Before you integrate!
It is extremely easy to connect Etsy to Multiorders and will only take a couple of clicks, but we want to introduce you to all of our Etsy integration's available features and limitations first. We believe it is critical for you to understand how everything works before you connect your store.
Table of Contents:
Limitations of the Etsy API
Certain things are simply impossible to achieve right now due to the inherent limitations of the Etsy API. Unless Etsy updates these things on its end, there is nothing we can do about them.
Customs information, Tariff number:
Also known as an "HS Code".
Since we have a place to store this number in Multiorders, we intended to import it from Etsy when available. Unfortunately, this is not possible via the Etsy API and probably never will be.
As of writing this guide, the official Etsy statement is this:
This has been requested before. Unfortunately, it is not something we plan to add to the OpenAPI at this time. Sorry we can't provide this for you.
Domestic & Global pricing:
The fairly new feature allowing you to enable different prices for your listings is not yet supported by the Etsy API.
As of writing this guide, the official Etsy statement is this:
Thanks for bringing this up. This is certainly something we have on our roadmap for OpenAPI. I don't know when it will be handled, but we hope to get to it soon.
If you turn this feature on, Multiorders will only import the "Global" pricing. There is also a known bug where the "Domestic" prices are wiped during a standard price update via Multiorders. Whether this will happen or not is a lottery as we have seen different results on different accounts, the issue is not within Multiorders, but within the Etsy API. One more additional note that we would like to make is that once the API is supported, we will still only import one price into Multiorders as the system simply has no method of supporting this feature.
Missing apostrophes ' ' & Quotation marks " ":
Due to the danger of these symbols causing problems in code, they are stored in an encoded format and are converted live on the storefront on Etsy, but when order and product info is returned to us via API we get the encoded version that looks like " ' > <. To avoid this showing up in address info or order info we simply sanitize the data and remove them. The downside of this is if you are using "" or '' to mark things like the size for inches, your product titles are now missing this info and are harder to find via search.
Importing Private Notes from Orders:
The Etsy API does not support importing private notes left on Orders post-sale.
Etsy variation management & duplicate listings:
We have left the most complicated and important part for last. I will now go into detail on why the system works the way it does.
For inventory management to work with an app like Multiorders, listings from sales channels like Etsy must contain a unique, never changing identifier. This is how Multiorders knowns which product to update or which product has been updated on Etsy. For some reason Etsy only has these unique identifiers for Listings as a whole and when we encounter variation info, there is suddenly nothing to relate the individual parts with. Because of this, there has been a prevalent issue of Etsy listings duplicating within Multiorders for seemingly no reason, sometimes after a stock change, sometimes the price. The Etsy team's comment was this:
The inventory system does work as intended. We are aware that this can be challenging because the product ids and offering ids are changed each time you save the inventory. However, this is by design. Every time the inventory is updated, a new set of inventory data is created and the previous set of data is archived for posterity and tracking purposes. There is no single key id for any given product in an inventory. We recommend using SKUs for each product/variation.
We personally think that every product should have a unique SKU, but Etsy neither forces users to input any SKU info, nor do they force it to be unique. The end result is that there is nothing that can be done normally and we are forced to implement measures on our own.
To prevent the issue of duplicating listings you must have unique SKU's for each product variation. You can have identical SKU's across multiple listings, you just can't have missing or duplicate SKU's within the same listing (although we don't recommended duplicate SKU at all for general inventory management purposes). If your configurable product has no unique SKU per variation, we will not import that product until it is fixed. This is the only way we can prevent any duplicating listing issues.
Unmanaged Stock or Price listings:
Most of you are aware of the Listing management option that lets you manage only quantity or only price for your product variations, written as "Prices vary for each primary colour" or "Quantities vary for each primary colour".
If you don't select the option to manage price or stock for the variations, the Etsy platform still creates the variations, it just doesn't show them to you. This causes problems on our end because we would see all of those variations and users with this enabled will often get way more products imported into Multiorders than they expected, as well as get errors like this when updating stock or price:
"data":"quantity must be consistent across all products"
With the new update we are implementing a similar system as Etsy to prevent these errors as well as hundreds of useless variations, but it comes with a few limitations.
I will try to detail each combination of options and explain what you can expect, but before that I immediately need to say this, If your variations have no Quantity management turned on, we will not import them. Those types of variations are incompatible with the system and will be ignored.
= Option 1 - Nothing is managed:
If you have this, we will import absolutely nothing, because you would have no unique SKU's and no stock control.
= Option 2 - One variation is fully managed:
We will only import the first variation options since nothing is managed for the second one.
