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Understanding Amazon Vendor Central and the Benefits of EDI Integration

Intro: Amazon Data Exchange

Amazon Vendor Central supports several ways for vendors to exchange documents including EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), Vendor Central portal, or Vendor Central API (Application Programming Interface).

Since EDI is the preferred mode of document exchange with Amazon Vendor Central, this blog post aims to delve into all the essential aspects of EDI integration for Amazon Vendors.

What is Vendor Central Amazon?

Vendor Central is a program offered by Amazon that enables manufacturers and distributors to sell their products directly to Amazon as a wholesale supplier. In this program, Amazon acts as a retailer and purchases products directly from the vendor at wholesale prices and then resells them to Amazon customers.

Vendor Central provides vendors with several benefits, including access to Amazon’s massive customer base, increased sales volume, and the ability to use Amazon’s fulfillment network to ship products to customers.

To become a vendor in the Vendor Central program, vendors must apply and be invited by Amazon. Once accepted, vendors can manage their business with Amazon through the Vendor Central portal.

EDI for Amazon Vendor Central

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the exchange of business documents between trading partners in a standardized electronic format. EDI is used by Amazon to exchange business documents, such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, etc. with vendors.

For Amazon Vendors, EDI integration can provide a significant competitive advantage by streamlining business operations, reducing manual data entry errors, and improving communication with Amazon.

EDI consultation

What are Amazon EDI Requirements?

Amazon has specific EDI requirements for EDI integration that vendors must comply with, in order to conduct business on their platform. These requirements are designed to ensure that all business documents exchanged between vendors and Amazon are in a standardized electronic format and can be processed efficiently. Here are some of Amazon’s EDI requirements:

1. EDI version: Amazon Vendor Central requires that vendors use EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) version 4010 or higher for their transactions in order to ensure compatibility and compliance with Amazon’s systems.

2. Transaction sets: Amazon requires vendors to use specific transaction sets for different business documents, such as purchase orders, invoices, and advance ship notices.

3. Data elements: Amazon specifies the data elements that must be included in each EDI transaction set, including product information, quantities, pricing, and shipping information.

4. Labeling and packaging: Amazon has specific requirements for labeling and packaging of products, including barcode formats and label placement.

5. Timeliness: Amazon requires that vendors transmit EDI documents in a timely manner, according to their specified timelines. Specifically, vendors are expected to:

  • Transmit Purchase Orders (850) by Amazon within 8 hours of receipt.
  • Transmit Advance Shipment Notices (856) to Amazon at least 4 hours prior to the shipment arriving at the Amazon fulfillment center.
  • Transmit Invoices (810) to Amazon within 24 hours of shipment confirmation.

It’s important for vendors to review Amazon’s specific EDI requirements for their business and product category to ensure that their EDI system is set up correctly and can effectively communicate with Amazon’s platform. Failure to comply with Amazon’s EDI requirements can result in delayed shipments, order cancellations, or even the suspension of the vendor’s account on Amazon’s platform.

Key EDI Documents for Amazon

The following are some of the major EDI documents in X12 and EDIFACT standards that Amazon works with:

Inventory Inquiry/Advice EDI 846 (X12) / INVRPT (EDIFACT)

The EDI 846 transaction set is used by vendors to provide Amazon with information about their inventory levels, which helps to ensure that Amazon has accurate information about the availability of products for sale on its platform.

Purchase Order EDI 850 (X12) / ORDERS (EDIFACT)

Amazon sends a purchase order to the vendor in an EDI format. The purchase order includes information about the products being ordered, the quantity, pricing, and shipping information.

Purchase Order Acknowledgment EDI 855 (X12)/ ORDRSP

The vendor sends an order acknowledgment in EDI format to confirm the details of the purchase order and that they can fulfill the order. The Purchase Order Acknowledgment is a critical step in the order fulfillment process, as it helps to ensure that both Amazon and the vendor are in agreement on the details of the purchase order.

Advanced Shipping Notice EDI856 (X12) / DESADV (EDIFACT)

Before shipping the products, the vendor sends an Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) in EDI format to provide Amazon with information about the shipment, including the contents of the shipment, the quantity, and the carrier information.

Invoice EDI 810 (X12) / INVOICE (EDIFACT)

Once the products are shipped, the vendor sends an invoice in EDI format to request payment for the products. The invoice includes information such as the invoice number, the purchase order number, the quantity shipped, the price, and any applicable discounts or charges.

Payment Order/Remittance Advice EDI 820 (X12) / REMADV (EDIFACT)

In Amazon Vendor Central, the Remittance Advice is used to transmit information related to payments made between trading partners. The Remittance Advice provides information about a payment that has been made, including the amount paid, the date of payment, the invoice number, and any deductions or adjustments made to the payment.

Vendors can use the EDI 820 or REMADV to reconcile their accounts and ensure that they have received payment for all invoices submitted to Amazon. By using EDI to exchange payment information, vendors can improve their cash flow management and reduce errors associated with the manual processing of payments.

