GIS Introduction
Please note we are targeting to launch a new Goods Inventory Service (GIS) on July-5th, this means starting July 5th your new launched deals will run via the new service. Deals launching in Ireland will already launch on the new system on June-26th.
What is changing?
The change will be for all Seller on record (SoR) deals. The major change is that the field/column 'quantity requested' in column E in the order file may now contain a value more than '1'. In the current files, each order even if the customer ordered 3 units in the same check out would have one line item with quantity '1' for each unit.
Now if a customer orders the same item e.g. 3 times it will be just one line item with quantity requested equal to 3. The same quantity number will appear on the Packing slip. It is really important to then process 3 orders instead of just 1.
The format of the order file and the Packing Slips will remain the same, except that the quantity can be higher than 1. Please find the updated templates of the order file, packing slip and tracking file linked below.
GIS - new file templates
GIS EMEA Packing slip Template
GIS EMEA Tracking template csv
GIS EMEA Tracking template xlsx
To summarize:
Current format – quantity is always 1 and 1 order must be processed for each order in an order file
New format – quantity can be multiple (e.g. 3) and in such cases x3 orders must be processed for each row. If “2” is specified in this row then x2 orders must be processed etc.
* Important information - please note there will be an interim period where both file types are submitted
Another Change with GIS
One of the deal identifiers Groupon shares with you in pre-deal communication and in Commerce Interface (CI) is the CDA number (called Channel SKU in Commerce Interface) which is unique for each deal option. The CDA number has the following format, a0YC000000ab1c3DEF and until now always had a length of 18 characters as a mixture of letters and numbers (alphanumeric). With GIS the length will be reduced to 15 alphanumeric characters, which will be achieved by removing the last 3 characters.
Case sensitive
One of the consequences of this change is that occasionally the only difference between two CDA numbers will be a change in the case (upper/lower) of one or more of the letters and everything else will be the same, example: a0YC000000ab1c3 and a0YC000000ab1C3, these represent two different deal options.
Best identifier
If you use the CDA number to identify products and use it in your fulfillment process, you need to be aware of this change, make sure you can use the 15 character version and make sure the match is case sensitive (Excel ""match"" & ""vlookup"" formulae are NOT case sensitive). In general we don’t advise to use this identifier and rather use the Vendor SKU (present in CI and the pre-deal communication) to map an order in CI to an actual product.
Note
The transition to GIS is “deal-based” so customer orders from older deals will retain the 18 length CDA while the newer deals will generate orders with the 15 character version - if you do make a change to your systems it will need to cope with both 15 and 18 character identifiers coming through from CI (particularly important for those that work in multiple countries). Additionally, this change will only occur on deals where Groupon Goods Global GmbH is the Seller Of Record (""Option To Purchase"" & invoice based payments). Deals that operate under the older ""redemption based payments"" system (Merchant Center & monthly VAT invoices) will retain the 18 length CDA numbers.
In the pre-deal communication we will soon provide both the 15 and 18 length CDA number for all deals going live, regardless of deal type.
* Should you have any questions please email Partner Management
English: goodspartnermgmt@groupon.com
German: pmgoods-cer@groupon.com
French: goods.pm.fr@groupon.com
Italian: ecommerce.it@groupon.com
Spanish: ecommerce.es@groupon.com
Polish: as.shopping@groupon.pl
GIS FAQ
More information in this deck
What is GIS?
Goods Inventory Service (GIS) is a back end service replacing the current Voucher System (CDIS) with a more Goods specific Inventory system. Main difference is the removal of any voucher generation replaced by proper management of goods orders. GIS is a requirement for any future features or improvements we want to roll out on the platform.
What will change for you?
The major change is that the field/column 'quantity requested' in column E in the order file may now contain a value more than '1'. In the current files, each order even if the customer ordered 3 units in the same check out would have one line item and hence always state with quantity '1' for each unit. Now if a customer orders the same item 3 times it will be just one line item with quantity requested equal to 3. The same quantity number will appear on the Packing slip. It is really important to then process 3 orders instead of just 1.
When will GIS start?
We are targeting to launch GIS on July 5th, this means starting July 5th your new launched deals can be run via the new service.
What should I, as dropship vendor, do?
Make sure that you/your system can consume/handle orders that have a quantity >1 and make sure you ship out the right quantity to the customer when he orders more than 1.
