This interface allows you to import sales orders from Kaufland into Xentral via an API and offers the following features:
-
Importing sales orders from Kaufland
-
Automatic changing of order status on dispatch with tracking notification
-
Transferring products individually from Xentral to Kaufland or vice versa
-
Reporting of current stock figures
-
Uploading invoices to Kaufland
To connect the interface, you need to have access to Kaufland as well as Xentral.
Follow the steps below to generate your API credentials at Kaufland:
-
Log in to the merchant area of Kaufland (www.kaufland.de/seller).
-
Go to Merchant settings > Shop settings in the main menu and open the API tab.
-
Select Xentral as interface and save.
-
Click on Generate new API keys.
-
Copy the Client Key and Secret Key. You will need them, when you set up the interface in Xentral .
To create a Kaufland shop interface in Xentral :
-
In Xentral , go to:
-
In classic design: Administration > Shop interface and click NEW.
-
In Xentral NextGen :
Settings > Sell > Shops/ Marketplaces and click Add connection.
-
-
Select Kaufland. A dialog box appears.
-
Enter your Client Key and Secret Key into the respective fields and click Next.
You are redirected to the configuration page of your interface.
You can configure the basic interface settings in the Details tab > Interface subtab.
-
Enter a meaningful designation, e.g. your shopname and the project attached to it.
-
Select the Active check box to activate the interface. You can also clear it to deactivate the interface.
-
Select a project. With a shop-specific project you can customize logistics, documents, payment methods, and other features to best suit your shop. Kaufland has a few special requirements, e.g. regarding the upload of invoices, that you can solve with a project. Find out how to set up some specifics of your project at the end of this article.
-
Select a Pick-up mode. In the Kaufland interface from date is the only option.
-
The Date from field is filled automatically when you set up the interface and gets updated every time you click Pick up orders or when sales orders are imported by the process starter.
In the Settings for shop or marketplace section, you can set up some optional settings:
-
Select Recording in the log file, if you want to log the calls of the interface. This can be helpful for troubleshooting. The logs will be shown at the bottom of this settings page.
-
Select Produktdaten immer übertragen (always transfer product data) if you regulary change your product data and descriptions. By default product data is only transfered once, but with this option it will be transferred every time you export a product.
-
Select Artikel ohne Lagerbestand automatisch bei Aktualisierung aus dem Shop entfernen (automatically remove products without stock during update) if you don't plan to restock your products on this marketplace.
You can select from three options for Import mode:
-
Trial (for testing) - Use this option for testing purposes. This option doesn't update the order status in the shop. Products and stock numbers are not transferred.
-
Manually (with Import center) - Xentral only imports sales orders when you click Pick up orders in the Action menu on the right.
When you select Orders in intermediate table, the sales orders are stored in an intermediate table where you can check them for mistakes before you save them to your system.
You can test the interface by selecting Only 1 order per request and then checking if the import process works as intended for one sales order.
-
Automatically (via process starter) - Xentral automatically imports sales orders in regular intervals. This process is controlled by the shopimportprocess starter.
When you select Orders in intermediate table in this import mode, the intermediate table is used as a fallback, i.e. if there is an error during the import process, you can check for errors and missing sales orders in the intermediate table.
You can also click Store import intermediate table in the Action menu to the right to import an intermediate table of your most recent sales orders.
There are multiple additional tabs where you can set up more specific settings. As all interfaces for online shops are built on the same framework, not all tabs are relevant for every shop.
You can find detailed information about the following tabs in the Online shops article:
-
Settings (Product import, Synchronization of stock numbers)
Caution
When the item transfer is disabled in the settings, prices linked to the shop will still be transferred to Kaufland during synchronization of stock numbers!
-
Payment methods
-
Shipping methods
-
Language / country of delivery
You can learn more about using Smarty in the online shop interface here.
Note
The following tabs are not relevant for the Kaufland interface:
-
Free fields
-
Subshop
-
Group mapping
You need to map your products between Kaufland and Xentral . This enables the synchronization of products between Kaufland and Xentral . In addition, it enables the allocation of sales orders from Kaufland to the mapped products in Xentral .
To map the products between Kaufland and Xentral :
-
In the Kaufland shop interface in Xentral go to Details > Product Mapping.
-
Click Pick up item list.
The products from Kaufland are retrieved and listed here. The Assignable column identifies the products that can be mapped automatically to their counterparts in Xentral based on identical EANs.
Xentral automatically creates two entries in the Xentral product's external numbers from the data imported via the shop interface:
-
apiitemid - This is the old designation used by the obsolete API. It is automatically created because it is transferred by the Kaufland shop interface. You can ignore this number.