Amazon-Integration

Amazon Vendors must ensure that their EDI documents with Amazon are functioning properly and without any issues. Therefore, it is highly recommended to enlist the services of a reliable and experienced EDI provider, such as EDI2XML.

If you want to learn more about EDI, check out our latest guide to EDI

EDI Integration for Amazon Vendor allows for seamless communication between your company’s backend systems and Amazon’s Vendor Central platform. This can help you automate processes, reduce manual data entry, and increase efficiency.

EDI Integration Benefits for Amazon Vendors

Amazon Vendors who implement EDI can enjoy a host of benefits that help streamline their operations, reduce errors, and improve communication with Amazon. Here are a few reasons why Amazon Vendors should consider implementing EDI:

Streamlined Order Management: With EDI integration, orders from Amazon can be automatically received and processed directly into the vendor’s order management system. This can help reduce manual data entry errors, minimize order processing time, and improve order accuracy.

Reduced Costs: EDI integration can help reduce costs associated with manual data entry, paper-based processes, and manual order fulfillment. This can help vendors save time and money and increase profitability.

Improved Communication: EDI integration provides a more reliable and efficient way to communicate with Amazon, ensuring that orders and other business documents are exchanged accurately and in a timely manner.

Increased Visibility: With EDI integration, vendors can gain real-time visibility into their order and inventory data, enabling them to make more informed business decisions.

Is it Possible to Set up EDI Amazon Vendor Integration Yourself?

Yes, it is possible to set up Amazon Vendor integration on your own. Amazon provides technical documentation to help vendors integrate their systems with Amazon Vendor Central through EDI.

However, setting up integration can be a complex process, and vendors may need technical expertise to ensure that the integration is properly implemented and meets Amazon’s requirements.

Most often, vendors choose to work with a third-party EDI service provider or systems integrator to help set up and manage their integration with Amazon.

The EDI service providers like EDI2XML can offer expertise and support to help vendors optimize their integration and ensure that it is operating smoothly.

Ultimately, the decision to set up Amazon Vendor integration on your own or with the help of a service provider will depend on factors such as the vendor’s technical capabilities and resources, the complexity of the integration, and the vendor’s business needs.

Best Practices for Successful EDI Integration with Amazon Vendor Central

To ensure successful EDI integration for Amazon Vendors, here are a few best practices to follow:

1. Choose an EDI provider that has experience working with Amazon Vendors.

2. Work closely with your EDI provider to ensure that your system meets Amazon’s EDI requirements.

3. Integrate EDI with Your Order Management System (ERP/CRM) to ensure that orders are automatically received and processed.

4. Continuously evaluate and optimize your EDI integration to ensure that it meets your business needs and remains compliant with Amazon’s requirements.

Conclusion: Amazon Vendor Central and the Benefits of EDI Integration

Overall, integrating EDI with Amazon Vendor Central can help you streamline your operations, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. By working with a reliable EDI provider and following Amazon’s documentation and requirements, you can achieve successful integration and enjoy the benefits of automated processes and faster payments.

At our company, we have years of experience in EDI integration and are committed to helping businesses successfully integrate their systems with Amazon Vendor Central. We understand the challenges involved in EDI integration and provide the first free consultation to help businesses get started on the right foot. Contact us today to take advantage of our expertise and start reaping the benefits of EDI integration.

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Why Amazon is a Must for Your eCommerce Business

When Amazon opened its online bookstore in 1995, no one expected the website to become the largest retail e-commerce company in the world.

Today Amazon employs 1.46 million full and part-time workers and accounts for 41 % of the U.S. retail e-commerce market.

However, like all other retailers, Amazon is faced with many recent challenges such as the increase of freight and shipping costs, global supply chain disruption, labor shortage, rising payroll costs, and so on. Analysts predict that these along with many other challenges for retailers may increase in the coming holiday period.

Nevertheless, Amazon is committed to minimizing the impact of the above negative factors on its customers and selling partners. As Amazon noted in its latest earnings report, third-quarter order fulfillment expenses increased 25.8% compared to last year. However, by prioritizing its customers and partners, Amazon is even ready to incur short-term losses.

Why Do Companies Choose Amazon Marketplace?

Given Amazon’s excellent reputation among consumers and selling partners, as well as Amazon’s service and customer-centric approach, more and more companies are choosing to sell their products on Amazon.

Amazon is constantly improving its sales processes, for example, they recently launched the Local Seller program, to allow Amazon third-party sellers to offer BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup in Store) service and local delivery.

Online store sales continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace compared to 2020 when many physical stores were closed due to the pandemic.

Amazon’s Q3 Net Sales by Segment
Amazon sales by segment

Amazon vs Your Own E-commerce Store: Should You Make a Choice?

Experience over time has shown that to be competitive, businesses must offer their customers, the ability to shop online. Many entrepreneurs choose to start selling their goods on online marketplaces such as eBay, Walmart.com, Target.com, Wayfair, AliExpress, and so on, but the leading position, of course, belongs to Amazon.

