When a store acts as a marketplace, it is important to remember that the sellers' catalogs have a completely independent structure. In order to make definitions between both catalogs compatible, categories, brands and specifications have to be mapped when sellers:

• Send their products for the first time
• Send products with data that has not been mapped before

This allows entering the products sent by the seller with equivalent information in the marketplace catalog. It is important to note that sending a new item whose information is not yet mapped does not modify values already mapped in the marketplace. To map brands, categories, and specifications:

1. In the Marketplace section of your admin, go to the Sellers.
2. Click Categories and brands.
3. Click New mapping.
4. Select a seller from the dropdown and click Add.
5. For the seller that was added to the panel:
   a. Map the categories.
   b. Map the brands.
   c. Map the specifications.
6. Click Update mapping.

After the seller sends the products to the marketplace, the marketplace has to map the categories. Matching between marketplace and seller categories is done through a template.

You can download the updated template by clicking the Download current mapping table button in the seller you added to the Categories and brands page. The template contains the following columns:

To complete the template:

1. Check all the categories in column A. These are the values that you will match with the seller's categories from column C in step 2.
2. Fill column B with the matching category from column C.
3. Repeat the process until column C is empty.
4. Save the template XLS file.
5. In Categories mapping, upload the updated template using the Change categories mapping button.

If the program you used for opening the template uses semicolons (“;”) as separators, you have to replace them with commas (“,”) before importing the file.

In this example, we downloaded the current template, which has the following values in the columns:

We will map the seller's categories, trying to find the best possible match with the existing marketplace categories. After the mapping is done, the template will look as follows:

Note that more than one category in the seller's catalog fell in the same marketplace category (Women / Jeans). In that case, duplicate the row in Marketplace categories and paste the values from Unmapped categories sent by seller into each duplicated row.

After the seller sends the products to the marketplace, the marketplace has to map the brands. Matching between marketplace and seller brands is done through a template.

You can download the updated template by clicking the Download current mapping table button in the seller you added to the Categories and brands page. The template contains the following columns:

1. Check all the brands in column A. These are the values that you will match with the seller's brands from column C in step 2.
2. Fill column B with the matching brand from column C.
3. Repeat the process until column C is empty.
4. Save the template XLS file.
5. In Brands mapping, upload the updated template using the Change categories mapping button.

If the program you used for opening the template uses semicolons (“;”) as separators, you have to replace them with commas (“,”) before importing the file.

In this example, we downloaded the current template, which has the following values in the columns:

We will map the seller's brands by matching the existing marketplace brands with the ones sent by the seller. After the mapping is done, the template will look as follows:

Note that not all marketplace brands had a match in this case. This varies depending on the seller's product offering and the variety of marketplace brands.

Specifications are additional properties that can be added to your store's products or SKUs. After the seller sends the products, the marketplace has to map the product and SKU specifications. Mapping is done manually through the Categories and brands page to match the fields between the marketplace and the seller.

When a seller submits a product with a specification that has not been mapped by the marketplace and the marketplace approves this product, a new SKU is created, even though there is already a SKU in the marketplace catalog to associate it with. The unmapped specification (for example, color) or its value (for example, yellow) will be registered as an unstructured attribute in the marketplace catalog, but will not be displayed in the marketplace storefront. Therefore, it is necessary to map all the specifications and their values so that they are visible to buyers. You can view the unstructured attributes in your Admin. Go to Catalog > Products and SKUs > choose an item from the list > click the Specifications tab.

To map product and SKUs’ specifications, follow the steps below:

1. In Specifications mapping, click Map product/SKU specifications.
2. In the Seller column, enter the specification value that matches the seller catalog.
3. In the Marketplace column, enter the value that matches the specification in the marketplace catalog. You can find it by navigating the category tree available in Products > Catalog > Categories.
4. Click Add new entry to repeat the process until all seller specifications have a match.
5. Click Update mapping.

We will map the seller's specifications by matching the existing marketplace specifications with the ones found in the seller catalog. Note that all divergent specifications have to be mapped, even if the only difference is word capitalization. After the mapping is done, the table will look as follows:

Specification mapping is applied on the marketplace website in different ways, depending on the actions done in the Received SKUs module when approving seller SKUs:

• Link to existing SKU: the specification mapping is ignored by the marketplace system because the SKU already exists in the marketplace with the same specifications.
• Link to an existing product: the specification mapping is only considered for SKU specifications because the product specifications already exist in the marketplace.
• Approve as new product: the mapping is applied in full for product and SKU specifications coming from the seller.

• Approving products
• Creating a trade policy
• Trade policy for marketplaces