Alibaba.com Store Management
The ECOSIRE Alibaba.com Store Management module connects an authorised Alibaba.com seller account to Odoo through Alibaba Group's official TOP gateway. It imports the products owned by that seller account as native Odoo products (kept unpublished until you publish them) and the orders visible to it as native Odoo contacts and quotations -- every import logged, every run failure-contained.
Compatibility: Odoo 17 / 18 / 19 (Community or Enterprise)
Current shipped version: 17.0 → 17.0.4.2.2, 18.0 → 18.0.4.2.2, 19.0 → 19.0.4.2.2
Price: $499 USD (one-time, per Odoo version)
Licence: OPL-1 -- no activation key, nothing to activate after installing
The detailed installation and configuration guide lives at Alibaba.com Store Management.
Key Features
- Official Alibaba Group TOP gateway integration (
https://eco.taobao.com/router/rest) with HMAC-MD5 signed calls - Seller product import into native Odoo product records, unpublished by default
- Explicit, auditable Publish to Website action for imported products
- Seller order import as native contacts and quotations (draft sale orders), with per-order mapping records carrying financial and fulfilment status
- Buyer address enrichment: street, city, ZIP, country and state/province resolved onto the Odoo partner
- Manual operations wizard, dashboard Sync Now, and opt-in scheduled imports
- Queue jobs and sanitized sync logs; a failed record never aborts the batch
- OWL dashboard with 6 KPI cards, charts, top products and an activity feed
- Multi-company record rules; every instance, import and dashboard is scoped to its owning company
- Connector access groups: User / Manager / Administrator
Prerequisites
- Odoo 17, 18, or 19 (Community or Enterprise) -- self-hosted or Odoo.sh
- An Alibaba.com seller account
- An app on the Alibaba.com Open Platform (open.alibaba.com) with:
- App Key and App Secret
- an authorised Seller Session Token provisioned for that app
- The Python
requestspackage in Odoo's interpreter
Installation
- Download the module ZIP for your Odoo version from your ECOSIRE Dashboard
- Extract to your Odoo addons directory:
unzip alibaba_store_management_v19_*.zip -d /opt/odoo/addons/
- Restart the Odoo service:
sudo systemctl restart odoo
- Navigate to Apps, click Update Apps List
- Search for "Alibaba.com Store Management" and click Install
There is no licence key step -- the module installs and runs standalone.
Configuration
Step 1: Create the seller account record
- Navigate to Alibaba → Configuration → Instances (Alibaba Seller Accounts)
- Create a record and fill in:
- Instance Name and Seller Account Label (the label is unique per company)
- Company and, optionally, the default Warehouse
- App Key, App Secret, and the Seller Session Token provisioned for your app
- Leave the API Gateway on its default (
https://eco.taobao.com/router/rest) unless Alibaba documents a different regional endpoint for you
The credentials fields and the connection button are visible to Odoo administrators with the Settings/technical access right; the App Secret never leaves your server except as a signature.
Step 2: Test the connection
Click Test Seller Connection on the record. The test makes one real signed API call, so a pass proves both the credentials and the app's API permissions. The status bar moves to Connected only on success -- run imports only after that.
Step 3: Import
- On demand: Alibaba → Operations → Run Operations (choose Import Authorised Seller Products or Import Authorised Seller Orders), or the Sync Now button on the dashboard
- On a schedule: the import scheduled actions are opt-in -- enable Import Seller Products, Import Seller Orders and Process Queue Jobs under Alibaba → Configuration → Scheduled Actions
Re-running an import updates existing records instead of duplicating them.
API Details
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Auth method | App Key + App Secret (HMAC-MD5 signing) + pasted Seller Session Token |
| Gateway | https://eco.taobao.com/router/rest (official TOP gateway, editable per instance) |
| Product API | alibaba.icbu.product.list / alibaba.icbu.product.get |
| Order API | alibaba.seller.order.list / alibaba.seller.order.get |
| Key config fields | app_key, app_secret, seller_session_token |
The module serves no public HTTP endpoints -- no OAuth redirect to register, no webhook URL to configure.
Dashboard
The built-in OWL dashboard (Alibaba → Dashboard) provides:
- 6 KPI cards -- Total Revenue, Orders, Customers, Products, Avg. Order Value, and Sync Health -- with period-over-period deltas and an out-of-stock flag on Products
- Period filters -- Today, 7D, 30D, 90D, Year, or custom date range
- Sales Trend chart and Order Status breakdown (completed / pending / failed / cancelled)
- Top Products by revenue and a recent activity feed from the sync log
- Quick actions for Products, Orders, Queue Jobs, Logs, and Settings
- Status footer with Queue Jobs, Errors, Out of Stock, and Sync Rate
- Sync Now button, 60-second auto-refresh, and an empty state that links to creating your first instance
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Connection test fails | Fill App Key, App Secret and Seller Session Token first; then check the app's API permissions and that the token belongs to the same app |
| Nothing imports automatically | The import schedules are opt-in -- enable them under Alibaba → Configuration → Scheduled Actions, and confirm Odoo's cron worker is running |
| Products not on the website | Deliberate: imported products stay unpublished. Select them in Alibaba → Products and use Publish to Website (requires Odoo Website/eCommerce) |
| "Only Alibaba.com managers can run this operational action" | Add the user to the Alibaba.com Manager group |
| Signature error | The App Secret must match the Open Platform app exactly -- every request is HMAC-MD5 signed with it |
| Session stopped working | Provision a fresh Seller Session Token in the Open Platform console and paste it on the seller-account record |
| Some records fail to import | Contained by design: check Alibaba → Operations → Logs for the platform's rejection text; the rest of the run completes |