You may ask: “Does a company need to create a store on Amazon if the company already has an active online store?” Our answer: without Undoubtably! Companies should expand their sales channels and an opportunity to sell on Amazon should not be missed. Amazon is one of the first places consumers go when searching and comparing products.

According to a Feedvisor survey, 89 % of users prefer to buy products from Amazon over other e-commerce sites.

Many business owners believe that having a presence on Amazon is critical to the growth of their business. However, this should not be the only marketplace or place of sale. In fact, over 80% of Amazon sellers use other marketplaces and e-commerce platforms for their own online stores.

Why Selling on Amazon Is Profitable

Amazon is one of the largest online platforms and the dominant one in North America. It opens up opportunities for sellers of almost any product.

Here is a quick overview of the main benefits of Amazon Marketplace:
  • Amazon is the first place where potential buyers come to search and compare products.
  • Amazon continues to grow steadily and gain an increasing share of the e-commerce market.
  • Amazon is gaining more and more popularity among end consumers due to its outstanding service.
  • Prime members are active shoppers with higher rate of purchase than the average online consumer.
  • Amazon is constantly developing new programs to offer sellers the opportunity to improve shipping.

Amazon Marketplace Integration

In recent years, especially under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many manufacturers, distributors, and retailers have become even more motivated in offering and selling their products on different marketplaces, mainly Amazon. Amazon is chosen by both large companies that have their own e-Commerce websites, and small companies just starting their own business.

As an e-Commerce integration service provider, we helped many large and growing businesses optimize their e-commerce management and centralize operations by integrating their Amazon Seller Central with CRM, ERP, inventory management, EDI, and other back-end systems.

Moreover, we integrate Amazon with various e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento, and others.

The most popular Amazon integration are:

– Amazon / Shopify integration

– Amazon / Magento integration

– Amazon / eBay integration

– Amazon / QuickBooks integration

– Amazon / EDI integration

We are aware that companies are actively working to optimize their e-commerce backend processes, automate their sales and fulfillment channels, in order to provide an efficient and streamlined business cycle withing their company.

Our e-commerce integration experts have extensive expertise in e-commerce integration projects for companies of all sizes and from different industries.

Amazon Data Automation

We help Amazon sellers integrate and automate data from their Amazon Seller Central stores into their own ERP / CRM systems.

We can automate and synchronize data such as Orders, Inventory, Product updates, Fulfillment from any ERP / CRM systems to Amazon in a bi-directional way.

Find out more about our integration services here: EDI2XML integration for Amazon Seller Partners

Choose a Reliable and Experienced Partner for Your Amazon Integration

Our company has been in the integration space for over 21 years now, with proven experience in e-commerce integration. We have successfully completed a large number of integration projects using proven methodologies and state-of-the-art technology coupled with our deep technical expertise, to exceed the expectations of our clients.

We automate e-commerce and carry out integration projects of any complexity for clients from all over the world.

Contact us for your first free consultation with our Amazon integration expert.
Get a free Amazon Integration Consultation

You may also be interested in reading about:

EDI2XML integration for Amazon Seller Partners

Amazon Business: How to increase B2B sales on Amazon?

What is Dropshipping on Amazon?

All you need to know about Amazon Seller Central Integration

When talking about online shopping, most consumers think right away “Amazon”. Polls have shown that most Americans, when they decide to buy a product, first they look for it on Amazon.

According to Business of Apps, in 2020, Amazon has become the most popular mobile shopping app in most countries, with 169 million downloads. Can you imagine, all these users are your potential buyers!

Therefore, many companies, from startups to big brands, strive to make sales of their products on Amazon.

Amazon Marketplace Integration

A well-organized sale on Amazon marketplace attracts new customers, increases revenue, grows awareness of your products and brands, and ensures customer loyalty. However, what does a well-organized sale mean?

Basically, it is to manage Amazon orders and automated inventory synchronization efficiently and quickly with Amazon marketplace.

Integration of your Amazon Seller Central account with your business system (ERP or CRM) allows you to automatically synchronize Amazon orders, as well as your  inventory in real time. The order management process becomes simple, does not require manual input, and eliminates the most common problem – costly mistakes and inaccuracies in orders due to manual input.

Amazon Seller Central integration – everything you need to know

To help you understand such a complex topic like an integration of Amazon Seller Central account, we have developed an Amazon integration whitepaper. It concisely and clearly presents very important information about data automation and integration of Amazon Seller account.

Our Amazon whitepaper covers a variety of topics, ranging from the most basic ones such as:
  • What is Amazon marketplace?
  • What is Amazon seller account?
  • What is Amazon vendor central?
  • Who needs amazon integration?

It also reveals important questions such as:
  • What is the most important amazon integration?
  • Amazon seller account inventory and fulfillment
  • Integration with amazon seller account: amazon options for data integration
  • MWS (marketplace web service) VS SP-API  (seller partner API)

We will analyze one of the most important questions that companies think about when deciding to integrate Amazon Seller Account: “Should we integrate to Amazon on our own or outsourcing the service?” Such a simple question has so many answers. In our white paper, we’ll tell you about this so that it’s clear and there is no doubt about what to choose. Moreover, you will find a lot of other useful information in this whitepaper.

