Amazon: marketplace guide
About this guide
This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Seattle-based marketplace Amazon. Here you can find information on how to request an Amazon account, how to configure this marketplace on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.
Table of contents
Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions
Commercial information
Founded | 1994 |
Founder | Jeff Bezos |
Headquarters | Seattle, United States |
Area served (orders) | Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam |
Revenue | USD 514 billion (2022) |
Number of monthly unique visitors | circa 2.2 billion (2023) |
Setup cost | none |
Commission | percentage based on the product category |
Other costs | EUR/USD 39.99 |
Payment | professional merchants: immediately after shipment confirmation (biweekly) |
Product categories | pretty much anything |
Input language | depends on the country |
Input currency | AED, AUD, BRL, CAD, EUR, GBP, INR, JPY, MXN, PLN, SAR, SGD, SEK, TRY, USD, ZAR |
Content creation | yes |
Is the marketplace commission available via the API? | yes |
Profile on ChannelEngine | Amazon |
How to request an account
To sell your products on Amazon's marketplace you need a professional seller account. You can request one via their country-specific Start selling with Amazon pages:
- Australia
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- Egypt
- France
- Germany
- India
- Italy
- Japan
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Vietnam
During the account creation process you can set up your store on Amazon, with your own company logo. To do so, do the following on Amazon's Seller Central:
- Go to Settings, Your info & Policies.
- Under Your information & Policies, click Profile.
- Under the Seller logo section, click the upload button. For a logo to be displayed, the image size must be exactly 120x30 px, and the file size must be no larger than 2 MB.
If you have trouble logging into Amazon's Seller Central, contact their support team directly.
Associated costs
Amazon's professional account costs EUR/USD 39.99 per month. Amazon also charges a commission on products sold, called referral fees. This commission depends on the type of product, but its minimum is EUR/USD 0.30 per item. For more information on the commission per product category, check out Selling on Amazon Fee Schedule.
Marketplace features
Supported | Not supported |
Product offers (GTIN and ASIN matching) | Advanced Amazon features, such as Amazon billing |
Product content (excl. product videos) | Returns (marketplace)* |
Orders | Sales channels |
Cancelations | |
Returns/refunds (merchant) | |
Shipments | |
Carrier mapping | |
Product variations (sizes/colors) | |
Marketplace fulfillment service | |
Repricing |
* ChannelEngine does import returns that have been fully handled on Amazon's Seller Central, but it does not import returns that have yet to be handled. Marketplace returns are only imported for reporting purposes. Note that FBA returns are not supported on Amazon Japan.
Settings and configuration
Setting up each marketplace on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, though not every marketplace includes the steps listed below.
- Go through the Setup.
- Create a Product selection.
- Complete the Categorization.
- Set up the Mappings: content, offers, and carriers.
- Configure the Pricing: rules and currency conversion.
- Finish the Activation.
- Check the Listed products overview.
Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions
Setup
On ChannelEngine
- Open an incognito window in your browser.
- Go to the Setup page of your Amazon channel on ChannelEngine.
- Click Authorize. A pop-up opens.
- Log into your Amazon account and follow the instructions within.
Plugin-specific settings
-
Enable FBM return refunds - ChannelEngine imports fulfillment by merchant (FBM) returns declared on Amazon (i.e.: marketplace returns). Once you enable this option:
- ChannelEngine initiates the import of FBM returns once a day.
- You choose to either accept or reject returns. If the return is accepted, the buyer gets refunded based on the product's price and the state of the Exclude shipping cost from refund option.
- ChannelEngine exports the updated return to Amazon.
-
Exclude shipping cost from refund - excludes the shipping cost from the refund amount.
Advanced settings
- Use fulfillment service - if you want to import fulfillment stock directly from the channel, enable this option.
- Disable price updates - only enable this option if you do not want ChannelEngine to manage your pricing on Amazon.
- Disable VAT calculation - only enable this option if you use Amazon's VAT calculation service (VCS), and do not want ChannelEngine to calculate VAT. Note that Amazon's VCS only applies to countries in the European Union.
-
Enable new content export - required to create products on Amazon, instead of only matching your offers with existing products. To enable this feature, contact your customer success manager or a member of the Support team. To create content, your categorization and mappings must be set up perfectly – even one incorrect mapping can result in errors.
