01First steps
Your first day
The welcome screen: choose the currency, connect your first channel, bring in the catalog and add the next one.
A channel is each place where you sell and that you connect to Koalab: your WooCommerce, Shopify or Tiendanube store, or your Mercado Libre account. A new account has nothing to show until Koalab sees your catalog, so it starts on the welcome screen, “Let's start with your channel.”. There are four steps: the first two ask you for something, the third runs on its own and the fourth is for whenever you like.
When it shows up
When you create the account, with your email or with Google, you land right here, and your organization is created: your business inside Koalab, with you as “Owner”. The account starts with a 7-day trial of the Professional plan and then moves to the Free plan without deleting anything: only the caps go down and price rules switch off. While your organization has no channel, almost any screen sends you back here; you can only leave for Channels, Organization and your profile.
The four steps
“Choose your catalog's currency”, “Connect your first channel”, “Bringing in your catalog” and “Add where else you sell”. The current step has the blue border, a finished one a check mark, and the one not yet due looks dimmed.
Mock-up: the welcome screen with the currency chosen, the first channel connected and the catalog coming in Choose the currency
Choose the currency you charge in: all your channels work in it and Koalab doesn't convert prices. Koalab suggests the one for the country it detects from your browser (if it can't, the Colombian peso, COP): check it. Until you click “Confirm currency”, “Connect my first channel” stays off. While you haven't connected any channel you can change it with “Change”. Only the owner or an admin chooses it.
Connect your first channel
“Connect my first channel” opens the “Where do you sell?” picker. With Mercado Libre, Shopify or Tiendanube you authorize on their page and come back here. Before bringing anything in, Koalab asks “What role does this channel play?”: “Receives from Koalab”, “This channel leads” or “Independent”. If you choose “Not now”, the channel shows “Role not chosen” and in the meantime receives from Koalab.
If it's WooCommerce
WooCommerce connects in Channels: choosing it takes you there, where you click “Connect a channel” again (see “Connect WooCommerce”). When you finish you stay in Channels and the import doesn't start on its own: go to Products and click “Import”.
The catalog comes in on its own
Once the role is decided, Koalab copies your products from the channel, with their prices and stock, without you clicking anything. The bar shows which of its four stages it's in. You can close the tab: the bell lets you know when it's done. If it fails, the reason appears next to “Try again”. “View the catalog it's bringing in” opens Products with what has come in so far.
Add where else you sell
When the import finishes —or if it fails—, “Add another channel” turns on and opens the same picker. When you come back, the step asks you to “Choose its role” and then “Import its catalog”, and it's marked done when both are; if you don't import it, Koalab brings it in on its automatic read, every 6 hours. Koalab matches the products you already have by SKU (the code of each product, or of each size and color), and a different price or stock waits in “Pending approval”. See “Bring in your catalog for the first time” and “Each channel's role: who leads”.
Details worth knowing
- During the import Koalab only reads your channel: it doesn't change prices, stock or products.
- A channel that works in another currency can't join your shared catalog, because Koalab doesn't convert prices: it connects as an independent catalog, with its own products, prices and stock. Once channels are connected, the currency can only be changed in Organization → “Market”, and only if no channel in the shared catalog works in another.
- Once the first channel is connected, the app stops sending you back here: you can carry on from any screen.