M2E Pro Version - 6.5.4

Important: This is a legacy version of the documentation. Please visit the current documentation page.

M2E Pro Version - 6.5.4

Mar 4, 2019 

Highlights

  • Support for Walmart Marketplace

  • Important enhancements to dynamic Magento-to-Channel Synchronization: improved configurations, intelligent processing, increased performance

  • Automatic retries of Magento Order creation in case of fails

  • Support for Magento Downloadable Product

  • Compliance with eBay Product-based Shopping Experience

  • Support for eBay Guaranteed Delivery program

  • Support for eBay International Return Policy

  • Support for Parts Compatibility information based on ePID number on the UK and DE eBay sites

  • Integration with Amazon Business Program for the US, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES marketplaces

  • Ability to use Amazon Shipping Templates

  • The use of local storage instead of a cookie for the data storing

Please note, you cannot migrate M2E Pro data from v6.5.4 to Magento v2.x.x.

As of March 2019, the migration process can be performed only from M2E Pro v6.5.0.9 for Magento v1.x.x to M2E Pro v1.2.1 for Magento v2.x.x.

Support for Walmart Marketplace

We are happy to announce that the new M2E Pro version supports the Walmart integration. The support for Jet.com is to follow.

Walmart is the No. 3 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500. It is one of the most popular retail websites in the United States. As of December 2017, 127 million unique users visited the website each month.

If you are already familiar with the Module, it will be easy for you to master a new integration. M2E Pro Team maintains the same logic in the development of eBay, Amazon and Walmart integrations: interface, basic functions, and processes are similar across all Channels.

With this release, you get a full-featured solution to transfer your Magento inventory on Walmart.

Let's see how you start selling on Walmart marketplace via M2E Pro. Please complete the following Wizard steps:

Onboard the 3rd Party Items

If you already sell on Walmart and want to manage the existing Channel inventory based on your Magento Product data, enable the 3rd Party import in Account configuration. M2E Pro will automatically import your Walmart Items.

During the initial importing, the 3rd Party Items can be automatically mapped to the related Magento Products by SKU, UPC, GTIN, Walmart ID or Title values. To do it, enable the Product Mapping option and select an appropriate Attribute when configuring your Account.

To take advantages of M2E Pro features, e.i. automatic inventory and order synchronization, you have to move the mapped 3rd Party Items to M2E Pro Listing. After it is done, the Module will start automatically updating the Items based on your Magento data.

List your Products on Walmart

Your Listing Products will be listed on Walmart automatically based on the specified List Rules in Synchronization Policy. It can take up to 1 hour to submit a new offer until Walmart approves product data.

If your Listing Product is compliant with Walmart requirements, it will be listed successfully. Depending on the product stock, you will see an Active/Inactive status next to a Listing Product.

At any time, you can check the current product parameters in the Listing grid by switching the View Modes.

Process your Walmart Sales

M2E Pro supports uninterrupted Channel Order synchronization. Once an order is placed on Walmart, it will be automatically imported to the Extension.

You may enable an automatic Magento Order creation to keep the correspondence between Magento and Walmart stock levels. If an ordered Walmart Item does not have the corresponding Product in Magento, M2E Pro may create it automatically. Each Magento Order can be associated with Magento Customer you defined in Account configuration.

M2E Pro updates the Walmart Order status based on the corresponding Magento Order automatically. When Invoice or Shipment is created for Magento Order, a corresponding Walmart Order will be marked as Paid or Shipped accordingly. Walmart Order can be automatically canceled or refunded once a Credit Memo is created for a corresponding Magento Order.

At any time, you can check the Order details in the Channel Sales grid.

Please learn a User Guide or consult M2E Pro Support Team to master Walmart integration.

Common Changes

Changes in the top navigation menu

With this version, M2E Pro introduces a new Channel integration - Walmart Marketplace. This enhancement has caused some interface changes. Now, the primary menu shows Channel Integrations that you have enabled in the Module. Once you click one, you will get a sub-menu which lists Listings, Sales, Logs and Configuration sections related to a particular Integration:

Products

Support for Magento Downloadable Product

Have you been waiting to start selling digital goods (i.e. music or video files, eBooks, downloadable software, etc.) on eBay/Amazon Channel? Starting from this version, M2E Pro supports Magento Downloadable Product. You can now list your digital goods the same way as the physical items are listed.

Before placing a new listing on the channel, you have an option to choose the way you want your virtual product to be purchased. You should use Links can be purchased separately to define your preferences:

  • Select No to offer the Item as a single download. The Item will be processed by M2E Pro as a Simple Product.