-
apiunitid - This is the valid designation for the Kaufland external number.
-
-
Click Assign item.
The products that have been identified as Assignable are now assigned. This means:
-
The Assigned column indicates that they have been assigned.
-
In the External Numbers tab of the corresponding product the two Kaufland-related external numbers (apiitemid and apiunitid) become Active.
-
Note
When you click Pick up item list, any product that was already assigned becomes unassigned. You have to re-assign all products by clicking Assign item again.
If needed, you can manually disable an active mapping of a product or change the mapping to a different product in Xentral .
To manually disable and re-enable the mapping of a product:
-
In the Kaufland shop interface in Xentral go to Details > Product Mapping.
-
In the list of products from Kaufland, click the
icon on the right side of the product whose mapping you want to disable.The assignment is disabled. This means:
-
The Assigned column indicates that they are not assigned.
-
In the External Numbers tab of the corresponding product the Active checkbox of the two Kaufland-related external numbers (apiitemid and apiunitid) is cleared.
These two external numbers are not deleted but disabled, so that you can re-enable them at any time by assigning the corresponding mapping in the Product Mapping tab, see below.
-
To change the mapping of a Kaufland-listed product to a different Xentral -listed product:
-
In the Kaufland shop interface in Xentral go to Details > Product Mapping.
-
In the list of products from Kaufland, click the
icon on the right side of the product whose mapping you want to change. -
In the Edit Product dialog box that appears, enter the desired product on Xentral side. You can click the
icon in the entry field to search for a suitable product. -
Click Save.
The mapping is created: In the External Numbers tab of the corresponding product the two Kaufland-related external numbers (apiitemid and apiunitid) are created and set to Active.
To list a product at Kaufland you need to set up a few shop-specific settings. For more general information about the export of products to an online shop, check out this article.
To export a product to Kaufland:
-
Go to
-
In classic design: Master data > Products > Select product > Details tab > Online shop options sub-tab.
-
In Xentral NextGen : Sell > Products > Select product > Details tab > Online shop options sub-tab.
-
-
Click New entry in the Online shops section. A new window opens.
-
Select your Kaufland interface in the Online shop drop-down menu, then click Save.
-
Click
in the same line as Kaufland. A new window with Kaufland-specific settings opens. -
Click Search in the Category field and select a category for your product. Kaufland suggests categories based on the product description. If the suggestions do not fit, you can select a specific category using the Manual category search.
-
Enter your product data into the category specific fields. Some of those fields are mandatory and needed to list your product at Kaufland. Whenever Xentral recognizes matching information, the corresponding field is filled with the product data from Xentral , e.g. manufacturer.
Note
You can address different fields by variables. You can use either variables or text, but you cannot mix both in one field. For example, if you wrote "{Freifeld1} liter" to create a quantity with a unit, the variable would not be read correctly and you would get "{Freifeld1} liter" instead of "10 liter".
-
Select a shipping group. You need to set up a shipping group in your Kaufland Seller Portal before you can select one.
-
Select a Status. If the status is not Neu (New), you also need to enter a state description in the next field.
-
Enter a Minimal delivery time and Maximal delivery time in days.
-
Click Save.
Note
If a product is not available, although all fields have been entered, the cause of the problem might be at Kaufland. When you edit a product directly at Kaufland, mandatory fields are displayed with bold red font.
You can enhance the presentation of your product by adding information like a product description and a product image. However, there are some limitations to this when using Kaufland:
-
Kaufland does not directly use the product description you transfer from Xentral. It checks your description and integrates fitting content into the existing description.
-
Images need to be uploaded to a FTP server or similiar. You then add the URL to your product under Products > Select product > Details tab > Online shop options sub-tab > click
for Kaufland in the Image field.
There are some special aspects concerning the the upload of invoices and the dispatch of emails you need to pay attention to when setting up a Kaufland project. The reasons for this are as follows:
-
Invoices need to be transferred to Kaufland as soon as a sales order is completed. This means that the invoice needs to be generated before the dispatch process.
-
Kaufland doesn't allow third parties, like Xentral , to send emails in their name.
Set up your project in the following way:
-
Go to
-
In classic design: Master data > Project > open project for Kaufland > Settings tab > Logistics/ shipping sub-tab.
-
In Xentral NextGen :
Settings > Stock > Logistic settings per sales channel > for your Kaufland interface.
-
-
In the Stage 1 (picking/ order picking) section, make sure that the check box for Only generate the invoice in the shipping process is cleared.
-
Make sure that the check boxes for Email are cleared for both Stage 1 (picking/ order picking) and Stage 2 (pack) at dispatch station.