Blokker: marketplace guide

About this guide

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

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Pricing
• Listed products

FAQ

Commercial information

How to request an account

To start selling on Blokker, you must request an account via Blokker Connect!. Blokker Connect! is the underlying platform for external sellers on Blokker, it is based on the Mirakl framework (which is also used by VidaXL, aFound, fonQ, ePRICE, etc.).

Blokker is a closed marketplace, and will only accept selected sellers. The following requirements apply:

• You must be able to deliver your product within a 5-day timeframe.
• You must be able to provide free returns.
• You cannot sell products in the following categories: food, clothing and shoes, cosmetics,
  erotic products, computers, laptops, and mobile phones.

More information on the requirements can be found on their website.

Note that Blokker only allows products from the following categories on their platform:

• Small and large home appliances
• Bags, travel bags, and travel necessities
• Bathing and sleeping
• Animal supplies
• Domestic and cleaning accessories
• Personal hygiene
• Video, sound, and photographic devices
• Living and leisure
• Toys
• Cooking and dining
• Coffee, tea, and espresso
• Fitness products
• Barbecues and barbecue accessories

If you think your products are a good addition to the current offers on Blokker, you can apply for an account via Blokker Connect!. After filling out that form, an account manager from Blokker Connect! contacts you and, after approval, provides you with an account.

Once you use the credentials of this account to log in, you can retrieve the ShopID and API key – which ChannelEngine requires to set up a connection.

Marketplace features

* 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, once you add the marketplace:

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

Blokker is a Mirakl-based marketplace, so you can connect it to 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 enable the invoice upload to ChannelEngine via the Merchant API. For that, call the POST /v2/orders/{merchantOrderNo}/invoice endpoint. Note that only invoices in PDF are supported.

Invalid XML characters

To remove invalid XML characters from your product data, click Advanced settings and enable the Check and filter invalid XML characters setting. ChannelEngine checks product data submitted in the XML format for invalid characters (e.g.: Ã, ¢, â, etc.). Once identified, invalid characters are removed or converted to a valid equivalent.

Categorization

Categorization is only needed if you want to create new products or update existing product information on Blokker. The categorization is straightforward, both it and the mappings use attribute names in Dutch.

Mappings

Content

Blokker has several mandatory attributes that need to be mapped, both for All products and for specific product types.

Required (all products)

• EAN - the 13-digit EAN of the product.
• Long description (generic) - this is the long/full description for the product, in Dutch. Bear in mind that this can only contain generic information, and terms such as 'free', 'gratis', the name of your company and 'contact our customer service' are not allowed. If these terms are present, your product or update is refused by Blokker. This description may contain simple HTML, such as p and br tags, but not links.
• Main image URL (Mirakl) - the main image for the product. Please note that all images must have a resolution of at least 500x500px, with a plain, white background.
• Mirakl product ID - the seller's internal variant identifier. This is usually your Merchant product number on ChannelEngine. E.g.: ABC123-Yellow-Medium or 117651.
• Naam (Name) - the name of the product in Dutch. E.g.: Paderno Broodzak Beige 20 cm.

Optional (but recommended)

• Brand - the standardized name of the brand/manufacturer of your product. Please note that this has to be mapped to values originating from Blokker. If your brand is not available in this list, please contact Blokker to have your brand(s) added. Once they are added, ChannelEngine will periodically import new definitions adding the options to the list.
• Packaging height (cm) - the numeric value of the packaging height, in centimeters. Make sure to submit only numeric values (e.g.: 130 or 20.5 is allowed, 50 cm is not).
• Packaging length (cm) - the numeric value of the packaging length, in centimeters. Make sure to submit only numeric values.
• Packaging width (cm) - the numeric value of the packaging width, in centimeters. Make sure to submit only numeric values.
• Short description (generic) - this is the short/marketing description for your product in Dutch. The same restrictions as for the long description apply, with the added exception that HTML is not allowed and the maximum length is 250 characters.
• URLs of secondary images - you can include multiple secondary images in this field. If you wish to supply multiple images, you can separate these with a pipe (|). If you want to use the extra images as known on ChannelEngine, you can use the following example syntax for the replacement tags (adding or removing images as desired):