  • Set Yes to make each included link/file sold separately. The Item will be processed by M2E Pro as a Variational Product.

In this latter case, each variation can be offered at the additional charge:

While the buyers will be able to purchase certain Item variation at its individual price:

Correct work with Magento multistore functionality

Using the 3rd party tools for inventory management in your multistore Magento could cause certain problems. For example, QTY changes made on the store or website level were not detected by M2E Pro. It happened because M2E Pro supports standard Magento where the stock is global-based.

Improvements in the new Module version make it possible for M2E Pro to detect such stock updates.

Automatic reducing of long SKU value

eBay and Amazon have the length limit for SKU value: 50 and 40 alphanumeric characters respectively. If an SKU value length exceeds these thresholds, the error might occur.

For example, each Variation of a Bundle Product has a complex SKU, which includes the SKUs of related Child Products. In some cases, the overall length of the Bundle Variation SKU could be too long and exceed the Channel limitations. This prevents the Item from being listed successfully.

Starting from this release, M2E Pro cuts the long SKU values automatically to suit Channel requirements. As a result, the SKU value will be accepted by eBay/Amazon and the Item will be listed successfully.

Orders

Automatic retries to create a Magento Order

Using external modules may have an impact on Magento. For example, it can affect the process of Magento Order creation: the improper Mail Service configurations will prevent the successful creation of a Magento order.

In the new version, M2E Pro will initiate an automatic retry to create a Magento Order if the initial attempt failed. It is very likely that the Order will be created during the following automatic retries.

If several successive attempts fail, M2E Pro stops repeating the action. The detailed information about retries made can be found in Order Logs.

Keeping Product Quantity reserved until Magento Order is created

Stock availability is crucial when processing an Order. For the efficient inventory management, M2E Pro has Item Quantity reservation which holds the stock of a product until Magento Order is created or the reservation period expires. After an Order is imported from the Channel and the Order creation rules are not met yet, M2E Pro reserves the purchased quantity until a Magento Order can be created.

Previously, if Magento Order could not be created for some reasons, the product QTY was not reserved. Sometimes this could lead to overselling and inability to fulfill the order.

In this release, M2E Pro has been improved to keep the Item Quantity reserved if Magento Order creation fails. It allows sellers to guarantee the supply availability, especially for Products of high consumer demand or during the peak season.

This can be even more useful taking into account the newly introduced automatic retries of Magento Order creation.

Automatic release of the reserved Item quantity if the Channel Order is canceled

Previously, if the Order was canceled on the Channel, the reserved Item quantity was not released until the Reservation period ended.

Starting from this version, Module behavior has been changed. The reserved Item quantity is released automatically right after the Order is canceled on the Channel.

Unexpected behavior of QTY reservation feature

Magento Inventory management is allowed by enabling of Manage Stock and Decrease Stock When Order is Placed options under System > Configurations > Catalog > Inventory:

In previous Module versions, the QTY reservation worked regardless of these option configurations. In some cases, this caused Exceptions on the Magento side.

In the current release, the Module behavior has been changed. M2E Pro reserves the Item quantity only if both Manage Stock and Decrease Stock When Order is Placed options are enabled in your Magento. No Magento Exceptions occur after this improvement is made.

Channel Orders created more than 180 days ago are archived automatically

Users who have managed their Products via M2E Pro for a long period of time could be experienced with an improper work of Sales section. It is caused by a large number of imported Orders within a grid. It could take a considerable time to open/update the Order grid.

To prevent this, the Channel Orders created more than 180 days ago are being archived now. This allows reducing the time for the grid opening and Order processing.

Listings

Auto Add/Remove Rules can be run by changing product Website via Update Attributes action

Auto Add/Remove Rules make Product management process for eBay and Amazon integrations more efficient. The Rules are made of conditions which determine when a Magento Product should be automatically added or deleted from an M2E Pro Listing.

The Module can monitor the fact of adding a new Product to your Magento Catalog as well as the changes made to the Website/Category of certain Magento Product. However, in previous versions, the Website changes were tracked only if they made to each Product separately. While the mass updating of the Website parameter was not detected by the Extension.

M2E Pro Team continuously enhance the existing features. Starting from the current version, the Module detects the changes made to the Product Website via the mass action Update Attributes. This means that Auto Add/Remove Rules can be triggered by the mass updating of Product Website. Use this feature to allocate the Products among the different M2E Pro Listings in a quick and time-saving way.

