FAQs
Attributes
If you have items that you wish to add a tag to say “specials”, insert the tag or the name of your special into the CUSTOM1 – 3 slot in Retail Express and Translator can map it across as a tag immediately in your digital storefront.
And that’s it, Translator has done the job! Please contact us if you are not sure your Map includes these custom fields.
Retail Express now allows 1mb images, which are therefore now suitable to use on some eCommerce platforms.
Please check with us for migration tools to transfer these to Shopify and other eCommerce platforms.
Retail Express image requirements:
- File name must not contain spaces
- Recommended dimensions: 500w x 625h
- Minimum dimensions: 90w x 120h
- Maximum file size: 1MB
- Supported formats: BMP, JPEG and GIF
Issues
When updating product information from a Mass Upload, blank fields are ignored:
If you want to reset a field, please type ‘CLEAR DATA’
Most outages from both your POS and eCommerce systems will not “break” TranslatorHQ. It was designed to be resilient and automatically recover from these outages.
For Short Description commas “,” and back slashes “\” are not permitted.
In Retail Express although you can add illegal characters in the web interface, these characters will generate errors when doing any Mass uploading or downloading.
So For SKU’s you can only use the following:
“a-z” “A-Z” “0-9” “/” “+””–” “.” “_”
*Any other characters should not be used
In order to show discount prices on products, the eCommerce site needs to compare two prices. The compare field is called the “Compare at Price”.
This field is mapped from the RRP price in Retail Express.
Note: A RRP price for each product must be entered in Retail Express for each product.
The product price used to compare any discounts is controlled by a hierarchy. The standard price when there is no sale would be that the Retail Express POS price is the same as the RRP.
In this case the POS price will be mapped to the eCommerce product price.
Default: Retail Express POS price is mapped to eCommerce Product Price
The eCommerce site will compare the Products Price with the Compare at Price.
If the Product Price is less, a Sale will be displayed according to the rules setup in the Theme’s site.
For example RRP
$ 170Now $99
When there are any other prices in Retail Express they will used to replace the Product Price according to the following hierarchy:
- If there is a Web Price, it over-rides all prices and is used when you always want a different price in store compared to online.
If no Web Price exist then … - If there’s an Outlet specific Discount Price specified within the Primary Sales Outlet and it is within a valid date range, use this price however make sure it is not discounted past the maximum discount rule imposed for the product (if any)
If no Outlet Discount Price exist then … - If there’s an Outlet specific POS Price for this product at the outlet that has been selected as the Primary Sales Outlet, use this price.
If no Outlet POS Price exist then… - If there’s a Master Discount Price (on the Main tab of the product rather than on the outlet tab) and it is within a valid date range, use this price however make sure it is not discounted past the maximum discount rules impose for the product (if any)
If no Master Discount Price exist then … - Use the Master POS price (on the main tab of the product) which is most cases will be the default
Online Sales
The online sale will appear on the POS terminal for that day and can be identified by the Sales Report or Fulfilment report using the filters for the sales person = Trans or the check box for online sales/instore sales.
Shopify now allows two options for customer identification, email address or phone number.
Of these, phone numbers are known to be less secure compared to email, as well as email being more compatible with our payment services.
For an order, we ask that you require an email address so that your order can be processed securely, and without delay.
This is dependent upon your eCommerce and Payment provider. Most providers have a testing mode or testing cards. In Shopify you can use a test mode as below.
(more…)
We now offer options for order processing including the ability to customise the comments that appear on the order both private and public and also provide better options for automatic payment mapping.
Payments can be mapped as “Online” or as the payment provider: Visa, MasterCard, Afterpay etc,..
In order to show discount prices on products, the eCommerce site needs to compare two prices. The compare field is called the “Compare at Price”.
This field is mapped from the RRP price in Retail Express.
Note: A RRP price for each product must be entered in Retail Express for each product.
The product price used to compare any discounts is controlled by a hierarchy. The standard price when there is no sale would be that the Retail Express POS price is the same as the RRP.
In this case the POS price will be mapped to the eCommerce product price.