NB: if you enable the content export to Amazon, all required data must be mapped as it overwrites existing content. This includes offer content such as bullet points, search terms, and sales prices. If you do not have this data mapped on ChannelEngine, but added it manually on Amazon in the past, it gets deleted.
- Use grandparent products - only enable this option if you have grandparent products that differ in color, and want to use them as the group parent for your product variations. On Amazon, the grandparent is the 'parent' of the child products. Values under the regular parent products are ignored. If you currently have products on the channel, they will be deleted and new products will be created following the new hierarchy.
- Include standalone and parent products without grandparent - only use this setting in combination with Use grandparent products. Enable this setting to include standalone products and parent-child products without a grandparent in the content export. This setting is useful if your products on ChannelEngine are organized in a grandparent-parent-child structure, but you also have standalone products and/or products that are organized in a parent-child structure.
-
Enable invoice uploading - configure this setting to automatically upload invoices to Amazon. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: order invoices. The options are:
- None - no changes.
- Merchant invoices - when ChannelEngine receives a shipment, it exports it – even if there is no invoice attached to it.
- ChannelEngine invoices - an invoice generated automatically by ChannelEngine is exported with the shipment.
- SFP: enabled - enables Amazon's Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP) feature, which allows merchants to buy Prime shipping labels from Amazon. Note that only a small number of merchants on Amazon are eligible to use this feature.
- SFP: real-time SFP labels - enables real-time shipment exports to Amazon when an SFP shipment is created. This allow the shipment to be exported directly, so the shipping label is available sooner.
- SFP: ship from (name, address, etc.) - this information is needed as the 'from' address on SFP shipping labels. Note that this setting influences your choice of carriers that are available for you, so it must be filled out correctly.
- SFP: carrier will pickup - influences which carriers are available for you to ship with when using SFP. Indicate if you want the carrier to pick up the parcels at your own warehouse.
- SFP: delivery experience - sets your delivery requirements. E.g.: if a signature is needed for the delivery.
On Amazon
Recommended additional steps
The following steps are optional, but highly recommended. It allows ChannelEngine to better assist you if you have problems with your Amazon account:
- Go to Settings, User permissions on Amazon's Seller Central.
- Invite ChannelEngine as a user. Make sure to use info@channelengine.com for the invitation, as this is the email address of ChannelEngine's Amazon account.
- By default, this access is limited to the Advertising and Performance sections, without the option to view the current inventory.
- Go back to Settings, User permissions, and on the right-hand side, select Manage permissions.
- Make sure that ChannelEngine has view-and-edit access to Inventory, and view-access to Orders. Access to additional sections, such as Reports, may be required too – depending on the problem you are trying to solve.
Categorization
Categorization is only needed on Amazon if you want to create new products or update existing product information. This includes advanced offer attributes, such as bullet points, search terms, and sale prices. The categorization is straightforward, and both categorization and mappings use attribute names in English. Before setting the specific product category/browse node, you need to set the product type – which is done under Categorization.
E.g.: a backpack is first categorized as luggage, luggage. Under the content mapping, you can select the actual recommended browse node and other relevant attributes, specifying that the product is a casual backpack.
Mappings
Content
In comparison with other marketplaces, Amazon has no real content API. The inventory loader templates are the only option available. You can download from Amazon's back-end and submit them through an API. Because of the limitations of these templates, the content mapping is not as dynamic and in some scenarios attributes are marked as optional – even though they are mandatory.
All products (required on v2)
-
Applicable dangerous goods regulation - specifies if a product is regulated as a dangerous good or if it contains hazardous material. E.g.: aerosol containers, cleaning products, etc.
NB: this attribute is only required if the product is fulfilled by Amazon.
- Brand name - the brand of the product.
- Is this product a battery or does it utilize batteries? - if the product contains or is a battery, set this to 'true'.
- Item type - select the correct item type for the product. These can be found on Amazon's browse tree guides (BTGs).
- Product description - the main product description.
- Product name - the product's title, according to the following structure: [brand] [style name] [product name] 'for' [target], [color] [scent] [size] [pack information]. E.g.: Naturally Natural 24/7 Deep Facial Cleanser for Sensitive Skin, 100 ml (Pack of 4).
All products (required on v3)
-
Export content - choose whether to export product content to Amazon. The options are:
- Yes - export your entire product content to Amazon. Before choosing this, make sure that all required attributes are mapped. If you submit the content for the existing products, the data you export must match what is already in the Amazon's catalog.