Mapped 3rd Party Items can now be filtered out

Managing the 3rd Party Items has become more convenient. A new filter option Mapped lets you filter out the already mapped items to quickly proceed with their moving to M2E Pro Listing.

Grid performance has been significantly increased

We are proud that more and more merchants entrust the management of their big-sized inventories to M2E Pro. When a Listing contains the high number of Items with constantly changing data, the grid performance comes to the fore.

In this Module version, the loading speed of Listing grids has been increased up to 100 times. This helps to keep the relevance of M2E Pro Listing grids to the Channel Item data.

Moving of the 3rd party items has been improved

Simultaneous moving of 10k+ items might cause too much load on Extension and subsequent interruption of the action.

With this release, the Module has balanced the load and increased the processing capacity of the item data. It guarantees a safe Item transferring from the 3rd Party Listing to M2E Pro Listing.

Changes in UI behavior when adding products to M2E Pro Listing

Starting from this version, you need to assign Channel category to at least one product when adding Magento Products to M2E Pro Listing. Until then, you cannot proceed to the following step. Continue button will be disabled as the screen below shows:

Please be advised that in eBay and Walmart integrations, Magento Products without category data will not be added to M2E Pro Listing. It is because products must be associated with the Channel category to be listed on eBay/Walmart.

In Amazon integration, if you are going to list a new ASIN, you should set Description Policy to at least one product to proceed. Yet, the rest products with no ASIN assigned or without Description Policy will still be added to Listing. You can assign ASIN/Description Policy for the Listing Products later.

Provided changes will optimize your interaction with the Module and help to avoid unnecessary actions.

Synchronization Policy

Updated Revise conditions in Synchronization Policy

In the previous M2E Pro versions, automatic updates of the product changes could be performed by a Full or Partial Revise. There were two separate blocks of Revise settings in Synchronization Policy: the Partial and Full Revise conditions. The problem could come up if the settings for the Full Revise would contradict the Partial Revise conditions.

For example, the Full Revise by Description caused an update of all parameters related to the Product description, including the Title, Subtitle, etc. While in the Partial Revise conditions, some of those parameters were disabled, therefore, were not supposed to be updated. Please see the image below.

Besides, you had to keep in mind that changes made to Magento Product triggered only the Partial Revise. Whereas to initiate the Full Revise, the Policy Template must be changed.

Starting from this Module version, you have a single list of Revise Conditions. The new logic of data revising is that each Revise Condition relates to the certain Product property. Once the Revise Condition is enabled, Module starts to trigger the changes made to this property in both Policy Template settings and Magento Attribute set for this property in Policy Template. This means you spend less time and efforts for configuring. Instead, you get more flexibility and accuracy in the processing of updates.

For example, if you enable the Revise by Title, any change made to the related Description Policy settings or Magento Attribute set for Title in Description Policy will initiate the automatic Title update on the Channel. If the Title condition is disabled, it will never be updated by automatic synchronization.

The screenshot below shows the updated Revise Rule settings within eBay integration:

  • Quantity - automatically revises Item Quantity on eBay when Product Quantity, Magento Attribute used for Item Quantity or Custom Quantity value are modified in Magento or Policy Template. The Quantity management is the basic functionality the Magento-to-eBay integration is based on and it cannot be disabled.

  • Price - automatically revises Item Price on eBay when Product Price, Special Price or Magento Attribute used for Item Price are modified in Magento or Policy Template.

  • Title - automatically revises Item Title on eBay when Product Name, Magento Attribute used for Item Title or Custom Title value are modified in Magento or Policy Template.

  • Subtitle - automatically revises Item Subtitle on eBay when Magento Attribute used for Item Subtitle or Custom Subtitle value are modified in Magento or Policy Template.

  • Description - automatically revises Item Description on eBay when Product Description, Product Short Description or Custom Description value are modified in Magento or Policy Template.

  • Images - automaticallyrevisesItem Images on eBay when Product Image(s) or Magento Attribute used for Product Image(s) are modified in Magento or Policy Template.

  • Categories/Specifics - automatically revises Item Categories/Specifics on eBay when Categories/Specifics data or Magento Attributes used for Categories/Specifics are modified.

  • Shipping - automatically revises Item Shipping information on eBay when a Shipping Policy Template or Magento Attributes used in the Shipping Policy Template are modified.

  • Payment - automatically revises Payment information on eBay when the Payment Policy Template is modified.

