Amazon: Seller Fulfilled Prime

About this article

This article describes ChannelEngine's Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) settings, and how to use them.

Table of contents

Introduction

Setup

Create a shipment

Export a shipment

FAQ

Introduction

ChannelEngine's customers can use Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime feature in two different ways: via the API or via the ChannelEngine web application.

Setup

Before you can use Amazon SFP, you must enable it.

To enable SFP on ChannelEngine, go to your Amazon channel and click Setup, Advanced settings and switch the SFP: Enabled toggle to on.

Other related Amazon’s SFP settings are:

• SFP: Realtime SFP labels - toggle the switch to on to export the shipment in real time.
• SFP ship from: name - the first part of the address you ship from.
• SFP ship from: address line 1 - the second part of the address you ship from.
• SFP ship from: postcode - the postcode you ship from.
• SFP ship from: city - the city you ship from.
• SFP ship from: country - the country you ship from.
• SFP ship from: phone - the contact phone number.
• SFP ship from: email - the contact email address
• SFP carrier will pick up - toggle this setting if a carrier collects packages from your warehouse.
• SFP delivery experience - the level of delivery confirmation. The options are: with an adult’s signature, with signature (required for DPD UK), without signature, and without confirmation.

Create a shipment

Via ChannelEngine

To create a shipment via ChannelEngine:

1. Go to the order you want to ship on ChannelEngine, click Create shipment, and enter the required information. You must have SFP enabled, and the order must be Prime, to ship using SFP.
2. Provide the Quantity shipped in the shipment. Next, provide the dimensions of the package: Unit, Height, Width, and Length. Then, provide the Weight.
3. From the list, choose the carrier you want to ship the product(s) with and save the shipment. Wait until ChannelEngine has exported the shipment to Amazon, which should not take more than one hour. If the SFP: Realtime SFP labels setting is enabled, the shipment is exported to Amazon in real time.
4. Within the shipment, click Download shipping label. The label is downloaded in the default label format, as configured on Amazon Seller Central (i.e.: PNG, PDF, or ZPL).

Via the Merchant API

First, retrieve the list of available carriers.

1. Use the following call to fetch available carriers and their offers for the order:
   
   POST /v2/carriers/{merchantOrderNo}
   
   The response of that call contains the list of eligible carriers and their prices for the order. The carrier list is determined by the dimensions and the timing of your request. Your address, chosen delivery experience, and the option for the carrier to pick up the parcel also influence this list. 
2. Provide the following parameters:
   • The dimensions of the package (i.e.: height, width, and length).
   • The weight of the package.
   • The shipment lines, i.e.: the quantities shipped per Merchant product number.
3. Save the code of the selected carrier.
4. To create the shipment, call the following endpoint:
   
   POST /v2/shipments/channelmethod 
    
   • Add the carrier code obtained in the previous call to the request body as ChannelMethodCode.
   • Use the other parameters as used in the previous call. 
5. The shipment is created on ChannelEngine. 
6. Call the following endpoint to request the shipping label:
   
   GET /v2/orders/{merchantShipmentNo}/shippinglabel
   
   Use the Merchant shipment number that is provided when you created the shipment.
   
   The response is a downloadable file in the default label format, as configured on Amazon Seller Central (i.e.: PNG, PDF, or ZPL).

Download shipping labels

When ChannelEngine exports your shipment, the process to create the shipping label starts.

• By default, Amazon does not provide the label immediately. Therefore, ChannelEngine must wait until the next shipment export task to retrieve the label. This should not take more than one hour.
• If the SFP: Realtime SFP labels setting is enabled in your Amazon channel on ChannelEngine, the label is created immediately.

During the next shipment export, ChannelEngine downloads the finalized label. The shipping label is then available to download, both via the ChannelEngine web application and via the API.

FAQ

What is Amazon’s API rate limit for Prime shipments?
Amazon API’s rate limit for Prime shipments is five calls per second, or 3,000 every ten minutes.

Is an error returned if the wrong shipment code is used?
ChannelEngine does not run any validation on shipment codes, as it does not save all the possible shipment codes for each carrier and call. Therefore, the code must be copied and pasted correctly when creating the shipment. If the shipment is not exported in real time, it can take one hour to export it.

Note that the carrier offer can change in the meantime, which means the channel method code could no longer be valid. In that case, ChannelEngine receives an error when exporting the shipment, and this error is shown on ChannelEngine on the shipment level.

What does the 'Seller Fulfilled Prime: the Amazon terms and conditions were not accepted' error mean?
This error means that you have not accepted all of Amazon's extensive terms and conditions, so ChannelEngine cannot retrieve the list of available carriers to process SFP orders. Once you accept all required terms, the error should disappear.

Note that any orders marked as In progress on ChannelEngine, but shipped manually via Amazon's back-end, are going to remain in progress. ChannelEngine does not support orders handled outside of the platform.