How to work with trade brands

Do you sell under more than one trade brand from a single StoreLinkr project? With trade brands you decide which integrations belong to which brand. StoreLinkr then makes sure the orders, purchase orders and invoices of a brand only go to the integrations of that brand.

Trade brands are meant for larger businesses with several brands. If you sell under one name, you don't need this feature and you can leave it off.

Switching trade brands on

1. Go to Settings and open the Trade brands tile in the project group.
2. Switch on Enable trade brands.

Trade brands are off by default. Only switch them on when you sell under more than one trade brand.

Switching trade brands off again

When you switch the setting off, your trade brands are kept, but they are hidden and StoreLinkr stops routing per trade brand. All integrations then work for all orders again, just like before. Switch the setting back on and everything picks up where you left off.

Adding and managing trade brands

Once the setting is on, you can:

• Add a trade brand: click Add trade brand, and enter a name.
• Edit a trade brand: change the name.
• Archive a trade brand: archived trade brands are listed separately under Archived trade brands. Stock locations of an archived trade brand become shared again.
• Restore a trade brand: bring an archived trade brand back with Restore.

Every active trade brand needs its own name. You can't give two active trade brands the same name.

Linking integrations to a trade brand

An integration belongs to a trade brand through the integration itself. You choose the trade brand there, not in the trade brand window:

• When you create an integration: the create window has a Trade brand selector. It is set to No trade brand by default.
• Later, on the integration's page: the Trade brand block has the same selector. Orders, purchase orders and invoices of the chosen trade brand only go to this integration.

Link the integrations of each brand this way, for example the webshop, the marketplace accounts, the stock integration and the accounting integration of that brand.

• An integration can belong to one trade brand only.
• Integrations without a trade brand are shared. They keep working for every trade brand.

The trade brands overview shows per trade brand which integrations belong to it. You can't change that list there; change the trade brand on the integration itself.

Picqer fulfilment accounts

A Picqer account with the account type Fulfilment account has no trade brand selector and always stays shared. Instead, link its principals (fulfilment customers) to trade brands on the integration page. See principals of a fulfilment account.

You can also link each stock location to a trade brand on the stock locations screen. For now this is for overview only; locations without a trade brand are shared.

Only visible when switched on

Outside the trade brands settings, nothing about trade brands is shown in the portal until you switch them on. That includes the trade brand selectors and the Picqer account type.

Splitting stock per export

When trade brands are on, the page of every integration that exports products (a webshop, a marketplace and so on) has a Stock locations for this export block. Only the stock of the ticked stock locations counts for that integration. This way you can split stock per trade brand and warehouse, or count everything together by ticking all locations.

1. Open the page of the webshop or marketplace integration.
2. In Stock locations for this export, tick the locations that count for this integration. Next to each name you see its Picqer account and trade brand, when it has one.
3. Click Save.

• By default all locations are ticked. Everything then counts, including stock locations you add later.
• At least one location must stay ticked.

What changes:

• The stock sent to that webshop or marketplace only counts the ticked locations, and only those locations are shown in the stock locations of your webshop.
• The stock in your StoreLinkr catalog stays the total of all locations.
• Products whose stock isn't kept per stock location are sent as they are.
• Product feeds always count all locations.
• When you switch trade brands off, every location counts again.

Example

Brand A sells from warehouse A and Brand B from warehouse B. Tick only warehouse A on webshop A and only warehouse B on webshop B. Each webshop now shows its own stock, while your catalog still shows the total.

Stock per principal of a fulfilment account

In a Picqer fulfilment account every principal has its own products, also when two principals sell the same item with the same EAN. StoreLinkr keeps their stock apart per warehouse:

• The stock of a product in a warehouse is the sum of all principals. A principal with negative stock in Picqer (sold more than it had) counts as 0, so it doesn't lower the stock of the others.
• A webshop or marketplace integration of a trade brand only gets the stock of the principals linked to that trade brand. A shared integration gets the stock of all principals.
• The stock locations for an export still apply on top of this: a location that isn't ticked doesn't count at all.
• Your StoreLinkr catalog always shows the total.

On the Stock tab of a product, the Stock per principal block shows per warehouse how much each principal has and which trade brand it belongs to. These warehouses are listed only there, not a second time under Picqer or under the stock locations of the product. In the products overview, the Stock of trade brand filter shows the products that have stock for one trade brand. See filtering on the stock of a trade brand.

Example

Batteries of the same type are stored in one warehouse for two principals: 3 for Brand A and 8 for Brand B. The catalog shows 11. The webshop of Brand A shows 3, the webshop of Brand B shows 8, and a shared marketplace integration shows 11.

After changing a trade brand

When you change the trade brand of an integration, or link a principal to another trade brand, StoreLinkr sends the stock to the integrations involved straight away. Only products whose stock changes are sent.

Principals without a trade brand

In the Principals block, a principal that has stock but no trade brand gets a warning with the number of products. Its stock only goes to shared integrations, never to an integration of a trade brand.

How orders are routed

When trade brands are on, StoreLinkr uses these rules:

• New sales orders get the trade brand of the webshop or marketplace integration they came in through.
• An integration that belongs to a trade brand only handles the orders, purchase orders and invoices of that trade brand.
• A shared integration (one without a trade brand) keeps handling everything, for every trade brand.
• Orders without a trade brand only go to shared integrations, never to an integration of a trade brand.

Orders from before you switched it on

Orders that were imported before you switched on trade brands have no trade brand. They are only handled by shared integrations.

Purchase orders per trade brand

When trade brands are on, a concept purchase order has a Trade brand selector. Pick the trade brand the purchase order is for, or leave it on No trade brand.

• The purchase order then only goes to the stock integrations (for example Picqer) of that trade brand, plus the shared ones.
• Once the purchase order has been placed, you can no longer change its trade brand.
• A Picqer fulfilment account only receives the purchase order when one of its principals is linked to that trade brand, and the order is created in the name of that principal. See purchase orders and fulfilment accounts.

See How to manage purchase orders for more about purchase orders.

Invoices per trade brand

The accounting integration of a trade brand only creates invoices for orders of that trade brand. A shared accounting integration keeps creating invoices for every order. See How to manage invoices.

Example

You sell under two brands, Brand A and Brand B, each with its own webshop and its own accounting. Add both trade brands. Then open webshop A and accounting A and choose Brand A as their trade brand, and do the same with webshop B and accounting B for Brand B. Leave your Picqer integration on No trade brand so it stays shared. Orders from webshop A now only end up in accounting A, orders from webshop B only in accounting B, and Picqer keeps receiving everything.