Using Clarks Warehouse Extension

Introduction

Clarks Warehouse is an aggregator platform that facilitates the flow of inventory and order data from your selling locations (stores). It helps the merchants selling on different sales channels to use it as a standalone platform for managing orders and inventory instead of individually managing the data on Flipkart Seller Hub, Amazon Seller Central, etc.

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Once you have installed this extension, it will be available in the Extensions section on Fynd Platform.

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Pre-requisites to Use This Extension

1. Your entire product catalogue should be available on the Fynd Platform. Proceed only if you have uploaded your catalogue. For a tutorial, watch How to Upload Product Catalogue.
2. Add selling locations in the Fynd Platform. Refer to Add Selling Locations for details. For a tutorial, watch How to Add Selling Locations.

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First-time Installation Setup

For first-time installation, you are required to set up an inventory job. Follow the steps shown below:

1. Navigate to your Fynd Platform account and go to Extensions.

   

   Figure 1: Extensions Section - Fynd Platform
   

2. Select the Clarks Warehouse extension from the list and click Install.

   

   Figure 2: Clarks Warehouse Extension
   

3. Click Accept & Continue to proceed.

   

   Figure 3: Install Extension
   

When you set up the Clarks Warehouse extension for the first time, two sync operations will be performed, post which you will be able to use the extension:

• Catalog Sync: This operation will sync all the catalogs present in the Fynd Platform to the extension.
• Location Sync: This operation will sync all the selling locations added by you in the Fynd Platform to the extension.

Once the sync is completed, you have to opt-in selling locations so that you can then proceed to use the extension to send supply chain updates and accept orders via the Clarks Warehouse panel. Any changes made to the catalog or locations in the Fynd Platform after the initial setup will be communicated to the extension via webhook events, ensuring that the extension is always up to date. To accept and update your supply chain using Clarks Warehouse, use the below configurations.

• Inventory
• Selling Location
• Audit Trail
• Order Analytics
• Event Triggers
• Settings

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Inventory

Inventory Summary

• Within the inventory summary, we collect various API calls for inventory in batches.

• Here can access a comprehensive inventory log along with seller identifier, location code, status, response, total inventory count of products sent to the Fynd Platform by Clarks Warehouse, and the total inventory count of products accepted by the Fynd Platform from Clarks Warehouse after incorporating buffer quantities.

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The seller identifier and location code in these logs are distinct, ensuring there are no duplicates for these two entities.

Figure 4: Inventory Summary

• By default, all logs received for a specific company with a unique seller identifier and unique location code are accessible within the tab.

• You can utilize the search boxes located at the top. Input your search criteria, and the relevant logs will be filtered accordingly.

• The listed drop reasons are retrieved directly from the API calls.

  

  Figure 4: Inventory Summary Search
  

Inventory

This tab offers a summary view of all the logs associated with a particular seller identifier, product name, or location code, specifically focusing on instances where inventory levels are either at 0 or have a positive count. Freshly cataloged logs are not included in the logs.

1. Seller Identifier: It is a unique identifier or code assigned to a specific seller.

2. Location Code: It is a unique identifier or code for a specific selling location.

3. Quantity: Live inventory in Fynd Platform.

4. Updated on: Orders received on Fynd Platform for an SKU.

   

   Figure 5: Inventory
   

The date filter allows you to track inventory updates for up to one year.

Logs

When an API call is made, the acknowledgement or confirmation of the respective call's execution is typically sent back in the form of a Request ID. This unique identifier helps track and verify the specific log of API calls of a specific batch received and processed by the server.

Payload

Request Body

• location_id is the location code.

• sku is the alphanumeric code assigned to each product for inventory tracking and management

• quantity is the quantity of the product for cataloguing.

  

  Figure 6: Request Body of Payload
  

Detailed Log

In the detailed log, the payload contains all the data mapped for cataloguing purposes. This data is transferred from the Article Database (Article DB), which holds the raw master data, to the Fynd platform.

Request Body

• store_id: The store ID gets created on the Fynd Platform.

• seller_identifier: The unique identifier of product which is the barcode in the article DB.

• total_quantity: The total count of inventory available.

• price_effective: The effective selling price .i.e. price after discount deducted from MRP.

• price_marked Maximum retail price of the product.

• company_id: The unique code of the company.

• buffer_message: The buffer message if they have applied any buffer quantity against it.

• trace_id: It is the trace ID that is generated in the response to track the request batch received from Clarks Warehouse.

• store_code: Store code created on the Fynd Platform. It is different from store ID.

• raw_quantity: Raw quantity of the products.

  

  Figure 7: Request Body of Detailed Log
  

Manual Sync

The operation is used in case there is any mismatch in quantity or price in the Fynd Platform and in the Clarks Warehouse extension. Use manual sync to synchronize the inventory to Fynd Platform and eliminate any mismatch between extension and Fynd Platform in either quantity or price.

