About You: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Hamburg-based marketplace About You. Here you can find information on how to request an About You 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

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Settings and configuration

• Setup
• Product selection
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Pricing
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

Commercial information

Founded	2014
Founder	Hannes Wiese, Sebastian Betz, Tarek Muller
Headquarters	Hamburg, Germany
Area served (drop-shipment)	Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain
Area served (FbAY)	Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
Revenue	EUR 1.73 billion
Number of monthly visits	circa 45 million
Website	About You
Setup cost	TBD
Commission	TBD
Other costs	TBD
Payment	within 30 days after issuing of self-billing invoices
Product categories	fashion, shoes, and accessories
Input language	German, English
Input currency	EUR
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	yes
Profile on ChannelEngine	About You

How to request an account

To start selling on About You, contact your customer success manager or a member of the Support team at ChannelEngine.

Associated costs

To be determined.

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product offers	HTML formatting
Product content	Product status import
Orders*	Cancelations (marketplace)
Cancelations (merchant)**	Repricing
Returns (merchant)	Returns (marketplace)
Automatic relationships***	Refurbished goods
Shipments	Carrier mapping
Marketplace fulfillment service
Sales channels****

* ChannelEngine does not actively import orders from About You. Instead, About You pushes orders in real time to ChannelEngine. This means that there is no import task, and no option to retrieve old orders.
** About You expects merchants not to cancel orders. If the item is in stock, the order should be fulfilled.
*** About You requires product variations, so make sure that your products are set up accordingly before adding this channel.
**** 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.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

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 About You

To establish the connection with About You, the following credentials are required. All are provided by ChannelEngine:

• API access token
• Merchant API key
• Order authentication user
• Order authentication password

On ChannelEngine

1. Go to the Setup page of your About You marketplace.
2. In the Settings section, enter values for the following fields: 
   • API access token - provided by ChannelEngine.
   • Merchant API key - provided by About You
   • Countries - the countries in which you want to sell. Depending on the countries you are selling in, the order lines have a different identifier. E.g.: About You [DE] - for orders in German, from Germany; About You [BF] - for orders in French, from Belgium.

The following settings can be found in the Advanced settings section:

• Set order to closed after import -  if enabled, imported orders are automatically set to Closed – and inventory reservation is not updated. Shipments and returns are not imported and processed.
• Automatically reject out-of-stock items - by default, this is set to automatically cancel orders when the product is not available. You need explicit approval from About You to change this setting.

Product selection

Before you add a listing, make sure to have your brand and assortment approved by About You. To indicate if a product has been approved or not, it may be helpful to add an extra data field named Pre-approved, for instance, and populate it with either yes or no values.

Categorization

About You supports a wide range of categories, which are listed in German.

You must provide the Product name and Product material in German. Other attributes, such as the Color or Description, can be provided in English if German content is not available. About You maps these values to country-specific languages.

About You also maps the target audience to men or women, therefore you must always include the gender for your categories and products. E.g.:

• Correct - ‘Frauen - Kleid’.
• Incorrect - ‘Frauen - Accessoires’ (not detailed enough), ‘Accessoires - Gürtel’ (gender missing).

About You requires a grandparent-parent-child relationship:

• Product-master (grandparent) - one specific article style. E.g.: Adidas Originals Stan Smith Sneaker. Note that each product-master must have at least one product, and each product must have at least one variant. Note that grandparent products also need to be categorized, otherwise the related parent and child products are not published.
• Product (parent) - the product’s color variants. E.g.: red, blue, yellow, etc.
• Variant (child) - the product's sizes. E.g.: 37, 38, 39.

Mappings

Content

At least two weeks before the first product feed export, merchants must provide About You with the complete partner setup file – containing relevant information for About You to set up the merchant.

Below you can find the list of attributes required per relationship level:

Level	Attributes
Grandparent (product-master)	Brand
	Name
	Fulfillment
Parent (product)	Quantity per pack
	Color
	Color detail
	Contains animal parts
	Main image URL
Child (product-variant)	Main image URL
	Image attributes
	EAN
	Size
	HS code
	Weight
	Country of origin
	Size dimension
	Measurement groups

All products (required)

