Decathlon: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Villeneuve d'Ascq-based marketplace Decathlon. Here you can find information on how to request a Decathlon 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	2020 (the homonymous sporting goods retailer was founded in 1976)
Founder	Michel Leclercq
Headquarters	Villeneuve d'Ascq, France
Area served (orders)	Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom
Number of monthly visits	circa 1 million
Website	Decathlon
Setup cost	none
Commission	% of the commission, based on the product category (9-17%)
Other costs	EUR 40.00/month
Payment	thrice a month
Product categories	sports, well-being, urban mobility (e.g.: steps, e-steps, e-scooters, e-bikes)
Input language	Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish
Input currency	CHF*, CZK*, GBP*, EUR, PLN*, RON*
Content creation	yes
Profile on ChannelEngine	Decathlon

* To use Decathlon with currencies other than euros, you need to set up an additional account and an additional plugin.

How to request an account

If you are interested in selling your products on Decathlon, please contact your ChannelEngine customer success manager via email. Decathlon is currently a closed marketplace. Once your customer success manager connects you with Decathlon, you must provide them with the following documents:

• Signed contract with Decathlon
• Completed questionnaire
• List with the brands and the logos of the products you want to sell

Associated costs

Decathlon charges a fixed monthly fee of EUR 40.00, as well as a category-based commission on every sale. This percentage varies per category, from 9% up to 17%.

Marketplace features

Decathlon uses the Mirakl framework, which is also used by other marketplaces such as Carrefour, Darty, Blokker, etc. Therefore, many mapping attributes and options may seem familiar if you have already used other Mirakl channels.

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.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

Decathlon 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.

Your Mirakl seller name for Decathlon is only required if you want to use ChannelEngine's repricing feature.

For more information on sales channels, check out the article Mirakl-based channels: setting up sales channels.

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 only needed on Decathlon if you want to create new products or update existing product information. The categorization is straightforward, and it uses attribute names in English.

Mappings

Content

Decathlon enforces strict content guidelines, therefore it is important to make sure that your products meet these guidelines before you follow the setup process:

All products

• European article number (EAN) - must be composed of 8, 13 or 14 digits to be accepted by Decathlon.
• Main image - your product's main image. Decathlon's image requirements are listed below:
  • Maximum of five pictures per product
  • White background
  • 360° pictures are supported
  • Supported formats - GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG, and WEPB
• Product identifier - your internal, unique product number or code (SKU).
• Product title [language] - the name of the product, shown on the website in [language]. Redundant information, such as the brand name, the product color, or any information already added to dedicated attributes should be part of the Product title Its maximum length is 80 characters. E.g.: Elite FDR 2.5i Vélo Elliptique semi-pro.
• Webcatchline [language] - the marketing description of the product, shown on the website in [language]. Its maximum length is 200 characters.

• Parent product ID - enables group variations of the same product. E.g.: a t-shirt with different colors or different sizes.

Product-type specific

• Material
• Format
• Pattern
• Type

Offer

The only mandatory offer mappings are Price – your desired sale price, after price rules are applied – and Price [country code]. If you only sell product X in Belgium, for instance, you must map the Price and Price BE fields to whatever price you charge in Belgium. If you also sell product X in Spain and its price there is different from your Belgian price, make sure to map the Price and Price ES fields accordingly.

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
free shipping	free shipping	Free shipping
XS	Extra small - XS - 50 g envelope with dimensions < 125x235 mm	50 g envelope with dimensions < 125x235 mm
S	Small - S - Less than 2 kg and/or dimensions < 350 mm (L) x 230 mm (W) x 30 mm (H)	Less than 2 kg and/or dimensions < 350 mm (L) x 230 mm (W) x 30 mm (H)
M	Medium - M - Between 2 and 30 kg and/or < 150cm (LxWxH)	Between 2 and 30 kg and/or < 150 cm (LxWxH)
L	Large - L - >30 kg and/or > 150 cm (LxWxH)	>30 kg and/or > 150 cm (LxWxH)
XL	Extra Large - XL - (only bikes and surfboards/kayaks)	>30 kg and/or > 150 cm (LxWxH) - (only bikes and surfboards/kayaks)
XXL	Extra extra large - XXL - (only table tennis, cardio machines, and trampolines)	>30 kg and/or > 150 cm (L x W x H) - (only table tennis, cardio machines, and trampolines)

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 Decathlon. However, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by Decathlon. This allows for working tracking links in the back-end, as well as for the buyer. If your default carrier is missing, please contact Decathlon.

Note that Decathlon does not take Sundays into account when calculating the shipping time. The default value for the Leadtime to shipment attribute is two days, and Mirakl adds one day to it when orders are made on Friday or Saturday, for instance.

Pricing

Decathlon requires the prices to be submitted in euros. If you do not have pricing attributes in euros, you must set a currency conversion.

When you enable a sales channel, country-specific price attributes become available for that new sales channel – and they become leading. I.e.: the default Price field must still be mapped, but is no longer used by the marketplace. Note that it may take some time for the additional price attributes to appear on the Offer mappings tab on ChannelEngine.

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 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

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.