How to Prepare a Range for Next, Shopify and B&Q From One Catalog

Every channel wants its own version of your range. Next wants its template filled against its requirements. Shopify wants products with ordered images and alt text. B&Q wants listing copy that follows its content rules and images at its sizes. The point of one catalog is that all three come from the same approved record. What follows is what Furniture Connect does for each today, and, just as important, where it stops.

The rule underneath all three

Supported channel fields can have their own titles, descriptions and languages without overwriting the base catalog [1]. The Open-Back Dining Chair has one record, with separate copy where a destination needs it. Correct a shared dimension at its source and use that value in the next relevant output or supported sync. A title stored in a separate custom field or supported channel field can be edited without changing the base title.

A configured channel is not an integration. Setting up a supported channel gives you a place for channel-specific copy and a completeness check against its configured requirements. A completeness score is not a guarantee of acceptance or a check of every marketplace policy. Whether anything moves to the channel automatically depends on the channel, and the sections below say which.

Next

Turn Next on under Sales channels and it appears under Channels with a readiness score for each product. The catalog checks products against the configured Next requirements and supports export into Next's template [1][2]. Review the output against the current template and merchant guidance before submission.

Retailer templates can require logistics data that a supplier price list omits. Check the current Next template and the configured completeness requirements, including any packaging fields, and ask the supplier for verified values where needed.

For Next, the workflow is readiness checking and template export, not direct submission or ongoing listing sync. You review and export the completed template, then use your Next submission process.

For a broader online-launch example, Barker and Stonehouse's Daniel Williams told Furniture News: "In a single week we can now bring over 100 products online, with thousands of images showing every colour and angle, where that process previously took months" [3].

Shopify

Shopify is a two-way content sync. Titles, descriptions, SEO titles and descriptions, tags, vendor and product type stay in sync. Images sync in order with their alt text. Variants sync along with furniture details such as material and dimensions. An edit made in Shopify reaches the catalog within moments, and you can send changes straight back [4].

New products are a deliberate action. You select products in the catalog and choose Create Shopify drafts. They arrive in Shopify as drafts, so nothing appears on your storefront until you click Publish in Shopify [4].

If the same detail changes in both places, you choose which version to keep; nothing is overwritten automatically [4]. Prices, stock, orders and checkout stay managed in Shopify [4].

For a retailer whose own site runs on Shopify, this is the channel where the catalog's work shows up without an export step.

B&Q

The B&Q integration is listed as coming soon [1]. You can prepare B&Q-specific copy in clearly labeled custom attributes or a separate export; the catalog supports custom attributes [5]. You can also resize, pad or crop and rename images to the current specification you supply [6]. The listing itself goes through B&Q's own merchant process.

Keep marketplace copy separate where it needs different wording, but do not assume the catalog knows the destination's current content rules. Review B&Q's current merchant guidance before submission.

Images for any channel

The image export works for every destination. Set a width and height in pixels, choose pad to fit or crop to fill, keep the original format or convert to JPG, PNG or WebP, name cut-outs, lifestyle shots and close-ups differently by type, and save the settings as a preset per retailer. The export covers each product's image slots and each variant's images and arrives as a ZIP. CSV and Excel exports include image links [6].

The channel's spec is yours to supply. You enter the sizes and naming a destination wants; the catalog doesn't detect each marketplace's image rules on its own.

Where your process takes over

The handoff differs by destination: use the Shopify content sync where connected, and export files or assets for destinations that require a separate submission. Retailer approval and publication rules still apply [7]. Next gets a filled template. Shopify gets drafts you created and content you synced. For B&Q, you can prepare copy and images to the requirements you supply, then use its merchant process. What each channel does with them, and how long it takes to approve, is still theirs.

That is a narrower promise than "publish everywhere", and it is the honest one. The catalog can reduce the repeated preparation between channels; retailer submission and approval still sit outside it.

A sequence that works

1. Import the supplier file; answer the assistant's grouping questions so the range arrives as products and variants.
2. Run Autofill on each channel's copy fields, sample first.
3. Open the Next readiness score and clear what's missing, including any required packaging data from the supplier.
4. Export Next's template; create Shopify drafts and publish them in Shopify when you're ready; export B&Q's copy and images at B&Q's sizes.
5. Hand each to the channel's own process.

The two articles before this one cover steps one and two: how one supplier file becomes products and variants and how Autofill fills the gaps. The channel step is the last of the stages covered in getting a new furniture range online.

Sources

1. Furniture Connect Help Center: Connecting the Agentic Catalog to sales channels and ERPs
2. Furniture Connect Help Center: How to export product images at any size (retailer templates)
3. Furniture News: Ecommerce AI platform accelerates furniture product launches
4. Furniture Connect Help Center: How to connect your Shopify store
5. Furniture Connect Help Center: How to add attributes and families in the Agentic Catalog
6. Furniture Connect Help Center: How to export product images at any size
7. Furniture Connect: how product content reaches retailers and marketplaces