Download your free Amazon Integration whitepaper

It doesn’t matter what industry you work in, whether you are already a registered seller on Amazon, or just planning to start selling on Amazon. The information in this document will be very helpful to you.

Download your free copy to learn how to make your Amazon sales as profitable as possible and easy to manage.

You may also be interested in reading about:

Amazon Seller Data Automation and Integration: Tips and Tricks

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

Today, I would like to address a few of the most important aspects of Amazon Seller integration and automation, and why companies selling on Amazon Marketplace have no choice other than adopting the path of “Automation and integration” to their internal software business systems (ERP / CRM), to stay competitive and profitable on Amazon.

Before I start addressing my points, let me start with some definitions for terms that are often used in this article, even though, I already detailed those definitions in previous articles.

What is Amazon Marketplace?

Amazon Marketplace is a Web-based platform owned by Amazon, where buyers and sellers can engage into commercial transactions.
Amazon Integration

Amazon offers access to Sellers and buyers globally, which is why there are different “Amazon Marketplaces”; Clients from different parts of the world can buy directly from that platform. Each marketplace refers to a region or country.

As an example, in North America, there are 3 Amazon Marketplaces:

1. Amazon.com: primarily to service the US market.

2. Amazon.ca: To service the Canadian market.

3. Amazon.mx: To service the Mexican market.

The same thing in Europe where you can find an Amazon Marketplace for the UK, another one for Germany, and so on…

Amazon Seller Account

Amazon allows any entity (being a person or an enterprise), to sell their products and services in Amazon one on multiple Amazon Marketplaces; in return for the service, Amazon bills a monthly subscription fee, in addition to some other fees paid per transaction, obviously depending on the subscription plan.

An entity or person who owns an Account on Amazon Marketplace to sell its products or services, is considered an “Amazon Seller”, or owns an “Amazon Seller Account”.

Amazon Vendor Central

In contrast to Amazon Seller Accounts, Amazon Vendor Central is the total opposite of the “Seller Account”. In this case, Amazon themselves buy from the Company, and they sell the products in Amazon Marketplaces.

Managing Amazon Seller Account

Managing a store for Amazon Seller Account – is the responsibility of the “Account owner” on Amazon (or the subscriber). It is the responsibility of the account owner, to feed the Amazon Store with the products catalog, pricing, specs, images… and all aspects of the store management.

Amazon Seller Account Inventory and Fulfillment

In terms of Inventory and fulfillment, there are few options offered by Amazon for shipping and fulfillment. I will expand on this topic in a separate article. But for now, let’s keep it simple; an Amazon Seller account owner has the option to manage the inventory and fulfillment of his Seller account, or pay amazon for such a service, under the FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) program.

Useful Reading: What Is Amazon Integration & How Does It Work?

Integration with Amazon Seller Account

Amazon offers several ways to read and write data into a Seller Partner account. while all the offers are publicly documented, they require a certain level of expertise to implement, quickly and efficiently.

Amazon Options for Data Integration

In addition to the Amazon portal to manually manage the store, Amazon offers two options for an Amazon Seller Account owner, to build integrations and automation:

1. MWS (Marketplace Web Service): which is the first legacy integration door with the Amazon seller store.

2. SP-API (Seller Partner API): which is a new REST API service launched in September 2020 to replace the MWS.

Amazon MWS vs SP-API

In this paragraph, I will address some technical differences between both services.

Although MWS and SP-API of Amazon are both web services that enable programmatic access to seller data, there are major differences; following are some of those differences, extracted from Amazon website:
  • SP-API treats data as REST-compliant resources that can be accessed and modified via standard HTTP methods. At the opposite, Amazon MWS exposes data using operations that are very proprietary to Amazon MWS.
  • SP-API authorization leverages LWA and OAuth 2.0. This model eliminates the need for the manual exchange of auth tokens, as required by MWS.
  • The authorization process of Developers is much different between both; With Amazon MWS, sellers authorize developers. With SP-API, sellers authorize applications. This makes it safer for the Seller to Authorize an application of a developer, that was revised and approved by Amazon.
  • SP-API provides finer grain data access control than Amazon MWS. Developers can request access to only the data they need, and sellers can grant permissions at the API section, operation, or data resource level.
  • SP-API uses AWS Signature Version 4 for authentication. Amazon MWS uses Signature Version 2

To learn more about Amazon SP-API read our blog: Why You Should Migrate Amazon MWS to Amazon Selling API (SP-API)

Data Automation and Integration: Why Integration and Automation Are a Must

When operating eCommerce transactions on Amazon, and selling on multiple Marketplaces, companies find themselves in a situation where they cannot avoid such automation and integration with their own ERP or CRM, and this is for multiple reasons; I will list a few of the important ones:

1. Amazon is by far one of the biggest eCommerce platforms in the world, with the most items sold; Selling on Amazon, will certainly increase the sales of any company with the right product. This creates the first urgent reason automate and integrate the sales on Amazon Seller Account, into the Company’s ERP/CRM system. Companies would like to keep their books up to date, with less human interaction, and near real-time.