But there will be a slight visual oddity with these listings. The system expects to create a full list of products from the variations so in it's naming scheme it is still building the products on Multiorders as "Product Title" + "Variation 1, Option 1" + "Variation 2, Option 1" and ultimately ends up looking like this.
Each variation has a "(Secondary Color - Black)" attached to the end of it. This is purely visual and has no effect on the actual listing. Your orders will be ok as well. You will still be able to see what the customer has chosen, even if those variations do not import into Multiorders.
= Option 3 - SKUs are not managed for variations:
We will import nothing because due to the new rules to prevent listing duplicates, all variations must have unique SKUs within the same listing.
= Option 4 - Everything except the price is managed:
In this scenario, we would generate all variations, but there is a problem. Changing the price for one variation will update your listing, but you will still have several other variations within multiorders with different numbers. It is recommended that you update the price to match all variations. The reason we allow for the variation to be generated is that we consider the price to be less critical and managed quantity products MUST be imported.
Alternatively, you could update the product's price from Etsy and then press "Import Now" on your integration to get those imported into Multiorders instantly.
Limitation of Multiorders
Certain things may work differently in Multiorders than you may expect. We are, however, constantly updating and improving our software, and these limitations may be addressed in future updates.
Updating Quantity:
Stock can only be updated for the product via Multiorders, and any stock changes made on the sales channel will not be imported back and will eventually be overwritten by Multiorders.
Updating price:
Price can be updated on the sales channel, but it can take up to 45 minutes to import updated product information. If an order is imported within that period and Multiorders needs to update the product quantity, the price will be updated simultaneously, and we may overwrite your changes. (all product info must be updated at the same due to the limitations of Etsy & eBay, other sales channels do not suffer from this)
Deleting products:
Deleted products on the sales channel do not automatically delete in Multiorders, and you will need to remove them manually. Products deleted in Multiorders will not affect the sales channel, and if they are still available, they will be re-imported during the next sync.
Canceling orders:
Orders Canceled on Multiorders do not cancel on the sales channel. If the orders were New, they are moved to the Canceled status, and the order item quantity is restocked. If the order were shipped, they are moved to the Canceled status, but no quantity is restocked. The actual cancellation process needs to be done via the sales channel, and if the order is canceled on the sales channel, it will also update to a canceled status on Multiorders.
Updating variation info:
If you plan to make any changes to your product SKUs or titles, we recommend doing so before connecting your integration to Multiorders.
Listing products:
Due to recent changes in the Etsy API, our lister is no longer working. We will be rebuilding it from the ground up with new features. We don't know how long this will take, but we're expecting at least till early next year.
Connecting Etsy to Multiorders
Go to Integrations and click on Etsy integration to open:
A popup will open where you have to select whether you want to manage orders or orders and inventory. We recommend choosing both so you can use the full suite of Multiorders features.
You can choose whether to import 1 week's worth of old orders or 1 month. In some cases, we may be able to import more if the sales channel allows, but you will need to get in touch with our support team first.
Add a name to your integration to be displayed in Multiorders.
If you have an IOSS number from your store you can add it here.
Choose what product types to import. These settings can be changed both during the initial integration and after.
Select whether you want your sold-out products to be automatically re-listed once product quantity is increased above 0. If the option is turned on and a product is sold out on Etsy, and you increase its stock back to a positive value, the product will be re-listed on the next inventory sync. If you wish to leave this on manual re-listing, then after you re-list the product on Etsy, you will need to go back into Multiorders to update its quantity to match that on your store.
Turn order shipped notifications email CC on or off. This affects only the confirmation emails that you would get, not the ones that your customers get.
A popup will appear where you have to sign in to your Etsy account:
After you sign in click on Allow Access button:
You will now be redirected back to Multiorders. When you go to Integrations, you will find an Etsy store under the Connected Integrations:
In the Status field inside the added Integration window, you should now see the status Import in progress. It might take up to 15-20 minutes to import your products depending on how many of them you have in your store.
When the status changes to Live, that's it - integration has been connected successfully and products have finished importing.
Check Notifications for Import errors:
After you have connected your Etsy store and you can see that your inventory has completed it's import, please go to the Errors & Notifications tab. In there click on the Notifications tab and you will be able to see if there were any products that Multiorders could not import.
Additional Integration Settings
You can make further adjustments to your Etsy integration by clicking on one of the two icons you see at the top - centre of the integration menu.
Clicking on the the first icon allows you to upload a custom logo for your store, this can then be shown on your invoices.
Clicking on the envelope icon brings up Return address, Phone & Email pre-fill settings.
The Phone & Email settings allow you to pre-fill or overwrite telephone or email address on imported sales channel orders. You will not see it on the orders themselves, but this information will be used during shipping creation.
