ChannelEngine: merchant connectors

About this article

This article describes ChannelEngine's merchant connectors (a.k.a. merchant plugins), how they work, and how you can set them up.

Table of contents

Introduction

Add a merchant connector

Set up a merchant connector

Introduction

Merchant connectors provide a connection with various ecommerce systems, such as:

• Webstore systems
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
• Order management systems (OMS)
• Warehouse management systems (WMS)
• Product information management (PIM) systems

Merchant connectors allow for synchronizing product data, orders, shipments, and inventory between your ecommerce system and ChannelEngine. Some examples of merchant connectors are Magento 2, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Logic4.

Add a merchant connector

To have a specific connector added to your ChannelEngine environment, contact your Implementation Specialist (if you are in the process of onboarding), your Customer Success Manager, or the Support team.

Set up a merchant connector

Before proceeding with the setup on ChannelEngine, you must establish the connection in your ecommerce system back-end. For more information on how to make this connection, check out the corresponding connector guide or contact your Onboarding Specialist.

Depending on your system, the connector configuration may occur either in the ecommerce system itself (e.g.: WooCommerce, Magento 2) or on ChannelEngine (Shopify, Logic4, PrestaShop, Akeneo). If the connector configuration occurs on ChannelEngine, it does not mean that the system you are using is inactive – it means you need to manage your settings on ChannelEngine.

To set up a merchant connector on ChannelEngine:

1. Go to Settings, Merchant plugins, or select the connector from Dashboard. 
   
2. Go to the Setup tab of the connector. Add the credentials and settings needed for the connection to work. As settings differ per connector, check out the corresponding connector guide to make sure you fill them out correctly. Once done, click Save at the bottom of the page.
   
3. Proceed to the Activation tab and switch on the Activate synchronization for <connector name> toggle. This triggers an attempt to make a test API call to your connector environment. If it returns an error, instead of a green highlight, the credentials are invalid. Double-check the settings and try again. If the problem persists, contact ChannelEngine's Support team.
   
4. Once the connector is successfully activated, tasks are automatically scheduled to synchronize data between the connector and ChannelEngine (e.g.: Import product data from merchant and Export orders to merchant). Go to the Dashboard tab to check the latest executed tasks and their next schedule.