Cdiscount: marketplace guide

About this guide

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

Table of contents

Commercial information

How to request an account

Associated costs

Channel features

Settings and configuration

Channel-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Listed products

FAQs

Commercial information

How to request an account

The account creation process on Cdiscount is straightforward. You can request an account directly on their website or via email. Cdiscount sellers must meet the following requirements:

• Sellers must have a valid VAT number.
• Cdiscount reserves the right to accept or reject an application, and the specific acceptance criteria are confidential. Once a seller is registered, the account is immediately activated.
• Cdiscount requires sellers to have French-language customer support via email, but you can use a third-party service such as Salesupply. French-language phone support is not required.
• Sellers have three options when it comes to returns: have a French return address; include a prepaid shipping label; or pay the cost of an international return.

Associated costs

Cdiscount does not charge a registration fee, but it does charge a category-based commission on every sale (circa 15%), as well as a monthly fee of EUR 39.99. This fee grants access to either the B2C or B2B version of the Cdiscount marketplace (i.e.: Cdiscount Pro). If you want to sell on both websites, the monthly fee goes up to EUR 59.99.

For more details on Cdiscount's commission, refer to the Prices to open your shop on Cdiscount Marketplace article.

Cdiscount also offers a premium subscription, which provides sellers with benefits such as enhanced advertising features, fulfillment services, an account manager, and more. For more information on Cdiscount's premium subscription, go to their website.

Channel features

Settings and configuration

Setting up each channel on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, once you add the channel:

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.

Channel-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On Cdiscount

Cdiscount requires an API username and API password, which can differ from the username used for the Cdiscount back-end (a.k.a. Octopia).

To create the required API credentials:

1. In your Cdiscount dashboard, go to Settings, User rights management.
2. Click Add a user API.

Later on you can reset the password for the API user. However, if you forget the original credentials, you need to delete the user and add a new one to connect your ChannelEngine tenant with your Octopia account.

Order line additions:

• FRAISTRAITEMENT SKU - if you have a specific SKU for the Cdiscount fee order lines for FRAISTRAITEMENT. 
• INTERETBCA SKU - for a specific SKU Cdiscount order line INTERETBCA.
  
  For more information on order line additions, read the Cdiscount: frais de traitement article.

On ChannelEngine

To connect ChannelEngine and Cdiscount:

1. On the Setup tab, enter the credentials in the API username and API password field.
2. Click Save to complete the authorization process.

Categorization

Categorization is mandatory if you want to create or update existing product information on Cdiscount. 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). Note that Cdiscount's category list is in French, so you may need a translation tool. To see all possible Cdiscount categories, select Browse in the lower left-hand corner of the Categorization page.

Mappings

Content

All products (required)

• Brand name - Cdiscount has a select brand list. If your brand is not available in the database, list it as aucune (any).
• Description - the description of the product, HTML is not supported. The maximum number of characters allowed is 420.
• EAN - the 13-digit EAN or GTIN of the product.
• Long title - the title on the product details page, ideally in the format [Product type] - [Brand] - [Description keywords] - [Model, for technical products] - [Gender, if applicable]. HTML is not supported, and the maximum number of characters is 132. Note that titles must be unique, otherwise Cdiscount rejects them.
• Main image URL - the main image of the product.
• Short title - the title on the invoice of the purchase order. HTML is not supported. The maximum number of characters is 30.

All products (optional)

• Encoded marketing description - the long description of the product. limited HTML is supported (only bold, strong, and br tags). The maximum number of characters is 5,000.
• Height (m), Length (m), Width (m), and Weight (kg) - product dimensions (in meters) and weight (in kilograms).
• International standard book number (ISBN) - only required if the product is a book.
• Seller product family/Seller product color/Size - used to define or group variants on Cdiscount, this is usually your Parent SKU/GroupNo attribute.
• Garantie (Warranty) - represents the warranties included with each product.
• Labels et certifications (Labels and certifications) - represents the certifications that each product has, such as organic, fair trade, NF environment, etc.