  {CE:ExtraImageUrl1} | {CE:ExtraImageUrl2} | {CE:ExtraImageUrl3} | {CE:ExtraImageUrl4} 	

• Weight, excluding packaging (gr) - the numeric value of the product weight (without packaging), in grams. Make sure to submit only numeric values (so 200 or 1500 is allowed, 2.5 kg is not).
• Weight, including packaging (gr) - the numeric value of the product weight (including packaging), in grams. Make sure to submit only numeric values. This value is always greater than the weight excluding packaging.

Product-type specifics

These are required attributes for specific product types/categories, like Content in liters (for items holding liquids), Power (watt) (for electrical appliances), Type of item (for product types with different subtypes), etc.

Offer

Like most Mirakl-based marketplace, Blokker does not have many offer mappings – be them required or optional. The only mandatory offer mapping is Price, where you set your actual sale price (price rules may be applied).

The optional attributes are:

• Discount price - this attribute for the suggested retail price can be used to create a from/to price. However, this does require that this value is lower than the value mapped under Price.
• Leadtime to shipment - normally this is the processing time, from receiving the order to shipping it (excluding the actual shipping time). However, in case of Blokker, these values are also used as the total shipping and handling time – therefore you can map values such as "ordered before 22:00, tomorrow at your home" ("voor 22:00 besteld, morgen in huis").
• Logistic class - this can be used for setting different shipping classes, which can be created in the Blokker Mirakl back-end. It is particularly useful if you sell products in several weight classes, and shipping costs vary across these classes.
• Minimum quantity alert - if you set a value here, you will automatically receive an email from Blokker whenever the quantity for that product reaches the set threshold/quantity.
• Offer state - this is where you can set the condition for your products. By default this will be New (Nieuw).

Working with discounts

• Do not leave the Discount end date attribute unmapped. If you want to set a permanent discount, use a date in the far future instead. Otherwise the offer is not exported, and errors are shown under the Validation and feedback tab.
• If your discounted price is not lower than the base price, it is not exported.
• The Discount quantity threshold must be set to a value higher than 1, otherwise it is not exported.

Carrier

Carrier mapping is not required for Blokker, however, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers that Blokker knows (this allows for working tracking links in the Blokker back-end). The current list contains most carriers for the Benelux, but please contact Blokker to add your default carrier if this is lacking.

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 filter on Channel status (select Invalid to show all products that ChannelEngine has not exported, such as products with an empty GTIN or that currently do not exist on the marketplace) or use the Validation and feedback tab to see all known errors for specific products.

For detailed status reports, go to the Mirakl back-end. Their reports contain specific errors if a product or product offer cannot be created. To find them, go to My inventory, Import from file, Track offer imports/Track product imports. By hovering over the 'i' under the Status section, you can see how many products in the file were processed correctly and how many had errors, etc.

If there are errors, the last column shows a downloadable file in which they are listed. The same goes for the product file import, but this can contain multiple files because processing goes through several systems. There is also a manual check of your submitted content, which, once approved, goes to staging as well. Note that you need to map as much as possible to prevent products from not being created.

FAQ

How do I get approval for products that do not exist on Blokker?

Before requesting product approvals, make sure that the product has been published and contains no errors – otherwise Blokker does not receive anything to approve. To do so, check the transformation error report and the added product report to make sure that there are no errors – and that Blokker has received the content to approve. You can find these reports on Blokker Connect! under My Inventory, Import from file, Check product import. Once that is done, send the product approval request to Earvin Emanuelson or Marilyn Schuls.

How often does each task run on Mirakl-based marketplaces?

By default, Mirakl-based marketplaces follow the schedule below:

Can I simultaneously set up mapping on ChannelEngine and in the Mirakl back-end?

Configuring mapping in the Mirakl marketplace back-end interferes with ChannelEngine's content export. For accurate product content export, stick to categorizing and mapping your products’ content on ChannelEngine only.