- No - do not export product content to Amazon. Use this option to link your offers to existing product content. This is useful if the product already exists on Amazon and your content differs from what is in Amazon's catalog.
- Brand name - the product's brand.
- Title: item name - the product's title, according to the following structure: [brand] [style name] [product name] 'for' [target], [color] [scent] [size] [pack information]. E.g.: Naturally Natural 24/7 Deep Facial Cleanser for Sensitive Skin, 100 ml (Pack of 4).
- Manufacturer contact information - the contact details of the product's manufacturer.
- Product description - the product's main description. Include unique product features, details on the product line, and specifications. Do not use all caps.
All products (optional on v2)
- Update type - changes the kind of update applied. The default value is Update. If you are not familiar with the impact of the Clear and overwrite type, do not change this attribute or content updates will delete your existing content.
- Applicable dangerous goods regulations 2-5 - specifies if a product is regulated as a dangerous good or if it contains hazardous material. E.g.: aerosol containers, cleaning products, etc.
- Batteries are included - select true or false, based on the kind of product.
- Battery weight (grams) - insert a value of up to ten digits, and two decimals.
- Battery weight unit of measure - define the unit of measurement used to describe the weight of the battery.
- Key product features 2-5 - the highlights of the product, displayed on the product page as bullet points. Note that the bullet point itself is not required, just the text – up to 500 characters per attribute. Special characters, such as ®, ™, and © are not supported.
All products (optional on v3)
There are dozens of optional attributes that apply to all products on Amazon v3. The list below highlights some of the most important ones:
- Update type - changes the kind of update applied. The default value is Update. If you are not familiar with the impact of the Clear and overwrite type, do not change this attribute or content updates will delete your existing content.
- List price with tax - the product's manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), including tax. Amazon may display a strikethrough price based on the value you map to this attribute, as well as the product's sale price in the past 30 days.
-
Swatch product image locator: swatch image URL - the URL of the product variants' thumbnails. These thumbnails are visible on the product's parent page. The swatch image requirements are:
- Resolution - 72 ppi, with a maximum height or width of 30 px.
- File format - JPG or JPEG.
- File name - [Merchant product number] + [swatch] + [file extension], separated by periods. E.g.: BL123456.swatch.jpeg.
- Localized name - Localizador de imágenes de productos Swatch: URL de la imagen de la muestra (ES).
- Fulfillment availability: restock date - the date when the products is going to be restocked.
- Sale price - the product's discounted price.
- Sale start date - the date from when the product's sale price is valid, if applicable.
- Sale end date - the date until when the product's sale price is valid, if applicable.
- Stop selling date - the date when the product is no longer going to be available.
- Minimum advertised price - the product's lowest advertised price.
- Offering release date - the date when the product is going to be first available.
- Offer condition note - a thorough description of the product's condition.
- List price - the product's manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), excluding tax.
- Product tax code - the product tax code provided to you by Amazon.
-
Merchant shipping group - specifies shipping groups for your products. Map this attribute to the relevant shipping template ID on Amazon. This is only needed if you do not use Amazon's default template exclusively, and have multiple shipping templates. E.g.: you have small items that can be sent by regular carrier in a small box for a fixed price, but also very large items that need to be transported by a specific carrier – which also costs more and takes longer.
NB: you must map the Merchant shipping group attribute in combination with the Shipping group attribute under Offer mappings.
- Locate the shipping template ID on Amazon Seller Central by clicking Edit on the shipping template. The ID is shown in the template URL, within quotation marks. E.g.:
- Copy the ID.
- Map the ID to the Merchant shipping group attribute on ChannelEngine.
- Locate the shipping template ID on Amazon Seller Central by clicking Edit on the shipping template. The ID is shown in the template URL, within quotation marks. E.g.:
Category-specific
- Adult flag - specifies if the product is only suited for adults. E.g.: erotic products.
- Color map - your color attribute, mapped to the colors available on Amazon. E.g.: 'crimson' to 'red'.
- Color name - the color of the product.
- Item condition - specifies the condition of the product. Its values vary per product type. E.g.: a TV can be refurbished, but a backpack cannot.
- Department - defines the target audience. E.g.: women, boys, babies.
