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Zentail New User Guide

First time using Zentail? Welcome! Check out this crash course on everything Zentail

Ziggy avatar
Written by Ziggy
Updated over a week ago

Welcome to the all new Zentail Quick Start Guide, your one-stop-shop for all the most common workflows in Zentail, and how to use Zentail's tools to complete these different workflows. Be sure to also check out the Zentail Resource Center icon in the bottom right hand corner of any page in Zentail to see in-app guides on completing different tasks as well.

This guide will be a breakdown by workflow, and each workflow will contain a short description of what tools in Zentail correspond to that workflow/task, and any relevant links/videos for more in depth explanations. Each header in the guide has a built in link to take you to a help article with more information on the topic.

Table of Contents

Zentail and Ecommerce terms Glossary

Listing/Product Data Management

To create a SKU through the UI, use the pencil icon in the bottom right hand corner of the Catalog/Manage Catalog view. This will open a window where you can add various product details to create the SKU.

To create SKUs in bulk, just add them to a csv file with a "SKU" header in column A along with any other attributes you want to add and import.

If you want to add data to a SKU through the UI, you can do so one-by-one by selecting the SKU in the Catalog table, and then using the "Edit" button or "Advanced Options" for any of the channel-specific options. You can also manipulate data in bulk using QuickEdit, Templateless Imports, or Bulk Actions. See the "Tools" section below for videos on each of these.

Note: if you need to fill in an attribute that you can't find in the Edit product view, check to make sure the Smart Type is filled in, since that denotes the attributes for the categories. You are also able to search for it using QuickEdit, and finally you can reach out to the support team and have an Engineer add the attribute to the Smart Type for you.

SMART Types are a Zentail patent-pending technology that automatically categorizes your products across all channels and sends product-type specific attributes to all channels. This saves you the effort of having to map attributes or categories for each channel in your catalog. The video below shows how to use SMART Types to categorize your SKUs easily.

You can create a group with existing SKUs through the UI using the 3 vertical dots on the top right of any SKU you open in the Catalog view. Select "Create Product Group" to add existing SKUs to the group or create new SKUs to add to the group.

You can also create product groups in bulk using an import.

You can clone a SKU by using the three vertical dots on the top right of the SKU. Cloning a SKU will copy all of the attributes from the original SKU to the clone, which can be helpful for creating similar products that you do not want to start from scratch.

Alias SKUs inherit the same inventory as another selected SKU. This can be helpful if you ever have the same product that you wish to list differently to two different channels. Sales on both SKUs will deduct inventory on both.

Kits are a great way to offer bundles or multi-packs and increase your Average Order Value. In the UI, you can use the three vertical dots on the top right of the SKU to create a kit with existing products and specify how many units of each component go into your kit SKU. Kit inventory is calculated from components, so make your kit SKU first and the components next.

Zentail's concept of merged SKUs saves you the trouble of having to manage a separate FBA and merchant fulfilled SKU for your product. SKUs that are merged in Zentail combine the two so you only have to worry about one SKU. You can merge automatically, where Zentail will auto-detect the FBA and MF versions of each other and merge, or in bulk using the bulk actions/automation suite.

Listing errors are errors that come back from the channel, rejecting one or more piece of the data you are sending from Zentail. Listing Errors can be exported for easier viewing using the Listing Error Dashboard. Make sure you use the three vertical dots on the top right of the SKU to view the full listing error when viewing errors in the UI.

Most of the time, listing errors are self explanatory, and require a change to a value or the addition of a missing value. Sometimes they can become more complicated, in those cases you can open a chat with the support team in case you need help.

Order/Inventory Management

You can edit and audit inventory in a number of ways with Zentail, including the catalog view by using the Edit product button, the Inventory catalog view, QuickEdit, or through an export. The inventory catalog view is one of the easiest ways to check on your inventory since it lists all warehouses for you, where you can easily click the cell and edit the value.