Offer

While content mapping is only needed to create or update new products on Cdiscount, some offer mappings are actually required to get your product online.

All products (required)

• Condition - sets the condition of the product, the default value is 'new'. I.e.: new, as new, very good, refurbished, etc. If the content attribute Condition override is left empty, the value mapped to this attribute is used.
• DEA tax (in euros) - a French tax related to the recycling of furniture products. If you are not certain of how to use it or have not registered for it, set the value to zero.
• Eco tax (in euros) - a French tax related to the recycling of high-tech products. If you are not certain of how to use it or have not registered for it, set the value to zero.
• Fulfillment - select Merchant to use your own fulfillment, Fulfillment by Cdiscount (FBC) to use Cdiscount's fulfillment, or Automatic to use FBC as long as there is known FBC stock.

All products (optional)

• Discount % (from reference price) - the optional discount percentage. The maximum value is 100.
• Discount % reference price - the price field used to calculate the discount.
• Maximum warehouse delivery time - the time, in days, it takes your carrier to ship the ordered product to the Cdiscount warehouse. Only map this if you work with FBC.
• Offer comment - enter an optional comment to be displayed on the offer. The maximum number of characters is 200. E.g.: The box has been opened and the product manual is missing.
• Packaging unit - the packaging's unit of measurement. E.g.: kg.
• Packaging value - the packaging's measurement value. E.g.: 0.6.
• Price alignment enabled - if set to 'Yes', this attribute keeps your offer competitive by lowering its price according to the other offers for the product.
• Price alignment minimum price - combined with the Price alignment enabled attribute, it sets the minimum value to which Cdiscount can lower the product's price.
• Sale end date - the date until when the product's discounted price is valid, if applicable. The supported format is YYYY-MM-DDT00:00. E.g.: 2023-12-31T23:59. Note that the interval between Sale start date and Sale end date cannot exceed 48 hours.
• Sale start date - the date from when the product's discounted price is valid, if applicable. The supported format is YYYY-MM-DDT00:00. E.g.: 2023-12-31T23:59.
• Sale type - set it if you want to configure a sale and, if so, what type. The options are no sale, discount %, flash sale.
• Shipping cost - [method] - the types of shipment costs you can submit. At least one is mandatory. Make sure to fill out all the shipping costs you configured in the Cdiscount back-end with a value greater than zero, otherwise the The value is out of bounds, check the consistency of values error is shown. Note that this attribute expects a decimal value. E.g.: 7.95.

   

  Shipping method	Description
  Standard*	Delivery without tracking or signature.
  Registered*	Delivery without tracking, but with the signature of the customer upon reception.
  Tracked*	Delivery with tracking, but no signature.
  Express*	Delivered to the customer strictly within the stated delivery time.
  Fast	The customer collects their order at your store within six hours.
  Mondial Relay	Delivered via the Mondial Relay network of pick-up points.
  Relais Colis	Delivered via the Relais Colis network of pick-up points.
  Relay	The customer collects their order at your store.
  So Colissimo	Delivered via the So Colissimo network of pick-up points.
  Big Parcel Comfort	Specific for bulky parcels (>30 kg). It must be delivered, unpacked, and installed at the customer's home – in the room of their choice.
  Big Parcel Eco	Specific for bulky parcels (>30 kg). It must be delivered in front of the customer's home.
  Big Parcel Standard	Specific for bulky parcels (>30 kg). It must be delivered at the customer's home, in the room of their choice.

   

• Shipping preparation time - the time, in days, it takes to process an order and ship it. The value should range between 1 and 5 days.

Carrier

Cdiscount does not have a fixed carrier list, so you can submit unregistered carriers. Tracking information is required to successfully export shipments.

Note that shipments can only be exported within 14 days of the initial order creation. If you ship an item after that period, your shipment returns an error – and a notification is created.

Listed products

If you have problems with products not appearing on Cdiscount, check the Listed products section for more information.