2. Companies who are successfully selling on more than one Amazon marketplace, see the need for automation faster. It is not an option for any company to manage multiple systems for orders and fulfillment.
e-commerce Integration


3. To compete in this tight eCommerce marketplace, faster fulfillment and shipping is expected from consumers. The fastest they get the goods the better it for the seller. To meet those fulfillment expectations, automation and integration should be in place.

4. The new reality created by COVID-19 disturbance of the economy worldwide, forced companies to adjust to the new reality if they want to stay the course, and remain competitive. Hiring more employees to produce the same result that can be achieved efficiently and quickly by machines is not an option today. Investing on automation and integration is the only way companies can achieve quick results and a quick measurable ROI.

“Do It Yourself” vs Outsourcing the Service?

Someone might say, well, cannot we do it ourselves? it is not that difficult, we have enough IT resources in-house, that can certainly handle such projects and get off the ground quickly.

My answer to this point is, of course, any company with sufficient time, resources and expertise can go into the project, and certainly deliver. However, there are some aspects of this approach should be highlighted and taken into consideration:

1. When doing it yourself, without enough internal resources, such projects can fall of the crack quickly.

2. At the technical level, although it seems straight forward to build such integration and automation projects, it requires lots of expertise and lots of learning. MWS is scheduled to be phased out by Amazon, we do not know when, and SP-API is taking over, but it is new, lots of security elements added and things can take time to learn and build.

3. Since a company is going to build it itself, it will be one and only one time to do the implementation; it does not pay off for this company, especially when it takes lots of time and effort.

4. Maintaining and managing the automation of Amazon Seller account data, at long term takes a lot of time and resources to keep it up and running; it certainly takes out of the staff’s internal efforts and would stretch them thin.

Useful Reading: EDI2XML integration for Amazon Seller Partners

The above points are the most important points and challenges I have noted from previous Amazon integration projects, where customers were frustrated and lost lots of time prior to decide to outsource their Amazon integration to our team at EDI2XML. Some of them they lost a valuable resources and money prior to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Trust Our Experts For a Fully Managed Amazon Integration

To find out more about our Amazon integration expertise, and evaluate how we can help you, you can reach us by phone: (450) 681-3009 or use the form below to speak to our integration specialist!

The Following is a List of Additional Helpful Information:

What is Dropshipping on Amazon?

Amazon Business: How to increase B2B sales on Amazon?

Integration with Amazon Web Services (MWS): Things you should know

Integration with Amazon Seller or Vendor account: Things you should know

Free Amazon Integration Whitepaper

What Is Amazon Integration & How Does It Work?

What is Amazon?

Amazon is the largest and most successful online marketplace in the world, because they deliver the best customer service and create the best customer experience.

There are two options for a company to sell its products online on Amazon marketplace:
  • Amazon Vendor Central
  • Amazon Seller Central

What is Amazon Vendor Central?

When you register your company as a vendor, and once your company is approved, Amazon becomes a regular distributor of your company’s products. Amazon buys and stores your company’s merchandise, handles pricing, and arranges shipping, returns, and full customer service. Basically, you become a supplier for Amazon, while Amazon buys your company’s products and pays you.

Learn more here about Amazon Vendor Central or Amazon Seller Central

What is Amazon Seller Central?

It means you or your company, can register as an independent seller on Amazon marketplace. You pay a monthly fixed fee, and a percent of your sales on Amazon, in return of the use of the platform. There are two types of accounts: either “Individual” or “Professional” Seller account. The account owner is responsible for the setup, ongoing maintenance, and integration of their Amazon Seller account.

Seller Central account is the most popular choice for companies of different sizes, but at the same time, it causes the most challenges to store owners, especially when it comes to integration of the seller account with other business systems.

Things to know: According Amazon Seller Central guide, you may only have one Seller Central account for each region you sell in unless you have a legitimate business need to open a second account and all of your accounts are in good standing.

Who Needs Amazon Integration?

Integration with Amazon is necessary for companies that aim to automate e-commerce and logistics systems, improve the quality of their customer service, reduce various costs associated with logistics, order processing, data synchronization, manual input of information into various systems, etc.

Basically, the candidates for integration are medium and large retailers who already have or planning to create an Amazon Seller account, and using business systems such as:
  • SAP (including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business One, SAP CRM, SAP ERP, SAP PLM  SAP SCM, and SAP SRM)
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365
  • Salesforce
  • JD Edwards
  • Oracle ERP
  • Sage
  • SugarCRM
  • ServiceMax
  • Important legacy applications, as well as other ERP / CRM or accounting systems

What is the Most Important Amazon Integration?

To successfully grow an online business on Amazon, a merchant needs to process orders correctly and quickly, which is why Amazon ERP Integration is the most important and frequently requested integration. Amazon ERP integration allows you to get rid of manual order entry or huge loading of daily orders from Amazon Seller accounts to ERP or other accounting systems.

