Product configurator

This article is about the Mirakl product configurator that creates both product & offer for them on the Mirakl marketplace

Click here for the interactive guide for an easier way to correctly set up Mirakl configurators

Please see the Offer configurator guide for more details on how to use the Mirakl offer configurator to create offers for the products that already exist on the marketplace.

Also please see the general Linnworks help page on channel configurator functionality and usage.

Mirakl configurators are made by exactly the same principle that Linnworks is using for other channels - for example, Shopify or Amazon configurators.

Mirakl configurators host common listing details such as listing type, return policy, payment methods, shipping info, categories, etc. In addition, Linnworks uses multiple product descriptions, pricing, and titles defined in the system.

Please see the detailed information in the below sections:

1. Before creating a Mirakl configurator;

2. Creating a Mirakl configurator;

3. Editing a Mirakl configurator;

4. Mirakl product listing;

5. Mirakl templates;

6. Example of product configurator setup;

7. Value selection notes for the attributes;

8. Video walkthrough.

9. Missing offers for the products created by the product configurator - temporary workaround

Section 1: Before creating a Mirakl configurator

Please make sure that My Account>Mapping Configuration on the Mirakl marketplace is completely empty. If needed please delete all the already mapped values.

*Removing mapped values will not affect any already existing products/offers of your Mirakl account - all the existing product/offer information will stay on the marketplace.

If there are any mapped values then the Linnworks product configurator for Mirakl will not work, the listing process will cause errors & the products will not get created on the marketplace as these mapped values interfere with our product data feed to the Mirakl marketplace.

The correct screen will look something like in this example screenshot - there are no values in the My catalog structure section mapped - only Root will be visible as it can not be removed.

Section 2: Creating a Mirakl configurator

To create a Mirakl configurator:

1. Go to Settings > Others > select Mirakl MP in the drop-down menu.

2. Click the +Add New button.

3. In the configurator wizard screen, add the following details:

   

   • Configurator Name: Enter a name for the configurator for your convenience. The configurator name can help differentiate between certain groups of items as the same configurator can be used to create listings for similar items.

   • Channel: Select the Mirakl account this configurator will use when creating new listings.

4. Click Finish.

The configurator is now created, and you can configure other settings.

Section 3: Editing a Mirakl configurator

When the configurator is created, ensure you have configured all the sections. Below you will find a detailed guide for each of them.

Name

The name of the configurator can be edited after creation. Choose a name that will help to recognize the configurator easily when creating listings. It can also help to for example differentiate between groups of listed items that are similar like Children's clothing, Soft toys, and T-shirts.

Templates

Click the Templates button to view all listing templates created with this configurator. You can view the following details in the Templates pop-up:

• All

  • All: The total number of listing templates created with this configurator. 

  • All in the process: The total number of listing templates currently in the creation process. 

  • All with errors: The total number of listing templates that weren't created because of errors. Fix the errors to list items successfully.

• Simple: These are the listing templates that you use to list single items.

  • Simple in the process: The total number of simple listing templates currently in the creation process.

  • Simple with errors: The total number of simple listing templates that weren't created because of errors. Fix the errors to list items successfully.

  • Simple: The total number of simple listing templates created with this configurator.

• Variations: These are the listing templates that you use to list variations (variant groups). (Not available on Mirakl)

*Note! All numbers are clickable links. Click the number to open the list with all listing templates in the chosen category.

Site

This section displays the name of the Mirakl marketplace where you will be listing items. It is a particular Mirakl channel integration in your Linnworks account.

Settings

In the Settings window, select the available configurator type for your configurator.

• Offer configurator: Used to create products that are already created in the Mirakl marketplace.

  This configurator only creates offers. 

• Product configurator (default): Used to create both product & offer for this product in the Mirakl marketplace.

It's important to note that once the configurator type is selected, it cannot be changed from one type to another.

Categories

In the Categories window, you can select the category you wish to use for this configurator. Only one category per configurator and template is allowed.

The Categories screen is divided into three parts:

1. General Settings: A category can be mapped through an extended property. The extended property value must be the exact category ID or name and appear in the drop-down.

