Setting up a Conrad API

Conrad, a family business for nearly 100 years, supplies customers across Europe with innovative and reliable technology. Offering over 1.5 million products from leading manufacturers, Conrad serves industrial customers, professionals, educational institutions, brokers, and private individuals.

This guide will guide you through the steps to set up an API between Channable and Conrad.

• Preparation
• Step 1: Create a new connection
• Step 2: Create the API
• Step 3: Create your product listings
• Step 4: Send your product listings to Conrad
• Step 5: Check your product listings for errors

Preparation

To ensure a smooth setup and avoid any issues, please review and follow these important guidelines:

• Account setup: To sell your products on Conrad, you need a professional seller account. Follow the account creation guidelines here.
• Supported countries: Currently the following countries are available Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Austria, and the Czech Republic.
• Multiple Conrad APIs: Each store account, is 1 sales channel. If you want to sell in multiple countries, you have to: 
  1. Open a new store account.
  2. Create a new Conrad API in Channable to connect to that store account.

After completing and reviewing all the preparation points, you are ready to go to the first step.

Step 1: Create a new connection

To create a new Conrad connection, follow the steps below:

1. Start by navigating to the API page within your project and click on the “+Add new API” button. This action will redirect you to your company's connections page.
   
2. On the connections page, select “+Add a new connection”.
3. Search for the 'Conrad' connection by clicking through the pages, after finding the 'Conrad' connection, provide a label for this new connection.
   
4. Click on “Connect with Conrad” You will be redirected to Conrad for the next step. Once redirected, log in using Mirakl/Conrad credentials.

After successfully logging in, the connection with Conrad is established and available for use! You will be brought back to the API setup.

Step 2: Create the API

Once back, you have to select your new connection with Conrad and continue setting up your API.

1. Configure API settings:
   • Name your API
   • Choose the unique ID per item. (we recommend the 'id' field)
   • Select the language of your API
     
2. Create API: Click on “Continue” to create the new Conrad API.

Step 3: Create your product listings

To set up your API, follow these steps. Click on each step to expand and view the detailed instructions which will guide you through the process.

1. Categorization

2. Rules

3. Build step

The Build step allows you to configure all necessary attributes for your items, ensuring your product data aligns with marketplace requirements. This step is crucial for successful product listings and avoiding errors.

3.1 Overview

1. Access the Build step: Start by accessing the centralized interface of the Build step. This is where you will manage and map all product attributes.
2. Identify mandatory and optional Fields: Mandatory fields are highlighted in pink, indicating they are essential for listing your products. Optional fields are marked in orange and can be filled based on specific needs.

3.2 Populate Shared Attributes

1. Fill Shared Attributes: Enter common details that apply to all products, such as EAN, prices, and titles. This step ensures uniformity in basic product information across your listings.
   • Use static or dynamic Values:
     • Static Values: Directly input values that remain constant, like brand name or manufacturer.
     • Dynamic Values: Utilize fields that automatically update based on linked data, ideal for variables like stock levels or prices.

After you have filled in the desired values for the Shared attributes, continue to the Category specific attributes below.

3.3 Specify Category-Specific Attributes

1. Select product category: Choose the relevant category for your product, such as clothing or furniture.
2. Input Category - specific attributes: Fill in attributes that are specific to the selected category, such as size for clothing or dimensions for furniture. This step helps in fine-tuning your listings according to category requirements. Here you can again use static or dynamic values.

Read more about the Build step.

4. Quality step

The Quality step provides instant feedback on setup quality, highlighting mandatory and optional errors to ensure your product data meets the marketplaces' standards.

Actions

• View items: See products with specific issues.
• View in build: Redirects to the build step to map missing information.
• Set categories: Directs to the categories step to categorize items.
• Show source: Available for ID fields, directing to the settings step.

Read more about the Quality step.

5. Preview step

The Preview step displays mapped attributes for multiple items, highlighting errors before exporting to the marketplace.

Features

• Search & filter: Find specific products or filter by error message/category.
• Item overview: Shows all items to be exported; it can filter to show only items with errors.
• Detailed product preview: Displays missing information and dynamic actions to correct errors.

Checklist for finalizing attributes

• Review shared attributes: Ensure all mandatory shared attributes are filled.
• Review category-specific attributes: Ensure all mandatory category-specific attributes are filled.
• Check for errors: Correct any red-marked fields.

Read more about the Preview step.

6. Result step

Additional requirements for Conrad

The following information is specific to Conrad, we discuss per tab what you should look out for.

Item tab

• Lead time to ship: The shipping lead time indicates the time required until the package is handed over to the shipping service provider. This value overwrites all Mirakl default settings.
  If the value remains empty, shipping on the same day is assumed by Conrad. In the Conrad Shop, 1–2 days are added to the specified shipping lead time.

