Manufacturers

Who makes your products? Which brands do you sell? plentymarkets helps you manage your manufacturer data.

Procedure

First, create the necessary manufacturer data records manually or via import.
Then add commission models as needed.
Finally, specify who manufactured each of your items. This is done by linking your items to manufacturers.
Should your customers be able to search in the plentyShop for products made by a specific manufacturer? Customise the plentyShop settings as needed.

1. Creating manufacturer data records

1.1. Manual creation

Go to Setup » Item » Manufacturers.
Click on New.
→ The New manufacturer tab opens.
Enter the manufacturer data. Note Table 1.
Save () the settings.
→ The manufacturer is added.

Table 1. Adding manufacturers
Setting	Explanation
ID	The manufacturer’s unique ID. *Recommendation*: Leave this field blank while creating new manufacturer data records. If you leave the field blank, then the manufacturer will automatically be assigned the next available ID.
Name	Enter the internal name of the manufacturer.
Logo URL	Enter the URL that leads to the manufacturer’s logo. The URL can have up to 2,000 characters.
Homepage	Enter the URL that leads to the manufacturer’s homepage. The URL can have up to 2,000 characters.
Street House No. Postcode Town Country Telephone number Fax number Email	Enter the manufacturer’s address and contact data.
PIXmania ID Neckermann.de Enterprise ID Neckermann.at Enterprise ID Neckermann.at Cross-Docking ID La Redoute ID Netto eStores ID Cdiscount.com ID	Enter the manufacturer ID for the market. You will receive the manufacturer ID when setting up the market.
External name	Enter the external name of the manufacturer. The external name will be visible to customers in the plentyShop. It is also relevant for the search function in your plentyShop. When you transfer your item data to marketplaces later, this external manufacturer name will be transmitted.
Position	Enter a position number for the manufacturer. If you leave this field blank, then the position number 0 will automatically be assigned. Manufacturer data records can be sorted by their position number in the menu Setup » Item » Manufacturers. Move your mouse cursor over the column header Position. Click on the small triangle () to sort the manufacturers in ascending or descending order by their position number. Manufacturers with identical positions are sorted by name.
Comment	Enter an optional comment about the manufacturer. This is an internal comment, i.e. it is only visible in your plentymarkets system.

Can I save my manufacturer data in the CRM menu instead?

Maybe you noticed that it’s possible to create manufacturer data records in the CRM menu. But be careful. This data is not transferred over to the menu Setup » Item » Manufacturers. Therefore, we recommend that you ignore the manufacturer data in the CRM menu for now.

1.2. Import

plentymarkets has an import tool. The idea is simple. Rather than manually saving manufacturer information in plentymarkets, you’ll enter the same information into a CSV file and then import this file into your system.

2. Adding commissions

Once you’ve saved basic manufacturer data, you’re ready to add commission models as needed.

Adding manufacturer commissions:

Go to Setup » Item » Manufacturers.
Click on Edit ().
→ The manufacturer data record opens in a new tab.
Open the Commissions tab.
Click on Add ().
→ A new line for commissions is added to the table.
Enter information about the commission. Note Table 2.
Save () the settings.
→ An ID is assigned to the commission automatically.

Table 2. Adding commissions for manufacturers
Setting	Explanation
Client (store)	Which company does the commission apply to? Select a client from the drop-down list.
Referrer	Which market or sales platform does the commission apply to? Select the order referrer from the drop-down list.
Commission	Enter a value in percent for the commission.

Transferring commissions to other manufacturers

Do the same commission models apply to several different manufacturers? You don’t have to manually save each commission! Simply copy a commission and transfer it to other manufacturers.

First, click on Copy commission to other manufacturers (). Then use check marks () to specify which commission you want to copy and which manufacturers you want to transfer it to. Finally, click on Copy commission.

3. Linking manufacturers to items

Once you’ve saved your manufacturer data in plentymarkets, you’ll specify who manufactured each individual item. This is done by linking each item with a manufacturer.

There are several different ways to link items to manufacturers:

Specify the manufacturer while you manually create a new item.
Specify the manufacturer in an existing item’s Global tab.
Use the group function to manually specify the manufacturer for several existing items at once.
Do you want to import your items? Then specify each item’s manufacturer in the CSV file that you will import.

4. Checking the plentyShop settings

Should your customers be able to search in the plentyShop for products made by a specific manufacturer? Then make sure that you’ve configured the following settings:

External name: Have you saved an external name for the manufacturer?
Search bar: Are manufacturers included in the search results?
Search filters: Have you read the instructions on setting up the so-called faceted search?

5. Deleting manufacturers

Before you can delete a manufacturer, you’ll have to delete all of the links to the manufacturer. The variation group function is a useful tool for doing so.

Deleting links to the manufacturer:

Go to Item » Edit item.
Set the filters on the left as follows:
1. Set the filter Table type to Item.
2. Set the filter Active to ALL.
3. Use the Manufacturer filter to select the manufacturer from the drop-down list.
Click on Search ().
→ All items linked with this manufacturer are displayed.
Select all of the items ().
Click on Item group function.
→ The Item group function window opens.
Select the Manufacturers option () in the Global area.
Select the empty option from the drop-down list.
Click on Execute.
→ The manufacturer links are deleted.
→ The manufacturers can now be deleted.

Deleting manufacturers:

Go to Setup » Item » Manufacturers.
Click on Delete () in the line of a manufacturer.
→ A new window opens.
Click on Delete () again to confirm your decision.
→ The manufacturer is deleted.