- Material composition - the generic material composition of the product. E.g.: 20% polyester, 80% cotton.
- Outer material type - the material of the outer clothing or accessory. E.g.: cotton.
- Recommended browse nodes - sets the specific category, which is what Amazon bases its search on. E.g.: backpacks > casual daypacks.
- Size map - your size attribute, mapped to the sizes available on Amazon. E.g.: XXL -> XX-large. If your item has no variant sizes, use One size.
- Size name - the size of the product. E.g.: XXL.
To set variations, the Relationship type and Variation theme must also be set. For more information on this, check out Amazon: creating variant products.
When mapping additional attributes such as height or width, it is mandatory to also map the unit of measurement used. E.g.: centimeters, millimeters, inches, etc.
Offer
There are only a few required offer attributes on Amazon, and they are mainly used to create offers with your price and stock on existing products on Amazon – even the ones you created.
Required on v2 and v3
- Fulfillment override - specifies the type of fulfillment you want to use. If all of your products are fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), select either this option or Automatic. As long as there is FBA stock for a product, the offer is set to FBA; once this stock is depleted, the system switches to merchant fulfillment. More information on this can be found on External fulfillment: FBA, LVB, and FBC.
- List product on - specifies if your products are listed on the B2C Amazon marketplace, on Amazon Business (B2B), or both.
- Standard price - the standard price field for Amazon pricing.
Optional
Externally assigned product ID type and Externally assigned product ID value (or Product ID type and Product ID value, if you are using the v2 channel) are required to use an identifier other than the European article number (EAN).
- Applicable dangerous goods regulation - if this product is fulfilled by Amazon and the content export is not enabled, mapping a value to this attribute is mandatory. Select the purposes for which your product is regulated as a dangerous good or hazardous material (hazmat). E.g.: dangerous good for transportation, hazmat for waste. Note that even certain common products are regulated as dangerous goods (e.g.: nail polish, aerosols, cleaning products, etc.).
- Battery cell composition - if you indicated that batteries are included in the product, mapping a value to this attribute is mandatory.
- Batteries included - if you set Is this product a battery or does it utilize batteries? to true, mapping a value to this attribute is mandatory.
- Business price - the price that B2B customers on Amazon Business pay for your product. Price rules are currently not applied to business prices. If you do not select Amazon Business (B2B) or both under List product on, this price field is not exported. As there is no option to make attributes required based on other options, the Business price is mandatory. Note that Amazon advises merchants to map a lower value to Business price than to Price.
- Condition note - describes the condition of the item. Only needed when selling refurbished or used items. Specific examples and additional information on this can be found on Amazon's Condition guidelines.
- Condition type - specifies the general condition of your item, if you are not using Amazon's content export but want to set it on the offer. This field can contain any text, but in order for it to work the condition has to match the name of the allowed condition value exactly. Because the allowed conditions are different for each product type, it is not possible to provide a global option list under the Offer mappings. For further details on this, check out Amazon's Adding your products.
-
Externally assigned product ID type - specifies the type of identifier for your products. This is used for the offer export and for the content export to Amazon. If you do not map any type, it defaults to the EAN. Other than the EAN, Amazon makes the following identifiers available to merchants:
- Amazon standard identification number (ASIN) - Amazon's unique identifier.
- Global catalogue identifier (GCID) - relevant if you use brand registry.
- Global trade item number (GTIN) - similar to the EAN.
- International standard book number (ISBN) - only relevant for books.
- Pharmazentralnummer (PZN) - only relevant for pharmaceutical products.
- Universal product code (UPC) - similar to the EAN.
- Externally assigned product ID value - contains the correct value for the set Product ID type. Amazon validates these values, so if you, for example, map the type ASIN but fail to map a 10-character uppercase alphanumeric value and the Product ID value, Amazon rejects your offer.
- Is this product a battery or does it utilize batteries? - if this product is fulfilled by Amazon and the content export is not enabled, mapping a value to this attribute is mandatory. The options are true or false.
- Lead time to ship - the number of days to process the order before shipping it. Enter a whole number between 1 and 30. If you ship on the same day, either enter 1 or leave the attribute unmapped.
- Max. seller price - the highest price this product may have. To remove it, enter 'delete' instead of a price value. Entering 0 (zero) does not disable the Max. seller price.