• Brand - the product’s brand, without any other details.
• Country of origin - the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country where the item was produced. E.g.: DE, FR, etc.
• [country] export enabled - specifies if the product should be sold in this country. You may be able to sell certain brands in some countries, but not in others. If you select No, the product is not shown in this country.
• [country] recommended retail price - the product's base sale price for each specific country.
• [country] reduction - to apply a discount to a product, enter a percentage as an integer. E.g.: 10 for 10%, 10.257 for 10.257%.
• [country] VAT rate - the VAT rate for this product type in this country.
• EAN - a product variant’s 13-digit unique identification number, be it the EAN or the GTIN. If you use UPC codes, add a zero (0) to it.
• Fulfillment override - set whether the product’s fulfillment is done by About You (FbAY) or by the merchant. 
• HS code - the customs tariff number. This code is required when you sell products in countries other than Germany.
• Image URL 1 - the URL of the main product image. The following requirements apply:
  • Number of images - About You recommends 1 bust picture, 2-4 model pictures, and 1-2 detail pictures.
  • Bust shot
    • Photographed frontally.
    • Transparent or white background.
    • Shot on mannequin/ bust and exempted.
  • Model shot
    • Light gray background (alternatively, white or transparent).
    • 3:4 format at 1,500x2,000 px and 96 dpi.
    • No cut-off of textile.
    • Product in the front, with no extreme cut of the model.
  • File format
    • JPEG for images with a white or gray background and a maximum file size of 2 MB.
    • PNG for images with a transparent background and a maximum file size of 4 MB.
    • The image URLs must end with the file extension (i.e.: .jpeg or .png), without additional query parameters. E.g.: http://image-server.com/blouse1.png, instead of http://image-server.com/blouse1.png?brand_id=1900.Image hosting
  • Background - strong color variations are not allowed.
  • Hosting - services such as Google Drive or Dropbox are not supported. Contact About You for an up-to-date list of supported image hosting services.

• Name - the name of the product type, written in German. The name must be as specific as possible and cannot include details. E.g.: Lederrock and Blusenkleid are correct, but Calvin Klein Mantel schwarz XS is incorrect. If the product has a specific name, provide the specific name in single quotes (e.g. Sneaker ‘Stan Smith’).
• Quantity per pack - the quantity of items included in each package.
• Vendor size - this value must match the primary size dimension on the item’s physical size label, and cannot be remapped to a different value.
• Weight - the weight of the product, in grams.
• Material composition attributes - add at least one attribute related to the material composition of the product, on the parent level. A product’s full material composition must be provided as it is stated on the physical product label.
  

  About You provides a fixed list of material composition attributes that you can select from. If the material that you want to add is not on this list, contact About You. Note that some materials are category-specific. E.g.: Obermaterial is a global material group, while Decksohle (insole) applies only to shoes.

  The material attribute must contain the name of the material, and the fraction attribute must contain the percentage of the used material. A fraction attribute value is required for textile products and optional for non-textile products.

  NB: for non-textile products that do not require the fraction attribute to be validated, you can select the material and add 100 for the attribute value.

  You must provide the materials in ascending order, with the largest fraction first. The maximum number of materials per group is two, though some groups allow for only one material. E.g.:
  
  

  Attribute name	Attribute value
  Obermaterial material 1	Schurwolle
  Obermaterial fraction 1	80
  Obermaterial material 2	Kaschmir
  Obermaterial fraction 2	20

  NB: do not add the percentage sign to the fraction mapping field.

All products (recommended)

• Bullet points - keywords used to describe the product that are not obvious in the product images, but can influence the customer decision to buy the product. E.g.: Wasserfestigkeit GORE-TEX®, Zierschnallen am Schaft, Absatzhöhe: 2.5 cm.
• Description - information about the product that is not obvious in the product images, but can influence the customer decision to buy the product. E.g.: washing instructions, size/fit information, sport technologies, sport functions, sustainability information, etc.
• Image background color - while only the Main image URL is required, all image-related fields are strongly recommended. About You recommends images with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and a main product image with a light background. What’s more, you must add the background color for every non-model image . E.g.: weiß, transparent, grau. In general, About You recommends adding the following attributes for every asset:
  • image_background - background color of the image. Strong color variations are not allowed.
  • image_kind - type of image. The options are: Bust image, Model Image, Model-Outfit Image, and Detail image.
  • image_1st_view - assign this attribute to only one bust image and one model image. It marks the image to be displayed first on the category and product detail page. It must include information on whether the image is a bust or model image. E.g.: 1st bust image, 1st model image.
• FbAY: [] - see the Additional information section. These attributes help About You identify the best ways to store, sell, and deliver your products. If you have FbAY enabled, these attributes are mandatory.
  • Baggable - specifies if the product can be shipped in a bag instead of a box. The options are yes and no.
    
  • Hanging Delivery - specifies if the product has to be stored in the hanging position. The options are yes and no.
    
  • Multipart - specifies the number of components. E.g.: 2 (for a dress with a belt).
  • Supplier color name - specifies the supplier color name.
    