FBA Multichannel fulfillment allows you to make your FBA quantity available on non-Amazon channels. The orders for that inventory will route to Zentail, and Zentail will route the order to FBA for fulfillment.

Note: Amazon prioritizes Amazon orders over MCF orders, so you may run into issues or delays using Multichannel Fulfillment, also there are some channels that do not allow fulfillment by Amazon such as Walmart Marketplace.

If your Zentail account is configured to purchase labels, meaning you either have Amazon Buy shipping set up or an Easypost account integrated, you have the ability to manually ship orders from Zentail.

Select the warehouse that the order was routed to in the orders table, and then use the "Ship" button on the order to purchase a label and mark the order as shipped. Alternatively, use a tracking report to mark orders as shipped in bulk with a .csv file.

Issue refunds/returns directly in the channel for

  1. Amazon

  2. eBay

  3. Shopify

  4. BigCommerce

And issue refunds/returns in Zentail for

  1. Walmart

  2. Facebook

  3. Google

To process refunds in Zentail, select an order, if it is currently in a "shipped" status, click "Generate RMA", add the RMA, then click "complete returns", select full or partial refund, and then click "Complete Return". If it is in "return requested" status, you can just complete the return.

Note: For returns and refunds that you complete outside of Zentail, you should complete those in Zentail as well so that Analytics and Accounting can stay accurate.

Zentail routes orders based on the following logic:

  1. Check which warehouse has the highest priority in the account settings

  2. Check if the highest priority warehouse has this channel enabled

  3. If that warehouse has enough inventory to fulfill the entire order, fulfill it. If it does not have enough inventory, move to the next priority warehouse. In the case that no single warehouse has enough inventory, it will be split into multiple shipments.

  4. If there is no inventory, or the SKU does not exist in Zentail, route to the default warehouse.

See more details on routing here: How Zentail Routes Orders

To re-route orders, use the three vertical dots on the top right of the order and select "Routing Information". Select the warehouse to re-route the unshipped quantity in the order to.

All cancellations that occur in-channel will flow back and update the order as cancelled in Zentail. You can initiate cancellations for orders from Zentail for the following channels:

  1. Amazon

  2. eBay

  3. Facebook

  4. Walmart

  5. Google

Cancellations must be made in the channel for the following channels:

  1. BigCommerce

  2. Wish

  3. Magento

  4. Shopify

To cancel an order in Zentail, use the three vertical dots on the top right of the order, click "Cancel Order" and then choose whether or not to return the quantity to stock. Cancellations that occur outside of Zentail will always automatically return inventory to stock.

Pricing

There are a number of ways to edit pricing in Zentail, including the Price View, Catalog view, Import / Export, or QuickEdit. Overrides can also be managed in these views or via the "Advanced Options" on any channel card when you have the SKU open.

You can add promo/sales pricing through the Catalog view in the edit product view, under "Price and Availability" or set channel specific sales with the Advanced Options menu for some channel cards. Promotional pricing is time bound, so you will set the start and end date, as well as the sale price (discounted price) and item price during sale (comparison price).

Of course, you can set these in bulk as well using Import/Export, QuickEdit or Bulk Actions (see the Tools section below).

Using the Zentail Repricers

Zentail offers both an Amazon repricer and a Walmart repricer. Both need to be activated in the integration settings, and then SKUs that you want Zentail to reprice need to have their minimum and maximum price fields filled out in Zentail. This will activate the repricer on a SKU by SKU basis.

Note: The Amazon repricer sets price in the "Item Price" field, which is the default price sent to all channels (unless there is a channel price override in place). The Walmart repricer sets price in the "Walmart price override" field.

Sales Analytics

Zentail has a built-in Analytics suite which provides automated and quick data around sales for your products. The data is presented both in a table view and graph view, and the data is easily adjustable with the sentence query. You can also export the data into a .csv file using the Export button.