Default: Retail Express POS price is mapped to eCommerce Product Price
The eCommerce site will compare the Products Price with the Compare at Price.
If the Product Price is less, a Sale will be displayed according to the rules setup in the Theme’s site.
For example RRP
$ 170Now $99
When there are any other prices in Retail Express they will used to replace the Product Price according to the following hierarchy:
- If there is a Web Price, it over-rides all prices and is used when you always want a different price in store compared to online.
If no Web Price exist then … - If there’s an Outlet specific Discount Price specified within the Primary Sales Outlet and it is within a valid date range, use this price however make sure it is not discounted past the maximum discount rule imposed for the product (if any)
If no Outlet Discount Price exist then … - If there’s an Outlet specific POS Price for this product at the outlet that has been selected as the Primary Sales Outlet, use this price.
If no Outlet POS Price exist then… - If there’s a Master Discount Price (on the Main tab of the product rather than on the outlet tab) and it is within a valid date range, use this price however make sure it is not discounted past the maximum discount rules impose for the product (if any)
If no Master Discount Price exist then … - Use the Master POS price (on the main tab of the product) which is most cases will be the default
Payments
Prerequisites
Shopify and Neto supplies all stores with an SSL Certificate and we use this path to ensure all product, customer and order information is encrypted as it is transferred between Retail Express and your store.
BigCommerce currently only offers an SSL certificate for check-out. If you do not already have one on your site you may need to purchase and install this separately before we can commence implementation. It may be possible to connect using a separate secure channel rather than your store.
WooCommerce does require an SSL certificate. If you do not already have one on your site you will need to purchase and install this separately before we can commence implementation.
The grouping is decided upon by the Manufacturer SKU or Code in Retail Express. If these are the same it will group all of these products together. So you can decide in REX if you want colours together or separate. If you would like the product to appear in the eCommerce system as separate colours not all under same product with 2 sets of options you need to change REX.
The Translator cannot separate products once the product and their SKU’s have already been created in eCommerce. To re-create these products again in the fashion to match retail express you will need to remove these and get the Translator to re-create them.
In Retail Express although you can add illegal characters in the web interface, these characters will generate errors when doing any Mass uploading or downloading.
So For SKU’s you can only use the following:
“a-z” “A-Z” “0-9” “/” “+””–” “.” “_”
*Any other characters should not be used
For Short Description commas “,” and back slashes “\” are not permitted.
Steps for Preparing for Integration
1) Marking Products as “Export to Web”
Products need to be marked as “Export to Web” in Retail Express so they can be seen and transferred to the eCommerce site.
Here are the steps from the below links, extracted for your convenience.
Once the Source Group and Sales Channels are setup each individual product needs to be marked as “Export to Web Service” within Retail Express as follows:
Export to Web
For Multiple products, it will be much quicker to do a mass download, to Excel, set the Sales Channel and “Export to WebService” columns on each item (as shown below) and re-import to Retail Express.
2) Aligning SKU’s
Need to make sure the SKU’s in the eCommerce site are the same as the Supplier SKU’s in Retail Express. Please read the below links to understand how this works as it will be important not only in the setup but ongoing to maintain your products in sync with each system.
It is certainly cleaner if there are no product in your eCommerce site.
3) Ready for Linking
We will conduct a number of tests and if all good send a sample of test products up for you to check.
Once happy we will send all the products up.
These will be sent to Woo in draft mode ready for you to add images, descriptions, add collections, tags or categories and publish.
4) Test Orders
The final step is for you to place a test order from Woo and let us know, so the details sent back to Retail Express are checked.
5) Going Live
Once everything is checked we will migrate your setup from our Staging server to our Production servers.