-
Min. seller price - the lowest price this product may have. To remove it, enter 'delete' instead of a price value. Entering 0 (zero) does not disable the Min. seller price.
NB: although Amazon's Max. seller price and Min. seller price attributes accept numbers and text, ChannelEngine's default Max. price and Min. price only accept numbers. To use 'delete' as a value, create custom attributes with the type 'text' and map your Max. seller price and Min. seller price to them. You can then enter 'delete' as a value without validation errors. For more information, check out Amazon's Minimum and maximum price validation article.
-
Quantity price 1-5 - the price charged for the quantity set in the respective Quantity price lower bound attribute. Note that:
- This must be a fixed price, it cannot be a percentage of the product's default price.
- The price per unit must decrease as the quantity increases. E.g.: USD 12.00 when buying a single unit, USD 10.00/unit when buying two units, USD 8.00/unit when buying four units, etc.
- Quantity price lower bound 1-5 - the quantity required to qualify for the price set in the respective Quantity price attribute.
- Fulfillment availability: Restock date - the date when the product is going to be restocked. Although this is a content attribute on ChannelEngine, it is related to the Restock date offer attribute on Seller Central.
- Shipping group - specifies shipping group names for your products. This is only needed if you do not use Amazon's default template exclusively, and have multiple shipping templates. You must map this attribute in combination with the Merchant shipping group attribute under Content mappings.
To set up shipping groups on Amazon, go to Settings, Shipping settings, Create new shipping template on Seller Central. In these templates, you can set the countries/regions you want to ship to, the average transit time, and the shipping price. More information can be found on Amazon: how to set up shipping time and costs.
Carrier
While Amazon allows unregistered carriers, it is advised to map to one of their registered carriers and include track-and-trace information. This has an influence on your delivery performance, specifically the valid tracking rate. If you use a known carrier with valid track-and-trace information, Amazon can confirm deliveries by directly requesting updates from your carrier. If your carrier is not listed (e.g.: bpost), you can use Other instead.
Carrier names
As well as carrier codes, Amazon lists carriers as carrier names. Some newer carriers are only available by their carrier name, which can vary per Amazon country. The exact name of the carrier can differ as well. Amazon does not share the list of available carriers or their exact notation. Therefore, ChannelEngine cannot offer these options under the Carrier mapping as it does with the carrier codes.
If you know the exact value of a carrier name, there are two options:
- Do not set up any carrier mapping, and directly add that as a carrier method on your shipments – so your original shipment already has the correct carrier method. In this case, ChannelEngine automatically exports it as a carrier name to Amazon.
- Select Other as a carrier method in the dropdown menu (1, in the image below). Once selected, an additional field appears below it and you can fill out the desired carrier name (2, in the image below).
Pricing
There are three aspects that require special attention when using Amazon:
- If your default currency is EUR, a currency conversion is needed for Amazon UK as it expects all prices in GBP. The same goes for Amazon Mexico and Amazon United States, or any other Amazon with different currencies. This is only needed for the offers, orders are automatically converted to the account's default currency.
- Amazon supports automatic repricing. Make sure to read all documentation on repricing before activating it. Repricing is one of the most powerful and complex parts of ChannelEngine, and a solid understanding of it is required to prevent issues.
- As both the offer and content exports use the same type of template, prices mapped under the Content mappings are exported as the prices for your products. Make sure that you do not have any price mappings or incorrect price mappings set up in the Content mappings.
Listed products
If you have problems with products not appearing on Amazon (especially if you are trying to create products that do not exist yet), check the Listed products section for more information.
You can either filter on Channel status (Invalid for all products that ChannelEngine has not exported, such as products with an empty EAN or products marked as Not published because Amazon refused them) or use the Validation and feedback tab to see all known validation/feedback errors for specific products. Amazon has a long list of different possible errors, and not every error is clear and logical.
Additional information
Configure 'Ship from' addresses
To add a Ship from address to shipments exported from ChannelEngine to Amazon:
- Enable the Stock locations and Order routing settings on ChannelEngine. For more information, check out the article ChannelEngine: stock locations.
- Create a stock location with the exact same name, address, and phone number as you have in the Ship from address on Amazon.
- When creating a shipment, map the ID of the relevant stock location to the Shipped from stock location ID field – instead of using the Shipped from [country] field, which should be empty.
