fonQ: marketplace guide

About this guide

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

Associated costs

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Listed products

FAQs

 

 

Commercial information

Founded	2018
Founders	Patrick Kerssemakers, Joost Wels
Headquarters	Utrecht, the Netherlands
Area served (orders)	Belgium, the Netherlands
Revenue	EUR 100+ million (2021)
Number of monthly visits	circa 3 million
Website	fonQ
Setup cost	none
Commission	6-16% (depends on the category)
Other costs	none
Payment	twice a month
Product categories	living, cooking and dining, garden and balcony, household
Input language	Dutch
Input currency	EUR
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	yes
Profile on ChannelEngine	fonQ

 

How to request an account

To start selling on fonQ, you must create an account directly on their Verkopen via fonQ (Sell via fonQ) page (in Dutch). Once your request is processed, a fonQ account manager contacts you to discuss the details.

The following requirements apply:

• You must be registered with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce.
• You must follow fonQ's partner conditions.
• Your product content must comply with fonQ's content policy.

Associated costs

fonQ does not charge a registration fee, but it does charge a commission of 6-16% on every sale – depending on the category.

 

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product offers (EAN matching)	Repricing
Product content	Marketplace fulfillment service
Orders	Automatic relationships
Shipments	Returns (marketplace)
Cancelations (merchant)	Sales channels*
Returns/refunds (merchant)
Product variations (sizes/colors)
Carrier mapping
HTML formatting
Multiple stock locations
Bundles
Invoice uploads
Settlements

* 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 channel on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, though not every channel includes the steps listed below.

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. Fill in the Stock settings.
7. Finish the Activation.
8. Check the Listed products overview.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

fonQ is a Mirakl-based channel, 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.

You can leave the Mirakl shop ID field empty.

Invoice uploads

To configure your invoice settings, go to Advanced settings. Then, select one option from the dropdown menu in the Enable invoice uploading field, which contains the following options:

• ChannelEngine invoices - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, ChannelEngine automatically generates an invoice and attaches it to the shipment before exporting the shipment.
• Merchant invoices (optional) - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, ChannelEngine exports the shipment – even if there is no invoice attached to it.
• Merchant invoices (required) - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, ChannelEngine only exports the shipment if an invoice is attached to it. If not, you receive a notification.
• None - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, ChannelEngine takes no action other than notifying you that no invoice is present.

If you select one of the Merchant invoices options, make sure to upload the invoice to ChannelEngine via the Merchant API or via the web interface. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: upload merchant invoices.

Categorization

Categorization is mandatory if you want to create or update existing product information on fonQ. Both categorizations and mappings only result in updates if the content connection is enabled, and the relevant credentials have been entered (see the Setup section).

All categorization and mapping attributes are in Dutch.

Mappings

Content

• Bestelcode (Order code)- your internal variant identifier. Usually your Merchant product number on ChannelEngine. E.g.: ABC123-Yellow-Medium.
• Korte omschrijving (Short description) - a short description of the product. It cannot contain any HTML, and its maximum length is 250 characters.
• Merk (Brand) - the product's brand. If your brand is not listed, make sure to contact fonQ so they can add it.
• Productnaam (Product title) - the name of the product, with a maximum length of 70 characters. Its layout is: [Brand] [Type name] [Product type] [Size/composition/capacity].
• Vrijstaandbeeld (Freestanding image) - the main image of the product. Note that it must have at least 500x500 px (fonQ recommends at least 1,000x1,000 px, with a plain, white background.

The following required attribute is common to all Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• Export strategy - choose a strategy for exporting product data. You can select from the following export strategies:
  • Yes - export all product content to the marketplace, including the EAN (GTIN), category, and other mapped attributes. This option is ideal if you manage both product content and offers through ChannelEngine for the marketplace. Before you set this option, ensure that you map all required attributes.

  • No - do not export product content to the marketplace. Choose this option to keep the product content excluded from exports and only export the offers. This option is ideal if you do not want to export the product content yet, or you want to export only the product offers because the product content already exists on the marketplace.
     

    NB: the default export strategy is Yes, even if the Export strategy attribute is left unmapped.

fonQ does not have any required product type-specific attributes, however there are many optional fields related to highlights, additional images, size, and color.

Offer

• Price - your desired sales price.
• Delivery promise - the delivery time you stand by.
• EAN code - the 13-digit EAN/GTIN of the product. E.g.: 8717807200000.

Optional

The following offer attributes are common to some Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• ECO #1-5 amount - the amount due for the eco-contribution related to the product. E.g.: 2.50.
• ECO #1-5 EPR category code - the extended producer responsibility (EPR) code that applies to the product. For a list of category codes, check out the article Providing data to comply with circular economy regulations in Mirakl's help center (note that you need to be logged in to Mirakl to access this page). E.g.: DE-WEEE, FR-DEA, etc.
• ECO #1-5 producer ID - your producer ID, received upon registering with a packaging register, such as Germany's LUCID. The maximum number of characters is 255.
• Category-specific ECO attributes - depending on your sales country, you might be required to map additional ECO attributes for products in specific categories. Review which ECO attributes to map within each category.

If pricing v2 is activated in your environment, you will see the following offer attributes, which are common to all Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• Allow promotion below min price - set it to ‘true’ to allow the promotion price to drop below your product's minimum price. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: promotions.
• Strike price - the regular selling price. Use it in combination with the Price attribute to set up a discount/strikethrough pricing. To learn more, check out the 'Working with discounts' section of this article. 
• Additionally, the Fee groups attribute appears in Mappings, Fee group mappings, if pricing v2 is activated. Map the marketplace fee group ID of the product there.  