  • Return - automatically revises Return information on eBay when the Return Policy Template is modified.

  • Other - automatically revises Item Condition, Condition Note, Taxation, Best Offer, and Charity information on eBay when the related data is modified in Policy Templates.

The new Revise Rule settings for Amazon integration are shown in the following screenshot:

  • Quantity - automatically revises Item Quantity, Production Time, Restock Date on Amazon when the related values are modified in Magento, Policy Template or Listing Settings accordingly. The Quantity management is the basic functionality the Magento-to-Amazon integration is based on and it cannot be disabled.

  • Price - automatically revises Item Price on Amazon when Product Price, Special Price or Magento Attribute used for Product Price are modified in Magento or Policy Template.

Once the Module detects any change related to the Property enabled in Revise Rules, the Revise action will be scheduled.

Product Quantity option is permanently enabled in Revise Rules

Maintenance of uninterrupted Inventory and Order synchronization is the primary task of M2E Pro. Magento-to-Channel integration largely depends on QTY parameter: it is required when you list the Item first or when you need to stop it because of out of stock, when the customer makes a purchase or when you fulfill the order, etc. The actual QTY is highly important to be sure you maintain enough level of stock availability.

According to the points above, starting from the current version, QTY option is permanently enabled in Revise Rule settings and cannot be switched off. This means that QTY value will be updated each time after it is modified in your Magento.

Enable/Disable switch for Stop Rules

The Stop Rules in Synchronization Policy define the conditions under which you want to stop selling your Items on the Channel. M2E Pro will automatically stop an Item as soon as one of those conditions is met.

To give you more flexibility, starting from the current version, you have an additional switch to say M2E Pro whether automatic Stop Rules should be applied to your Items or not. 

Product updates are scheduled for the processing

There is a major change to the logic of M2E Pro synchronization mechanism in the new version. Now the Product changes are ranked and processed based on the level of their importance.

After the Product is modified, the Module detects this event and compares it with your Synchronization Rules. If at least one sync condition is met, appropriate action will be scheduled. This means that all scheduled actions are already verified according to your sync settings and planned for the processing.

Within the Listing grid, users are able to see what the action is being scheduled at the moment for the specific Item. This helps to be aware of any inventory updates. For example, if the Revise conditions are met, the automatical Revise will be scheduled. You will see the appropriate label next to the Item indicated which parameter is going to be updated.

Before to be processed, all scheduled actions are ranked based on their priority. It allows performing urgent actions first. For example, the out-of-stock Item will be stopped before the Module submits a new Item to the Channel.

After the scheduled action is taken into processing, the Action in Progress label will be displayed instead.

Improved performance of Relist action

It is important to get Items Stopped on the Channel after they are sold out. On the other hand, having the Item Relisted as soon as it is restocked is also important.

Previously, users could enable 'Synchronize Data' under Relist Rules to get a full update of the product information on the Channel. It could take a long time to process all the Product changes, i.e. title, subtitle, description, price, quantity, shipping, etc. before the Item would eventually be Relisted on the Channel.

The Relist action with 'Synchronize Data' enabled greatly impacted the sync performance. In some cases, this could prevent Module from submitting crucial updates made to other Products in your catalog. For example, Amazon strictly limits the number of requests that can be made to their API and it is highly important to rank the data to be sent first. 

According to the points above, the M2E Pro Team has decided to no longer support the 'Synchronize Data' option in Relist Rules settings.

Instead, to enhance sellers' experience, M2E Pro has significantly improved the sync mechanism and the Relist action as well. Starting from the current version, only Product QTY and Price, as the most valuable parameters, are submitted on Relist action. The rest data is updated later based on your Revise settings. This allows Module to process the Relist action almost immediately and reactivate the Item on the Channel with only essential information.

Items moved from 3rd Party Listing or another M2E Pro Listing are synchronized based on Synchronization Rules

When the Item is moved from 3rd Party Listing or another M2E Pro Listing, it comes under control of the new Listing Settings.

Previously, to automatically revise the moved Items according to the new Listing Settings, the related data must be changed first. This means that information on the Channel could disagree with your Magento data or Listing Settings for some time after the Item had been moved.

To make your moved Items compliance with your Listing Settings without delay, the Revise action will be scheduled automatically right after the Item has been placed to certain M2E Pro Listing. This guarantees the correctness of your Channel data.