Use this functionality after applying buffer so that inventory flows to Fynd Platform after subtracting buffer quantity. Once the sync is completed, the changes will reflect on your opted sales channels. You can sync Inventory manually to Fynd Platform by using:

1. Seller Identifier: This will sync the inventory for all SKUs or manually selected SKUs present across all selling locations.
   • All seller identifiers within a specific date range
   • Comma–separated multiple seller identifiers within a specific date range

Figure 8: Manual Sync — Seller Identifier

2. Location Code: This will sync the inventory for all SKUs present in these selling locations.
   • All active location codes within a specific date range
   • Comma–separated multiple location codes within a specific date range

Figure 9: Manual Sync — Location Code

Inventory Timeline

*Enter a seller identifier in the search box, select the location code, select the status of the API call and enter a date range.

• Click Get Logs. Here, you will get the status of inventory updates of a product for up to a month.

• This tab lets you know whether an article’s inventory push was successful or not.

• Failure reasons could be: article not available, store mapping not found, discovered duplicate batch record, SKU missing for a store, location not available, and so on.

  

  Figure 10: Inventory Timeline
  

Inventory Statistics

• The total inventory count of products from the master catalog entries that are accessed in the article DB is mirrored in the received inventory.

• The total inventory count of products that are synced on the Fynd platform from the article database.

• The percentage drop represents the decrease in the inventory count, showing the difference between the received inventory and the consumed inventory.

  

  Figure 11: Inventory Statistics
  

Drop Reasons

The drop percentage is attributed to specific reasons, which are detailed in the drop reason section. There are four main reasons for inventory consumption decrease from the article database to the Fynd Platform:

1. Location mapping not found
2. Store not found
3. Seller identifier not found
4. Buffer

These reasons are visually represented and specified in the form of a pie chart, making it easy to grasp the distribution of inventory drops due to each of these factors.

Figure 12: Drop Reasons

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Selling Location

All the locations present in the section are reflected in the Profile section. Opt-in selling locations to send inventory updates and process orders via the Clarks Warehouse panel. Use bulk action to opt-in multiple selling locations at once.

How to opt-in for a selling location?

1. Open Selling Location widget present on the homepage of this extension.

Figure 13: Selling Location

2. Search for a particular location by entering its Location Code in the search box. For example, MRVLB20 which is a location code for 'THE MANDHANA RETAIL VENTURES LTD' in the Fynd Platform.
3. Click the Edit button present under the Action column.
4. Turn ON the toggle to start sending inventory and receiving orders for this location (push inventory data and pull orders data).

Figure 14: Enable Selling Location

5. Disable the location and reset its inventory count to zero by toggling the status button.

   

   Figure 15: Disable Selling Location
   

6. You can also set a buffer on a selling location, which will be applied to all articles mapped to that selling location.

   

   Figure 16: Buffer Quantity
   

7. Click Confirm to save the changes.

8. On successful opt-in, a unique username and token will be generated for that selling location, which has to be used to send inventory to Fynd Platform and receive order updates from Fynd Platform.

   

   Figure 17: Username and Token for Selling Location
   

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After opting out of a selling location, you must wait for at least 10 minutes before re-opting into the same selling location.

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Click Set Buffer to set a global buffer for all selling locations. This buffer will be applied to all active and inactive selling locations.

How to opt-in selling locations in bulk?

1. Click Bulk Action.

   

   Figure 18: Bulk Action
   

2. Choose the status of locations from the dropdown. Here, we have selected All Locations.

3. Choose either EXCEL or CSV from the Download dropdown. A file will be downloaded.

   

   Figure 19: Download Template
   

4. Save the file in your system.

5. Open the file.

6. Make the following changes in the downloaded file.

   • Opt-in selling locations by marking Status as ACTIVE.

   • Opt-out of selling locations by marking Status as INACTIVE.

   • Set Buffer Quantity for multiple selling locations.

   • Reset inventory to 0 for any location you marked as active/inactive by marking the Reset Inventory column as Yes.

     

     Figure 20: Bulk Action Template
     

7. Save the file.

8. Click Choose File to upload the saved file. Please wait until its status changes to COMPLETED

9. In this way, you can opt-in selling locations in bulk.

   

   Figure 21: Bulk File Upload
   

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If there are errors in uploading the file, there will be an error file which will be generated. Download the error file, fix the errors mentioned, and re-upload the file.

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After applying buffer to any selling location:
you need to manually sync inventory for that specific location or all locations for the updated inventory (Inventory received from Clarks Warehouse–Buffer Quantity) to be pushed to the Fynd Platform.
OR
the updated inventory (Inventory received from Clarks Warehouse–Buffer Quantity) will be pushed to Fynd Platform automatically upon receiving new inventory updates from Clarks Warehouse.

