Table of Contents
- Order Integration: Centralising Orders
- Order Syncing
- Customised Business Logic
- Product Integration: Simplifying Product Management
- 1️⃣ Product Selection: Control with Tags
- 2️⃣ Comprehensive Product Information
- 3️⃣ Pricing Flexibility
- 4️⃣ Bulk Upload Support
- Benefits of integrating Takealot with Cin7 via Wherehouse
- Expanding to Other Marketplaces
- Getting Started
In the ever-evolving world of eCommerce, managing your orders, inventory, pricing and marketplace presence efficiently can be a daunting task. The good news is that a solution now exists to streamline this process and make it more manageable than ever before. Enter the game-changing integration offered by Wherehouse, connecting Cin7 (formerly known as Dear Inventory) with Takealot Marketplace.
Wherehouse recently expanded its capabilities with a brand new Cin7 integration. For sellers operating across multiple sales channels, Cin7 is an indispensable platform that optimises inventory management. Your existing Cin7 integrations and sales channels will coincide seamlessly with Takealot.
Note that Wherehouse requires an API Integration to be created on Cin7 which may incur additional costs to your existing Cin7 subscription.
In this blog, we will guide you through what the typical Wherehouse customer’s integration with Cin7 looks like, bear in mind that Wherehouse is an adaptable platform. The true power of our Cin7 integration is that it enables you to sync order and product data with your online store(s), as well as South African Marketplaces like Takealot, Makro, Leroy Merlin and more. This formidable combination equips you with a robust solution for order and product management, streamlining your operations.
The best part is that Wherehouse is a turnkey solution. That means, from the moment you decide to integrate, you could have all of this up and running in just a matter of days. No onboarding or development fees required and contracts are month to month.
Ready to discover how the Cin7 and Takealot integration can simplify and streamline your eCommerce operations? Let's dive into the details.
Order Integration: Centralising Orders
Order Syncing
With this integration, orders are automatically synced from various sources to your Cin7 account, allowing you to consolidate inventory management and accounting. This means you no longer have to juggle different platforms to keep track of your sales or worse: manually capture order details.
Let's make this even clearer with a visual aid. When you log into your Wherehouse Dashboard, you'll be greeted with a comprehensive view. Orders from different origins, be it your online store or various marketplaces, all pull through and sync to Cin7.
Customised Business Logic
At the core of our integration lies remarkable flexibility. We understand that each eCommerce business has its unique requirements and operations. This is where custom business logic comes into play, allowing you to tailor the integration to meet your specific needs.
1️⃣ Custom Order Memo
When an order syncs through to Cin7, we have the ability to add a custom order memo. For instance, in the screenshot below, you can see that we've tagged it as a "Takealot Lead Time Order."
2️⃣ Tailored Order Details
Our integration is incredibly flexible, and we can map your unique business logic to modify any of the order details. For example, you can set the sales representative based on the order's origin, route the order to the correct location or warehouse, or specify rules on which customer to assign the order to.
This level of customisation ensures that your orders are processed in a way that aligns perfectly with your business processes.
3️⃣ Commissions and Fees
Keeping track of marketplace commissions and fees is essential for understanding your gross profit. The various marketplace fees such as “Takealot Success Fee” and “Takealot Fulfilment Fee” can be assigned to each order to ensure you have a realistic view of your profitability.
Product Integration: Simplifying Product Management
With our Cin7 and Takealot Marketplace integration, you'll discover a seamless way to simplify this critical aspect of your business. Here's how this integration streamlines your product management:
1️⃣ Product Selection: Control with Tags
Indicating which products to sync with each marketplace is done through the use of “Tags”. This feature allows you to have full control over which items are listed on Takealot Marketplace, ensuring that only relevant products are displayed. You can add product tags in bulk through Cin7’s import/export functionality.
In this screenshot, you can see a product as it appears in the Cin7 product management interface. What's particularly noteworthy here is the "Tags" section. Here, the seller has strategically tagged this product with "TAKEALOT", “LOOT” and “MAKRO”. Wherehouse uses this information to filter the correct products to send to each platform.
In this second screenshot, you can see the Wherehouse dashboard, where product sync is intuitively represented. Each card within this view indicates the sync status of the product with different platforms. Filters are available to view products synced to a specific platform. Clicking on the platform’s tag will take you to the product on each of the respective platforms.