Enable/Disable switch for automatic synchronization

You may choose from two ways to sync your Magento Product data to the Channel: automatically or manually. Set your preferences for each integration separately under the eBay/Amazon/Walmart > Configuration > Synchronization:

If your Product data is constantly changed throughout the day, you may achieve the best results using the automatic way of data sync. M2E Pro delivers a reliable mechanism for tracking Product changes and submitting updates to the Channel on a regular basis. The automatic Synchronization Rules gives you great convenience and flexibility. Take all the advantages of them.

Manual synchronization

The enhancements made to Magento-Channel synchronization affect the manual actions at some points. Let's see the most important ones below.

Starting from the current version, M2E Pro submits the following data during the manual synchronization:

  • manual List - submits the full Magento Product data;

  • manual Revise - updates the full Product data on the Channel regardless of Revise Rules settings;

  • manual Relist - submits the Item QTY and Price values, as well as the current variations of Variational Item;

  • manual Stop - submits the Item QTY = 0.

After the manual action is applied, it will be scheduled for the processing likewise the automatic updates.

The simultaneous update of 10 or fewer Products on eBay Channel is processed in a real-time mode, but if more - the actions will be scheduled by M2E Pro. All the Product changes submitted to Amazon manually will be scheduled regardless of their number. It is because of Amazon API throttling.

Once the action is scheduled, you will see the Action is Scheduled label next to the related Items. The Item updates will be processed based on their priority.

When the manual and automatic updates are submitted to a single Item simultaneously, the manual action has a primacy. For example, if the automatic Relist conditions are met, but a user manually applies the List action to this Item, exactly the List action will be scheduled and processed by the Module.

There is one exception: the automated Stop action has a higher priority than manual Revise action. Because it is senseless to update the Item which must be stopped on the Channel.

It is important to consider that the manual actions do not cancel the automatic Synchronization Rules. For example, if you have manually stopped the Item, but the Relist conditions are met, the Item will be automatically Relisted next.

Please apply the manual synchronization actions only in case of extreme necessity. Instead, we highly recommend using the automatic sync mechanism. M2E Pro Synchronization Rules provides you with a precise, timely and reliable listing updating.

Configurations

Automatic price currency conversion for Magento Attribute with Price input type

Starting from the current M2E Pro version, you are able to use a new feature of Automatic Price Currency Conversion for Magento Attributes with Price input type. It allows selling on the different regional marketplaces without a need to recalculate the Prices/Costs in local currency.

If you are going to list your Product on the Marketplaces which have different Base Currency and Product Price/Shipping Cost value or Shipping Surcharge (for eBay only) are set to be taken from Magento Attribute with Price input type, enable the automatic currency conversion first. Navigate to the System > Configuration > M2E Pro > General > Price and switch to Yes the Convert Magento Price Attribute option.

Convert Magento Price Attribute feature affects the next product parameters:

Ability to discard all previously remembered choices made by users

M2E Pro gives an opportunity to remember the specified settings for some Module options. It allows optimizing your time resources while working with the Module.

For example, the system allows remembering your selection of All Products Same Category option at the Set eBay Category step to skip it in the future. It significantly simplifies and speeds up adding new Products to the Listings. However, if you need to change these preferences later, you will have to edit eBay Category settings for each Product separately. Otherwise, the new Listing with other parameters should be created. Previously, there was no way to reset the 'Remember my choice' settings.

Starting from the current M2E Pro version, an ability to discard all your remembered choices has been added. This functionality makes your settings more flexible.

When you need to reset the remembered choices, navigate to System > Configuration > M2E Pro > General > Interface and press the Restore all Helps & Remembered choices. It will restore the default state of parameters: the help blocks will be shown in the interface again while the previously remembered choices will be discarded.

The help block state is now stored in local storage instead of a cookie

When you configure the Module interface, e.g. to show/hide the help blocks, your preferences are remembered and considered each time you open your Magento. In the previous Module versions, this was achieved by using cookie functionality. Given that cookie has to be included in every server-client request, an extra load may be added to the page. The more elements are customized, the larger cookie amount has to be submitted.

Recently Magento has provided the cookie limits on their version 2.x.x. This causes some users to face an error "Unable to send the cookie. Maximum number of cookies would be exceeded" after they migrate their M2E Pro data from Magento v1.x.x to Magento v2.x.x.

Because of this situation and following our users' requests, M2E Pro has changed the way of data storing. Starting from the current version, the state of Extension interface elements is stored in local storage instead of the cookie. This functionality provides greater storage capacity without affecting the website performance. The changes you made are saved and available each time you visit the site. Magento error has no longer occur.