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Audit Trail

• Audit Trail tracks all the actions performed by the user in the Clarks Warehouse extension.
• It helps you pinpoint the exact source of a problem in case someone does something unexpected within the extension.
• List of events that get captured:
  • Catalog Sync
  • Disable Inventory Permission
  • Disable Order Permission
  • Enable Inventory Permission
  • Enable Order Permission
  • Event Action Edit
  • Event Status Update
  • Extension Disable
  • Extension Enable
  • Extension Install
  • Extension Uninstall
  • Inventory Batch Retry
  • Inventory Manual Sync
  • Location Edit
  • Store Sync

Figure 22: Audit Trail

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Order Analytics

You can review all event reports in this section. Each shipment has a distinct shipment ID. You can access comprehensive report details and data insights, including response status and the complete payload of the corresponding event.

Figure 23: Order Analytics

Failed shipments are automatically retried at the backend every fifty minutes. This frequency of retry attempts can be configured at the backend.

Figure 24: Retry Event
If the event continues to fail after these retries, it remains in a failed state. Sellers also have the option to manually retry failed events every five minutes, with a limit of three additional attempts.

Comprehensive Logs: For every event retry, there is an associated log that sellers can access. The default view displays the most recent log entry. Seller can view any log by selecting the same from the dropdown.

Figure 25: Comprehensive Logs

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Event Triggers

The events listed in the sections are preloaded and presented as read–only data. Initially, their statuses are set to inactive.

Figure 26: Event Triggers

Sellers need to navigate to the configuration settings of the respective event through the Action column. There, they can input the URL and API key, and subsequently save the changes.

Figure 27: Configuration Settings

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Settings

Manually sync your catalog and selling locations from Fynd Platform to Clarks Warehouse, and customise your order and inventory permissions as well as enable or disable this extension according to your preferences.

Figure 28: General Settings

Activating/Deactivating Clarks Warehouse Extension

Upon deactivating this extension,

• You will get a popup asking if you want to reset the inventory of all active selling locations to 0 in Fynd Platform
  1. If you select the checkbox, inventory for all articles mapped to the selling locations will be reset to 0 in Fynd Platform
  2. If you deselect the checkbox, the current existing inventory will be retained.
• No tabs and functionalities will be accessible. Only the Settings widget will be enabled so that you can re-enable the extension.
• Inventory flow from Clarks Warehouse to Fynd Platform and orders syncing from Fynd Platform to Clarks Warehouse will be stopped.

Figure 29: Disable Extension

Manually Sync catalog and Selling Locations

Click Sync to manually sync the catalog and selling locations data present in the Fynd Platform to the Clarks Warehouse extension. When catalog or location sync jobs are in progress, the extension will not be usable.

Figure 30: Manually Sync catalog and Selling Locations

Enable/Disable Inventory and Order Permissions

Both order and inventory permissions will be enabled by default if the extension is enabled. Inventory - If you remove the permissions for inventory, the inventory flow from Clarks Warehouse to Fynd Platform will be stopped.

• If you select the reset Inventory checkbox, the inventory will be reset in Fynd Platform and you will stop receiving new orders.
• If you do not select the reset Inventory checkbox, the inventory will stay as it is in the Fynd Platform and the seller will continue receiving orders.

Orders - Removing the permissions for orders, it will stop the flow of orders from Fynd Platform to Clarks Warehouse. If there is inventory present in the Fynd Platform, the seller might still receive new orders but will not be able to see them in the Clarks Warehouse panel. Thus, you will have to process all these new orders using the Orders section of the Fynd Platform.
Older orders that had been placed before the extension was disabled will also have to be processed Orders section of the Fynd Platform.

Figure 31: Enable/Disable Inventory and Order Permissions

Company

The headers mentioned here are derived from the Company Schema established by the admin, and these fields are set as write-only.

Figure 32: Company

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Administrator

The admin access is given to only a specific audience of RTI and developers. The following configurations are available for administrators:

Event Triggers

This section displays a list of preloaded events, five of which have been currently added.

• These events are customizable, and clicking the configuration button opens a page where action details can be edited.
• The Action Name, Method and Add Key can be edited by administrators.
• Upon saving the changes, a prompt asks whether these modifications should be implemented universally across all the companies. If yes, the alterations will be implemented on the sellers' side as read-only data, based on if the feature is active/inactive.

Edit Payload

In this interface, administrators have the capability to edit both pre-script and post-script content. When changes are saved, they are automatically applied to all companies, regardless of whether the features are currently active or inactive.

Add/Delete Event Trigger

The authority to add additional event triggers or remove existing ones is exclusively granted to administrators.

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Sellers have the authority to enable or disable the event trigger themselves. This eliminates the need to request the administrator for the action.

Settings

Extension Setting Schema

The configurations established in the existing schema represent the settings options in the company section available on the seller's side.

Constants

All the necessary constants for the script are included. Additionally, administrators can introduce further constants based on the marketplace's requirements. Once saved, the constants become visible to the seller both in the settings and within the payload.