Using Alternative product ID's in orders

This guide provides a brief overview of how an order connection works and explains the importance of ID mapping, so you become familiar with how you can successfully use our Alternative ID Mapping feature.

Table of contents

• What is an order connection?
• Why Unique IDs Matter
• How does Alternative ID mapping work?
• When to use Alternative ID mapping
• Accessing ID mapping records
• Activating the Alternative ID mapping
• Understanding Alternative Identifier scenarios

What is an order connection?

An order connection allows you to synchronize orders from various marketplaces directly to your e-commerce platform. When an order is received in Channable and sent to your e-commerce platform, a unique ID is required to ensure that the products are correctly synchronized with the corresponding products in your e-commerce platform. For more information on how an order connection works, refer to this article.

Why Unique IDs Matter

Unique IDs are essential for accurately linking products between your e-commerce platform and various Marketplaces. These identifiers, often called Seller SKU, Product ID or a variation on this, play a critical role in ensuring correct product matching.

Setting Up Unique IDs in Channable

When configuring an API for a marketplace in Channable, you need to select the field that corresponds to the Unique ID during the Settings step of the API setup. This identifier is then sent to the marketplace and used for matching products. Specifically, when an order is placed on the marketplace, Channable uses this Unique ID to match the product in the order with the corresponding product in your e-commerce platform.

Challenges with Incorrect or Missing Unique IDs

Problems arise if your products were not originally listed on the marketplace through Channable, or if the Unique ID differs from the one used in your e-commerce platform. In such cases, Channable will not be able to match the products in the orders. This mismatch will result in an error stating that the product could not be found, preventing the order from being created.

This is where our Alternative ID mapping feature comes in.

How does Alternative ID mapping work?

When you import your products into Channable, we track both the primary identifiers from your main import source (your e-commerce platform) and commonly used alternative identifiers like EAN codes and SKU codes.

This tracking allows Channable to match products based on these alternative identifiers. When processing an order, Channable can look up an alternative Identifier from your e-commerce platform and match based on the identifier provided by the Marketplace. This ensures that even if the identifier on the Marketplace platform differs from the one on your e-commerce platform, the correct product is still matched, allowing the order to be processed successfully.

Channable currently provides support for the following e-commerce platforms and their corresponding standard identifier fields:

If you wish to use identifier fields that are not currently supported, feel free to reach out to our Support team. We will evaluate your request and consider it for future updates if feasible.

When to use Alternative ID mapping

Alternative ID mapping is particularly useful in various scenarios to ensure accurate order processing. Here are some common situations where this feature can be beneficial:

• Multiple Identifiers in use:
  • Scenario: Your product listings on marketplaces use a mix of EAN codes and SKU codes as the main identifier
  • Benefit: Alternative ID mapping helps ensure that orders are correctly matched with the corresponding products in your e-commerce platform, regardless of which identifier is used by the Marketplace.
• Legacy systems with different ID structures:
  • Scenario: Your e-commerce platform or order management system uses a different ID structure than what is required by the marketplace.
  • Benefit: With Alternative ID mapping, Channable can bridge the gap between different ID systems, ensuring that orders are linked to the correct products without requiring manual intervention.
• Transitioning between systems:
  • Scenario: You are transitioning to a new e-commerce platform or updating your ID system, and during this period, your products might have both old and new identifiers.
  • Benefit: Alternative ID mapping allows you to seamlessly continue operations by recognizing both sets of identifiers, avoiding disruptions in order processing.

These examples highlight when Alternative ID mapping can be particularly useful, though the feature can be adapted to fit various needs.

Before activating the feature we strongly advise you to dive into the recorded ID mapping of your project, we'll explain how you can do this.

Accessing ID mapping records

There are two ways to view the ID mapping records, we'll discuss them below.

1. Viewing ID mapping for all items

This page allows you to verify the ID mappings that Channable is tracking before activating the feature. By reviewing these records, you can ensure that everything is mapped correctly. This step is crucial in preventing potential issues that could arise if the feature is activated without proper verification.

To get a full overview of past and current ID mapping records for all items (not just orders), follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Setup: Go to Setup > Orders in your project.
2. Open the mapping: Click the Alternative ID Mapping button. A pop-up will appear displaying all past and current records of mapped IDs for your products.
   
3. Use the search box: You can use the search option in the top-right corner of the pop-up to filter the records by ID, Title, or other criteria for easier navigation.
   

2. Viewing ID mapping for items used in orders

To get a view of past and current records for items used in orders, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Setup: Go to the Orders page in your project and click on Alternative ID Mapping
2. View records: Here, you can view both past and current ID mapping records for all items used in orders.
   

Explanation of the columns in the ID Mapping interface

When you access the ID mapping records, you'll see several columns in the interface, each serving a specific purpose:

• Unique ID: This column displays the unique identifier used by your e-commerce platform to track each product. It's crucial that this ID correctly matches the identifiers used in your marketplace listings to ensure smooth order synchronization.
• Alternate ID: This column shows the alternative identifier type that Channable is tracking, such as SKUs or EANs. These alternative IDs are used to map the Marketplace orders to the correct product in your e-commerce platform.
• Value: This column displays the actual value of the alternate ID (e.g., the specific SKU or EAN code) that Channable uses to link the product between the marketplace and your e-commerce platform.
• Created: This column shows the date and time when the mapping record was created. It helps you track when specific mappings were established, which can be useful for troubleshooting or historical reference.
• Status: The status column indicates whether the mapping is currently active or inactive. Active mappings are in use for processing orders, while inactive ones are not currently applied.

By understanding these columns, you can more effectively manage your product IDs.

Activating the Alternative ID mapping

To activate the feature:

1. Select the checkbox: Navigate to the order setup page, find the order connection you want to use the Alternative ID mapping for, and check the box labeled "Use alternative IDs for order items"
   
2. Click "Save": This will apply the mapping settings to your orders. You can then click on "Alternative ID Mapping" (on the Setup orders page) to verify the ID mappings that Channable is tracking.

Understanding Alternative Identifier scenarios

Alternative identifiers like EAN and SKU codes aren’t always unique. In your product catalog, you may have multiple products with the same EAN or products without an EAN at all. Channable matches the correct e-commerce platform database ID based on the alternative identifier received from the marketplace.

We verify whether any e-commerce platform database IDs correspond to the product ID from the order data across all alternative identifiers being monitored. Three scenarios may occur:

1. No matches found:
   If Channable can't find a match between the product ID in the order and any IDs in your e-commerce platform, it will use the product ID from the marketplace to create the order in your e-commerce platform. This can lead to errors if those IDs are not found in your e-commerce platform. In such cases you will have to handle the order manually.

2. Exactly one match Found:
   If Channable finds one matching ID, the order will be generated in your e-commerce platform using the product ID from the order data from the Marketplace.

3. Multiple matches found:

   1. Identical values across identifiers: Channable is tracking multiple alternative identifier values for your e-commerce platform, such as both SKU and EAN, where the product has identical values for both. In this instance, there is a single e-commerce platform database ID, and the order will be created using that single e-commerce platform database ID. Channable verifies that the e-commerce platform database ID linked to the matched SKU and EAN record is the same. 
   2. Multiple products with the same identifier: Multiple distinct products in your e-commerce platform share the same value for one of the alternative identifiers monitored by Channable for that e-commerce platform. As a consequence, there will be multiple e-commerce platform product IDs associated with the identified records, and Channable will be unable to determine which one is the correct match. Therefore, the order will be created in your e-commerce platform using the product ID from the marketplace order data. This can lead to errors if those IDs are not found in your e-commerce platform. In such cases you will have to handle the order manually.