Thanks to our integration platform Magic xpi, you no longer need to manually enter data from your Amazon e-commerce account into the internal accounting system. With Magic xpi, all important information is automatically synchronized:

– New orders

– Inventory (between Amazon & ERP or other channels)

– Delivery updates

– Customer information

– The stock availability

– Real-time tracking

– Prices and much more.

Thus, Magic xpi can support all e-commerce integration requests quickly and reliably.

Benefits of Amazon ERP Integration

Integrating Amazon with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can bring numerous benefits to businesses.

Automation of online selling processes

Integration of ERP with an online store on Amazon allows you to synchronize order information, customer data, and automatically update information on warehouse stocks. Thus, the automatic exchange of data between ERP and Amazon seller account makes the business process much faster and more efficient. This allows you to streamline business processes and increase revenue.

Accurate e-commerce data

A great advantage of integrating an online store with ERP is the accuracy of the transmitted data. Whereas when manually entering data into the business system, there can be errors leading to delays or disruptions in the delivery of goods, which negatively affects customer satisfaction.

Faster order processing

The Amazon ERP Integration eliminates manual data entry and reduces errors. With correct and accurate data, the Amazon Seller account owner can dramatically improve the accuracy of the business, which will make e-commerce processes faster and smoother.

Thus, Amazon ERP integration can streamline business processes, optimize inventory management, and improve order fulfillment. By integrating Amazon with an ERP system, businesses can automate data entry and reduce manual errors. This helps in maintaining accurate and up-to-date data across multiple systems, resulting in improved business decision-making. Additionally, businesses can leverage the data insights gained from the integration to optimize their inventory management and ensure timely order fulfillment, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. Overall, Amazon ERP integration can help businesses improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer experience.

What is EDI2XML Amazon Integration Service?

Beating the extremely high competition in the e-commerce segment is only possible for companies that follow the latest technological trends.

EDI2XML Amazon integration is a fully managed service offered on top of a state-of-the art technology (Magic xpi), where companies can leverage a full automation of their eCommerce process, to optimize their internal business processes and accelerate online business growth. It is a fully managed cloud integration solution with no-on premise software required.

Leverage innovative solutions to seamlessly share order and customer information and improve customer service.

EDI2XML integration to Amazon is a centralized platform as a service, that maps all critical information across different business systems, and provides a complete view of your leads and customers.

Amazon Seller Central Integration with EDI2XML

No matter what Amazon marketplace you sell on, we can help improve your e-commerce business and complete the Amazon integration project efficiently and quickly with any of these Amazon marketplaces:

– Amazon European Marketplaces. Amazon Europe Marketplaces account: Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.es, and Amazon.nl

– Amazon North America Marketplaces. North America Unified Account: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.com.mx

– Amazon Asia-Pacific Marketplaces. (Japan, Australia, Singapore, India)

– Amazon Middle East and North Africa Marketplaces (Middle East Turkey)

Moreover, we provide unlimited support and availability 24/7/365.

Contact us for a free consultation with one of our integration experts.
Amazon Integration

Integration with Amazon Web Services (MWS): Things you should know

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

This article explains high level details about integration with Amazon Marketplace Web Service (MWS); it covers key Amazon MWS features and process of Amazon order.

What is Amazon MWS?

 

As per the definition on Amazon’s developer’s website: “Amazon Marketplace Web Service (or Amazon MWS) is an integrated web service API that helps Amazon sellers to programmatically exchange data on listings, orders, payments, reports and more.”

In different words, Amazon MWS, is an integration API, based on XML files exchange, provided by Amazon, and can be leveraged and used by Sellers subscribed to sell their products and services on Amazon eCommerce platform, directly while having “Amazon professional account”.

Let’s deep dive into the more details about MWS of Amazon, little about its architecture, its capabilities and its use

What is XML?

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a standard defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).  XML uses tags (identifiers enclosed in parentheses, for example, <note>) to mark content in text documents. These tags called “markup”, can be read by people and computers.  This is a simple XML example:

Simple-XML-exampleThe XML language has no predefined tags. In an XML document, the markup is very similar to the HTML markup (Hypertext Markup Language), but there are some important differences because XML and HTML were designed with different goals:

  • XML was designed to transfer data – with an emphasis on what data is
  • HTML was designed to display data – with focus on how data looks
  • XML tags are not predefined as opposed to HTML.

The tags in the example above (like <to> and <from>) are not defined in any XML standard. These tags are “created” by the writer of the XML document. While HTML works with predefined tags like <p>, <h1>, <table>, etc.

 Why Use XML?

Most API gateways, use some sort of XML data exchange. This is not different for Amazon’s API, since it permits to integrate a company’s business systems with Amazon’s eCommerce platform. The integration with Amazon happens through predefined API calls (application programming interfaces), whether to send documents or retrieve documents from Amazon systems. It is much more efficient and convenient exchange data using XML, especially, in a case when we have a large amount of data.

