Amazon: multi-channel fulfillment (MCF)

About this article

This article describes ChannelEngine’s support for Amazon multi-channel fulfillment (MCF), how to enable it, how to configure it, and how to make use of it.

Table of contents

Introduction

Limitations

Setup

Order routing

Additional information

Introduction

Amazon offers a storage and fulfillment service known as Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). This can be complemented by their MCF service, which allows you to also fulfill orders from marketplaces other than Amazon – even if you do not sell on Amazon.

Once FBA and MCF are set up on Amazon, you can add the MCF plugin to your environment on ChannelEngine and start selling on various channels using Amazon as your third-party logistics provider (3PL).

Limitations

The following limitations apply:

• MCF is not available in every country where Amazon operates. Presently, the list of countries where MCF is supported includes Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, and United Kingdom.
• Certain marketplaces forbid merchants from using MCF. Before adding the MCF plugin to your environment, make sure the marketplace you are working with allows Amazon to fulfill orders made on their marketplace. Note that you may need to meet certain requirements even when the marketplace allows the use of MCF. E.g.: the marketplace might require that your products are sent in unbranded packaging.
• MCF does not support the automation of returns, so you need to handle returns manually. To learn more about this, check out the article How to process an Amazon multi-channel fulfillment (MCF) return.
• Certain types of products cannot be fulfilled by MCF. These include perishables, aerosols, flammable substances, batteries, etc.

Associated costs

For information on the fees Amazon charges for use of its MCF service, visit the Pricing page on the Amazon Supply Chain website.

Setup

On Amazon

To enable MCF, go to Amazon’s MCF page and create an account. Once you set up MCF and FBA services on Amazon, you can add the MCF plugin to your tenant on ChannelEngine.

NB: if you are an existing Amazon seller and have a Seller Central account, there is no signup required. 

On ChannelEngine

To add the MCF plugin to your tenant on ChannelEngine:

1. In the left-hand side menu, go to Plugins. Locate Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment plugin and click + Add.
2. Go to the Setup tab. In the General settings, enter a suitable name for your plugin. 
3. In the Authorize ChannelEngine settings, select an appropriate authorization option – depending on the region where fulfillment services need to be enabled. Options are Authorize America, Authorize Europe, and Authorize Far East.
   
   NB: you can authorize all three regions per MCF plugin on ChannelEngine. However, make sure that the correct seller account is connected to a region as you can only use the countries within the region that support Amazon MCF. E.g.: to authorize Europe, you can use the Amazon DE account but not the Amazon NL account – which does not support MCF.
4. In the Amazon sign-in window that pops up, enter your credentials and click Sign in. Upon a successful sign-in, the corresponding Authorize [region] button changes to green on ChannelEngine.
5. In the Connection settings, the appropriate connection fields (i.e.: Seller ID, Refresh token, and Access token) should be filled out automatically.
6. In the Plugin-specific settings, configure the following settings according to your preferences and marketplace-specific requirements:
   • Block Amazon Logistics as a carrier for this order - the last mile of the delivery is not done by Amazon Logistics, which certain marketplaces forbid. Note that blocking Amazon Logistics incurs an additional fee of 5%.
   • Shipment service level - set a desirable shipping time frame. You can choose between Standard (3-5 business days), Expedited (2 business days), and Priority (1 business day). Keep in mind that the shipment service level directly affects the fee charged by Amazon.
     NB: the Blocked Amazon Logistics as a carrier for this order option is currently available only in the United States.

7. In Settings, set the Stock location name prefix, which is the unique prefix you add to a stock location name. The prefix helps you distinguish between different stock locations at a later stage – when configuring the order routing.
   NB: ChannelEngine automatically creates stock locations for every MCF plugin you activate. For the US and Canada, two stock locations are created – regular and 'blank box'. The location names are based on the settings that you configure on the plugin's Setup page, and follow this structure: Amazon Mcf [prefix][region](BlankBox). E.g.: if you select Authorize America, and set your Stock location name prefix to 'MyBrand', ChannelEngine generates the following stock location names: 'Amazon Mcf MyBrand US' and 'Amazon Mcf MyBrand US BlankBox'. You can later use these stock location names to set up order routing.
   NB: the MCF stock locations are not displayed under Products, Stock locations, but can be found on the Product details page.
8. Save your settings and proceed to the Activation tab. Toggle the Activate synchronization for Amazon Multi-channel Fulfillment setting. Once the synchronization process is completed, you can see the label next to the Amazon logo change to ‘active’. As a result, the plugin creates new stock locations based on the region and prefix you provided on the Setup page.

