bol Suppliers: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Utrecht-based marketplace bol. Here you can find information on how to request bol's Suppliers account, how to configure this channel on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.

Table of contents

Introduction

How to request an account

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Pricing
• Listed products

Introduction

bol's Leveranciers (Suppliers) plugin is designed for direct suppliers. If you are a merchant interested in selling your products as a third-party on bol, please refer to the bol plaza plugin.

How to request an account

bol actively looks for suppliers, contacting them directly if they are interested in selling your products. However, it is also possible to contact bol. To register, go to the registration page.

There are two forms you can work with:

• Stock-only - the product range that has been agreed on with the buyer is immediately purchased and made available on bol. Offers with sufficient content are visible in the store, if the product is in stock on bol. These products can be delivered directly to customers from stock.
• Cross-dock - in addition to stocking the 'stock' range, it is also possible to cross-dock the rest of your range. The cross-dock offers in the store depend on the availability, prices, ad delivery times communicated in the offer feed. The cross-dock range is delivered to the customer with a longer delivery time based on direct customer orders via bol.

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

Setting up each channel 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.

Setup

On bol

Since bol Suppliers works with an FTP server, to make sure the integration works as intended, reach out to Supplier@bol.com and request them to allowlist ChannelEngine's IP ranges. While IPv6 addresses are not supported by bol yet, it is enough to allowlist all the IPv4 addresses. This must be done so all ChannelEngine-related tasks can be performed.

On ChannelEngine

1. Once your supplier account is active and you have received your FTP credentials from bol, go to your bol Suppliers channel on ChannelEngine and add the credentials under the Setup section.
2. You can choose if you want to expose your actual stock or not. If you do not want to expose it, ChannelEngine sets products without stock to 0 (zero) and product with stock to 1 (one). If you do want to expose your actual stock, bol sees it as 'is available on ChannelEngine'. Keep in mind that the attribute Maximum delivery time is leading, even over this setting.

Categorization

Categorization is mandatory, as bol needs access to your product content. All categories are listed in Dutch.

Mappings

Content

All products (required)

• Beschrijving (Description) - the product's description.
• Hoofdafbeelding (Main product image) - the product's main image. Note that there are requirements in both size and background for your main image.
• Interne referentie (Internal reference) - the offer's reference ID, usually your Merchant product number/SKU.
• Productnaam (Product name) - the product's title.
• Producttaal (Product language) - the language in which the product can be used. E.g.: a smartphone can be used in multiple languages.

All products (optional)

• Additionele afbeeldingen (Additional images) - the product's additional images. The following requirements must be met:
• The minimum and maximum file sizes are 30 kB and 10 MB, respectively.
• The minimum and maximum resolutions are 500x500 px and 6,000x6,000 px, respectively.
• The background must be white.
• CMYK color settings are not supported.
• Productvariant ID
• Verpakking breedte (Package width) - the width of the package, without the unit. E.g.: 50.
• Verpakking breedte (eenheid) (Package width unit) - the unit of the width of the package, without the value. E.g.: cm.
• Verpakking hoogte (Package height) - the height of the package, without the unit. E.g.: 200.
• Verpakking hoogte (eenheid) (Package height unit) - the unit of the height of the package, without the value. E.g.: cm.
• Verpakking lengte (Package length) - the length of the package, without the unit. E.g.: 50.
• Verpakking lengte (eenheid) (Package length unit) - the unit of the length of the package, without the value. E.g.: cm.

Product type-specific

Next to the five global required attributes, there are also product type-specific required attributes.

Dekbedovertrek (Duvet cover), for instance, has ten additional required attributes, such as brand, material, color, etc., which also need to be mapped. If a required field is missing data, it is not exported to bol.

Offer

Required

• Currency code - the currency you work with. The options are EUR, USD, or GBP.
• EAN - the product's 13-digit EAN or GTIN.
• In stock - states if a product is in stock or not. However, the field Max. delivery time is leading.
• Internal reference - your internal reference, usually the Merchant product number/SKU.
• Max. delivery time - the product's shipping time, from the moment the product is ordered until it arrives at bol's warehouse. The minimum value is 2, as the date of the order is considered as 1. The value 0 means the product is temporarily unavailable. bol calculates the cut-off time automatically.
• Min. order quantity - states the minimum order quantity. This value must be higher than 0 (zero).
• Name - the product's title. It can be either an internal value or updated through content mapping.
• Net purchase price - the purchase price you are invoicing bol with, excluding VAT, with a maximum of two decimal places.
• Price before (re)price rules - your sale price, including VAT, with a maximum of two decimal places.
• Stock quantity - the stock available to bol. Products with an empty Stock quantity are exported as infinitely available. Products with a Stock quantity of 0 (zero) and a Max. delivery time of 2 mean it is still available, because the latter attribute is leading.
• VAT % - the VAT percentage, without the percentage symbol. E.g.: 21.

Optional

• List price - the MSRP, incl. VAT, with a maximum of two decimal places.
• Release date - the date when the customer receives the product. bol expects this product in their warehouse circa five days before the delivery date. This field is only meant for cross-dock suppliers, with pre-order products within the product categories Books & Entertainment, and Electronics.

Pricing

Unlike the regular bol plugin, the bol Suppliers plugin does not support ChannelEngine's repricer and fee reductions. However, you can apply price rules, which can be configured in the Pricing section of the channel.

For more information on price rules and currency conversions, check out the related guides.

Listed products

If you have problems with products not appearing on bol (especially if you are trying to add products that do not exist yet), 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 products that currently do not exist on bol) or use the Validation and feedback tab to see all known validation/feedback errors for specific products.