Ultra Commerce Channels allow you to automatically transfer product and order data between Ultra Commerce and the external services, systems and platforms that represent your integrated e-commerce ecosystem.
You can set up multiple Ultra Commerce Channels to ensure that product information is kept in synch across the many different touchpoints in your e-commerce ecosystem.
Which external platforms can Ultra Commerce Channels connect to?
Ultra Commerce Channels can talk to a wide variety of external services, systems and platforms. Channels can be grouped into 3 different types according to the function that the Channel supports in your e-commerce ecosystem:
Sales Channels
- E-commerce platforms – e.g. BigCommerce, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Shopify
- Online marketplaces – e.g. Amazon Marketplace, Catch Marketplace, eBay, MyDeal, The Market, and Trade Me
- Drop-ship vendors – e.g. David Jones, Myer, The Iconic and Zalora
Advertising and Marketing Channels
- Advertising services – e.g. Facebook and Google Shopping
- Affiliate marketing services – e.g. Rakuten LinkShare
- E-commerce personalisation services – e.g. Barilliance
- Omnichannel customer engagement services – e.g. Emarsys
- Automated product tagging and visual search services – e.g. Okkular
- Online search and navigation optimisation services – e.g. Fredhopper Discovery Platform
- Online merchandising enhancement services – e.g. Stylitics
- Re-targeting services – e.g. AdRoll and Criteo
Back-End and Order Processing Channels
- Back-end business systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems – e.g. Apparel 21, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Oracle Netsuite
- Distributed Order Management Systems (OMS), Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Retail Management Systems (RMS) – e.g. Ultra Commerce OMS and Fluent Commerce
- Third-Party Logistics (3PL) providers – e.g. CargoWise and Shippit
- Image management services – e.g. Cloudinary
What functions can Ultra Commerce Channels perform?
Ultra Commerce Channels perform many different functions. Some Ultra Commerce Channels support multiple functions while others have been designed to perform a single function.
To understand these various functions, we can categorise Ultra Commerce Channels in 2 different ways. The first categorisation is between Transactional and Non-Transactional Ultra Commerce Channels. The second categorisation is between Export, Import and Export/Import Ultra Commerce Channels.
Transactional and Non-Transactional Ultra Commerce Channels
Transactional Ultra Commerce Channels
These are Ultra Commerce Channels that keep track of data that has previously been exported to the external service, system or platform. They are predominantly delta-feed Channels, which means they only send new and updated data each time they export. The data sent in each export only adds to or modifies previous data, as opposed to completely replacing the previous data.
Examples – Most Ultra Commerce Channels are transactional channels. Examples of these Channels are:
- Ultra Commerce BigCommerce Channel
- Ultra Commerce eBay Channel
- Ultra Commerce Google Channel
- Ultra Commerce Magento Channel
- Ultra Commerce Shopify Channel
Non-Transactional Ultra Commerce Channels
These are Ultra Commerce Channels that do not track data that has previously been exported to the external platform. They are full-feed Channels, which means they send all available data each time they export. The data sent in each export replaces all the data that has previously been exported to the external service, system or platform.
Examples – Examples of non-transactional Ultra Commerce Channels are:
- Ultra Commerce Criteo Channel
- Ultra Commerce Fredhopper Discovery Platform Channel
- Ultra Commerce Google Feed Channel
- Ultra Commerce Rakuten LinkShare Channel
- Ultra Commerce Simple Export Channel
Export, Import and Export/Import Channels
As well as categorising Ultra Commerce Channels as Transactional or Non-Transactional, Ultra Commerce Channels can be further categorised as either Export, Import or Export/Import Channels.
Export Channels
A number of Ultra Commerce Channels act purely as Export Channels, which export data (from the Ultra Commerce PIM and/or Ultra Commerce OMS) to external services, systems and platforms.
Ultra Commerce’s Export Channels achieve this by mapping the product/order information held in your Ultra Commerce PIM and/or Ultra Commerce OMS to formats required by external services, systems or platforms.
The types of data these Channels export are as follows:
Product data:
- Whole or partial product details (e.g. name, description, images/videos, colour and size variations)
- Inventory (e.g. inventory for one or more locations, including adding inventory buffers)
- Pricing (e.g. normal and sale prices, multiple currencies)
- Store locations
Order data:
- Orders and order updates
Examples – Some Export-only Channels are:
- Ultra Commerce Export Channel – exports products details including images, inventory and prices to email addresses, FTP/SFTP servers and Amazon S3 buckets
- Ultra Commerce Google Channel – exports product details including images, inventory (in/out stock) and prices to the Google Shopping service
Import Channels
Certain Ultra Commerce Channels act purely as Import Channels, which import data from external services, systems and platforms into the Ultra Commerce PIM and/or Ultra Commerce OMS.
Ultra Commerce’s Import Channels achieve this by mapping the product/order information held in the external service, system etc. to the format required by the Ultra Commerce PIM and/or Ultra Commerce OMS.