Datamap
Typically the following data map is created. By not updating all the fields you can have the flexibility to have different and more detailed information in the eCommerce site and we will not overwrite it. Conversely, if you always want more fields to always match, we can update on each sync.
| Retail Express Field | eCommerce Field | Create for New Products | Updated |
| Description | Title | Y | |
| Product Type | Product Type | Y | |
| WebStore Description | Body html | Y | |
| Brand Name | Vendor | Y | |
| Colour | Tags | Y | |
| Stock Available | Inventory | Y | Y |
| RRP | Compare At Price | Y | |
| Product ID | Barcode | Y | |
| Custom 1 | Tag | Y | |
| Season Name | Tag | Y | |
| Size Name | Tag | Y |
Here are useful links for reference:
Discounts and Price Hierarchy : See Issues – How are discount prices setup
Product Stock
Please make sure the product has Export to Web selected, a Sales Channel and Source Group assigned.
Also make sure the product is not disabled.
Yes there is an option to do this, remember that it will also show products and publish them once stock is available, so you need to be aware that new products could go up before you are ready.
Yes, by using a Retail Express package you can set up a “pointer” to a real product with a different price. This new SKU will synchronize and allow you to have a discounted or free price. You can also use packages for “Bundles” the stock levels will update according to the components within the package.
Promotions
Setup
Steps for Preparing for Integration
1) Marking Products as “Export to Web”
Products need to be marked as “Export to Web” in Retail Express so they can be seen and transferred to the eCommerce site.
Here are the steps from the below links, extracted for your convenience.
Once the Source Group and Sales Channels are setup each individual product needs to be marked as “Export to Web Service” within Retail Express as follows:
Export to Web
For Multiple products, it will be much quicker to do a mass download, to Excel, set the Sales Channel and “Export to WebService” columns on each item (as shown below) and re-import to Retail Express.
2) Aligning SKU’s
Need to make sure the SKU’s in the eCommerce site are the same as the Supplier SKU’s in Retail Express. Please read the below links to understand how this works as it will be important not only in the setup but ongoing to maintain your products in sync with each system.
It is certainly cleaner if there are no product in your eCommerce site.
3) Ready for Linking
We will conduct a number of tests and if all good send a sample of test products up for you to check.
Once happy we will send all the products up.
These will be sent to Woo in draft mode ready for you to add images, descriptions, add collections, tags or categories and publish.
4) Test Orders
The final step is for you to place a test order from Woo and let us know, so the details sent back to Retail Express are checked.
5) Going Live
Once everything is checked we will migrate your setup from our Staging server to our Production servers.
Datamap
Typically the following data map is created. By not updating all the fields you can have the flexibility to have different and more detailed information in the eCommerce site and we will not overwrite it. Conversely, if you always want more fields to always match, we can update on each sync.
| Retail Express Field | eCommerce Field | Create for New Products | Updated |
| Description | Title | Y | |
| Product Type | Product Type | Y | |
| WebStore Description | Body html | Y | |
| Brand Name | Vendor | Y | |
| Colour | Tags | Y | |
| Stock Available | Inventory | Y | Y |
| RRP | Compare At Price | Y | |
| Product ID | Barcode | Y | |
| Custom 1 | Tag | Y | |
| Season Name | Tag | Y | |
| Size Name | Tag | Y |
Here are useful links for reference:
Discounts and Price Hierarchy : See Issues – How are discount prices setup
Retail Express now allows 1mb images, which are therefore now suitable to use on some eCommerce platforms.
Please check with us for migration tools to transfer these to Shopify and other eCommerce platforms.
Retail Express image requirements:
- File name must not contain spaces
- Recommended dimensions: 500w x 625h
- Minimum dimensions: 90w x 120h
- Maximum file size: 1MB
- Supported formats: BMP, JPEG and GIF
SKU
In Retail Express although you can add illegal characters in the web interface, these characters will generate errors when doing any Mass uploading or downloading.
So For SKU’s you can only use the following:
“a-z” “A-Z” “0-9” “/” “+””–” “.” “_”
*Any other characters should not be used
Steps for Preparing for Integration
1) Marking Products as “Export to Web”
Products need to be marked as “Export to Web” in Retail Express so they can be seen and transferred to the eCommerce site.
Here are the steps from the below links, extracted for your convenience.