Why are there no voucher codes
For GIS orders the voucher and security codes are obsolete and not necessary anymore. They will not be generated and so not available in the CI. The field in the Order File, API response will have null values
I’m using the Groupon API to get Groupon orders, what now?
The API also passed along the quantity information, so similar if you would download the orders directly from CI, make sure that the quantity information is used to ship out the right number of products to the customer Please also note that the most recent API version is version 4 (link: https://scm.commerceinterface.com/api-doc/v4/). It is not recommended to use a version older than version 3.
I see in CI that the format of the Channel SKU changed from 18 to 15, what should I do?
In the situation that you do not use the Channel SKU or CDA nr in your business processes you do not have to do anything. More information on this change and GIS in general can be found here: https://www.groupon.com/pages/gis-intro
However if you do use the Channel SKU in your business, you should continue to read.
I use the Channel SKU as product identifier, what should I do/what do I need to look out for?
First of all, we recommend that you use a different identifier to match an order to a product, for instance the Vendor SKU. This could be a good moment to update your processes. If this is not an option at the moment there are a few options to consider. We’ve updated all pre-deal communication so it contains both the 18 and 15 length CDA nr Change completely over to the 15 length CDA number and make sure any match you make is case sensitive (occasionally the only difference between two CDA numbers will be a change in the case (upper/lower) of one or more of the letters and everything else will be the same, example: a0YC000000ab1c3 and a0YC000000ab1C3, these represent two different deal options.) If this is not possible, you can convert the CDA nr with length 15 back to length 18 using a macro in Excel. If you do this after exporting the orders from CI, but before importing them into your system, you can continue to do the match on the (non-case sensitive) 18 length version of the CDA nr/Channel SKU
I/my system don’t/doesn’t recognize the new Channel SKU format Do you use the Channel SKU in your business processes and does the shorter format cause issues? Have a look at the descriptions above. To solve the issue on the current orders and be able to fulfill the orders, please do a case sensitive match on the CDA-15 (which is the CDA-18 less the last 3 characters) or transform the CDA-15 to a CDA-18
Good to know:
Channel SKU (used in CI) is same as CDA number (used in pre-deal comms), names are used interchangeably Pre-deal communication updated to have both CDA-18 and CDA-15 To go from CDA-18 to CDA-15, drop the last 3 characters To go from CDA-15 to CDA-18, see tool/code below Groupon advises to use the Vendor SKU (is also available in pre-deal communication and in CI), not Channel SKU for mapping purposes CDA-15 length Channel SKU is case sensitive If you need a deal AND product unique identifier you can combine the PO number and Vendor SKU Vendor SKU can be set up (by you) during deal creation in Deal Center
Detailed information on how to convert the 15 length IDs to 18 length IDs can be found below:
There are three versions: an Excel file (with built in macro “fixID” formula). a google doc (again with macro script to alter the ID). a SQL “select” statement to transform the 15 length to an 18 length. All versions work in the same way: They split the 15 length ID into three 5 length IDs and then look for only upper case letters in each, the result of each 5 ID “check” gives one of the three extra characters which are then added to the 15 ID to create the 18 ID. You will notice that since all CDA numbers currently start with “a0YC000000”, characters 16 & 17 are always “MA” only the final 18th character changes (being one of either A to Z or 0 to 5) - this could change long-term so do not “hard-code” the “MA” part.
Usage: Excel version - if your CDA number is in cell A2 then type “=fixID(A2)” in cell B2 to show the 18 length, this can be filled down for the whole column to show all corrected IDs (in the CI order file for example channel_sku/groupon_sku appears in column U). Gdoc version - simply highlight all the cells containing CDA numbers and press the “Salesforce ID” button and choose “15 to 18”. SQL version - this is raw code designed for a SQL database and can only be used there. However, it gives the most descriptive version of what is actually happening. If you are using the API to pull orders an equivalent version of that code could be used to translate from the 15 to 18 length as you import the data into your system (using either “curl”, “PHP” or “python” scripting).
Note: All versions can be used with both 15 and 18 length IDs - they simply return the 18 again if that is input (useful as during cut-over both IDs will be present). You will also need to enable the macro in the Excel and Gdoc versions.
Download links for the three solutions:
Why is Groupon rolling out GIS? - Benefits
