Costco Account Integration

Overview

Costco is a membership warehouse club offering brand-name merchandise at low prices across categories like groceries, appliances, electronics, and furniture. Bulk sales enable them to provide competitive pricing for members.

Integrating Costco into your Sellercloud account allows you to seamlessly import orders, upload tracking information, and ensure your Costco store is always up-to-date with the latest inventory data. The integration works through EDI documents, transmitting information between the two services via plugins and Scheduled Tasks. The document exchange goes through Rithum, previously known as CommerceHub.

If necessary, you can open a ticket with Sellercloud Support to request additional customizations or other plugins for this integration. Any such modifications will be billable.

Prerequisites

Before you can integrate Costco into Sellercloud, complete the following requirements.

Rhythm Support

Before going live, you must follow a testing plan provided by Rithum, which involves sending a test transaction for each test order in the plan. Rithum provides two main documents – a Supplier Test Plan and a Supplier Guide. You must complete the entire test plan by following the outlined procedures.

Rithum will supply you with both the test and production credentials. Once you complete all test cases outlined in the test plan document, the platform will provide you with the production credentials and SFTP details. You must enter them into Sellercloud to set up the integration.

Sellercloud Support

Open a ticket with Sellercloud Support and request that the following plugins be installed on your server:

• Costco Order Import 850 with 997 – Imports orders from Costco to Sellercloud in EDI 850 format and sends an acknowledgment back in EDI 997 format.
• Costco Tracking Export EDI 856 – Exports tracking information from Sellercloud to Costco in EDI 856 format.
• Costco Product Export 846 EDI – Exports inventory from Sellercloud to Costco in EDI 846 format.
• Costco Packing slip PDF – Generates a printable PDF packing slip in a format that complies with Costco’s requirements.

Custom Company Settings

Create the following Custom Company Settings.

On your default company:

• STControlNumber
• GSControlNumber
• ISAControlNumber
• (Optional) Costco_ShippingRequiresThirdPartyBilling – Set to True or False. When True, orders will be imported with Third-Party Shipping required.

On the company created for the integration:

• CostcoUS_CustomerISAID – Enter a unique phone number you don’t currently use for another integration here.
• CostcoUS_ISAID – Costco’s unique identifier for EDI document transmission. Contact them for the value of this setting.
• CostcoUS_CustomerQualifier – Set to ZZ.
• CostcoUS_Qualifier – Set to 12.
• Costco_WarehouseMapping – Format: “WarehouseID in SellerCloud-WarehouseCode in Costco.” When adding more than one mapping, separate them with a semicolon. For example: “123-WHNY;456-WH2”
• (Optional) Costco_IsProduction – Used for test or production mode. Defaults to True.
• (Optional) CostcoShouldUseImportMapping – If set to True, the Order Import plugin will check for an import mapping profile where you can configure shipping method mapping for CA orders. The profile should be named Costco CA carriers.

Custom Product Columns

• COSTCO_MERCHANTSKU – The product’s SKU at Costco. If populated, it will be sent as the identifier for the product.
• (Optional) CostcoUS_Enabled – Enable only specific products for Costco US. Set to True for any products you want to send with the Inventory Export plugin.
• (Optional) CostcoCA_Enabled – Enable only specific products for Costco CA. Set to True for any products you want to send with the Inventory Export plugin.
• (Optional) COSTCO_SAFETYQTY – A Safety Quantity for products on Costco. Defaults to 0.

Custom Order Columns

• CostcoOrderFlag – This column is used by the Tracking Export and PDF Invoice plugins to categorize the orders as Costco US or Costco CA.
• Costco_PrintFrenchFirst – If set to True, the packing slip begins by printing French first.

Order Import

This plugin imports order data from Costco to Sellercloud in EDI 850 format and sends an acknowledgment back in EDI 997 format.

Upon import, the plugin matches the orders to the Customer ISA ID (CostcoUS_CustomerISAID or CostcoCA_CustomerISAID) and updates the CostcoOrderFlag custom column based on the country they originated from.

It also checks the scheduled task for a “US” or “CA” note and updates the orders’ currency based on the provided value.

• • • If there’s no note, both US and CA orders will be created in the company specified on the task. It is strongly recommended to have separate companies for each region.
    • If there is a note, the plugin only creates the respective US or CA orders in the task’s company.