When ChannelEngine exports these shipments to Amazon, it takes the address of the stock location into account. If the information matches with what is configured on Amazon, Amazon recognizes the address and uses it as the dispatch location for the shipment.
Grade-and-resell products
If you make use of Amazon’s fulfillment services, you qualify for their Grade and Resell Program. This program allows you to resell products returned to Amazon’s fulfillment centers as ‘used’.
Amazon assigns a new SKU to grade-and-resell products according to the format: [amzn.gr]. [SKU]-[defect identifier]-[suffix]. The suffix indicates the product's condition. I.e.: like new (LN), very good (VG), good (GD), and acceptable (AC).
Before you can view orders related to grade-and-resell products on ChannelEngine, the related SKU traceability for grade-and-resell products setting must be enabled by your contact person – or a member of the Support team.
Once the setting is enabled, ChannelEngine matches the SKU of your grade-and-resell products to the SKU of the equivalent product on ChannelEngine. The grade-and-resell SKU is stored as order line extra data, under the GRADE_AND_RESELL_SKU
field on the Order details page. E.g.: amzn.gr.Awesome-Product-SKU-LN.
Order extra data items
When an order is imported to ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine also fetches extra data items related to the order itself – or to order lines. This extra data is specific to this marketplace. An explanation of each can be found below:
Order extra data
Key |
Conditional* |
Description |
Shipment service level category | No | The shipment service level category. E.g.: standard. |
Shipment service level |
No | The shipment service level. E.g.: expedited. |
Is Prime | No | If the order is an Amazon Prime order (true/false). |
Is Premium |
No | If the order is an Amazon Premium order (true/false). |
Amazon Business | No | If the order is a business order, according to Amazon (yes/no). |
Original phone number | No | The buyer's phone number as entered by the buyer, including spaces, plus signs, hyphens, etc. |
VAT calculation method key | No | How the VAT/sales tax was calculated. E.g.: from VAT rate. |
|
Yes | The company's legal name, as part of the buyer's tax information. |
|
Yes | Tax region, as part of the buyer's tax information. |
|
Yes | The first tax classification name, as part of the buyer's tax information. |
|
Yes | The delivery preferences indicated by the buyer. E.g.: a drop-off location and address instructions. |
Amazon invoice number |
Yes | Included if you use Amazon's VAT/sales tax calculation service. |
Order line extra data
Key |
Conditional* |
Description |
ASIN | No | The ASIN of the product. |
Promotion discount | No | The discount applied. |
Shipping tax-inclusive promo amount |
Yes | The shipping discount applied. |
Gift wrap tax-inclusive selling price
|
Yes | The cost of the gift-wrapping option, including taxes. |
Fee FBA | Yes | The FBA fee charged by Amazon. |
Fee commission | Yes | The commission charged by Amazon. |
Fee refund commission | Yes | |
Fee other transaction | Yes | |
Charge gift wrap | Yes | The cost of the gift-wrapping option, excluding taxes. |
Charge shipping cost | Yes | The shipping cost applied. |
Promotion amount |
Yes | The promotion ID of the order item. |
Gift message text | Yes | A message written by the buyer for the person who is receiving the order. |
Gift wrap level | Yes | The selected gift wrapping option. For more information, refer to the Manage gift options article on Amazon Seller Central. |
Marketplace facilitator tax principal | Yes | The amount of sales tax Amazon is required to collect and report to the relevant US state. |
GRADE_AND_RESELL_SKU |
Yes | The grade-and-resell SKU assigned to the product by Amazon. E.g.: amzn.gr.Awesome-Product-SKU-LN. |
* Conditional fields are only displayed if the marketplace provides a value.
Settlement report
You can retrieve a settlement report from ChannelEngine via the Merchant API. The settlement report contains information on transactions and other financial activity, which can help you reconcile the totals you see on ChannelEngine or your merchant's system, and the amount received from Amazon. ChannelEngine generates a report per each Amazon sales channel, e.g.: Amazon DE, Amazon UK, etc.
There are two types of settlement report:
- Summary - a high-level financial overview. It includes the total number of transactions, currency, and start and end dates.
- Detailed - a detailed report containing all transactions. It includes the currency, transaction type, order date, VAT, and net/gross amount.
FAQs
Where can I set my shipping time?
