Within the Gateway, Brands and Suppliers can connect with each other, to give Brands access to detailed performance data of their Suppliers. This guide will show you how to request a connection for your supplier or customer, review a connection invitation, and accept a connection.

Note that only account admins have the ability to request, accept and publish connections.

Let’s get started!

01/ Sending connection requests in bulk

This function allows Brands to connect with a large number of Suppliers at once. Brands can send connection requests to up to 500 Suppliers simultaneously.

Follow the steps below to send bulk connection requests:

1. Click CONNECTIONS on the left navigation bar and select the CONNECTION REQUESTS tab. Click the Bulk Connection button.
2. If you are a first-time user, click DOWNLOAD to save the bulk connection request template. If you already have the template, click SKIP HERE to continue using an existing file.
3. Fill out the template (find instructions for each column by hovering over every column title in the file). Then click UPLOAD, choose file and UPLOAD again.
4. After the data upload, a new window will pop up showing if any of the template fields were filled out incorrectly. The preview shows some of the Supplier data with errors listed under MESSAGE. To see the full list of Suppliers’ data with errors, click SEE FULL LIST OF MESSAGE PER ORGANISATION. Click OK to proceed.
5. In this step, you can review an uploaded list of Suppliers to take actions on. Under FINDINGS, there are 4 options that influence your next steps:

   - For Connection - The exact Supplier match was found on the Gateway. Click to CONNECT NOW or later in bulk.

   - For Validation - Similar matches were found, validate which Supplier is the correct one by clicking and selecting them from the list. Click CONNECT NOW or later in bulk.

   - For Invitation - No match was found, click and TAG AS INVITE to include the Supplier in bulk invite later.

   - Missing Email - No match was found, click to add the Supplier’s email and TAG AS INVITE to include them in bulk invite later.

   While reviewing the matching results, there is also an option to remove a Supplier from the list by clicking .

   
6. After reviewing the list, click the CONNECT button and select either to send connection requests to matched organisations shown on the currently open page only, or to all matched organisations on your list. Click PROCEED to send the connection requests.
7. All unmatched Suppliers are now listed under the INVITE step. By clicking the INVITE button, choose to either send the invites without an attachment right away or download an Excel file prepared for the bulk invite function (found under INVITES on the left navigation bar) to send later with an attachment. After making your choice, click PROCEED. Alternatively, click CLEAR to erase the list of unmatched Suppliers.

02/ Issuing a single connection request

1. Click SEARCH on the left navigation.

   Find the organisation you would like to connect with. You may want to use BROWSE BY ORGANIZATION TYPE:

   or use the search bar  to narrow your search.
2. In the overview, check the symbols next to the Brand name to understand your connection status concerning them. A black chain means that you are not connected, a yellow chain means that the connection request still has to be accepted by the other party (Brand) and a green chain means that your organisation is already connected to the Brand. To make a new connection request simply click on the chain  symbol. Note: The bookmark symbol is black when you have not bookmarked a Brand and blue if you have bookmarked them already.
3. Click YES.
   

03/ Checking connection status

1. Click CONNECTIONS on the left vertical tab.
2. Click My Connections.
3. You will find the status of the connection under STATUS.
4. Under Action column, there are two options:

    -  Resending a connection request

    -  Removing the connection

04/ Reviewing and accepting/declining a connection request

1. Click CONNECTIONS on the left navigation.
2. Click the Connection Requests tab on the top where you can find all connection requests send from Suppliers.
3. Hover to ACTION.

   Click ACCEPT or DECLINE to accept or decline a connection invitation.

   

05/ Removing a connection

1. Click CONNECTIONS on the left navigation.
2. Click on My Connections to find an overview of all your connections and pending connection requests
3. Hover to ACTION.
4. Click  to remove a connection.
5. Click YES.
   

06/ Publishing a connection as a brand

Brands need to publish a connection with the supplier to show their relationship on Detox.live.
Follow the steps below. 

1. Click CONNECTIONS on the left navigation.
2. Click Connection Requests tab on the top.
3. Hover to the PUBLISH.
4. Turn ON the toggle switch button.
   

Note this function is only available for brands.

07/ Using the Data HUB to access

The Data HUB on the ZDHC Gateway, allows Brands to view the available data of all Suppliers they are connected within a central place. Please read this article to check how to use the Data HUB.