StyleSearch: channel guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Amsterdam-based affiliate channel StyleSearch. Here you can find information on how to request a StyleSearch account, how to configure this channel on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.

Table of contents

Commercial information

Introduction

How to request an account

Associated costs

Channel features

Settings and configuration

Channel-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Product selection
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Pricing

Activation

Commercial information

Founded	2020
Founders	Orpheo Bena, Noud van den Eerenbeemt
Headquarters	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Area served (orders)	Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States
Number of monthly visits	circa 70,000
Website	StyleSearch
Setup cost	none
Commission	see Associated costs section
Other costs	none
Payment	via your own webshop
Product categories	fashion, shoes/bags/luggage
Input language	Dutch, English
Input currency	EUR, GBP, USD
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	yes
Profile on ChannelEngine	StyleSearch

Introduction

StyleSearch is a fashion search engine that utilizes image-recognition technology to assemble a personalized assortment of clothing from various brands and sellers within a single platform. Users can create their own profiles and update their preferences so that results are returned based on their individual tastes and styles. StyleSearch streamlines the online fashion shopping process for buyers and simultaneously operates as a click-and-ad channel for brands and retailers, enabling them to expand their reach and target a broader audience.

How to request an account

To start utilizing StyleSearch, contact them via the contact form on their website. After your initial contact, they assess whether your products are a good fit for StyleSearch. If your products align, you'll receive a proposal document outlining different packages based on the number of products you intend to list.

Choose the package and options that suit your preferences, sign the document, and return it to StyleSearch. Upon receiving your signed document, your account is activated, allowing you to add your brand and products to the StyleSearch platform.

Associated costs

The costs associated with StyleSearch vary based on the package you choose during onboarding, in addition to any optional advertising budget you opt for to boost conversions. Typically, there is a minimum monthly fee of 75.00 EUR, along with a 10% commission levied on each sale facilitated through StyleSearch.

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product content (feed)	Orders
Product variations (color/size)	Product offers
From-for pricing	HTML/markup support
Currency conversion (optional)	Product status import
	Carrier mappings
	Shipments
	Cancellations
	Returns
	Volume discounts
	External fulfillment
	Sales channels*

* 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.

As StyleSearch is an affiliate channel, it does not perform any marketplace actions such as order processing or shipment creation. Instead, the ChannelEngine integration creates a feed that you can integrate with your StyleSearch back-end. All order management and processing is conducted directly on your webstore.

Settings and configuration

Setting up each marketplace on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, though not every marketplace 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. Finish the Activation.
7. Check the Listed products overview.

Setup

On ChannelEngine

On the Setup page, you can find the following options to enable or disable based on your preferences:

• Do not expose actual stock - enable it if you prefer not to export precise stock levels (StyleSearch displays items as either 'In stock' or 'Out of stock'). With this setting, the stock value is always set at '1' for products with positive stock.
• Use update date from CE product - StyleSearch includes an attribute for the date of the last product update. Enabling this setting allows this attribute to be automatically populated with the date of the most recent data update for each product on ChannelEngine.
• Enable product URL tracking (under Advanced settings) - if this setting is enabled, the product URLs in the StyleSearch feed include a tracking query string parameter. E.g.:  https://www.myshop.com/products/product_123?cectid=8-2-123
• Cost per click (CPC) excl. VAT (under Conversion tracking) - enable this option if you would like ChannelEngine to calculate the costs and return on investment (ROI) automatically.

Product selection

To generate a product feed for StyleSearch, you first need to create a product selection of the products you want to list. Once this is done, a URL is generated on the Product selection page on ChannelEngine. This is a static URL, it does not change unless you remove the channel.

Copy the feed URL and send it to your StyleSearch contact person.

Categorization

Categorization is mandatory on StyleSearch, and all categories are provided in Dutch and English. 

Mappings

Content

Unlike other affiliate channels, StyleSearch has a number of required attributes that must be provided. If any of the required attributes is unmapped, then a default fallback value is automatically used. 

All products (required)

• Brand - the product's brand.
• Color - the product's main color.
• Currency - the currency used to display the product's pricing. E.g.: EUR, USD, and GBP. The default currency is EUR. 
• Description - the product's description, including any key features and selling points. HTML formatting is not supported.
• EAN - the product's 13-digit EAN.
• Gender - the gender that applies to the product range. The default value is unisex. 
• In stock - indicate if the product is in stock. E.g.: true or false. If the attribute is left empty and the value of the default ChannelEngine stock attribute is more than 0, the default value is true. 
• Main product image - the product's main image. This must be a direct link to the product, without any tracking included.
• Material - the main material composition of the product. E.g.: leather, nylon, polyester, etc. 
• Old price/MSRP - the manufacturer's suggested retail price. This value is only exported if it is higher than the regular Price.
• Product name - the product's title.
• Product URL - the URL of the product on your website. This must be a direct link without any tracking. 
• Size - the size of the product. E.g.: small, medium, S, M, 8, 10, etc.
• Unique product ID - the unique merchant ID for the product, such as its SKU.

All products (optional)

• Additional images 1-4 - the product's additional image URLs. These must be direct links without any tracking. 
• Category ID - the unique category ID. If none is available, the default value is taken from category matching. 
• Category name - the category trail for the product. E.g.: Women's clothing>Jeans>Skinny jeans. If no value is provided, the default value is taken from category matching.
• GTIN - the product's GTIN. 
• Language code - the language to display the product in, in two-letter ISO format. E.g.: nl_NL. 
• Large product image - a direct URL without any tracking to the product's large image. 
• Last product update - the date the product was last updated in the format YYYY-MM-DD. E.g.: 2020-03-23. 
• Parent product ID - the unique identifier, such as the SKU, associated with the parent product. The child products must differ on one attribute, such as size or color. 
• Set ID - the unique identifier, such as the SKU, associated with the grandparent product. the grandparent product groups both size and colors under the same parent products. 
• Shipping costs - the shipping costs associated with the product. E.g.: 4.25.
• Shipping information - any additional information regarding delivery. E.g.: free delivery, free returns via PostNL, etc. 

Offer

There are no offer mappings for StyleSearch. Instead, map your sales price and the manufacturer's recommended retail price to the Price and Old price/MSRP attributes (respectively) for each product. 

Pricing

All prices on StyleSearch should be provided in EUR, GBP, and USD, depending on your country. If the countries you plan to target have a different currency than your own, you can use price rules to apply automated currency conversion. 

Activation

Once you have completed categorization and content mapping, you can go to the Activation page and enable the setting Activate synchronization for StyleSearch.