The types of data these Channels import are as follows:
Product data:
- Whole or partial product details to create or enrich products (e.g. name, description, images/videos, colour and size variations)
- Media (e.g. import images to enrich existing products)
- Inventory (e.g. inventory for one or more locations)
Order data:
- Orders and order updates
- Shipment notifications
Examples – Some Import-only Channels are:
- Ultra Commerce Import Channel – imports product details including inventory, images and prices from FTP/SFTP servers and Amazon S3 buckets
- Ultra Commerce Cloudinary Channel – imports images for products from the Cloudinary service
Export/Import Channels
Many Ultra Commerce Channels perform both export and import functions, for example:
- Export of products to external services, systems and platforms, and then import of orders from these services, systems etc. into Ultra Commerce OMS
- Import of products from external services, systems and platforms into the Ultra Commerce PIM, and export of orders received from other Ultra Commerce Channels
These Ultra Commerce Channels map the data held in your Ultra Commerce PIM and/or Ultra Commerce OMS to the format of the external service, system etc. to enable data export. For data import, these Ultra Commerce Channels map the data held in the external service, system etc. to the format required by the Ultra Commerce PIM and/or Ultra Commerce OMS.
The functions these Channels can perform include:
- Export of products to marketplaces or e-commerce platforms
- Import of orders from marketplaces or e-commerce platforms
- Export of shipment notifications back to marketplaces or e-commerce platforms
- Import of platform-specific details of products you have already exported to that platform e.g. BigCommerce product IDs and/or URLs
- Import of products from ERP systems
- Export of orders to ERP, 3PL or OMS systems
- Import of shipment notifications from ERP, 3PL or OMS systems
Examples – Some Export/Import Channels are:
- Ultra Commerce BigCommerce Channel – exports product details including images, inventory, and pricing to the BigCommerce platform; imports orders as well as BigCommerce-specific product listing details e.g. product IDs and/or URLs from the BigCommerce platform; exports shipment notifications to BigCommerce platform
- Ultra Commerce eBay Channel – exports product details including images, inventory, and pricing to eBay; imports orders from eBay; exports shipment notifications to eBay
- Ultra Commerce OMS Channel – exports orders; imports shipment notifications and ATS inventory
- Ultra Commerce Shopify Channel – exports product details including images, inventory and pricing to the Shopify platform; imports orders from the Shopify platform; exports shipment notifications to the Shopify platform
Ultra Commerce Universal Import/Export Channel
The Ultra Commerce Universal Import/Export Channel has been designed to provide greater flexibility when importing data into, and exporting data from, Ultra Commerce, as no API integration is required. The Channel’s flexibility lies in its use of XSLT to transform Ultra Commerce data – like products, orders and inventory – into multiple formats for export to external services such as e-commerce platforms, marketplaces and advertising platforms. The Channel can also import data from external services and use XSLT to transform this data into a format accepted by Ultra Commerce.
The file formats supported by the Channel are: CSV, JSON and XML. The Channel can import from and export to FTP/SFTP servers and Amazon S3 buckets.
A major advantage of the Channel’s use of XSLT is that it allows users to customise transformations to meet their particular business needs. Transformations can also be updated to meet changing requirements.
How do Ultra Commerce Channels communicate with external services, systems and platforms, and which endpoints are supported?
Ultra Commerce Channels communicate with external platforms using a variety of methods. Some Ultra Commerce Channels use only one method, while others can use a combination of methods. Most Ultra Commerce Channels define these method(s) using endpoints. (Endpoints used in Ultra Commerce Channels identify the location and authentication details for the external service, system or platform.)
The communication methods used by Ultra Commerce are as follows:
- API – Where an Ultra CommerceChannel communicates with an external platform’s API.
- FTP or SFTP – Where a Ultra Commerce Channel communicates by uploading/downloading files to an FTP or SFTP server.
- Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) – Where a Ultra Commerce Channel communicates by uploading/downloading files to an Amazon S3 bucket. (An Amazon S3 bucket is a public cloud storage resource provided on Amazon Web Services.)
- Email – Where an Ultra Commerce Channel communicates by emailing files (e.g. reports) to email addresses.
Which data formats can Ultra Commerce Channels support?
Ultra Commerce Channels support a variety of data formats. A Ultra Commerce Channel will support the formats required by the external platform it communicates with. Data formats supported by Ultra Commerce Channels include:
- CSV (Comma Separated Value) – A simple data format supported by some external platforms and useful for sending reports to users.
- JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) – A lightweight data-interchange format that is useful for communicating with many REST APIs deployed on external platforms.
- XML (Extensible Markup Language) – A simple, very flexible text format that was originally designed to support large-scale electronic publishing. It is now more commonly used to exchange a wide variety of data between online systems.
- Microsoft Excel files (.xslx files) – A widely used format for storing and organising business data. This format can be used to import data contained in files created by the popular Microsoft Office spreadsheet application.
How can Ultra Commerce Channels be combined to support an integrated e-commerce ecosystem?
Using multiple Ultra Commerce Channels, you can automate the creation, update and synchronisation of product information across the many different platforms that make up your e-commerce ecosystem e.g. e-commerce platforms; online marketplaces; online advertising services; online image management services; and back-end and order processing systems such as ERPs and 3PLs.
The example diagram below illustrates how multiple Ultra Commerce Channels can be combined to support an integrated e-commerce ecosystem:
How do Ultra Commerce Channels use webhooks?
Webhooks are a mechanism for enabling a service on the internet to automatically notify another service or application when a pre-defined event occurs.
Some Ultra Commerce Channels use webhooks to receive notifications from external platforms in this way. For example, the Ultra Commerce BigCommerce Channel can use webhooks to receive notifications about new orders, rather than regularly polling BigCommerce for new orders.
Webhooks are not supported by all external platforms serviced by Ultra Commerce Channels. This means that only certain Ultra Commerce Channels can utilise webhooks.
If webhooks have been implemented by a platform, this will increase the speed at which the connected Ultra Commerce Channel can react to events e.g. receive new orders.