Changes in License obtaining

Starting from November 2015, all M2E Pro customers must have an active subscription to one of the available Pricing Plans. If you do a fresh installation of M2E Pro Module, your customer account and Extension Key will be registered on Client’s Portal automatically. 

Each Extension Key undergoes validation based on Domain name and IP addresses. This is done to prevent inconsistent access to your data. It also protects from the risk of the synchronization being performed from several instances simultaneously.

If you change your Magento location, you will need to obtain a new Extension Key on clients.m2epro.com and update it in the Admin Panel of your Magento: System > Configuration > M2E Pro > Billing Info. Press Use Another Key, enter the new Key value and Refresh the data. Your current IP, Domain will be automatically associated with the new Extension Key. 

Other

Technical support for Magento CE versions lower than 1.5.1.0 and Magento EE versions lower than 1.10.1.0 is no longer provided

M2E Pro Extension can be used with all versions of Magento CE/EE from 1.x onwards, including versions 2.x. Based on our users' experience, many sellers have already moved to Magento v2.x after it was announced in November 2015, while other merchants use the latest versions of Magento 1. The number of M2E Pro users which have Magento CE versions lower than 1.5.1.0 and Magento EE versions lower than 1.10.1.0 can be considered negligible. However, the technical support for the old Magento versions still takes a lot of time. Herewith, the need to maintain the Module compatibility with the old Magento versions constrains the further M2E Pro development.

Taking into account the points above, M2E Pro Team stops the official support for Magento CE versions lower than 1.5.1.0 and Magento EE versions lower than 1.10.1.0 to enhance the technical servicing of Magento up-to-date versions.

Compatibility with PHP v7.2.x

M2E Pro is now compatible with PHP v7.2.x. The relevant changes have been implemented and fully tested.

eBay Integration

Products

Compliance with eBay Product-based Shopping Experience

Last year, eBay already expanded their requirements to provide product identifiers (brand, MPN, and GTIN) for Items listed in certain categories. Apparently, last year enforcement is an early stage of the change that eBay recently introduced. Beginning in Spring 2018, a product-based search is launched on the US, UK, AU, CA [English] and DE eBay sites.

The new shopping experience requires all merchants to associate their Items with the products in the eBay catalog. In order to list/revise your offers on the channel, you need to provide eBay Product ID (ePID) and a valid GTIN (UPC, ISBN, EAN).

Using M2E Pro, you can send a full set of Product Identifiers for the Single and Variational Items on eBay. 

In Description Policy, you can specify the GTIN, ePID, Brand, and MPN values for your Simple, Configurable and Grouped Products:

In Manage Variation pop-up, you can provide eBay Catalog Identifiers for each variation of your Bundle, Downloadable and Simple with Custom Options Products. You will find Manage Variations link in M2E Pro Listing next to a Multi-Variation Product.

Since eBay does not allow removing/replacing product variations after they were sold, M2E Pro has to store the old inactive variations. This allows maintaining the data compliance during the Item updating. To comply with the recent eBay changes, the old inactive variations within affected product lines should also be adapted to the eBay catalog. Otherwise, eBay will restrict the Item revise.

Starting from this version, M2E Pro will collect and store eBay catalog identifiers for the old inactive variations to prevent eBay errors.

However, if any of your listed Items already have old inactive variations, you should fill in the required GTIN/ePID fields manually. Otherwise, eBay will return the error when M2E attempts to revise the Item.

Here is what you should do: navigate to Listing, click Manage Variations link next to the Multi-Variation Item, click Show Old Inactive Variations in a pop-up and enter valid Product Identifiers:

Tool to prevent the Item Duplicate issues

According to eBay Duplicate listings policy, two or more Items will be considered duplicate if there is no significant difference between them. eBay restricts to list the Items which have the same Product Identifiers, Titles, Description, etc.

However, sometimes the Item duplicate issue may arise due to the technical reasons. For example, the temporal limitations on the eBay side or a network connection failure can lead to the next situation. After the List/Relist action is submitted to the Channel via M2E Pro, the Module does not get a confirmation from eBay that the operation is completed successfully. In this case, the next automatic synchronization will try to list/relist the Item again. While eBay will consider this attempt as Item duplicate listing and may apply the restrictions to your seller account.

To prevent the scenario described above, M2E Pro Team has developed a special Tool. It detects the potential duplicates during the Item list/relist and prevents the action to be submitted to the Channel. When the Item duplicate is detected, you will see the 'duplicate' mark next to this Listing Item and the related notification.