2️⃣ Comprehensive Product Information
Wherehouse takes care of the heavy lifting when it comes to your product information. It ingests all the product attribute data (such as colour, brand, and more) that you have on Cin7 and can even enrich it from separate sources, such as your website platform or a feed from your supplier. Wherehouse provides these attributes as specially formatted bulk upload loadsheets for you to add/update product information on Takealot.
3️⃣ Pricing Flexibility
Our integration enables you to link product pricing to any price tier. You can also set up adjustment rules, such as increasing a price tier by a certain percentage (e.g. Increasing Price Tier 1 with 15%). Each marketplace can have its unique rules and mappings, allowing you to optimise your pricing strategy for different platforms.
4️⃣ Bulk Upload Support
We understand that consistently listing new products on a marketplace can be a time-consuming and challenging task. That's where our integration offers invaluable support with generating bulk upload loadsheets containing your product information for all items not yet listed on Takealot Marketplace. This feature seamlessly fits into your monthly process to get new items listed, saving you time and effort.
All you need to do is go to the Loadsheets section on your Wherehouse dashboard, where you'll find a user-friendly interface for configuring the loadsheets.
Here, you’ll map your product categories to Takealot's categories to ensure your products are listed in the right sections. We’ve got a guide on how to do this here:
After configuration, simply download the generated loadsheet to submit to Takealot Marketplace after reviewing it. For more detailed instructions and information on generating loadsheets, you can refer to our comprehensive documentation:
This straightforward process streamlines the task of getting your products in front of Takealot's millions of potential customers, and it also makes expanding your product listings to a new marketplace hassle-free.
In conclusion, integrating Takealot with Cin7 via Wherehouse is a strategic move that simplifies your eCommerce management, streamlines order and product sync, and provides you with an efficient, flexible, and cost-effective solution to enhance your online business.
Benefits of integrating Takealot with Cin7 via Wherehouse
When you integrate Takealot with Cin7 via Wherehouse, you unlock a multitude of benefits that can significantly enhance your eCommerce operations. Here are some of the key advantages:
1️⃣ Automatic Order Sync: One of the primary benefits of this integration is the automatic sync of Takealot Marketplace orders with Cin7. This ensures that your inventory is always up to date, and you can seamlessly manage the order life cycle. Whether you're dealing with Takealot or other eCommerce platforms, this logic can be tailored to fit your entire ecosystem, providing you with a holistic view of your sales and order trends.
2️⃣ Efficient Stock Management: Stock values are automatically synced across platforms, eliminating the need for manual intervention. This real-time stock update ensures that you never oversell products and that your inventory remains accurate across platforms. Dynamic stock management rules can be applied, helping you maintain a seamless flow of products to meet demand while avoiding stockouts.
3️⃣ Streamlined Pricing Updates: With the Takealot and Cin7 integration via Wherehouse, pricing updates become effortless. The integration ensures that your pricing remains consistent and up to date on both platforms. Additionally, you can apply dynamic pricing rules on a per-platform basis, allowing you to adapt your pricing strategies to suit each marketplace's specific requirements. This flexibility empowers you to maximise your profitability while maintaining pricing accuracy across multiple channels.
4️⃣ Enriched Product Data: Wherehouse ingests rich product attribute data from Cin7 and other sources to enhance your product listings on Takealot. This not only saves you time but also ensures that your product information is comprehensive and up to date.
5️⃣ Category Mapping Simplified: With Wherehouse, you enjoy the convenience of once-off category mapping, sparing you from the tedious task of manually selecting sub-categories for each product when filling in a loadsheet.
Expanding to Other Marketplaces
The good news is that the same level of integration can be extended to other South African marketplaces, including Makro Marketplace, Loot, Leroy Merlin, and Bobshop.
Whether you're selling exclusively on Takealot or across multiple South African Marketplaces, our integration makes your life easier and your business more efficient.
Getting Started
Here's how to get started with our Cin7 and Takealot Marketplace integration:
- Ensure you have an active account on Takealot Marketplace. If you're not already selling on Takealot, you can set up your seller account here.
- Wherehouse can only integrate after your Takealot Seller account is set up and approved and your first products (we only need one or two) have been listed.
- Sign up for Wherehouse here (click Get Connected then fill out the form).
- We'll have you up and running within 1-3 business days, configuring your business logic and adjustment rules. Our onboarding process is completely free.
- Choose a subscription plan that suits your business needs here.