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 channel on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.
This guide also applies to vtwonen, but before you can set up this channel you must set up fonQ Netherlands. The same goes for fonQ Belgium.
Table of contents
Channel-specific requirements and exceptions
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.
Channel features
| Supported | Not supported |
| Product offers (EAN matching) |
Repricing |
| Product content | Marketplace fulfillment service |
| Orders | Automatic relationships |
| Shipments | Returns (channel) |
| Cancelations (merchant) | Sales channels |
| Returns/refunds (merchant) | |
| Product variations (sizes/colors) | |
| Carrier mapping | |
| HTML formatting |
Settings and configuration
Setting up each channel on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, once you add the channel:
- Go through the Setup.
- Create a Product selection.
- Complete the Categorization.
- Set up the Mappings: content, offers, and carriers.
- Configure the Pricing: rules and currency conversion.
- Finish the Activation.
- Check the Listed products overview.
Channel-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 seller name field empty, as fonQ does not support repricing.
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 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.
- EAN code - the 13-digit EAN/GTIN of the product. E.g.: 8717807200000.
- Korte omschrijving (Short description) - a short description of the product. It cannot contain any HTML, and its maximum length is 250 characters.
- Lange omschrijving (Long description) - the full description of the product. Basic HTML is supported, such as p, li, ul, etc.
- 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.
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
The only mandatory offer mappings are Price, which is your desired sale price, and Delivery promise, which is the delivery time you stand by.
Attributes such as Leadtime to shipment (the number of days before you ship the item), Logistic class (your optional shipping class), Offer state (the condition of your item), and Minimum quantity alert (so you receive a notification if the stock drops below a certain threshold) are common for Mirakl mappings.
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.
- If you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped – otherwise the export is broken.
- If you do want to set a bulk discount, the Discount quantity threshold must be set to a value higher than 1. E.g.: a value of 2 indicates that two or more of the product must be purchased at the same time for the buyer to benefit from the discount.
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.
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.
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 and vtwonen. 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 and vtwonen, offers can only be connected with existing content.
Why can I not map content for fonQ BE and VTWonen?
For fonQ, it is only possible to create content via the main fonQ.nl plugin. All 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 all of your other channels.
This relates to:
- fonQ.be
- VTWonen.nl
- VTWonen.be
How often does each task run on Mirakl-based channels?
By default, Mirakl-based channels follow the schedule below:
| Task | Frequency |
| Export product data to channel | every 60 minutes |
| Export product offers to channel | every 15 minutes |
| Import product offers from channel | every 15 minutes |
| Import orders from channel | every 15 minutes |
| Export order shipments to channel | every 15 minutes |
| Export returns to channel | every 30 minutes |
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