Amazon: how to set up shipping time and costs

About this article

This article describes the configuration of shipment costs and times, via the creation of shipping templates on Amazon.

Table of contents

Introduction

Create shipping templates on Amazon

Map the correct shipping on ChannelEngine

Total shipment time/fulfillment latency

Introduction

While some marketplaces allow you to configure shipment costs and shipment times within ChannelEngine's offer mappings, this is not the case on Amazon.

Amazon requires the creation of shipping templates, in which you configure to what country or regions you are shipping, to what type of addresses, for what costs, and the estimated transit times – excluding the handling time.

Create shipping templates on Amazon

To create a shipping template on Amazon, go to Amazon's Seller Central.

Once there, select Settings > Shipping settings.

Depending on the language or Amazon country selected, the name of the default template varies. By default it is labelled Migrated template, though it is possible to edit that by selecting Edit in the top right corner.

1. To create a new shipping template, select the Create new shipping template option in the top left corner.

2. You are asked if you want to create a whole new template or copy the content from an existing template. Choose the first option and select Ok.

3. Now you see a whole new template, where you configure shipping for both National (e.g.: on Amazon.co.uk, National includes all countries belonging to Great Britain, on Amazon.de, National includes Germany, etc.) and International shipments.

4. At the top of the screen, you can set the name (make sure to use a descriptive name, especially if you want to use multiple templates) and the rate model (add shipping costs based on total order value or on weight). Certain special characters are not supported in the template's name.

5. Many default values have already been entered for both the National and International shipments, make sure to check all the settings and values before proceeding.

6. Save the changes to the template by selecting the yellow Save button at the bottom of the screen.

Example

• Warehouse location - the Netherlands, hence the default transit time to Ireland is set to 7-14 days.
• Target locations - e only want to ship orders from Amazon.co.uk to be shipped to Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. All other EU residents should buy from a different Amazon portal, with a different shipping template.
• Transit time - NL, BE, and LU = 3-5 days; IE = 7-21 days.
• Costs vary based on the order amount. When the order value is above GBP 100.00, shipping to NL, BE, and LU is free.

Map the correct shipping template on ChannelEngine

To map the correct shipping template for your ChannelEngine offers, go to Mappings > Offer mappings > Shipping group.

You can use a fixed value to enter the name of the shipping template. Alternatively, if you want to use multiple shipping templates, you can use smart rules to set those based on specific characteristics (e.g.: an attribute value).

Total shipping time/fulfillment latency

The total shipping time for Amazon is based on the fulfilment latency you set up on ChannelEngine, with the transit time added.

Example

• Order date - 6 December.
• Warehouse location - the Netherlands.
• Shipping to - Belgium.
• The fulfilment latency is set to 1 in the offer mappings.

• The shipping template states 3-5 days for shipping to Belgium.

• Result - expected delivery date = between 10 December and 14 December. This value can vary if your carrier delivers during weekends. After this date is passed, Amazon considers the shipment late, which has an impact on your metrics.