Overview
The objective of this article is to give you an understanding of the data that can be sent from Counterpoint to your Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Magento website. Modern Retail will work with you during our onboarding process to "map" the Counterpoint data to the correct fields on your website.
The Process
To get started, it might be helpful to understand the overall process flow first. If you take a look at the diagram below, you'll notice that Products move from Counterpoint to your Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify or WooCommerce website. You'll also notice that Orders & Customers move in the opposite direction from Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify, or WooCommerce to Counterpoint.
The focus of this article is around Products, and which data is sent from Counterpoint to your website.
Main Product Data
Modern Retail can send a variety of product data from Counterpoint to your website. Below you will see a variety of fields in yellow, which can all be sent to, or "mapped" to fields in your Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce or Magento website.
Ecommerce Item
Determining which products from Counterpoint get sent to your website is the job of the Ecommerce item flag. Checking this box tells our Counterpoint Integrator that you'd like this item sold on your website. If this box is checked, then you can sell the product online; if not, then it won't show up on your site.
TIP: If you intend on sending most of your catalog to your website, you might want to talk with your Counterpoint reseller to automatically set this option by default.
Integration ID
The entire integration depends on a vital field in Counterpoint to serve as the Integration ID. This ID connects the products you have in Counterpoint to those on your website. This is done by taking the Counterpoint Item Number and shoving it into the SKU field of Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Magento. This SKU field cannot be changed on your website as it's the unique ID that binds the products together.
Description Fields
The following description fields can be sent from Counterpoint to your website.
- The first Description field below (written in green) is typically used to populate the Product Name on the website.
- The HTML description field shown above, or the Long description field shown below, are typically used to populate the description field on the website.
- While not as frequently used, we can also send the Short description, Additional description 1, Additional description 2, and Additional description 3 fields to your website. We have the ability to send any two of these description fields and map them to attributes on your website.
Item Attributes
The six Item Attribute fields in Counterpoint can be sent and mapped to variables in your website: Item attribute 1, Item attribute 2, Item attribute 3, Item attribute 4, Item attribute 5, and Item attribute 6.
Gridded Products
We also send over the gridded items from Counterpoint and create the associated product variants on your website.
The two most common variants are size and color, but our integration supports whatever values have been entered into Counterpoint, using up to 3 dimensions.
Quantity
The inventory sent to your website is taken from the Qty available field in Counterpoint.
Prices
Of course, it would be very difficult to sell something if it didn't have a price, so those can be mapped as well! Counterpoint supports 7 different prices, and typically at least 2 of the following fields will be mapped to your website pricing:
- Retail Price
- Sale Price
- MSRP (optional)
However, any of these 7 pricing fields can be mapped to your website. Therefore, if you wanted to use Price-6 as a special "web-only" sale price, no problem, we'll map that field to your website sale price.
As you would imagine, changing the price in Counterpoint will automatically change the price on the website as well. Most websites show both the retail price and sale price together, and very often cross the Retail Price out when the item is on sale, like below.
Price Rules
Modern Retail's Counterpoint integration supports all Counterpoint-supported Price Rules. This includes Special Prices & Promotional Prices, which are both product-based, and Contract Prices, which are based on the customer making the purchase. We also support Planned Promotions, which is a Counterpoint utility used to create Price Rules.
Price Rules are updated overnight (typically in a roughly 8-hour window). Users with large catalogs and extensive Price Rules should make sure that their servers can handle those updates within that window.
Additional Product Data
Modern Retail supports a variety of additional fields from Counterpoint, which can all be mapped to attributes on your websites.
Inventory by Location
Sending inventory from your various locations is something Modern Retail has been doing for years, and is used in conjunction with our In-Store Pickup, Local Delivery, and Ship From Store features.
Non-Inventory Items
Non-Inventory items from Counterpoint can be sent to your website and have been useful in all kinds of situations such as the selling of classes, instructions or tickets.
Vendor Name & Number
If you sell a lot of brands or designers in your store, you may want to map the Primary vendor name or Vendor's item # to your website. This can be helpful when merchandising these vendors on your website, like with a "shop by brand" section.
Barcodes
Modern Retail's Counterpoint Integrator will also send the Barcodes from Counterpoint to your website. Typically, these barcodes are used to store UPCs for your products and are vital for marketplaces such as Amazon or Google. Modern Retail will take these Counterpoint barcodes and map them to UPCs on your website.
Profiles
Profiles are a great way to extend the functionality of Counterpoint by allowing you to store valuable information that's unique to your store. These Profiles can also be mapped to values on your website. Need to populate something specific from Counterpoint on your website? No problem! Just populate the Profile field and let us know where you'd like the value to be stored on your website.
Bin Locations
Counterpoint has four separate bin locations, which can all be sent and mapped to attributes on your website. These bin locations are often useful for larger customers who operate a warehouse and need to use these bin locations to instruct people where to pick the item. These bin locations can also be sent to 3rd party shipping tools, like ShipStation.
Costs
Some customers have asked us to send one of the three cost fields from Counterpoint:
- Average cost
- Standard cost
- Last Cost
Let us know which cost you'd like sent from Counterpoint and where you'd like it mapped on your website.
Substitute Items
Modern Retail also has the ability to send Substitute Item from Counterpoint to your website.
Custom Fields
You might find this hard to believe but it's true, we can also send and keep up to date any Custom Fields you have created in Counterpoint! This means any data you have associated with your Products in Counterpoint can be sent to your website. As long as the data resides in the IM_ITEM table, it can be sent!
Therefore, any Product data can be sent to your website, even if you don't see it highlighted in green or yellow in the above screenshots. As long as the data lives in the IM_ITEM table, it can be sent and even be kept up to date on your website.
As always, please don't hesitate to submit a support request in our Admin Panel if you have any questions. Thank you.