Amazon: SKU suffix

About this article

This article describes ChannelEngine's SKU suffix for FBM offers on Amazon.

Table of contents

Introduction

Use cases

SKU suffix settings

Before you start

Enable the SKU suffix

FAQs

Introduction

Amazon synchronizes stock, handling time, and fulfillment type on identical SKUs that are offered in multiple countries. Consequently, Amazon might automatically override one of your country-specific offers. 

For example:

1. Amazon UK - you set the handling time on SKU X to two days.

2. Amazon DE - you set SKU X's handling time to one day. 

3. Amazon DE - Amazon changes the handling time to two days on SKU X because it synchronizes the handling time attribute on SKU X across all Amazon countries.

This situation may not be desirable, especially if you ship the product via fulfillment by merchant (FBM). Therefore, ChannelEngine can automatically set up SKU suffixes to create unique FBM SKUs for each country.

It is also possible to automatically create unique FBM SKUs to ensure that FBM offers are distinct from FBA offers of the same SKU on Amazon Seller Central. SKU suffixes are never visible to your buyers on Amazon.

Limitations

• It is not possible to enable country-specific SKU codes on FBA products; on FBA SKUs, no SKU suffixes are recommended. 
• Merchants must use the same FBA SKU across all FBA-enabled countries. 
• Changing FBA SKUs is only possible by recalling existing inventory from Amazon.
• If you disable SKU suffixes after using them on Amazon, your disabled SKUs result in ghost products on Amazon. It is not possible to manage ghost products that exist on Amazon via ChannelEngine.

Use cases

Use SKU suffixes when:

• You ship products that are sold on an Amazon marketplace via direct fulfillment, i.e.: FBM.
• You sell on multiple Amazon countries within a region, e.g.: Europe, and you manage different stock levels per Amazon country.
• You have dual fulfillment enabled on your Amazon sales channel, i.e.: FBM and FBA. For guidance on configuring dual fulfillment with Amazon on ChannelEngine, check out Amazon: dual fulfillment.
• You have hybrid fulfillment enabled on your Amazon sales channel, i.e.: FBM or FBA. For more information, check out ChannelEngine: hybrid fulfillment. 

SKU suffix settings

The tables below illustrate three SKU suffix scenarios:

• SKU suffix disabled - for FBA SKUs.
• SKU suffix enabled without country code - recommended for differentiating FBM offers from FBA offers when you use hybrid fulfillment on the same SKU.
• SKU suffix enabled with country code - recommended for decoupling fulfillment offers from one country to another.

The SKU suffix follows the pattern: SKU_CE_FBM_[country code].

SKU suffix disabled

SKU suffix enabled without country code

SKU suffix enabled with country code

Before you start

Although these are not requirements, it is recommended that you do the following before enabling the SKU suffix:

1. Make sure your SKUs are no longer than 30 characters. SKU suffixes can add up to ten characters to an original SKU, and Amazon rejects SKUs that are longer than 40 characters.
2. If needed, map the Export content attribute in Mappings, Content mappings, on your Amazon channel to configure sending updated content per SKU. 
3. To prevent constantly deleting the offer when your stock goes below your defined threshold, do not configure stock limits.
4. Stop all Amazon campaigns that are tied to the old SKUs.

Enable the SKU suffix

To enable SKU suffixes on your Amazon channel's FBM SKUs: 

1. Choose a SKU suffix preference from one of the options below:
   • SKU suffix enabled without country code - SKUs appear with _FBM appended to the end. This setting ensures that SKUs associated with the FBM offers are different from the SKUs within FBA offers. ChannelEngine creates one FBA SKU and one FBM SKU across the whole of a region. Select inventory data is shared within a region, including handling time and stock levels. If you do not need to differentiate inventory data across regions, choose this option.
   • SKU suffix enabled with country code - the country code is appended to the end of the SKU on Seller Central. This setting ensures that SKUs associated with the FBM offers are different per Amazon country. Use this option if you want Amazon to keep the offers separate per country, especially if you have multiple warehouses. E.g.: 909042_CE_FBM_DEif the sales channel in use is Germany.
2. Reach out to the Support team or your customer success manager to enable your preferred SKU suffix preference.

If you want to enable dual fulfillment with Amazon, you must choose one of these options.

FAQs

Can my customers see the SKU suffix?
No. The SKU suffix is only used when sending offers to Amazon so that FBM and FBA offers are kept separate on the marketplace. The SKU suffix is only visible on Amazon Seller Central.

The SKU suffix has been enabled, but some of my products are returning errors. What can I do?
If you experience issues after turning on the SKU suffix, try deleting an affected product from Amazon and recreating it. During the initial export, the product is matched via its EAN or GTIN. Once it is matched by Amazon, the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) becomes the main identifier.

I have the SKU suffix feature enabled, but one of my products is still available without the SKU suffix. What is wrong?
You have a hybrid-fulfillment workflow configured across your Amazon marketplaces instead of a dual-fulfillment workflow. The product that does not have the SKU suffix is the FBA version of the product. With hybrid fulfillment, once the stock of the FBA version of a product is replenished, ChannelEngine deletes the FBM version of the product and replaces it with the FBA version, i.e.: the product without the SKU suffix. To enable dual fulfillment, follow the steps in Amazon: dual fulfillment. To enable only FBA fulfillment or only FBM fulfillment, contact the ChannelEngine Support team.