Carrefour.fr: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the French operation of the Boulogne-Billancourt-based marketplace Carrefour.fr. Here you can find information on how to request a Carrefour.fr 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
• Listed products

FAQs

Commercial information

Founded	1959
Founders	Denis Defforey, Marcel Fournier, Jacques Defforey, Gustave Badin
Headquarters	Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Area served (orders)	France
Revenue	circa USD 762.8 million (2020)
Number of monthly visits	circa 12 million (2021)
Website	Carrefour.fr
Setup cost	none
Commission	7-20%, depending on the category
Other costs	none
Payment	thrice/month (on the 6th, 16th, and 26th)
Product categories	electronics, domestic appliances, toys, clothing, and more
Input language	French
Input currency	EUR
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	no
Profile on ChannelEngine	Carrefour.fr

 

How to request an account

To start selling on Carrefour.fr, go to the Marketplace Carrefour page, select Form, and submit the required details.

 

Associated costs

Carrefour.fr does not charge a setup or monthly fee, but it does charge a commission of 7-20% depending on the product category.

 

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product offers (EAN matching)	Returns (marketplace)
Product content	Repricing
Orders	Marketplace fulfillment service
Cancelations	Automatic relationships
Returns/refunds (merchant)	HTML formatting
Shipments	Sales channels*
Product variations (sizes/colors)
Carrier mapping
Multiple stock locations
Bundles
Invoice uploads
Settlements

* 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.

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.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

Carrefour.fr 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.

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 upload the invoice to ChannelEngine via the Merchant API or via the web interface. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: merchant invoices.

Categorization

Categorization is mandatory if you want to create or update existing product information on Carrefour.fr. 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).

Product descriptions must be in French on Carrefour.fr, and the categorization and mappings are in French too – though the name of some attributes is in English.

Mappings

Content

All products (required)

• Article description - the product's long description, with a minimum of 90 characters.
• EAN 13 - the product's 13-digit EAN or GTIN.
• Main image - the product's main image, with a maximum size of 500 kB.
• Shop SKU (Seller's reference) - your internal product reference, usually the Merchant product number or SKU.
• Product name - the product's title. The maximum number of characters is 85.

The following required attribute is common to all Mirakl-based marketplaces:

• Export strategy - choose a strategy for exporting the product data. You can select from the following export strategies:
  • Yes - export all of the product content to the marketplace, including its EAN (GTIN), category, and other mapped attributes. This option is ideal if you manage both product content and offers through ChannelEngine for the marketplace. Before you set this option, ensure that you map all required attributes.
  • No - do not export product content to the marketplace. Choose this option to keep the product content excluded from exports and only export the offers. This option is ideal if you do not want to export the product content yet, or you want to export only the product offers because the product content already exists on the marketplace.
     
    NB: the default export strategy is Yes, even if the Export strategy attribute is left unmapped.

All products (optional)

• Brand - the product's brand.
• Image 2-6 - the product's additional images. The maximum size is 500 kB.

Offer

Required

• Price - your desired sale price.

Optional

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

• 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 all Mirakl-based marketplaces, if you use pricing v2:

• Allow promotion below min price - set it to ‘true’ to allow the promotion price to drop below your product's minimum price. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: promotions.
• Fee groups - the ID of the fee group you want to assign to this product. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: marketplace fees.
• Strike price - the regular selling price. Use it in combination with the Price attribute to set up a discount/strikethrough pricing. To learn more, check out the 'Working with discounts' section of this article. 

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

• Discount end date - the date until when the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. E.g.: 2022-12-31 23:59:59 +00.
• Discount price - the product's sale price, if applicable. This attribute must have a lower value than the Price attribute.
• Discount quantity threshold - the minimum quantity required for the discount rate to be available.
• Discount start date - the date from when the product's sale price is valid, if applicable. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ZZ. E.g.: 2022-12-31 23:59:59 +00.
• 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 use of logistic class codes, they can be found below.

Code	Label
XXS	Produits très légers (Very light products)
S	Produits standards spéciaux (Special standard products)
M	Produits moyens (Average products)
L	Produits lourds et longs (Heavy and long products)
XL	Produits très lourds et très longs (Very heavy and very long products)
XXL	Produits hors gabarit (Oversize products)

Working with discounts

Pricing v1

• 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.
• The discounted price is only exported if it is lower than the base price.
• If you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped – otherwise, the export is broken.
• 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.

Pricing v2

• To set up a discount, you must map the Strike price attribute to your regular price. Also, map the Discount start date and Discount end date attributes to indicate the start and end date of your discount.
• Under Pricing, Price rules, map the Price attribute to the discounted price. Both Min. price and Base price fields must be mapped.
• The Price and Strike price attributes cannot be mapped with the same value. ChannelEngine only sets a discount if the value in Price is lower than the value in Strike price.
• Same as in pricing v1, if you do not want to set a bulk discount, leave the Discount quantity threshold attribute unmapped.
• 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 Carrefour.fr. However, you can map your carrier to a specific list of carriers maintained by Carrefour.fr. This allows for working tracking codes in the back-end, as well as for the buyer. If your default carrier is missing, please contact Carrefour.fr.

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 use the Channel status filter (e.g.: products that ChannelEngine has failed to export, such as those with an empty GTIN or that do not exist on the marketplace yet, are shown as Invalid) or the Validation and feedback tab to see all known errors for specific products.

Alternatively, you can access the marketplace's back-end and download the error report generated by Mirakl. To do so:

1. Log in to the Mirakl back-end and go to Catalog, Product imports.
2. Identify the latest report and click the See details button by it.
3. Download the CSV file Non-integrated products report.

FAQs

Can I create variants on Carrefour.fr?
Creating variants on Carrefour.fr is possible, however, it works differently than on other marketplaces. To create product families, Carrefour.fr uses the attribute Variant, which must be the EAN of the first child of the product family. To use this feature, the attribute Variant must be mapped to the ChannelEngine attribute Parent SKU. ChannelEngine uses the product's parent to export the EAN of the first child of the family.

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 marketplace	every 60 minutes
Export product offers to marketplace	every 15 minutes
Import product offers from marketplace	every 15 minutes
Import orders from marketplace	every 15 minutes
Export order shipments to marketplace	every 15 minutes
Export returns to marketplace	every 30 minutes

Can I map attributes on ChannelEngine and in the Mirakl back-end?

No. Mapping attributes in the Mirakl marketplace back-end interferes with ChannelEngine's content export. Therefore, it is recommended to stick to categorizing and mapping content only on ChannelEngine.

Why am I not receiving feedback on my content and/or offer exports?

Chances are you are receiving the feedback. However, different types of error report can take a couple of hours or several days to be generated:

• Offer feedback
  • Error reports are mostly generated automatically, and are imported quickly.
• Content feedback
  • Transformation error report - this is automatically generated, and usually imported within a maximum of one day.
  • Conventional error report - this requires a manual review by the Mirakl-based marketplace, and not all do so. It can take several days for this report to be imported.

Note that the previous feedback report is not removed from ChannelEngine until both the latest transformation and conventional reports have been fully processed by ChannelEngine – or no new reports have been generated because there are no errors to report.