ChannelEngine: shipments

About this article

This article describes the shipment process on ChannelEngine, including best practices and common scenarios.

Table of contents

Introduction

Creating a shipment

Shipments overview

Shipment details

When is a shipment exported?

• Example A
• Example B

Carrier mapping

Default shipment settings

Introduction

Once you have successfully processed and shipped an order, or at least prepared it for shipment, you need to create a shipment on ChannelEngine to 'close' the order. As long as the order is still marked as In progress, ChannelEngine continues to reserve the stock for it, so it is crucial to submit the correct shipment information.

Creating a shipment

With merchant plugins like Adobe Commerce (née Magento) and WooCommerce, you can create a shipment in your webstore software. The shipment is then automatically exported to ChannelEngine. If you do not use a merchant plugin, ERP, or an API connection, you can also use the ChannelEngine interface to create a shipment.

From the order overview, click the 'truck' icon next to the order. Alternatively, you can open the order details, click Create shipment at the bottom of the page, and fill out the required information.

Depending on the marketplace, you can choose between shipping the full order or just part of it. Whether partial shipments are possible is determined by the order support for a marketplace, which is visible on the order level if you use ChannelEngine's Merchant API. You then fill out the following fields:

• Shipment method - the carrier responsible for fulfilling the order. E.g.: DHL.
• Tracking code - the tracking code assigned to the shipment package.
• Return tracking code - the return tracking code for the shipped package. 
• Merchant shipment number - the unique shipment reference you assign to the shipment. If you do not have a Merchant shipment number, which most systems automatically generate, enter the Order number – or any other unique number. Bear in mind that you cannot reuse a Merchant shipment number, it must be unique.
• Ships from (optional) - the stock location, if applicable, or the country where you are shipping the package from.

Shipments overview

To see an overview of all shipments, go to Orders, Shipments from the left-hand side menu.

This page shows a list of all shipments, with the latest at the top. The individual columns and their headers show what type of data they contain and, by clicking the eye icon by each shipment, you can see the shipment details.

The top of the page contains a search function and a selection of filters, as well as a button to clear applied filters and another to export the shipments selected in CSV format.

• Search - allows you to search for specific shipments based on the:
  • ChannelEngine order ID
  • ChannelEngine shipment ID
  • Channel order number
  • Merchant order number
  • Merchant shipment number
  • Customer data - if you have access to customer information, you can use the search with the Customer data filter to search for shipments based on specific customer information (billing first name, last name, company name, street name, email) or the shipment method. 

You can search for partial matches by entering one or more characters of an ID (order or shipment), order number (channel, merchant), or merchant shipment number. E.g.: searching for 1 returns any shipments where the ID or number contains the number 1. You can also search multiple IDs or numbers at once. For multiple ID/number searches, only exact matches are returned. Make sure you enter a space between the IDs or numbers when you search.

• ID/no. - allows you to filter shipments by their order ID, shipment ID, or order number (merchant or channel).

• Customer data - allows you to filter shipments based on specific customer information. Note, this filter option is available in the Order ID/no. dropdown list.    

• Channel - allows you to filter shipments from one or more marketplaces. If none is selected, all are shown.
• Order line status - allows you to filter on the different types of statuses: Shipped, In backorder, and Canceled.
• Created date - the period in which the orders were created. E.g.: 7/1/2021 - 7/31/2021.
• Status - allows you to filter on the different types of statuses possible for a shipment: Pending and Closed. Pending shipments are missing information, therefore they are not exported to the marketplace. Closed shipments are complete, and, depending on the Channel status, they may or may not be exported to the marketplace.
• Clear filters - removes all filters applied.
• Export selection - exports the shipments selected in CSV format. The data included in the export comprises:
  • Shipment ID
  • Order ID
  • Channel
  • Channel order number
  • Order date
  • Created date
  • Shipment method
  • Channel status
  • Merchant shipment number
  • Merchant order number
  • Status
  • Fulfillment
  • Tracking code
  • Return tracking code
  • External batch number
  • Ships from country
  • Stock location ID
  • Stock location name
  • ID
  • Order line ID
  • Merchant product number
  • Quantity
  • Status
  • Expected delivery date

Shipment details

To view shipment details, click the eye icon next to the shipment.

• ID - the shipment's unique identifier within ChannelEngine.
• Merchant shipment number - your own unique shipment identifier.
• Created date - the date and time when the shipment was created on ChannelEngine.
• Shipment date - the date and time when the shipment was created in the source system (i.e.: the marketplace). Note that Shipment date is only set and displayed if that data is available.
• Updated date - the date and time when the shipment was last updated on ChannelEngine.
• Status - the current status of the shipment. There are two possible values: Pending and Closed. Only Closed shipments are exported to the marketplace.
• Channel status - the status of what was exported to the marketplace. There are three possible values: Not exported yet, Exported at [date], and Error.
• Delivered at - the date and time when the package was delivered to the customer. This is available only if you use the marketplace's fulfilment network. E.g.: last-mile delivery service.
• Fulfillment - shows which party was responsible for the fulfillment of the order. This is either the merchant or the marketplace, with the latter labeled accordingly (e.g.: Amazon.de).
• Shipment method - the carrier handling the fulfillment. This is a mandatory field. If it is left empty, the status of the order remains on Pending until a valid value is submitted.
• Tracking code - the tracking code of the shipment. It is a mandatory field, with the exception of manually created letterbox shipments. If it is left empty, the status of the shipment remains on Pending until a valid value is submitted. For most marketplaces, this tracking code combined with the correct carrier forms the tracking link, so it is important this code is valid.
• Return tracking code - the return tracking code of the shipment. For marketplaces the require return tracking, such as Zalando, OTTO Market, and About You, it is a mandatory field. If it is left empty, the status of the shipment remains on Pending until a valid code is submitted. For all other marketplaces, this field is optional and should be left empty.
• Tracking link - this is not visible as a separate attribute on a shipment, but forms a link on the tracking code if submitted. Most marketplaces create their own links, but some (such as Channel API marketplaces) fetch them from ChannelEngine.