You can also create custom sales order reports if you want to customize a report and/or view more granular data. By creating these templates you will open up options to include product data along with sales data and also schedule your report to run on cadence.

Note: Custom filters allow you to run reports for a subset of data or funnel data down to exactly what you're looking for. More information here: Custom Filter Formulas

Purchasing and Purchase Orders

Navigate to the Inventory tab and then "Purchase Orders" to view the Purchase Orders page in Zentail. Using the pencil icon in the bottom right hand corner, create a new purchase order where you can specify the vendor and warehouse, source and destination address, add products and quantities, and download your PO in .csv or PDF format.

In the inventory tab you will see "Shipments" in the Planning section as well. This page allows you to manage incoming inventory or inventory transfers between warehouses and/or to FBA. To create a new shipment, use the pencil icon in the bottom right hand corner. When you switch the receiving warehouse to FBA, you will see the experience change a little bit and open up additional required fields for FBA shipments. See more here: FBA inbound shipments

Note: If you create a purchase order it will auto-populate an inbound shipment for you in the Shipments page, where you can accept the inventory.

Using the Shipments feature in Zentail you can opt to send future quantity and a restock date to Amazon to accept pre-orders/backorders for out of stock products that you will be getting inventory for soon. You can also display a restock date on the ASIN to let customers know that the product will be available for purchase on that date.

Tools

QuickEdit is a live table view of your data in Zentail, where you can add any attribute/column relating to product data that you want and make edits quickly. You can also save QuickEdit views for ease of access later, add filters to funnel your data to the SKUs you need to look at, export into a .csv file to make changes or retrieve data, or run a bulk action to change data in bulk.

Note: QuickEdit can come in very handy to find specific Channel attributes, and search for attributes that you don't want to look for in the Edit product view.

Some things you can do with QuickEdit:

and the list goes on.

Bulk Actions are a great way to manipulate data in bulk in Zentail without having to leave the app (like jumping into an excel sheet would have you do). Automation Rules allow you to run these bulk actions with cadence, in case you need something to run in the background for you automatically.

Note: the easiest way to run a bulk action is to build a QuickEdit view with the selected products first, then use the "Create Bulk Action" button to copy the filter over automatically. Video below for more details:

Some things you can do with Bulk Actions:

and the list goes on.

The Import/Export tool is a very powerful tool to allow you to make bulk edits to your catalog with a .csv file. You can also schedule reports to run automatically on cadence and email or transfer via FTP anywhere you want. With Import/Export you can also create your own custom templates for quick and easy imports and exports.

Note: Remember that you can also export from the QuickEdit view, in case you have a filtered down table view of the products you wish to export, you can use the "Export view" button on the top right of QuickEdit to get that data in a .csv file as well.

More details on Scheduled Reports here

The Demand Forecasting suite allows Zentail to calculate when to reorder more inventory and how many units to purchase based on historical order data, and taking lead time and holding cost into account. Zentail suggests optimal reorder frequency based on the (Q,r) model.

The activity log in Zentail allows you to keep tabs on where data is being edited and by whom, allowing you to also filter data down in a QuickEdit-style table that is exportable. This can be useful for finding out who/what made a specific edit and be aware of product/order history.

Product history in Zentail allows you to see specific changes to a product including orders, inventory updates, product data updates and pricing updates with timestamps. You can think of Product history for use with single SKUs and Activity Log across multiple SKUs and multiple changes.

Every Channel in Zentail allows you to view feed messages and take a look at exactly what data Zentail is sending to each channel. This can be very valuable for troubleshooting listing errors or checking on feed statuses and where they are in the process of submission.

In-app guides

Be sure to visit the in-app guides found in the resource center (the Ziggy icon in the bottom right hand corner of any page in Zentail) and then "training" to view an in-app guide that will walk you through completing that workflow.

You can also view training guides in the platform using the "Training" button dropdown on the top left hand corner of the Dashboard page.

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