Advanced settings

• Remove countries from synchronization - enable it to stop the synchronization of your stock and orders between Amazon MCF and ChannelEngine for the selected country. If you fail to select a country, the disabling of that country in your Amazon account is communicated to ChannelEngine via the API, and is automatically applied on ChannelEngine. E.g.: if you sell in Canada, Mexico, and the US, and want to halt sales in Mexico, select Mexico from the dropdown.
• Property used for data sync - select the attribute you want to use for synchronizing orders and stock levels between ChannelEngine and Amazon MCF, such as the Merchant product number. Ensure that this attribute is recognized by the Amazon MCF system.

Order routing

When working with different stock locations, you can use predefined business rules that assign incoming orders to specific stock locations.

To add an order routing on ChannelEngine:

1. Enable the stock locations feature on ChannelEngine. For that, reach out to ChannelEngine's Support team to activate the Use order routing with multiple stock locations setting.
2. In the left-hand side menu, click Orders, Routing. Then, click the Add button.
3. In the Add: Order routing dialog box, enter information in the following fields:

• Name - the order routing’s name.
• Select channels - click the dropdown box to select the marketplaces that apply to this routing. Note that you can only select marketplaces that are not already active in other routings. Marketplaces are grouped according to how they handle order lines:
  • Support for shipments - the whole order must be shipped together.
  • Support for split orders - different order lines can be split into separate shipments.
  • Order lines can be referenced by multiple shipments - order lines can be split when the order line quantity must be shared across multiple warehouses. 
• Select stock locations - the stock locations you want to use. The combined stock of the selected locations, minus the reserved stock, is then exported. If your MCF account is Amazon US or Amazon CA, you can select a stock location with a 'blank box' indication, which ensures that your orders are fulfilled in unbranded packaging.
• Prioritize shipping multiple items from one stock location - if enabled, it checks if a whole order can be shipped from one stock location. This way, you can override the conditional rules and prevent the order from being fulfilled from two or more separate stock locations, which incurs extra shipping costs.

3. Click Next.
4. You can now set up the conditional rules for your routing, following a structure similar to ChannelEngine’s Product selection page. These rules are applied when orders are imported into ChannelEngine. You can filter on fields from order fields (e.g.: Shipment region, Delivery country, EAN, etc.), as well as ChannelEngine’s default product data and custom fields. Make sure you set up conditional rules for all stock locations previously selected.
   NB: when setting up conditional rules for routing, you can select different stock locations to fulfill the same products as long as these products have allocated FBA stock. To check the allocated FBA stock per product, go to the Product details page, and scroll down to Stock locations section.
   NB: conditional rules for routing have top-to-bottom priority. The rule at the top has the highest priority, and the rule at the bottom has the lowest. Once established, it is not possible to change the order of your routings. However, you can choose a different order routing as your default one by clicking Set as default.
   NB: shipment regions must be abbreviated. E.g.: New Jersey = NJ, Massachusetts = MA, etc.
5. Click Add to save the order routing. Order routing rules are now applied to new orders.

Additional information

How often does ChannelEngine import stock levels from Amazon?

ChannelEngine runs an import stock task every hour. If you need ChannelEngine to import stock levels more frequently, contact ChannelEngine’s Support team.

How can I see if my synchronization tasks were successful?

When the AmazonMCF plugin is activated, the Dashboard page displays a list of tasks scheduled by ChannelEngine – as well as their statuses. E.g.: ‘Export orders to merchant’ task and its status ‘Finished at: 5 minutes ago’.

Do I need to change order routing once my product listings on the marketplace change?

Yes. Once the Amazon MCF plugin is enabled for a marketplace, you need to adjust the conditional rules for order routing whenever you introduce changes to your product listing on the marketplace (e.g.: remove or add products).

How can I see my Amazon MCF orders on ChannelEngine?

Orders fulfilled by Amazon MCF can be found by going to Orders, Orders on ChannelEngine, and are indicated by the Amazon MCF label. ChannelEngine imports order status updates from Amazon once they become available. When the order has the status Shipped, you can find order extra information – such as the fee charged by Amazon and the shipment date.

Can I sell bundles via Amazon MCF?

No, product bundles are not supported on Amazon MCF. Orders related to bundles must be fulfilled directly by you.