Looking to get started selling on Zalando? This guide contains the steps detailing how to configure your Zalando integration, how to get your products ready to go live, and how to test your order set-up.
Before proceeding, you need to make the connection between Sello and Zalando if you have not done so already, you'll find instructions in this guide.
Configuring Zalando
Zalando has different settings you need to configure before you start receiving orders, these are the settings you need to fill in:
- Logo
- Company information (shown on documents)
- Status on fulfillment orders (only if you have ZFS, ZRS or ZSS)
Logo
The Logo is an image you can upload of your company logo, which will be visible on delivery documents.
Company information
The Company information should include this information:
- Company name
- ORG: 123456-1234
- VAT: SE123456789100
- Address
- Zipcode
- City
Status on fulfillment orders
The Status on fulfillment orders is only necessary if you are not doing own logistics and Zalando is sending your products, such as with a ZSS setup. If you are doing only own logistics, ignore this setting.
Since these orders should not be delivered by you, it is good to keep them in a separate status that already marks them as delivered but not paid in Sello, so that they are not mixed in with the orders you should deliver.
You can create a status for fulfillment orders by following these steps:
Go to your Settings - Orders - Order statuses
- Click on Create new
- Name the status ZFS Orders, or anything else you would like to differentiate it
- Choose the properties Order is delivered
- Select a fitting color for the status
- Done! You have now created your new ZFS status
Getting your products ready
To go live on Zalando, you need to make sure your products meet Zalando's standards.
What do I need to add?
What Zalando requires you to include in your product data is largely dependent och the category you will be selling in, but there are other factors in play here, which makes it hard to include in this guide.
But luckily Sello will highlight the requirements for you and will notify you if you try and put an incomplete product up for sale.
For a rundown of Zalando's basic requirements, see below.
What can I add?
The information you can add to your products is imported from your Zalando Master data. Zalando manually adds attributes, categories, sizes, and more to your Master data - So if you notice that you are missing something, let them know before starting to work on your products.
How do I add the information?
You can enrich your products either one by one, in bulk, with quick edit or with excel.
Zalando's basic product requirements
Below you will find a list of Zalando's basic requirements.
Categories
All categories you are able to choose in Sello for Zalando are categories that Zalando have added to your Master data. If there are any categories missing, or you wish to add more, you will need to contact Zalando and ask them to add the new categories to your Master data.
Sello will refresh your Master data once per day, and Zalando's changes in the Master data will be visible in their system after 24 hours, so when Zalando updates your Master data keep in mind that it can take 1-2 days before it is visible in Sello.
Attributes
Zalando has multiple mandatory attributes that each product will need in order to go live. They will all be visible on the detail page when you edit the products, and we have included the most common mandatory attributes below:
- EAN / GTIN
- Brand
- Season code
- Color code
- Size code
- Target age groups
- Target genders
- Material
- Material percentage
If there is an attribute you wish to select, such as a specific size or season code, but it is not visible on the detail page, you need to contact Zalando to add it to your master data.
Description
The description field in Sello is where you can add a general description of your product, along with a product name. These fields will be sent to Zalando, but it will not be used exactly as it has been sent.
Zalando manually decides the name and description of the products, based on what has been sent in the description field and other attributes. If you are unhappy with a description or name a product has received on Zalando, you must contact Zalando's support with a request to change the fields.
If you need to add additional information to a product, that you are not able to find an attribute field for, you can add this in the description as well. Attributes added in the description need to be manually reviewed by Zalando, contact their support if you need additional validation when you update the description.
Images
Zalando has specific image requirements depending on the type of product and if you are one of their Premium Designer Partners. Make sure that all of your images follow Zalando's guidelines, or they could be the source of a lot of errors later down the line.
You can find all of Zalando's image requirements on their partner site here.
Prices
You can set the prices directly in Sello on the Price tab when editing the product, or with excel.
When setting your prices, make sure that the prices you are adding are following your Zalando price rules. You can find your price rules by logging in to zDirect and following this path:
Articles - Manage prices - Change price rules
If you do not see your new prices being added to Zalando, you can download a Price validation report to find any potential pricing errors. To download the Price validation report, log in to zDirect and follow this path:
Articles - Manage prices - View status - Price validation report
Matching products
If the products in your inventory already are being sold on Zalando by other retailers, you will be able to match them to your own inventory. When a product is matched, you will not need to add as many mandatory attributes in Sello, and Sello will only send the price and stock levels for the product to Zalando.
If you wish to edit a matched product on Zalando, you will need to manually queue the full product data to Zalando. This can be done clicking on the menu to the left of the group, then Send full product data to Zalando.
Activating products
To make Sello push a product to Zalando, it needs to be activated for the Zalando country you are connected to. If you are connected to multiple countries, you need to activate the product for each country you are going to sell it on.
You can activate the product by clicking on Edit and going to the General tab, then click on the country you wish to activate the product on.
It is also possible to activate multiple products with excel, you can read more about different ways to activate products here.
Errors and statuses in Zalando
When your products are active and you have filled in all mandatory fields in Sello, the product will be sent to Zalando, where Zalando will validate each product both automatically and manually.
In this stage, you will need to log in to zDirect to look over potential errors on each product, so that you can adjust them in Sello.
You will also be able to see Zalando errors in Sello, these are not updated very frequently however, and only show one error per product. So we recommend logging in to zDirect regardless to look at the error.
You can find the download to Zalando's list of error codes and explanations here.
Keep in mind that Zalando may update their error codes and add new ones, if you do not find your error code in the list you will need to reach out to Zalando for further details.
Zalando asks me to resubmit my product data
In some cases, Zalando may request you to resubmit your product data to clear up an error. You can resubmit the full product data by going to the menu on the left of the group, then clicking on Send full product data to Zalando.
I can't find the attribute Zalando want me to add
If you can't find the specific attribute or field Zalando wants you to add, or they ask you to add something to the Special description, you need to add it to the product's description in Sello. All information added in the description needs to be manually validated by Zalando, contact their support if you update the description
Placing a test order
When your products have the status Blocked in zDirect, you are ready for a test order! The test order is created by Zalando, and is a physical order that you send as a test to one of Zalando's customers. Zalando will give you all necessary information regarding the order when you are ready to place it.
To deliver the test order, you will need to add the tracking information in Sello, and print the shipping labels.
You add the tracking information by clicking on the menu to the right of the order, then Add tracking number.
You can find the shipping labels by opening the order in Sello and clicking on the Order number.
In this stage you can also test the order flow from Zalando - Sello - External system, and make sure everything syncs as intended, or if anything needs to be adjusted before you go live. Make sure that if you deliver the order in your external system, the tracking and return-tracking codes also get transfered to Sello.
I'm live, now what?
When the test order is completed and accepted by Zalando, you will officially go live, congratulations! 🎉
Once you are live, you will be moved over from Zalando's onboarding team to their Partner care team, and they are the ones you will contact when you wish to update any products that have gone live. When a product has gone live, Sello can no longer edit it, and we will only update prices and stock levels.
If there are still products in your inventory that have not gone live or are not blocked yet, you can keep working on enriching them as usual, and follow the previous steps to push brand new products live as well.