Click the Duplicate link to open an additional settings pop-up. Select one of the possible solutions:

  • Ignore this message for the Item {eBay Item ID} - means that the Item data will be sent to eBay during the next sync to check whether the issue still persists.

  • Stop Item {eBay Item ID} on eBay - means that the related Channel Item will be automatically stopped on eBay, while this Item will be listed once the List Rules are met.

  • Stop Item {eBay Item ID} on eBay and list/relist the current Item - means that the related Channel Item will be automatically stopped on eBay, while this Item will be listed/relisted immediately.

ePID number is now available for the United Kingdom and Germany eBay sites

M2E Pro introduces support for eBay Product ID (ePID) number on the UK and DE eBay sites. Starting from the current version, you have the ability to choose whether ePID or kType values should be applied to the Items listed on the UK, DE eBay sites.

To use Parts Compatibility on UK/DE eBay sites, complete the following steps:

  • Under the eBay > Configuration > General, specify the Compatibility Attribute where ePID/kType values should be stored.

  • Using the Action menu in M2EPro Listing grid, select which Parts Compatibility Mode you are going to use.

You are able to select from two modes:

ePIDs - is based on the Product Reference IDs of compatible vehicles for this eBay Site.

kTypes - is based on the common kType data provided by eBay for all Sites (by default).

  • Save the changes.

  • Use Add Compatible Vehicles Tool within Setting View Mode of your M2E Pro Listing for UK/DE eBay site.

Once all the steps are completed, you can list the parts/accessories associated with compatible vehicles based on ePIDs on UK/DE eBay site.

More than 1000 ePID\kType values can be selected per once now

Before, you could select a maximum of 1000 ePID/kType values per once via the Add Compatible Vehicle tool.

To enhance the user experience, an ability to select up to 3000 compatible vehicles per once has been added. If you need to manage more than 3000 compatible vehicles simultaneously, use one of the following methods:

  • save Filter - filter the records by required parameters and click Save Filter. Under the Filters tab, select the saved Filter, apply the Select action, then click Add/Override to associate the filtered compatible vehicles with your Listing Item.

  • save Group - select 3000 or fewer records and submit the Save as Group action. Create as many Groups as you need. Under the Group tab, select one or several Group(s), apply the Select action, then click  Add/Override to associate the grouped compatible vehicles with your Listing Item.

The improvements mentioned above allows optimizing your work with Parts Compatibility via M2E Pro.

Assigning eBay Category is now required prior to adding a Product to M2E Pro Listing

Previously, defining eBay Category could be skipped when you added Magento Product to the Listing. However, M2E Pro could not list this Product because Category data is required by eBay. You still needed to assign eBay Category and complete the related Specifics. This might cause some delay in Item submitting.

The changes in this version prevent the situation above. Now you have to assign eBay Category to the Product before it is placed in M2E Pro Listing. This allows Module to start managing your Item immediately.

Please check the particular cases at when eBay Category should be specified:

  • When you add Magento Products to M2E Pro Listing manually. Magento Products with no eBay Category assigned will not be added to the Listing.

  • When you move the 3rd Party Items to M2E Pro Listing. After you map the 3rd Party Item to Magento Product and select M2E Pro Listing, you will be redirected to the Set eBay Category page. Select the most suitable Category and provide the Item Specifics to complete the Item moving.

  • When you add Magento Products to M2E Pro Listing using Auto Add/Remove Rules. After you select the level at which M2E Pro should monitor the Product adding/removing, you will be redirected to the 3-step wizard including the Set eBay Category and Item Specific steps. Complete all the steps to save your Rule

Preventing "Duplicate variation custom label" error during renaming Variation Options in Magento

eBay strictly controls the updates submitted to the existing Variational Items. Before, sellers could face the 'Duplicate variation custom label' error after the variational option data is modified. In most cases, this requires listing the Item anew.

With this Module version, M2E Pro introduces substantial enhancements to Variational data processing. The 'Duplicate variation custom label' error no longer arises.

Ignoring spaces in Variation attribute values

Due to the strict requirements for the Variational Product data, eBay may block the Item from being updated on the Channel if there is spare space at the beginning or/and at the end of a Variation attribute value. The resolving of this issue can take considerable time from sellers.

To avoid this issue, M2E Pro Team has developed a specific mechanism which allows ignoring the spare spaces in Variation attribute values if detected. This enhances the seller experience.

