

Merchant API

You can connect through the Merchant API to ChannelEngine. Here, your own system or middleware communicates directly with ChannelEngine, usually implemented by a developer or integration partner who writes code to call the ChannelEngine endpoints and process the responses.

With an API connection, your system controls the timing: it decides when to send data to, or fetch data from, ChannelEngine. This becomes the main route for the exchange. The Merchant API can handle product content, product offers, orders, shipments, cancelations, returns, and more.

Product feed

A product feed is a file that contains your product catalog, such as each product's title, description, image URL, price, stock, and product identifiers. You can generate the file with an online tool, for example Google Sheets, and then share a link to it with ChannelEngine.

ChannelEngine imports the data from the file on a schedule. To import it immediately, click the play button on the Product feeds page. Feeds are commonly used to import product content and product offers, but not for order processing or other operations.

Connecting ChannelEngine to marketplaces

ChannelEngine also exchanges data with marketplaces, or channels. For most marketplaces, ChannelEngine runs scheduled synchronization tasks to keep the channel up to date. These tasks can include exporting product content, exporting product offers, importing orders, exporting shipments, importing returns, and exporting cancelations.

Custom channels work differently. A custom channel retrieves data from ChannelEngine using either the Channel API or a product feed, and authenticates with a Channel API key generated by ChannelEngine. A custom channel suits use cases such as an affiliate channel that pulls product data on its own schedule or a self-integrated channel that builds the connection towards ChannelEngine.

Marketplace-specific requirements

Different marketplaces require different product attributes, formats, categories, fulfillment options, and validation rules. ChannelEngine is where your product data is prepared to meet each marketplace's requirements. You can send one internal product record, and ChannelEngine maps or enriches it per channel before submitting it.

This is why ChannelEngine is more than a pass-through connector. It is a centralized marketplace management platform: you list products on multiple marketplaces and manage operational data from one place.

Synchronization tasks

Synchronization can happen in different ways, depending on the integration. Many integrations use scheduled tasks: ChannelEngine automatically performs an action to keep data between the merchant system and channel in sync at a specific frequency. Common tasks include Import product data or Import orders.

Some tasks run more often than others because some data changes more frequently. Offer exports and order imports usually run at short intervals, because price, stock, and order data are time-sensitive. Product content tasks can run less often, because titles, images, and attributes change less frequently.

To see the most recent scheduled tasks, their status, and their start and finish dates, go to Settings, Scheduled tasks on ChannelEngine.

Example: order and shipment flow

A typical marketplace order moves through these steps:

1. A customer places an order on a marketplace.
2. ChannelEngine imports the order.
3. Your system receives or retrieves the order.
4. You process and ship the order.
5. You send the shipment data (products, tracking code, carrier) to ChannelEngine.
6. ChannelEngine exports the shipment update to the marketplace.
7. The marketplace updates the order status and tracking information.

This keeps your system and the marketplace aligned throughout the order lifecycle.

Cancelations and returns

Cancelations can flow in both directions. A buyer may request a cancelation on the marketplace, and ChannelEngine receives that request from the channel:

• If the order has not been picked up yet, ChannelEngine can cancel it automatically, so it never enters your logistics process unnecessarily.
• If you have already retrieved the order, ChannelEngine flags it as a cancelation request for you to accept or process, depending on the situation.

You can also cancel an order yourself, for example, when you cannot fulfill it because stock is unavailable. ChannelEngine then exports that cancelation to the marketplace.

Returns apply when a buyer sends products back after shipment. Depending on the marketplace and your setup, a return can be initiated through the marketplace or directly with you. So just like cancelations, returns can also flow in both directions.

Next steps

• Choose a connection method that fits your system: a merchant plugin, the Merchant API, or a product feed. If you opt for a connection via the Merchant API, review the Merchant API reference for endpoints and paramteres.
• Review common marketplace requirements to prepare to sell on marketplaces.
• Add you first channel on ChannelEngine and create test orders to check if the order flow works as intended.
• Refer to ChannelEngine's glossary to clarify terminology used on ChannelEngine.