2. Selected categories: Every listing created via this configurator can use a category from this table.

3. Available categories: All categories available on the channel will be displayed here. Select the category you wish to use for this configurator by clicking the + button. If the categories were changed on Mirakl, you need to refresh them in the configurations by clicking the button in the Mirakl Configurators screen and then Refresh Categories.

Description

The Description window contains the text for the design of the Mirakl listing. The Description section is mandatory for product creation on Mirakl Marketplace. You can add and edit the description for listings created via this configurator. A detailed guide is here. HTML support is marketplace-specific - please ask your marketplace if it accepts HTML in product descriptions if you wish to use it.

Attributes

In the Attributes column, select the attributes you wish to use for this configurator. The number on the button in the Mirakl MP Configurators screen will stand for the number of attributes that you have selected. 

The Attributes section consists of two parts: 

• Available attributes: When you open the attributes menu, all attributes are loaded from Mirakl via API. When you select a category in the configurator (in the previous Categories screen), we send a category ID and get a set of relevant attributes that will be available in the Attribute screen. Some categories will have required attributes marked with a red symbol. These must be added to the configurator. The rest are optional.

• Selected attributes: Every listing created via this configurator can use attributes from this table. When selected, you can specify where Linnworks should pick the information up from - the item's extended property or the Default Value column in this screen. Supplying the attribute values will update them within the details of every item on Mirakl.

Visible

If unticked, this option hides the configurator from choosing when making a new template in Inventory > My Inventory. If it is unticked, you will not see it. If you have hundreds of configurators but do not need all of them for new listings, then you can hide them to make the configurator selection menu in My Inventory more compact. 

Section 4: Mirakl product listing

After the Mirakl configurator has been successfully created and set up, you can now create new products and offers using the Linnworks My Inventory section. In order to see the particular Mirakl marketplace/channel column, it has to be added to the My Inventory view.

1. Adding the Channel column to the My Inventory view

Open a channel view or create a new view from the Default tab to include the needed channel column.

• Open the channel view: Click on the icon on the Default tab > Channels > click on the channel name.

• Create a new view: Click on the icon on the Default tab > Channels >  + button after the channel name > check view settings >  Save.

  

2. Find and select the item(s)

You can select one or several items to create templates for all of them in bulk. Filtering and sorting can help you select a group of items that share common details and can be listed with the same configurator.

3. Select a configurator and create the template(s)

Right-click the Channel column for the selected item(s) + Create listing on Channel > select the configurator MiraklMP. You will be redirected to the channel templates screen.

4. Review the templates

In the channel templates screen, check all the details are correct and all mandatory fields have been filled such as Title, Categories, Attributes, and Images for successful product creation. If configurator attributes have been set correctly, these fields will automatically be filled for you.

Below example attributes screen is in red because the required mandatory attributes are not filled:

In the below example item images that are mandatory for the product configurator are not filled:

5. Send listing information to the channel

Click Create to start the listing creation on the channel.

You can also select one or several product templates and click the Process button in the top right-hand corner to start the listing creation for all products at once.

Section 5: Mirakl Templates

Review the templates for your listings and check attributes, categories, descriptions, and images in the Mirakl Templates screen. Check all details to ensure that the correct data was picked up from the SKUs because everything you can see in the listing template will now be sent to the channel. 

Available columns

Below is a description of each column:

• URL: A direct link to the listing created from this template. (Not available)

• Action: Allows to Create or Update the offer.

• Status: Shows the status of the listing for the template:

  • Not Listed: New template (when finding a match is impossible, missing EAN).

  • Listed: Template listed successfully.

  • Creating: Template locked, offer creation in progress.

  • Not relisted (Unlisted offer): When the listing has ended, but the template has not been deleted.

  • Updating Offer: Template locked. The offer update is in progress.

  • Product Not Found: When there was no match found on Mirakl.

  • Product Found: When there was a match found.

  • Partially Matched: When not all variation child items had a match.

• SKU: The SKU that will be used for the listing on the channel. The code that identifies the product within your business. For effective tracking and sales reporting, each SKU needs to be unique.

• Title: A name for your product that customers will see on the listing.

• Configurator: The name of the сonfigurator used to create the template.