The shipping time on Amazon is set in the shipping template in Amazon's back-end. On ChannelEngine you can set the Fulfillment latency (i.e.: the number of days it takes to process orders), and the shipping group (i.e.: the name of the shipping template you want to use on Amazon). However, the countries you wish to ship to, the shipping time, and the shipping costs are all set in Amazon's back-end. Go to Settings, Shipping settings, Edit existing template/Create a new template.
Can an order be canceled once placed?
Yes, but only during Amazon's order processing period – circa 30 minutes. Once an order is available to retrieve through the Amazon API (i.e.: ready for dispatch), it can no longer be canceled. Therefore, an Amazon order marked as New on ChannelEngine does not automatically have its status changed to Canceled or receive a Cancelation requested warning, as is the case for marketplaces such as bol. Note that this refers to cancelations coming directly from Amazon, not manually requested by the buyer or returns.
Can I cancel only part of an order?
While it is possible to submit your order in multiple shipments, Amazon does not support partial cancelations. If you have an order containing four items and need to cancel one item, all four items are canceled and refunded.
Why does it take around 30 minutes from placing an order on Amazon until it is visible on ChannelEngine?
This is because Amazon holds the order for this period of time before it is made available to retrieve through their API. During these 30 minutes, buyers can still cancel the order. You might receive an email stating there is a new order before these 30 minutes have passed, but ChannelEngine has no influence on this period.
Does ChannelEngine support advanced Amazon features, such as financial reports or recommendations?
Currently ChannelEngine only supports default Amazon marketplace features, such as product uploads and importing orders. Advanced features from Amazon's Finance or Recommendations API are not supported.
Can I sell 'certified refurbished' products through ChannelEngine?
Yes. However, to use this specific condition you need to be enrolled in Amazon's Renewed program. 'Certified refurbished' products usually have their own unique ASINs, to differentiate them from the regular new or used products.
What if my custom carrier is not known to Amazon?
If you are using a custom carrier that Amazon does not know, set the carrier mapping to 'Other' – without entering anything under the Carrier name field below it. ChannelEngine must export it as 'Other', with only the Shipping method set to your custom carrier. Any other combination results in either a rejection by Amazon or incorrect tracking information on Amazon's Seller Central.
What makes a product/offer unique on Amazon: the SKU, the GTIN, or the ASIN?
The one truly unique product identifier on Amazon is the ASIN. While in theory any other GTIN is also unique, multiple products on Amazon have the same GTIN – or the GTIN is used for the wrong product. As a workaround, the ASIN can be used to identify the correct product. If you open a product on Amazon using a browser, you can see its ASIN in the address bar.
Is it possible to match my offers with existing products by using an identifier other than the ASIN?
Yes, it is possible to connect your offers with existing products by using any unique identifier. E.g.: EAN, ISBN, UPC, etc.
What clothing sizes should I use on Amazon?
In 2020, Amazon started a process to standardize clothing sizes, with the goal to improve its customers' experience. To find out what sizes can be used, and how, check out the Clothing size standards article on Amazon's Seller Central.
How do marketplace returns work on Amazon?
To handle a return initiated by the customer directly on Amazon, go to Orders, Manage returns on Amazon's Seller Central.
How is VAT data related to B2B orders handled in Amazon's v3 API?
ChannelEngine can retrieve two VAT-related reports from Amazon. The first one is generated hourly by Amazon, but ChannelEngine retrieves it according to the following criteria:
- If the related task has never been executed successfully, ChannelEngine retrieves the data related to the past two days.
- If the related task has been executed successfully, ChannelEngine retrieves the data related to the past 12 hours.
By default, the column used to populate incoming B2B orders is buyer-vat-number. If this column is not available, ChannelEngine uses the column buyer-tax-registration-id. If that data is missing from your orders, do the following:
- Log in to Amazon's Seller Central.
- Go to Orders, Order reports, Add or remove order report columns.
- Add the VAT details and Buyer tax identifiers columns, then click Save changes.
For more information, check out section 4 of Amazon's VAT calculation service (VCS) guide.
If ChannelEngine is unable to retrieve the required data from that first report, it retrieves a second report: Amazon's VAT calculation report. By default, all VAT data from the past 14 days is imported.
Once ChannelEngine fetches that data, it updates the VAT number of existing business orders – as long as the Channel order number matches. Orders that already have a VAT number are not updated. This VAT number corresponds to the value in the Buyer tax registration column in Amazon's report.