• Shipping class: The logistic classes determine the respective shipping costs for your items.

  You can configure up to eight different shipping classes. The correct values need to be filled in the 'Shipping class' attribute in the Build step. Below are the possible values, these can also be found as static values when hovering over the (?) symbol next to the “Shipping class” attribute.

  Logistics class Value	Logistics class ID	Description
  Small & Medium 1	SM1	10 kg and below
  Small & Medium 2	SM2	Over 10 kg through 15 kg
  Small & Medium 3	SM3	Over 15 kg through 31.5 kg
  Bulk Shipment	bulk	From 31.5 kg through 40 kg
  Pallet Shipment	pallet	Over 40 kg through 500 kg
  Extra Logistic Class 1	extra1	Specific price for Extra logistic 1
  Extra Logistic Class 2	extra2	Specific price for Extra logistic 2
  Free shipping	free	Free shipping
  Fulfillment Small & Medium 1	FSM1	Fulfillment 10 kg and below
  Fulfillment Small & Medium 2	FSM2	Fulfillment over 10 kg through 15 kg
  Fulfillment Small & Medium 3	FSM3	Fulfillment over 15 kg through 31.5 kg
  Fulfillment Bulk Shipment	fbulk	Bulky over 31.5 kg through 40 kg
  Fulfillment Pallet Shipment	fpallet	Pallet over 40 kg through 500 kg
  Fulfillment Extra Logistic 1	fextra1	Fulfillment Additional 1
  Fulfillment Extra Logistic 2	fextra2	Fulfillment Additional 2
  Fulfillment Free shipping	fulfree	Fulfillment Free shipping (no shipping costs allowed)
  OCI assortment	oci	OCI assortment (no shipping costs)

  Note: Extra Logistic Class 1 and 2 are only activated in Germany
• Reverse charge applies: The reverse-charge procedure reverses the liability for VAT for the deliveries: It is not the company making the delivery who pays the VAT to the tax office, but the customer. The prerequisite for the application of the reverse-charge procedure is that the customer is also the holder of a VAT identification number.
  Please specify the value ''false'' or ''true'' for each offer, depending on whether this regulation applies or not.
• Warehouse ID: Returns the warehouse location from which the respective item is sent. The configuration is done in the “Warehouse ID” attribute in the Build step.
  A value from 1 to 5 is entered depending on the configuration of the stored warehouse locations. The warehouse attribute is intended for a specific figure, you can specify up to 5 storage locations in your Conrad account. This attribute then decides which warehouse the article ultimately comes from by selecting the identifier 1-5
• Units of measurement: The “Unit of Measurement” attribute specifies the unit used to calculate the price per unit of a product. This ensures consumers can compare costs easily. For products sold by weight, volume, length, or area, include unit prices using common units like kilograms (KG), liters (L), meters (M), or square meters (M2). Ensure the “Unit of Measurement” attribute in Channable is accurately filled to reflect these standards.
• Quantity: In Channable, this “Quantity” attribute specifies the unit of measurement for the product being sold. For example, if you're selling a 4-pack of plugs, you would enter “4” as the quantity.

   This allows Conrad to display both the price per unit and the total price for the 4-pack. You can accomplish this for specific products by:

  1. Creating a project field

  2. Using that in a rule and filling it with a value

  3. Then select the field in the attribute “Quantity” Refer to this article for more information about dynamic fields

• Private Copy Tax: In France, the private copying levy is a legal requirement compensating authors and rights holders for private copies made using blank media such as CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, and USB drives. This levy is included in the sale price of these blank media items and is then distributed to the creators and rights holders through collective management organizations. Sellers must specify the amount of the ''copie-privée'' levy in euros for each applicable item in this category.
• Eco-contributions: France introduced legislation for eco-participation. If your company is operating in France, you must add eco-contributions to your offers on the marketplace. In this article, you can find a list of available EPR categories.

Following these guidelines will help you make sure your Conrad listings are set up correctly and in line with their requirements.

Step 4: Send your product listings to Conrad

Almost there, your product listings are ready to be sent. If you have not activated your project, go to your project settings on the left-hand side of the screen and click "Activate project". 

After, go back to the APIs overview and go to [Your Conrad API] > Settings, where you activate the API by clicking "Activate API".

Once you have activated the API, navigate back to the API overview and click on the blue "Run now" button to send your product listings to Conrad.

Step 5: Check your product listings for errors

To check for errors, navigate to the Result page of the API > Errors tab, where you see which product listings have errors. By clicking on the specific, it will display more information on what is causing the error. For more information about what the errors mean, read this article. Additionally, a lot of information can be found in the Conrad help center.