Automate Order Import

To create a Scheduled Task that regularly imports orders:

• • 1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduled Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks.
    2. Click the green + icon: Create New Scheduled Task.
    3. Complete as follows:
       1. Click Task Type and select Import Orders.
       2. Set the Task Name.
       3. Select the Company.
       4. Select the Start Time.
       5. Click CREATE.
    4. On the Scheduled Task page, click the Edit button at the top right corner.
    5. In the Details panel:
       1. Click the Create Orders For Company menu and select your designated company for this integration.
       2. Click the Plugin menu and select Costco Order Import 850 with 997.
    6. In the Import Options panel, set Import From to FTP and fill out the FTP fields. Make sure to check Use Passive and Use Secure FTP.
    7. In the Frequency panel, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
    8. In the General panel:
       1. (Optional) Enter “US” or “CA” in the Note field.
       2. Click the Enable toggle button.
    9. Click Save.

Tracking Export

This plugin exports tracking from Sellercloud to Costco following the 856 EDI format.

Before you move on, create a Saved Search for orders filtered by:

• • • Company – The company you created for the integration
    • Order Status – InProcess Or Completed
    • Shipping Status – FullyShipped
    • Payment Status – Charged
    • Tracking Uploaded – No

Automate Tracking Export

To create a Scheduled Task that regularly exports order tracking:

• • 1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduled Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks.
    2. Click the green + icon: Create New Scheduled Task.
    3. Complete as follows:
       1. Click Task Type and select Export Orders.
       2. Set the Task Name.
       3. Select the Company.
       4. Select the Start Time.
       5. Click CREATE.
    4. On the Scheduled Task page, click the Edit button at the top right corner.
    5. In the Details panel:
       1. Click the User ID menu and select your ID.
       2. Click the Saved Search menu and select the saved search you created earlier.
       3. Click the Export Via menu and select Costco Tracking Export EDI 856.
       4. Check This Is Tracking Export.
    6. In the Export Options panel, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP fields. Make sure to check Use Passive and Use Secure FTP.
    7. In the Frequency panel, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
    8. In the General panel, click the Enable toggle button.
    9. Click Save.

Inventory Export

This plugin exports inventory by warehouse from Sellercloud to Costco in EDI 846 format.

Optionally, you can enable only specific products for Costco by setting their CostcoUS_Enabled or CostcoCA_Enabled Custom Column for Products to True:

• • • For one product at a time: go to the Product Details Page > click Toolbox and select Custom Columns > click Edit, update the column, and Save.
    • For multiple products in bulk: follow the steps to Bulk Update Products and add the column – set it to True for all products you want to enable.

Unlike core integrations, plugin integrations don’t require products to be in the company with the scheduled tasks. The export will include the products you select with your Saved Search.

Next, create a Saved Search for products filtered by CostcoUS_Enabled or CostcoCA_Enabled set to True. Optionally, you can add more filters to the search to narrow down the export further.

Automate Inventory Export

To create a Scheduled Task that regularly exports inventory:

• • 1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduled Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks.
    2. Click the green + icon: Create New Scheduled Task.
    3. Complete as follows:
       1. Click Task Type and select Export Products.
       2. Set the Task Name.
       3. Select the Company.
       4. Select the Start Time.
       5. Click CREATE.
    4. On the Scheduled Task page, click the Edit button at the top right corner.
    5. In the Details panel:
       1. Click the User ID menu and select your ID.
       2. Click the Saved Search menu and select the saved search you created earlier.
       3. Click the Export Via menu and select Costco EDI846 Product Export.
    6. In the Export Options panel, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP fields. Make sure to check Use Passive and Use Secure FTP.
    7. In the Frequency panel, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
    8. In the General panel, click the Enable toggle button.
    9. Click Save.

Configure PDF Invoices

With the Costco Packing Slip PDF set up under your designated company, you can print PDF invoices with information about your Costco orders and the products they include through Sellercloud or Shipbridge.

To set up the invoice plugin:

• • 1. Go to the Company Settings of the company you created for the integration
    2. Click Toolbox and select Invoice Settings.
    3. Click Per Channel Preferences.
    4. For Website, select Plugin > Costco Packing Slip PDF.
    5. Click Save.