The Product Identifiers will be submitted to the Channel if eBay Category starts requiring them

In accordance with the last year enforcement, eBay requires including catalog identifiers into certain categories. Due to this, you might face the error: 'UPC is missing a value. Enter a value and try again', 'EAN is missing a value. Enter a value and try again', etc. during the Item relist or its Price/QTY revise.

Previously, you were forced to run the manual revise to fully update the Item data, including the Product Identifiers. This could be time-consuming in case of a big-sized inventory.

To prevent this scenario, M2E Pro has developed a special tool. It allows automatically detecting the Items for which eBay requires the Product Identifiers and subsequently submitting the necessary data to the Channel. This solution works for both Simple and Multi-Variational Items.

Orders

Notification about Channel changes in the number of ordered Items after Magento Order is already created

When the 'Immediately' option is enabled in the Order Creation Rules, Magento Order will be created right after eBay Order is imported to M2E Pro. This means that any changes made to the Channel Order after checkout is completed will not be reflected in Magento Order as it is already created.

Starting from this version, M2E Pro provides users with an additional notification on this matter. If the Order details are changed on eBay after Magento Order creation, you will see the Log message saying which particular updates have been made. This allows you to stay informed of all Channel Order updates.

Listings

The 3rd Party Listings can be mapped using eBay Item ID

Gain more flexibility when you link your existing eBay store inventory to Magento one. Now you can map your 3rd Party Listings by eBay Item Number. Navigate to eBay > Configuration > Accounts > Account Configuration > 3rd Party Listings > Mapping Settings, select Magento Attribute which stores the eBay Item ID values. 

If the Product Mapping is enabled in your Account settings, the imported eBay Listings will be automatically mapped to your Magento Inventory by eBay Item ID.

Improvements in the 3rd Party Item Moving

In rare cases, when the 3rd Party Item was being moved to M2E Pro Listing and the action was interrupted due to some reasons, the Item data could be lost.

Improvements in this Module version prevent the 3rd Party Item data from accidental loss. The Item will be removed from the 3rd Party Listing only after it is successfully moved to M2E Pro Listing.

eBay Item ID URL is generated correctly now

Previously, eBay Item ID link which leads from M2E Pro Listing grid to the appropriate Channel Item could be broken in some cases. The issue has been resolved in this Module version. The related URLs are generated correctly.

Description Policy

M2E Pro attribute of Image URLs can be added to the Custom Description

Starting from this Module version, you can insert the URLs of Base Image along with 12 Gallery Images to the Custom Description:

  • Navigate to eBay > Configuration > Policies > Description Policy > Description, select the Custom Value option.

  • Under the Custom Inserts, select M2E Pro attribute which contains the required Image URL.

  • Click Insert.

The use of secure content in Custom Description can be configured via M2E Pro

Recently, M2E Pro has introduced support for secure content in the Custom Description. This enhancement is related to the new eBay browser security standards.

Before, to enable the use of secure content, you had to set up your Magento appropriately. Starting from this version, you are able to set your preferences via M2E Pro interface.

Navigate to eBay > Configuration > General > Image Uploading, enable the Use Secure Image URLs in Item Description option. The Image URLs added to the Custom Description will be generated using the HTTPS protocol.

Ability to open Custom Gallery Images in a new browser tab is no longer available

eBay has announced the Policy Updates aimed to enhance the shopping experience for buyers. An updated Links Policy prohibits the links that take customers off-eBay.

Previously, M2E Pro users were able to make the Custom Gallery opened in a new window. However, eBay considered this as a redirection to the external resource and required users to comply with its Link Policy.

Following eBay restriction, the ability to open Gallery Images in a new browser tab has been removed and starting from the current Module version is no longer available for the Custom Description configuring. If some of your Items have been already listed with this option enabled, they will be updated appropriately during the next automatic Revise.

Selling Policy

Support for eBay Lot functionality

eBay provides sellers with an ability to sell Items in lots. The lot is a set of two or more identical or similar Items that must be purchased together. Selling in lots can be helpful, for example, when your goods more likely will be sold in bulk than individually or when you need to quickly move your stock. Besides, customers interested in buying in lots may refine eBay search results to review only such kind of offers. This allows increasing your listing exposure on eBay.

To enable the lot format to your eBay listing via M2E Pro, navigate to eBay > Configuration > Policies > Selling Policy > Quantity and Duration. Under the Specify Lot Size option, switch to Custom Value to enter the number of Items in Lot or select an appropriate Magento Attribute.