Using Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS)

As previously stated, MWS is a web service API provided by Amazon, to help Amazon sellers to programmatically and automatically, exchange data on listings, orders, payments, reports, and more. Such an automatic integration with Amazon, can certainly help sellers to improve their business.

Amazon MWS provides the following features:

  • Inventory management
  • Order management
  • Reports management

There are no fees to use Amazon MWS, but to use it you have to be a Professional Seller.

MWS XML feeds

Data exchanged with Amazon MWS, is sent through what is called “Feeds”, or “XML feeds” since it is sent systematically to the API for processing. “XML feeds” are based on pre-defined XML schemas or xsd (XML Schema Definitions).

Each XML feed (or message), contains data about different key information required by the Amazon MWS API to be able to process it.

XML feed to send catalog information

There are six feeds to upload and manage products on Amazon:

1. Product – this is the first feed to build, in order to register new products on Amazon’s eCommerce platform. This feed, contains descriptive information about the items in your catalog. This feed, will help establish the mapping between the unique identifier (SKU) of the seller and Amazon’s unique identifier of the same SKU (the ASIN: Amazon Standard Identification Number).

2. Inventory – this feed, is to report the current stock levels of the products you have on Amazon.

3. Pricing – to populate and refresh prices of your products, whether the regular prices or temporary (sale) prices.

4. Image – to provide the URLs from where Amazon can associate the image to the SKU or item.

5. Relationship – Defines relationships between different items in your catalog. There are two types of relationships:

     a) Variation – this is the most common type of relationship. Allows customers to select from a list of variations of the same product. For example, a t-shirt can be in a       different sizes and different colors. The main item (parent SKU) is the type of t-shirt in general. Parent SKU is not buyable and there is no size, color, quantity or price. The   variations (child SKUs) have different combinations of size and color, therefore can be sold. (See the diagram below.)

Amazon-parent SKU

     b) Accessory – It means that customers can choose products classified as accessories to the main item. For example, a drill can have screws, listed as accessories.

Amazon-feed-Accessory

6. Overrides – Allows you to override the account-level shipping settings with SKU-level shipping settings. This is a good option for a weighty or oversized product such as a bicycle or kayak.

Amazon’s Order Management Process

In addition to the feed to create products on Amazon, a significant importance goes to another important XML feed: “order management”.

When a buyer places an order on Amazon, the quantity ordered decreases the quantity available in stock, in the seller account.

To confirm the transaction, Amazon puts the order in a 90-minute waiting period. During this time, the client receives an Amazon payment authorization and an email confirming the order. During this time the customer can change or cancel the order from his Amazon account. If the customer cancels the order or the payment has been rejected, Amazon will add the quantity back to the quantity available in your account. Amazon also sends an order cancellation email to the customer.

So, the process of orders has the following stages:

  • Customer places the Order
  • Merchant acknowledges the order
  • Customer can modify the order
  • Merchant ships the order and confirms the shipment
  • Amazon issues the payment to merchant

Here is an overview of the general order management process:Amazon-general-order-management-process

Validating XML Feeds

It is important to validate XML feeds before sending them to Amazon. If a specific feed does not validate successfully by Amazon MWS, the MWS will return a parsing error.

Where to go from here?

If you have gone into this article, it means you are either planning a project to sell your goods and services on Amazon, or you are already selling on Amazon directly.

In both cases, you have to think about efficiency and accuracy and how to reduce human errors and chargebacks.

In case you have a handful number of items you are selling; this article is not meant for you; you can simply manage your products and orders from within Amazon’s portal.

However, in case your company is to sell hundreds or thousands of products and their corresponding variations on Amazon, then, you have to consider automated integration between your current software management system (i.e. Salesforce, SAP, JDE, Microsoft ERP…) and your Amazon Seller account.

Amazon integration projects through MWS are time sensitive and requires expertise and the right integration tools.

Talk to us and entrust our team for your integration projects; I invite you to contact us for a FREE consultation.

 

Amazon Integration
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Integration with Amazon Seller or Vendor account: Things you should know

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information

Founded in 1994 in the USA, Amazon.com is the largest online retailer of books, clothing, electronics, music and many other products. Currently, he became one of the leading and largest eCommerce platforms in the world. Amazon keeps pace with technology, by leveraging it to minimize human errors factor and improve efficiency. Amazon was one of the early adopters of process automation and electronic data interchange for his eCommerce platform.

Read: Free Guide – Introduction to EDI

Amazon Vendor Central or Amazon Seller Central?

We have been hearing so much these terms: “Amazon Vendor central” and “Amazon Seller Central”. So, what are these terms? what do they mean? Let’s explore both, one at a time.

Any company that wants to sell its products or services on Amazon’s platform, will be setup on that platform either in the “Amazon Vendor Central” or in “Amazon Seller Central” portal. What is the difference?

Amazon Vendor Central

First, the Vendor Central, is a web-based portal used mainly by manufacturers and distributors. Access to Vendor Central, is by invitation only.