Note that it can take some time to import this data, which is only available for the following countries:
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Spain
- United Kingdom
According to Amazon, orders are available in this report three days after the shipment.
How are cancelation reasons exported from ChannelEngine to Amazon?
You can use ChannelEngine to handle canceled orders. Once you fill out the fields in the Create cancelation window and click Add, ChannelEngine exports the cancelation information to Amazon.
Cancelation reasons are exported to Amazon as follows:
- Out of stock, Damaged, and Incomplete result in the No inventory status.
- Canceled after consultation with customer support results in the Buyer canceled status.
- Invalid address has the Shipping address undeliverable status.
Updating one of my product's bullet points on ChannelEngine overrides all of its bullet points. Why is this happening?
There are several mappable bullet point attributes on Amazon v3. Each of those attributes corresponds to a single bullet point on the PDP. However, as these attributes are part of a single object in Amazon’s back-end, updating one of them overrides them all. That also applies if you map them in Amazon's back-end and update them via ChannelEngine.
E.g.: if you map Key product features: bullet point 2-7 in Amazon's back-end and only map Key product features: bullet point 2-3 on ChannelEngine, a context export results in Key product features: bullet point 2-3 reflected on the PDP – while Key product features: bullet point 4-7 are removed from Amazon's back-end and not shown on the PDP.
Can I submit product videos to Amazon via the SP-API?
No, it is not possible to submit product videos to Amazon via the SP-API. To upload product videos to Amazon, go to Seller Central.
How can I set up strikethrough pricing on Amazon v3?
Amazon supports strikethrough pricing (a.k.a. from-for pricing or reference pricing) in two forms: List price; and Was price. The List price is set by you (provided that Amazon has invited you to use this feature), while the Was price is automatically calculated by Amazon. To create a List price:
- Go to Mappings, Content mappings* on your Amazon marketplace on ChannelEngine.
- Map the Sale price (a.k.a. purchasable_offer/discounted_price/schedule/value_with_tax) to your ‘to’ or discounted price.
- Map the UVP list price (a.k.a. uvp_list_price/value) and the List price/Value with tax (a.k.a. list_price/value_with_tax) to the original price of the product, so the discount can be calculated.
- Map the Sale end date** (a.k.a. purchasable_offer/discounted_price/schedule/end_at) to the date when you want to end your discount.
- Map the Sale start date** (a.k.a. purchasable_offer/discounted_price/schedule/start_at) to the date when you want to start your discount.
- Save your changes and wait for Amazon to validate them.
* Note that you cannot set up strikethrough pricing if context export is not enabled on your Amazon marketplace on ChannelEngine. To enable it, go to the Setup page.
** Use the format yyyy-mm-dd. E.g.: 2022-01-31. Make sure to respect the fair pricing and time duration requirements for discounts within each country.
Are there any restrictions regarding SKUs on Amazon v3?
Yes, there is a character length restriction for SKUs on Amazon v3. To ensure error-free content and offer exports, keep the product SKU (i.e.: the Merchant product number on ChannelEngine) under 40 characters. Any combination of letters and numbers is valid.
Can I keep the 'Enable content export' setting disabled, and create products in Amazon's back-end instead of on ChannelEngine?
Yes, it is possible to create products directly on Amazon's Seller Central – with ChannelEngine handling only the creation and update of offers. However, you must make sure that the SKUs you use on Seller Central are exactly the same as the related SKUs on ChannelEngine.
My product content is the same on ChannelEngine and on Seller Central, but the product page shows something different. What is wrong?
Amazon uses an algorithm to decide which product content is used. If you submit new content, such as an image or title, but the algorithm gives a higher score to the previous content, the product is not updated.
Over time, your content gains authority on the platform – with vendors having higher authority, especially if they own the brand. If you are a brand owner and your content is not reflected on the product page, contact Amazon.
Does ChannelEngine support Amazon's Seller Flex?
Yes, ChannelEngine does support Amazon's Seller Flex. Once you upload your stock to Amazon via the dedicated Seller Flex portal, ChannelEngine imports it accordingly – and all related orders are marked as FBA orders.
Does ChannelEngine support A+ Content?
No, ChannelEngine does not support A+ Content yet. You can create, update, or delete A+ content directly on Seller Central.
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