Once the Source Group and Sales Channels are setup each individual product needs to be marked as “Export to Web Service” within Retail Express as follows:
Export to Web
For Multiple products, it will be much quicker to do a mass download, to Excel, set the Sales Channel and “Export to WebService” columns on each item (as shown below) and re-import to Retail Express.
2) Aligning SKU’s
Need to make sure the SKU’s in the eCommerce site are the same as the Supplier SKU’s in Retail Express. Please read the below links to understand how this works as it will be important not only in the setup but ongoing to maintain your products in sync with each system.
It is certainly cleaner if there are no product in your eCommerce site.
3) Ready for Linking
We will conduct a number of tests and if all good send a sample of test products up for you to check.
Once happy we will send all the products up.
These will be sent to Woo in draft mode ready for you to add images, descriptions, add collections, tags or categories and publish.
4) Test Orders
The final step is for you to place a test order from Woo and let us know, so the details sent back to Retail Express are checked.
5) Going Live
Once everything is checked we will migrate your setup from our Staging server to our Production servers.
Datamap
Typically the following data map is created. By not updating all the fields you can have the flexibility to have different and more detailed information in the eCommerce site and we will not overwrite it. Conversely, if you always want more fields to always match, we can update on each sync.
| Retail Express Field | eCommerce Field | Create for New Products | Updated |
| Description | Title | Y | |
| Product Type | Product Type | Y | |
| WebStore Description | Body html | Y | |
| Brand Name | Vendor | Y | |
| Colour | Tags | Y | |
| Stock Available | Inventory | Y | Y |
| RRP | Compare At Price | Y | |
| Product ID | Barcode | Y | |
| Custom 1 | Tag | Y | |
| Season Name | Tag | Y | |
| Size Name | Tag | Y |
Here are useful links for reference:
Discounts and Price Hierarchy : See Issues – How are discount prices setup
Sync
Stock changes in Retail Express are updated every 15 minutes to the eCommerce sites. These are queued and will be accepted based on the number of items.
All other aspects of the product updates including prices, discounts and tags such as product type will be updated on the hour. Again queued and accepted based on the number of changes.
Steps for Preparing for Integration
1) Marking Products as “Export to Web”
Products need to be marked as “Export to Web” in Retail Express so they can be seen and transferred to the eCommerce site.
Here are the steps from the below links, extracted for your convenience.
Once the Source Group and Sales Channels are setup each individual product needs to be marked as “Export to Web Service” within Retail Express as follows:
Export to Web
For Multiple products, it will be much quicker to do a mass download, to Excel, set the Sales Channel and “Export to WebService” columns on each item (as shown below) and re-import to Retail Express.
2) Aligning SKU’s
Need to make sure the SKU’s in the eCommerce site are the same as the Supplier SKU’s in Retail Express. Please read the below links to understand how this works as it will be important not only in the setup but ongoing to maintain your products in sync with each system.
It is certainly cleaner if there are no product in your eCommerce site.
3) Ready for Linking
We will conduct a number of tests and if all good send a sample of test products up for you to check.
Once happy we will send all the products up.
These will be sent to Woo in draft mode ready for you to add images, descriptions, add collections, tags or categories and publish.
4) Test Orders
The final step is for you to place a test order from Woo and let us know, so the details sent back to Retail Express are checked.
5) Going Live
Once everything is checked we will migrate your setup from our Staging server to our Production servers.
Datamap
Typically the following data map is created. By not updating all the fields you can have the flexibility to have different and more detailed information in the eCommerce site and we will not overwrite it. Conversely, if you always want more fields to always match, we can update on each sync.
| Retail Express Field | eCommerce Field | Create for New Products | Updated |
| Description | Title | Y | |
| Product Type | Product Type | Y | |
| WebStore Description | Body html | Y | |
| Brand Name | Vendor | Y | |
| Colour | Tags | Y | |
| Stock Available | Inventory | Y | Y |
| RRP | Compare At Price | Y | |
| Product ID | Barcode | Y | |
| Custom 1 | Tag | Y | |
| Season Name | Tag | Y | |
| Size Name | Tag | Y |
Here are useful links for reference:
Discounts and Price Hierarchy : See Issues – How are discount prices setup