A company selling its products/services directly to Amazon, who in turns sells it to the end consumer, will be setup in the Vendor Central portal of Amazon. In a similar case, Amazon is the buyer of the company’s products. Amazon will sell the products under his own brand name to the end consumer. Usually, when a package is shipped from Amazon to the end consumer, packages are marked as: “Ships from and sold by Amazon.”

Companies setup to use Amazon Vendor Central are considered 1P (or first party seller).

Amazon Seller Central

Again, the Seller Central, is a web-based portal used mainly by the Seller (or store owner on Amazon). Amazon offers his eCommerce platform for companies who want to manage their own stores on his platform and give them the opportunity the Amazon Marketplace. This service is offered against a monthly fee for the usage, and other fees at the transaction level.

In this case, the manufacturer or distribution will be selling his own products directly to consumers on the Amazon marketplace by using Seller Central account.

As a marketplace seller, a subscriber will be able to handle fulfillment and logistics for his “seller account” based on (2) different options:

  • “Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)”: The seller can handle the shipping, customer service, and returns for each individual order himself. Fulfillment by Merchant orders, will be shipped out of the merchant’s warehouse. Seller can also use drop-shipping method, subject to compliance with the Amazon Drop Shipping Policy.
  • “Fulfilled by Amazon program. (FBA):The seller will have the option to allow Amazon to handle fulfillment of his orders, through inventory sent to Amazon warehouses. Obviously, seller has to enroll his products on Amazon under the FBA program, and Amazon will have additional fees towards using his fulfillment resources.

Amazon Data Integration

Integration with Amazon, is the process of implementing one or multiple flows to extract relevant data from a company’s own system and send to its Amazon account/store (i.e. product and pricing information, inventory data…). At the same time, extract the information related to sales orders, clients and payment information from Amazon’s account/store and send to a company’s internal software system.

Read: Integration with Amazon Web Services (MWS): Things you should know

Automating Data Integration with Amazon

As described above, the integration with Amazon is very important and crucial for a company successful online commerce. The integration process does not happen once. It is a continuous process of keeping the “synchronization” as close to “real-time” as much as possible.

To be able to keep a persistent ongoing integration between a company’s Amazon account and its internal Software system, companies have no choice other than embracing “automated integration”.

Benefits of integration with Amazon

Here are the top 5 benefits of integration with Amazon, which will be also detailed in another post in the future:

1. Ability to deliver your products quickly to your consumer in a very competitive marketplace

2. Avoid chargebacks, credits and penalties related to poor or no accurate inventory and stock status on your Amazon account

3. Avoid unnecessary none-productive human errors when manipulating manually orders received from your Amazon account

4. Win on visibility and credibility of your Amazon account and products.

5. Comply with Amazon terms of agreements in relation to product delivery.

Amazon Integration

Options on Amazon for efficient integration?

Depending on the type of account your company is setup, Amazon offers (2) methods of integration:

  1. EDI (X12) integration (in North America) for Vendor Central account customers
  2. Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) for Seller Central account customers.

Messages to exchange with Amazon

Whether using EDI X12 or Amazon MWS to exchange messages, he following documents are the mandatory ones for a successful integration:

Amazon works with various providers and types of EDI software:

EDI X12 documents

  1. EDI 846 – Inventory Status
  2. EDI810 – Invoice
  3. EDI 850 – Purchase Order message (Customer triggered)
  4. EDI 855 – Purchase Order Acknowledgment
  5. EDI 856 – ASN (Advance Ship Notice)
  6. EDI 860 – Order Change Notification

Amazon MWS messages

  1. Products
  2. Orders
  3. Order Acknowledgment
  4. Order Payment

Why integration with Amazon is crucial

As one of the largest online retailers in the world, Amazon is a powerhouse when it comes to e-commerce. Integrating your business with Amazon can provide you with unparalleled access to a massive customer base, improved visibility, and increased sales. By utilizing Amazon’s platform, you can tap into their extensive resources and take advantage of their advanced tools for product listings, inventory management, and shipping.

In addition, Amazon’s sophisticated algorithms can help you to target specific customer segments and increase your visibility within your niche market. With Amazon’s robust analytics and reporting tools, you can track your performance and identify areas where you can improve your sales strategy.

Moreover, integrating your business with Amazon can also enhance your brand credibility and customer trust. By aligning your brand with Amazon’s reputation for quality and reliability, you can build a strong customer base that is willing to invest in your products and services.

– The average number of monthly visits to Amazon, according to Similarweb is 2.6 billion.

– Amazon has over 2.5 million active sellers on its platform, with more than half of its sales coming from third-party sellers.

– Amazon’s global logistics network includes over 400 fulfillment centers and 75 sorting centers.

In 2022, Amazon achieved a net sales revenue of almost 514 billion U.S. dollars globally, with its headquarters located in the United States.

Amazon Integration for your business

Don’t miss the great opportunity for your business to trade on Amazon. We provide Integration and Automation for Amazon Seller Central Users as well EDI Integration for Vendor Central Users. Contact us today to get more information, request a quote or schedule a demo.

Amazon Integration