• Price: The price that you are charging for the product. The listing template picks up the price automatically from the Listing Descriptions tab in Edit Item, based on priority.

• Categories: The Category picked up for the template and will be used in the listing.

  • Note! The Description section is mandatory when using the product configurator to create products & offers for them on Mirakl.

• Description: The product description that will be shown on the listing, contains the text for the listing design. More details are here. HTML support is marketplace-specific - please ask your marketplace if it accepts HTML in product descriptions if you wish to use it.

  • Note! The Description section is mandatory when using the product configurator to create products & offers for them on Mirakl. The listing template will only display the description of the item itself. The description design set up on the configurator is sent to the channel, but will not display on the template screen.

• Attributes: Item attributes picked up for the template and will be used in the listing.

• Images: When creating a template for the first time, Linnworks will add all images associated with the SKU, with the main image appearing first in the list. This list can be customized by adding new images directly to the template:

  • Note! The Images section is mandatory when using the product configurator to create products & offers for them on Mirakl.

• Publish: The listing's property indicates whether the listing should be hidden. For example, you can list an item but hide or disable it. 

Section 6: Example of product configurator setup

1. Select only one category you want to use the configurator for. This is because different categories might have different sets of mandatory and desired attributes.

   

   The category must be the lowest category possible.

   For example, you should not select the COMPUTER category if you want to list memory cards.

   The correct category could be COMPUTER > STORAGE > MEMORY CARD

   Find the needed category in the Available categories section and press the + sign on the right side. This will add the needed category to the Selected categories list.

   Please also select the Default checkbox next to the selected category before clicking the Save button.

   

2. Open the Attributes section.

   

   Please see the below image for an example of how to properly fill the Attributes section.

   

   For the interactive version of this image please click this link.

   Please see section 7 below for more details on how to properly use only the values expected by the marketplace for each field.

Section 7: Value selection notes for product configurator attributes

1. All the mandatory attributes selected in the Attributes section of the configurator should be always filled (marked with a red icon on the left side).

2. Optional attributes can be added and filled in as needed.

3. For any field that requires EAN/UPC or other types of barcode (the exact name of the field is marketplace-specific and can be different) please use Product.Barcode from the Extended Property dropdown menu.

   

4. When filling in the Attributes please always use the dropdown menu in the Default value column when available.

   

5. Where there is no dropdown value available you need to pay special attention to the help popup balloon on the left side of the attribute (it can be accessed by hovering over the red/yellow i icon). This help popup explains what value is required/expected by the marketplace for each field.

   Marketplaces accept only allowed values so you need to make sure you know what exactly is required by the marketplace in each field.

   For more information on the value required or if there is no information in the popup balloon available please contact your marketplace operator.

   

6. How to use an extended property instead of the available dropdown value:
   If the dropdown value on the Attributes screen has a | sign in it, for example, AAAANZ|Samsung

   Then when filled manually by Extended property the marketplace expects the only first part that is before the | sign - AAAANZ

   If you enter extended property value as AAAANZ|Samsung or Samsung then there will be an error and the product will not be listed.

Section 8: Video walkthrough

Section 9: Missing offers for the products created by the product configurator - temporary workaround

Currently, there is the possibility that offer creation is not happening as expected when using the product configurator. Normally product configurator would work in several steps - first creation of the product itself. Then in the next step offer is created for this product (with price and quantity set in this second step).

But currently, there is a possibility that the second step - offer creation - is not happening for technical reasons. This issue is known and we are actively working now as our highest priority to resolve it. Please see the below temporary workaround on how to create the missing offers in this situation.

If one of the templates results in an error, there is a chance that your products will not receive their corresponding offers. This might not be true all the time, but in case this happens, you must add those products to the separate configurator. First, ensure that the products are created and approved by the marketplace (it might take up to 72 hours) inside the Catalog Manager of your marketplace's back office.

After tracking down which products were created, you must take these steps:

1) Delete the templates for the products that were created;

2) Create a new offer configurator and select the type as Offer Configurator in the settings;

3) Add the products that you have created in Mirakl to that Offer Configurator.

In case your products are stuck in Creating... (grey color) status, in Linnworks, you must allow them a few days to unstuck. This might happen anywhere from 1 hour to 2-3 days.