FAQs

Why are my products not listed?

The process of setting different shipment methods and costs on ChannelEngine is often overlooked. However, this process is very important because if the shipment costs configured do not match the shipment settings enabled for a product, there is no active offer for the product on Cdiscount.

To configure shipping methods, go Cdiscount's back-end and click Settings, Your delivery modes and areas. To set this up the same way on ChannelEngine, go to your Cdiscount channel and click Mappings, Offer mappings.

Why are my deleted products still visible on Cdiscount?

There is no option to completely delete a product from the Cdiscount back-end via their API when the product is no longer active or complying with your product selection.

Even if you 'delete' products from ChannelEngine, they remain visible in the Cdiscount's back-end with a stock of zero. If you want products to be completely removed (e.g.: for overview purposes), delete them directly in the Cdiscount back-end.

What are FRAISDETRAITEMENT and INTERETBCA?

Please refer to the article Cdiscount: frais de traitement.

Can I update my existing product information on Cdiscount via ChannelEngine?

No, this is a restriction from Cdiscount which ChannelEngine has no influence on. You can create new products via ChannelEngine, however, altering attributes at a later date is not possible.

You can read Cdiscount's statement on this matter below:

"Note that you cannot modify product information with your API/flux. You must follow the procedure indicated below to do so:

• How to modify my products?, if you are the creator of the product sheet.
• How to report a product sheet error?, if you are not the creator of the product sheet.

"You cannot change your seller reference either or update the EAN, you must send us the EAN. To modify the seller reference, send us the file attached. For the EAN, just send us the new EAN with the Cdiscount SKU."

How can I create strikethrough prices on Cdiscount?

The creation of strikethrough prices has been automated since the introduction of the EU Omnibus Directive in May 2022. If the product's price is currently lower than it has been in the past 30 days, Cdiscount shows the higher price with a strikethrough – and the current price is highlighted.

How can I create a flash sale on Cdiscount?

To create a flash sale on Cdiscount, the following conditions must be met:

• The Sale type attribute is set to 'Flash sale'.
• A discount is mapped to the Discount % attribute, without the percentage symbol.
• The desired start and end dates are mapped to the Sale start date and Sale end date attributes. Note that the format is YYYY-MM-DDT00:00. E.g.: 2023-12-31T23:59.

Note that flash sales can only last for 72 hours, and Cdiscount requires an interval of 72 hours between two flash sales.

How can I create a sale (or solde, in French) on Cdiscount?

To create a sale on Cdiscount, the following conditions must be met:

• The Sale type attribute is set to 'Discount %'.
• A discount is mapped to the Discount % attribute, without the percentage symbol.
• The reference price is mapped to the Discount % reference price attribute. Decimals are supported, as long as a dot (.) is used.
• The desired start and end dates are mapped to the Sale start date and Sale end date attributes. Note that the format is YYYY-MM-DDT00:00. E.g.: 2023-12-31T23:59.

In the example above, the resulting price is 101.5. I.e.: 145 - (0.3 x 145) = 101.5.

What does the following error mean?

Failed to export shipment [Id] on Cdiscount order [OrderNumber]: OrderStateIncoherent: <em>Le passage à l'état Shipped est impossible à ce stade de la commande</em> "[OrderNumber]"

Sometimes a shipment is exported, and that error is returned. It means that ChannelEngine exported the shipment to Cdiscount, but Cdiscount could not process it because the current status of the order does not allow it. This error is usually returned when the order has already been shipped manually, or when it has been canceled.

What does the following error mean?

[Lowest allowable price] Required field, please enter data

If the offer attribute Price alignment enabled is set to 'Yes', and your Price alignment min. price is higher than your Price before (re)price rules, that error message may occur.

To solve it, choose one of the following options:

• Make sure your Price alignment min. price is lower than your Price before (re)price rules.
• Set the Price alignment enabled to 'No'.
• Unmap this attribute.