ChannelEngine: offer mappings

About this article

This article describes the offer mapping process on ChannelEngine.

Introduction

Mapping offers

• Product and attribute filters
• Enhanced tooltips
• Attribute option syncing

Product search and filters

Export offer mappings

Introduction

You need to send information about your products' prices and stock to your connected channels. You do this in offer mappings. 

While categorization, content mappings, and carrier mappings may be optional on certain channels, offer mappings are almost always required. On most channels, the Price attribute is always required, but this requirement can vary per channel.

For more information on the difference between offers and content, check out the What's the difference between content and offers? article.

Mapping offers

To map offer attributes, follow the same process as when mapping your product content.

One of the most important attributes in the Offer mappings tab, regardless of the channel, is the Price. By default, the attribute is mapped to your ChannelEngine Price field, but you can use a custom price field as well. The price attribute that you map is subject to price rules and repricing if these are enabled in the Pricing step and/or are applicable on the channel.

Other common offer attributes:

• Catalog price/MSRP - often used to indicate a 'from' price on a channel.
• Shipping time - the expected delay associated with shipping the product to the buyer.
• Shipping costs - officially, third-party sellers on marketplaces are not allowed to submit shipping costs, but any value mapped to this attribute is added to the final exported price.
• Type of fulfillment - indicates if you are shipping the item yourself, or using an external fulfillment service such as LVB, FBA, FBC, or ZFS.
• Condition - states the condition of the product, e.g.: new, used, refurbished, etc.

Product and attribute filters

The channel's offer attributes are displayed in two tabs: Product filters and Attribute filters. These two tabs allow you to filter your view based on your individual products or on the mappable attributes. For more guidance on the differences between these two tabs, check out ChannelEngine: content mappings.

Enhanced tooltips

When you hover over a product name in Content mappings or Offer mappings, an enhanced tooltip appears, which provides you with quick access to key data about the product:

• Product type -  a G, P, C, or S icon in the upper right corner of the tooltip indicates whether the product is a (grand)parent, child, or standalone product.
• Family selector - a target icon appears next to (grand)parent and child products. Click on the target icon to restrict the mappings view to only those products that have the same (grand)parent-child relationship, i.e.: products within the same family (color, size, etc.). For guidance on (grand)parent-child relationships, check out ChannelEngine: parent-child relationships.  
• Unique product identifiers - the Merchant product number, GTIN, and Vendor product number. Easily copy these identifiers to your clipboard by clicking on a given number. Reuse the copied number to search on this product elsewhere on ChannelEngine or in your own systems.

Attribute option syncing

From time to time, a channel might require you to map an attribute to a new set of options. If you have not updated your mapping to meet the channel's new requirements, errors can occur when exporting your product data. To solve the export errors, you can manually sync the updated options on select attributes and on select channels. If attribute option syncing is available, you will see a refresh button next to each syncable attribute. To learn more about how and when to use option syncing, check out further instructions in ChannelEngine: content mappings. 

Product search and filters

At the top of the Offer mappings tab, you can switch between the table or the list view. Both views include a search that allows you to find all products based on the attributes that contain your search term. Use the search to include or exclude certain products from the mapping by product name, GTIN, Merchant product number, or Vendor product number.

Use one or a combination of the available filters to filter by:

• Export action - filter products by what action the data export will take on the product.
• Export status - filter by the status of the export from ChannelEngine to the channel.
• Channel status - filter by the status of the product's listing on the channel.
• Type - filter by product type: child, parent, grandparent (for products in a family) or single (for standalone products). 
• Include bundles - switch views via the dropdown to include, exclude, or exclusively show product bundles in the list.
• Product selections - select which product selections to show.
• Switch view via the All products dropdown:
  • Filter on empty values - view products with empty or unmapped attribute values.
  • Filter on overrides - view products with manual overrides. You manually entered value to map an attribute, or you selected an option that replaced the default mapped value.
• In a refined view:
  • Auto-hide unsaved matches - (available only if you switched to the Filter on empty values or Filter on overrides view) toggle on to hide unsaved changes. If you remove or edit a value without saving it, and it no longer matches the filter, it disappears from the results.
  • Show all attributes - (available only if you switched to the Filter on empty values or Filter on overrides view) toggle on to show all attributes, not only those with empty values or manual overrides.

Wildcard search

Wildcard searches enable you to quickly find a ChannelEngine field or a custom field within an attribute dropdown by using keyboard shortcuts. 

Use wildcard search in the Mappings step of a channel or within an Advanced rules pop-up. To use wildcard search:

1. In Mappings, go to an attribute, and select either ChannelEngine fields, Custom fields, or Advanced rule from its dropdown menu. 
2. If you selected ChannelEngine fields or Custom fields, place your mouse cursor within the empty field next to the dropdown arrow. 

3. Enter the wildcard character (%), preceded and/or followed by the characters from the attribute you seek. The (%) character replaces zero or more characters of any kind. 

   E.g.: to search for all attributes that have the letters 'e' and 't', such as Height and Length, enter 'e%t' in the search bar.

4. If you selected Advanced rule from the dropdown in Step 1, then click Edit advanced rule.
5. In the empty field within the If statement, enter your wildcard search.

Export offer mappings

To check if your product offers are mapped correctly or if any products still need attention, you can export your current offer mappings via email. In the Offer mappings tab, click Export categorization, Yes. ChannelEngine sends a CSV file with the current offer mappings to the email address that you use to log into ChannelEngine. To download the CSV file, click Download link in the email.