Secret Sales: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the London-based marketplace Secret Sales. Here you can find information on how to request a Secret Sales 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
• Pricing
• Listed products

FAQs

Commercial information

Founded	9 March 2020
Founders	Chris Griffin, Matt Purt
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Area served (orders)	Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom (except for Northern Ireland and Channel Islands)
Number of monthly visits	circa 2 million (2021)
Website	Secret Sales
Setup cost	none
Commission	to be discussed with Secret Sales' sales representative
Other costs	none
Payment	monthly
Product categories	fashion, cooking, furniture/interior design, healthcare, cosmetics, shoes/bags/luggage, sports equipment, vintage clothing
Input language	English
Input currency	EUR, GBP
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	48, unless agreed otherwise
Advertisement options	yes
Profile on ChannelEngine	Secret Sales

How to request an account

Secret Sales is not an open marketplace, therefore it is only possible to get an account following the conclusion of the contracting process.

The contractual terms, including broad commercial terms around discount and product volumes, must be agreed before the integration process can begin.

Associated costs

Secret Sales does not charge setup or monthly fees, but it does charge a commission fee which must be negotiated with their sales representative.

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product offers	Marketplace fulfillment service
Product content	Pick-up point delivery
Cancelations (merchant)	Repricing
Cancelations (marketplace)	HTML formatting
Shipments	Sales channels
Carrier mapping
Multiple stock locations

Settings and configuration

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

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.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

Secret Sales is a Mirakl-based marketplace, 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 Secret Sales 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 Secret Sales. 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).

Mappings

Content

All products (required)

• Brand - the product's brand or manufacturer. Must be selected from Secret Sales' list of available brands. If your brand does not appear on the list or if its design and/or spelling are incorrect, please contact Secret Sales.
• Introduction/Detailed description - en_GB - the product's main description field, written in English and containing as much information about the product as possible.
  • There is no support for HTML formatting.
  • The maximum number of characters is 2,000.
• Main image - the product's main image. The RFC 3986 standard applies to the URL itself, i.e.: URLs must start with either http:// or https://. The image formats supported are GIF, PNG, JPG, and JPEG.
• Product name - en_GB - the product's title, it can be unique or generic. The maximum number of characters is 255. E.g.: Black Leather Backpack. Note that the size of the product cannot be a part of the product name.
• Shop SKU - the product's unique internal ID, usually the Merchant product number. The maximum number of characters is 60. E.g.: ABC123
• Variant group code - also referred to as the Parent SKU, which groups together sizes of a color style. Within Secret Sales, a product style's colors are listed on the product listing page (PLP) – not as options within a product description page (PDP). Therefore, the color is the parent SKU. The unique identifier of the group (aka parent) is based on the primary color. It should be the GroupNo/parent SKU, but not the grandparent SKU. If the product is a standalone, use the Merchant product number via an advanced rule.

All products (optional)

• EAN - the product's 13-digit EAN or another GTIN, validated by both ChannelEngine and Secret Sales. If you have a 12-digit EAN, add a zero to it.
• Condition - the state of the product. The options are vintage (i.e.: used) and new.
• Event - the product's season, selected from Secret Sales' list. Common values such as spring and summer are available, as well as back to school, Christmas, etc.
• Image 2-6 - the product's additional images. The RFC 3986 standard applies to the URL itself, i.e.: URLs must start with either http:// or https://. The minimum number recommended per product is four, and the following also apply:
  • Only JPG (but not JPEG) and PNG files are supported.
  • Special characters are not supported (except for underscores).
  • Uppercase characters are supported for the main filename, but not for the extension. E.g.: FILENAME.jpg is okay, but FILENAME.JPG is not.
  • A combination of numbers and text is supported.
  • Images provided cannot be hosted with Dropbox, as they have an invisible login wall that prevents Secret Sales from scraping the URLs.
  • In terms of the order of the images, the preference is for a model shot to always be the product' Main image.
• Measurements - en_GB - a free text field where you can input information relating to the measurements of the product. The maximum number of characters is 255. E.g.: 100 cm x 120 cm x 20 cm.

Category-specific

• Composition (fabric-en_GB) - a free text field where you can input information relating to the fabric composition of a product. The maximum number of characters is 255. E.g.: 100% cotton; 60% viscose, 40% polyester.
• Color (color) - the product's color, selected from a predefined list of values. Secret Sales' palette cannot be extended beyond these colors, therefore you either need to map your colors to theirs or use their palette.
• Size (size) - mandatory even if a product only has a single standard size, such as a handbag.
  • For clothing and footwear, correct sizes should be chosen.
  • For all other products where there is only a single standard size, the value 'One size' should be chosen.

Offer

Required

The only mandatory offer mapping is Price. This is your desired sale price, after (re)price rules are applied.

The following offer attributes are common to some Mirakl-based marketplaces, particularly in France and Germany:

• 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.

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

• Leadtime to shipment - the number of days before you ship the product. By default, this is set to two. 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 it using the marketplace’s codes, not the labels visible in the front-end. These codes vary per marketplace. If this marketplace makes uses of logistic class codes, they can be found below.

Code	Label	Description
std_item	Standard items	Max weight 15Kg, max girth 1.2m (length + width + height)
lrg_item	Large items	Over 15kg – 30kg // max girth over 1.2m (length + width + height)
post	Small items	By post (letter or very small parcels that fit inside a standard letterbox)

Working with discounts

• To set up a discount, you must 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.
• 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 Secret Sales. However, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by Secret Sales. 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 Secret Sales.

Pricing

Secret Sales requires the prices to be submitted in GBP. If you do not have pricing attributes in GBP, you need to set a currency conversion.

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

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 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

Can I simultaneously set up mapping on ChannelEngine and in the Mirakl back-end?

Configuring mapping in the Mirakl marketplace back-end interferes with ChannelEngine's content export. For accurate product content export, stick to categorizing and mapping your products’ content on ChannelEngine only.