  • Supplier style number - specifies the supplier style number.

Offer

There are no offer attributes on About You.

Carrier

You cannot set up default carriers under the Carrier mappings tab, as About You requires merchants to set up default carriers directly with them during the onboarding process. Any change of carriers has to be done directly with About You.

The following carriers are supported:

• Colissimo (COLI_FR)
• DHL_STD_NATIONAL
• DHL_BPOST_BEL
• DHL WORLD Premium
• DHL_NL
• DHL_PL
• Die Post
• Export C
• FORCE_CLOSE
• HERMES_KLV
• HERMES_POST_AUT
• Poste Italiane
• PostNL
• PPL

Pricing

You can add price rules for example to adjust your shipment rates. If you want to add discounts, you must use the attributes in the offer mapping section. For example, to set a discount on the regular price, you must enter values for the following fields:

• Recommended retail price = 19.99
• Reduction = 10
• VAT Rate = 19

Listed products

ChannelEngine receives no data validations from About You. Therefore, it may happen that the product is not published – or that when product data is incomplete, About You fills out the product data. For all data ChannelEngine sends to About You (product content, stock updates, shipments, etc.), ChannelEngine receives a response stating whether the API accepts the data (or not). For specific processing feedback, you must contact About You.

It is possible that the Exported price on the Listed products page does not match the price that was exported. This is caused by, for example:

• A different price per sales channel being exported.
• ChannelEngine is not using the default Product price as the exported price.
• The offer export always tries to 'set' (and thus override) the Exported price, while it does not have price information.

Additional information

Fulfilment by About You (FbAY)

About You can store your products in their warehouse and handle the logistics of the delivery and the returns. Further details on About You's fulfillment service can be found in the Fulfillment by About You article on their website.

To make use of the FbAY service, you need to contact About You. Once you receive a confirmation from About You that your products are in their warehouse, get in touch with your customer success manager at ChannelEngine or a member of the Support team to start configuring FbAY on ChannelEngine.

Once FbAY is enabled, new attributes become mandatory in the Content mappings, such as Baggable, Hanging delivery, Multipart, Supplier color name, and Supplier style number name.

ChannelEngine imports stock information from About You, as well as orders, shipments, and returns, which are performed by About You. You can see the orders fulfilled by About You on ChannelEngine with the status Shipped. You can also retrieve orders, shipments, and returns for reconciliation purposes via the Merchant API.

Order extra data items

When an order is imported to ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine also fetches extra data items related to the order itself – or to order lines. This extra data is specific to this marketplace. An explanation of each can be found below: 

Extra order data

Key	Conditional*	Description
order_coming_from	Yes	The user-friendly sales channel name.
customer_id	Yes	The customer key from the channel order.
shipping_method	Yes	The carrier key from the channel order. The carrier key refers to the shipping carrier that has to be used to fulfill the order.

* Conditional fields only display if the channel provided a value. 

Prefix system

During the onboarding process with About You, you must test all fulfillment flows (e.g.: order handling, shipments, etc.) and produce the right delivery documents – based on the source and shipping address of an order.

To facilitate this process, About You has designed a prefix system that identifies the storefront from which orders are generated:

• Austria - ayat-200
• Belgium (FR) - aybf-562
• Belgium (NL) - aybn-558
• France - ayfr-658
• Germany (DE) - ayou-139
• Germany (EN) - aydn-688
• Netherlands - aynl-545

FAQs

How can I delete products on About You?

About You does not allow for the deletion of products. If the product is sold out, it must remain in the product selection with stock set to zero. If a product is on stock zero it is taken offline from About You. After a month or so, About You takes care of the soft deletion.

How often does each task run on About You?

Tasks run according to the following schedule on About You:

Task	Frequency
Export product data to channel	every 60 minutes
Export product offers to channel	every 5 minutes
Export product offers to channel (full)*	once a day (between 22:00 and 6:00)
Export returns to channel	every 30 minutes
Export order shipments to channel	every 15 minutes

* ChannelEngine exports the stock of all products in the product selection once a day to correct any stock that may not have been synchronized properly.

Why do I see a price on the invoice that differs from the price I configured?

Most of the time, the price per product you see on the invoice from About You is going to be the exact same price you configured. However, as About You does not share the price paid by the buyer (which could be lower or higher than the price you configured), there could be discrepancies.

Why are my price updates not reflected on About You?

About You only retrieves price updates once every 24 hours, and this happens overnight. Additionally, they have a price approval process – which only takes place during weekdays. Make sure to take this into account before contacting About You or ChannelEngine regarding missing price updates.