The following offer attributes are also common to all Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• Discount start date - the date from which the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. Input the date as a fixed value. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. All dates follow ISO month-day formatting, and all times follow 24-hour formatting in the UTC timezone. E.g.: 2026-10-25 15:30:00 +01 will start your discount on 25 October 2026 at 3:30 PM, one hour ahead of UTC time.
• Discount end date - the date until which the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. Input the date as a fixed value. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. All dates follow ISO month-day formatting, and all times follow 24-hour formatting in the UTC timezone. E.g.: 2026-10-30 23:59:59 +01 will end your discount on 30 October 2026 at 11:59 PM and 59 seconds, one hour ahead of UTC time.
• Discount price - the product's sale price, if applicable. This attribute must have a lower value than the Price attribute. This attribute only applies if you use pricing v1.
• Discount quantity threshold - the minimum quantity required for the discount rate to be available.
• Leadtime to shipment - the number of days before you ship the product. You can create your own unique rules, if applicable. For more information on this, check out the article Lead time to ship in Mirakl's help center.
• Minimum quantity alert - map this attribute to receive a notification from Mirakl if your stock drops below the threshold defined.
• Offer state - the product's condition. Find your option from the dropdown menu by selecting the fixed value to apply to all.
• Product tax code - the taxation code applicable to the product.
• Logistic class - your optional shipping class. Make sure to map the shipping class using the marketplace’s codes and not with the labels that are visible in the partner portal's user interface. These codes vary per marketplace. If this marketplace makes use of logistic class codes, they can be found below.

Code	Label	Description
Default logistic class	Default logistic class	Default logistic class - free shipping

Working with discounts

These instructions apply to most Mirakl marketplaces. If there are any exceptions on this marketplace, these are noted below. 

Pricing v1

• To set up a discount, map the Discount price, Discount start date, and Discount end date attributes. If you want to set a permanent discount, map the Discount end date attribute with a date in the far future instead of leaving it unmapped. Otherwise, the offer is not exported, and errors are shown on the Validation and feedback tab.
• The discounted price is only exported if it is lower than the base price.
• If you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped.
• To set a bulk discount, the Discount quantity threshold must be set to a value higher than 1. For example, a value of 2 indicates that the buyer must purchase two or more products at the same time to benefit from the discount.

Pricing v2

• To set up a discount, in the Offer mappings step, map the Strike price attribute to your regular price. Then, map the Discount start date and Discount end date attributes to indicate the start and end dates of your discount.
• If you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped. To learn how to set up a bulk discount, check out Bulk discounts.
• In the Pricing step, go to Price rules. Map the Price attribute to the discounted price. Both Min. price and Base price fields must be mapped. Note that ChannelEngine exports the higher of the two values – typically the Base price. To learn more, check out ChannelEngine: price rules v2.
• The Price and Strike price attributes cannot be mapped with the same value. ChannelEngine only sets a discount if the value in Price (Base price) is lower than the value in Strike price.
• If set up correctly, your product displays a discount label and a strikethrough price on the channel.

Carrier

Carrier mapping is not required on fonQ. However, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by fonQ. This allows for working track-and-trace links in the back-end, as well as for the buyer. If your default carrier is missing, please contact fonQ.

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. Use the Channel status filter or the Validation and feedback tab to view all known errors for specific products.

If you see either of the below statuses, refer to the article ChannelEngine: why is my product listed as 'Product not found' in the inventory report?:

• Product not found in inventory report
• Product not in offer file

Products that ChannelEngine has failed to export are shown as Invalid, e.g.: products with an empty GTIN or that do not yet exist on the marketplace.

Alternatively, download the error report generated by Mirakl. To do so:

1. Log onto the Mirakl platform and go to Catalog, Product imports.
2. Identify the latest report and click the See details button.
3. Download the CSV file Non-integrated products report.

FAQs

What does the error "EAN already exists" mean?

Chances are it means fonQ itself has blocked the related product on their side. This is often done to products which do not perform well on the platform.

I do not see any of my offers appear on fonQ. What happened?

Check if you have assigned a value to the Delivery promise attribute, under the Offer mappings. Without it, fonQ does not accept offers.

I do not have any content mappings for fonQ.be. Is this correct?

Yes, that is correct. It is only possible to create and update content via the fonQ.nl plugin, so this is the only one which has the necessary content mappings. On other fonQ channels, such as fonQ.be, offers can only be connected with existing content.

Why can I not map content for fonQ BE?

For fonQ, it is only possible to create content via the main fonQ.nl plugin. Other fonQ channels only allow an offer export connecting to existing content, so these channels will not display a tab for categorization or content mapping.

In short, it is necessary to create content on fonQ.nl and then create offers for that content on your other channels, such as fonQ.be.

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

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

Task	Frequency
Export product data to marketplace	every 60 minutes
Export product offers to marketplace	every 15 minutes
Import product offers from marketplace	every 15 minutes
Import orders from marketplace	every 15 minutes
Export order shipments to marketplace	every 15 minutes
Export returns to marketplace	every 30 minutes

Can I map attributes on ChannelEngine and on the Mirakl platform?
No. Mapping attributes on the Mirakl marketplace platform interferes with ChannelEngine's content export. Therefore, it is recommended to categorize and map content only on ChannelEngine.

Why am I not receiving feedback on my content and/or offer exports?
Chances are that you are receiving the feedback. However, different types of error reports can take a couple of hours or several days to be generated:

• Offer feedback
  • Error reports are mostly generated automatically and are imported quickly.
• Content feedback
  • Transformation error report - this is automatically generated, and usually imported within a maximum of one day.
  • Conventional error report - this requires a manual review by the Mirakl-based marketplace, and not all do so. It can take several days for this report to be imported.

Note that the previous feedback report is not removed from ChannelEngine until both the latest transformation and the conventional reports have been fully processed by ChannelEngine. If there are no errors to report, no new reports are generated.