When is a shipment exported?

A shipment is exported to a marketplace only after all required information is provided. E.g.: shipment method, tracking code. Below are a few examples to illustrate this.

Example A

The above shipment is marked as Pending, which causes all shipment exports for channels to ignore it for export.

The status is Pending because it has no Shipment method and no Tracking code, which can be seen by the orange warning labels. An empty shipment can only be created via the ChannelEngine Merchant API. To update the shipment with a shipment method, a PUT /v2/shipments/{merchantShipmentNo} call can be used.

If a 'Shipping method' is added via the API

If a method is added via the API, the shipment is not exported to the marketplace as it is still considered incomplete, and its status remains on Pending until it has both a Shipment method and a Tracking code.

If a 'Shipping method' is added via the ChannelEngine web interface

On the web interface, the same logic applies to the API – with one exception. You can select the option Briefpost (a.k.a. letterbox), for which a tracking code is not required, and the status changes to Closed. This is not possible via the API because Briefpost is not automatically recognized, so you must submit a placeholder tracking code code in this scenario.

Scenarios

Marketplace: bol 
Method: briefpost 
Carrier mapping: none 
Result: accepted by bol.com 
Reason: briefpost is a valid shipment method, and no track-and-trace code is needed

Marketplace: bol
Method: PostNL
Track-and-trace code: none
Carrier mapping: none
Result: neither exported nor accepted by Bol.com
Reason: PostNL is not a valid carrier name (it must be carrier mapped to TNT), and this method requires a track-and-trace code

Marketplace: bol
Method: Eigen levering (Courier)
Track-and-trace code: none
Carrier mapping: none
Result: neither exported nor accepted by Bol.com
Reason: a valid carrier is submitted, but a track-and-trace code is still required if only a tracking code is added

If there is only a tracking code and no method, this shipment is not exported to the marketplace as it is deemed incomplete, and the status remains on Pending until it has both a method and a tracking code.

If both a shipping method and tracking code are added

The shipment is considered complete (i.e.: the status changes to Closed) and this shipment is exported to the marketplace. Whether the marketplace processes it correctly still depends on the submitted method, the carrier mapping, and what the marketplace accepts.

Scenarios

Marketplace: Amazon.nl 
Method: DHL 
Track-and-trace code: none 
Carrier mapping: none 
Result: not exported 
Reason: even though Amazon does not require carrier mapping, the name of the submitted method should match 100% with what Amazon accepts – and there is a track-and-trace code

Marketplace: bol 
Method: PostNL 
Track-and-trace code: 123 
Carrier mapping: PostNL - TNT 
Result: not accepted by Bol.com Reason: a valid carrier is submitted, but the track-and-trace code is incorrect. Bol.com expects at least four characters, and validates the field - special characters also result in errors 

Example B

The above example is fully correct and accepted by marketplaces, as shown in the Channel status section. The order has a correct shipment method, carrier mapped to TNT, and a correct tracking code.

Carrier mapping

To 'translate' your shipment method to carriers accepted by marketplaces, you can use Carrier mappings under Mappings, Carrier mappings to automatically set your own carrier names to marketplace-specific carriers.

• Your shipping method - the name of the shipment method/carrier name submitted on shipments. Note that the name has to match exactly. In the above case, this rule is not applied if 'post nl' is submitted on the shipment itself. When you start typing the name of your shipping method, the system checks the existing shipping methods in ChannelEngine's database.
• Customer delivery country - this is relevant if you use different carriers per country. 'DPD' is a good example. While this is a valid carrier on its own, the subcarriers 'DPD NL', 'DPD BE', 'DPD DE', etc. are also valid. By setting the Customer delivery country you can differentiate the carrier per country.
• Channel - displays the list of available carriers for that specific marketplace. Note these lists are comprised of the carrier abbreviation as used in the API of that marketplace. Therefore, some names can differ. E.g.: on bol, PostNL is TNT, Bezorgafspraak is courier, etc. For more information on this, check out bol's Transporters page.

Default shipment settings

ChannelEngine offers the option to set a default shipment method, in case of empty shipments waiting for tracking information. However, in most cases, this is not advised.

To find this option go to Settings, Settings. Scroll down to find the Shipment settings. By providing default tracked and untracked shipment methods, as well as a value in minutes, you can create shipments without tracking information which are not immediately exported. However, almost no marketplaces accept a tracked shipping method without a tracking code, so its main function is to set shipments as 'letterbox packages' while waiting for the tracking information.