ChannelEngine: carrier mappings

About this article

This article describes the carrier mapping process on ChannelEngine.

Table of contents

Introduction

Configure carrier mappings

When carrier mapping is not required

Custom carrier mappings for Amazon

Introduction

It is possible and often required to map your own carriers to specific carriers supported by channels. In channel plugins that require carrier mapping, those respective channels maintain a specific list of supported carriers. If your shipment method does not contain a value from that specific carrier list, your shipment is rejected, and the order is not marked as processed.

This can have negative effects on your seller ratings on certain channels. Your orders can even be deleted and refunded after a few days. Therefore, it is very important to match your shipping details with your configuration in the carrier mappings.

Configure carrier mappings

To map your shipment method to carriers that are accepted by your connected channels, set up your carrier mapping at Mappings, Carrier mappings. Here, you map the names of your own carriers to the channel's known, accepted carriers.

To add a new mapping, click +Add. You can configure four fields:

• Your shipping method - the name of the shipment method/carrier name that you submit on shipments. Note that the names in this field and in the shipment's shipment method field must match exactly. When you start typing the name of your shipping method, the system checks your 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 DPD 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 that the specific marketplace accepts. Note that these lists contain the carrier abbreviations that are used in the API of that marketplace. Therefore, some names can differ. E.g.: on bol, PostNL is TNT, Bezorgafspraak is courier, etc. For the most exact list of your marketplace's supported carriers, check the marketplace's original documentation.
• Export delivery status - toggle this setting on to indicate if the Delivered/Undelivered status is exported to the channel when the given carrier is used for your merchant-fulfilled shipment. For more guidance, check out Merchant API: shipments.

When carrier mapping is not required

Shipments

Some channels have no carrier restrictions and do not require you to fill in your carrier mapping. In this case, as long as you submit a carrier name and track-and-trace code, your shipment is generally accepted by the channel.

Delivery state

If your connected channel does not support carrier mapping at all, but you are required to update your merchant-fulfilled shipment with a delivery state (Delivered or Undelivered), ChannelEngine automatically exports your delivery state to the channel when you update the delivery state via the Merchant API.

If the Carrier mappings step is available in your channel plugin, and the channel requires you to update your merchant-fulfilled shipment with a delivery state, then create your carrier mapping, and enable the Export delivery status toggle.

Custom carrier mappings for Amazon

Amazon also lists carriers as carrier names and carrier codes. Some newer carriers are only available by carrier name, which can vary per Amazon country. Amazon does not share the list of available carriers and their names. Therefore, ChannelEngine cannot offer the list of carrier names under Carrier mapping.

If you know the exact value of an Amazon carrier name, there are two options:

• Do not set up any carrier mappings, and directly add the known Amazon carrier name as the Method on your shipments. In this case, ChannelEngine automatically exports it as a carrier name to Amazon.
• Select Other as a carrier method in the dropdown (1, in the image below). Once selected, an additional field appears below it, and you can fill in your desired carrier name (2, in the image below).