ChannelAdvisor Setup

The following sections will guide you through the process of connecting ChannelAdvisor to HubLogix.

  1. Prepare Product Content – describes required fields for product content and the update process
  2. Connect HubLogix to ChannelAdvisor  – explains how to give HubLogix permission to access ChannelAdvisor
  3. Frequently Asked Questions – includes answers to common questions for this integration

1. Prepare Product Content

Product Content and Product Inventory

  • Product Content is used by retailers to list and sell products to each of the marketplaces supported by ChannelAdvisor. Product Content includes information such as product descriptions, images, and specifications.
  • Product Inventory specifically refers to the availability (quantity) and cost of Products that are being sold.

HubLogix does not provide or manage Product Content services for clients and does not provide guidance on how to manage Product Content in ChannelAdvisor. Please leverage the ChannelAdvisor Launch Team for guidance on Product Content.

However, once product content is available in ChannelAdvisor, HubLogix will import your product content and automatically map products from ChannelAdvisor to all available inventory sources for the vendors/warehouses to which HubLogix is connected.

In order to optimize our mapping capability, customers need to configure Product Content in ChannelAdvisor in a specific manner as described below.

Prepare Product Content for HubLogix Inventory Integration

Please setup the following Product Content data fields in ChannelAdvisor for the HubLogix Inventory Integration onboarding process:

Product Data Field  Required Used for Mapping
SKU  Yes No
Title Yes No
Brand Yes Yes
UPC  Yes  Yes
MPN  Yes  Yes
Seller Cost  No  No
Distribution Center  Yes  Yes

Product Data Field Notes

  • SKU: ChannelAdvisor requires unique SKUs. However, HubLogix does not use SKUs for product mapping, and SKUs have no impact on how HubLogix routes orders. However, there are facilities within HubLogix that allow for rules to be driven from SKU’s when needed.
  • Title: HubLogix does not use the title information for mapping but does use this information to make it easier to search and manage inventory information within HubLogix.
  • Brand: Brand must be populated in ChannelAdvisor and must be in a brand form such as “Sony” or “Sony Electronics” or “Sony – Laptops”. This value should match how your vendors are listing brand name in their inventory file. Do not use brand codes in the brand field.
  • UPC: Both UPC and MPN must be populated in ChannelAdvisor to optimize automated mapping in HubLogix. At a minimum, either UPC or MPN must be populated, but both fields cannot be left empty.
  • MPN: Both UPC and MPN must be populated in ChannelAdvisor to optimize automated mapping in HubLogix. At a minimum, either UPC or MPN must be populated, but both fields cannot be left empty.
  • Seller Cost: HubLogix updates the Product Cost field in ChannelAdvisor when customers select that option. This field does not need to be initially populated and it is not used for mapping. However, we will update this field when cost updates are enabled.
  • Distribution Center: HubLogix uses the ChannelAdvisor Distribution Center (often referred to as “dc code” or “dc_id”) to indicate which products should be mapped to HubLogix. Any name can be used for the HubLogix Distribution Center. Examples: Distribution Center: HubLogix, Code: hublogix.

Product Content Mapping Updates

  • HubLogix does a full update of ChannelAdvisor product content every 24 hours to look for items that have been added or removed. Any changes to product content will be reflected in HubLogix during this process.
  • When customers make a large update to product content in ChannelAdvisor, they should email support@hublogix.com to request a full update so we can capture changes faster. These types of requests can be fielded once a month or less.

2. Connect HubLogix to ChannelAdvisor

When Product Content is loaded to ChannelAdvisor, HubLogix can begin the process of connecting to your ChannelAdvisor account. Below are the steps for completing the connection.

If you have a ticket open with HubLogix support, you can reply with this information in the active ticket. Otherwise, you can send this information to HubLogix by emailing support@hublogix.com with the subject line “Connecting to ChannelAdvisor”. Please be patient as this is a multi-step process.

Steps.

  1. Send HubLogix your PID. If you don’t know your PID, you can locate it in Channel Advisor by going to My Account > Utilities > Company Setup and you will see the 8 digit Profile ID.
  2. Once HubLogix has the PID, we will request access to your account. To confirm access, you will have to go into ChannelAdvisor and navigate to My Account>Developer Network>Account Authorizations, where you will see a pending authorization from “Dana Vizzolini – CollisionSync” which is the HubLogix developer ID.
  3. Lastly, you will then need to send the account ID string that looks something like this: 2bc006c6-cbbb-48b1-867e-29bac72e91af back to HubLogix. This will complete the connection. This data can also be found in My Account > Developer Network > Account Authorizations.

3. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why does product content have to be loaded to ChannelAdvisor in order to start the onboarding process?

A: The core of any integration with HubLogix revolves around product inventory and the mapping of inventory from retailer to vendor/warehouse partners. Therefore, HubLogix must have access to a channel’s product inventory in order to start the integration process.

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Q: I am only mapping my products to Amazon using ChannelAdvisors product retrieval capability. Do I need to have MPN or Title populated for HubLogix to work with ChannelAdvisor.

A: No, you do not need to have MPN populated, but you must have Brand information populated to enable automated product mapping to vendor / warehouse inventory.

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Q: Are you able to filter which products are pulled into HubLogix?

A: Yes. HubLogix will only update products which are in our Distribution Center.

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Q: How does HubLogix know which orders to import from Channel Advisor?

A: By default, HubLogix will import any orders created in the last 90 days, for products in our Distribution Center, and that have a status of unshipped and payment status of cleared. If you have a need to manually select which orders HubLogix imports, please contact your HubLogix Onboarding Coach for more details.