Point of sale integration has a lot of value. If you are using a POS that we already integrate with, these steps are what you can expect integrating. If you have a POS that we do not already integrate with, there's a bit more to on boarding, please reach out to your account representative or email support@thinkpsacehq.com.
This article refers specifically to The EDGE (TPW or EDT), steps for other POSs vary in the setup on their side and the field names used on Thinkspace's side.
Eventually you will need to login to your site's Admin.
Want to learn about point of sale integration? Watch our short overview video.
Link to Mapping video, written tutorial, and frequently asked questions: Point of Sale integration mapping and FAQs
This solutions article is a full technical walkthrough of what needs to be completed in order for a store to integrate their point of sale system with their Thinkspace website. Many of the steps are ones that Thinkspace will need to complete, while others will need to be completed by the retailer. This document is to help guide both teams and provide transparency on where in the process the integration is.
Before proceeding with point of sale integration make sure to contact Thinkspace to see if an integration is possible with your inventory system. While Thinkspace already connects with over a dozen inventory systems, it is important that you check with our support team to make sure that the system you use is supported and what the cost will be. Please email your account representative or support@thinkspacehq.com.
If your system is supported then there will typically be a cost involved on our end for the integration work, as well as a cost that you may need to pay to your inventory company for any add-on web modules or software updates.
Step one (Thinkspace task): create FTP.
- When a customer signs up for EDGE POS integration, we need to create an FTP login for them. Click "Create FTP User" on the Retailer / Site record in the portal.
- Select the appropriate EDGE integration (EDT or TPW) on their site preference and fill in their FTP username. Accessible through the point of sale integration settings in the admin. /admin/preferences/tsj_5Fpointofsale/#id_ftp_username
- Send the client the FTP information, use the copy link.
Step two (retailer task): run full export of your inventory system to FTP. This is specific to The EDGE.
- Ask your inventory company how to send a full export of your data with ALL fields included. They will need the FTP information above.
- If you are using The Edge, when you run TPW.exe with the interactive switch, the TPW interface will open with the General tab open.
- Click on the Extra Columns tab. Check off ALL of the columns (scroll down). Should be ~132 of them. Then click Save And Stay. Then check off Upload Everything This One Time box, and “Upload Now and Close”.
- Retailer must now notify us that a full export has been sent. We can confirm something has come in on their FTP link in the portal. Only useful for confirming we received files. Can tell if it is FULL because one of the file names should end in "-INVENTORY-FULL.CSV" (TPW) or ItemList Full and .json (EDT).
Step three (Thinkspace task): Set up input fields.
- Once we have confirmed a FULL export is on the client's ftp, one of our developers will need to run a command line which creates the input fields. No output field or field manager are selected yet.
- At that point, our team needs to put in the default output fields and field managers (8 of them). Accessible through the point of sale integration settings page.
The below mapping is specific to The EDGE TPW, EDT has slightly different field names.
Input Field -> Output Field
itKey stock_number
itVendStyleCode style_number
itRetailPrice price.retail_price
itCurrentPrice price.price
imTitle name
itDesc description
Input Field -> Field Manager
itStatus “Edge Item Custom Availability from itStatus(IS A or I) (SVUXMDL are NOT OK) and Preferences partial import setting(checked)”
catId “Featured from true or false”
Save all of those.
Step four (Thinkspace task): Take the FULL export file and clean it up/upload it for client.
- Thinkspace team needs to take the file and clean it up a bit and prep the mapping file. We then upload it into Settings > Point of sale integrations > Upload Mapping File.
Step five (retailer task): Client completes the data mapping work.
- Client should download the mapping file from “Settings > Point of sale integrations". For each item type, brand, etc the retailer needs to map it to a website option. Once that is done the retailer should upload it back to Settings, POS. We recommend watching this video and reading these mapping notes.
Notify Thinkspace that you have uploaded the mapping file.
Note for client: Don’t worry about doing it wrong, we can cancel/start over and delete stuff that doesn’t look good.
Step six (Thinkspace task): Import the data.
- Someone with command line access should now run the import and notify the client.
- Point of sale products are now on the website!
Step seven (retailer task): Check data
- Take a look at the catalog of the website- are your products there? How does it look? Is it organized how you want it? If not, you should change the mapping and look at your inventory system to see what needs to be adjusted.
Step eight (retailer and Thinkspace task): automate.
After editing the mapping and making changes, if the data looks good then it is time to set up automation.
- Retailer should ask their inventory company at this point to have the data sent as a partial update once per day, typically late at night. Once you have requested that and your inventory company has confirmed it is set up, let us know
- Thinkspace should now set up our automation to run once per day (typically 1 hour after the data file is sent over, so it has sufficient time to transmit)
That's it! See our FAQs to follow, and a mapping tutorial video as well.