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EDI for Amazon
Advance Amazon Integration Solution (AAIS)
A fully automated and integrated messaging solution for Amazon Merchants
Automate | Integrate | Eliminate
Automate your business relationship and transactional data flows with the Amazon Marketplace.
Integrate transactional data with your backend IT systems and business applications.
Eliminate costly manual processes and overheads, reduce risk and increase your ability to serve.
What is AAIS?
AdvanceFirst Amazon Integration Solutions (AAIS) is a subscription based messaging service which automates the exchange of business data directly between backend IT systems and the Amazon Marketplace, thereby removing the overheads, costs and risks associated with manually processing data through existing web-based solutions.
Typical data flows include inbound orders, order responses, catalogue uploads and maintenance, FBA related messages, Amazon event and process notifications and more. The Service is aimed at Merchants who list and sell products through the Amazon Marketplace, including Sellers who fulfil orders directly to customers and Vendors who supply goods to Amazon and is particularly useful for those who are experiencing a higher volume of orders and transactions as a result of changing market conditions and dynamics.
AAIS can either be a replacement for, or work alongside, your existing web-based Amazon connectivity software such as Seller or Vendor Central.
- Exchange electronic messages relating to Customer Orders and integrate them directly into your business application with no manual intervention.
- Automatically upload and manage catalogue data and product listings to your Amazon Merchant Account.
- Automatically receive customer feedback and important notifications from Amazon.
- Improve your responsiveness and ability to comply with Amazon business process and terms of trade.
The Business Problem
Is your business restricted due to the overheads related to manual fulfilment with Amazon?
Companies are reporting the volume of business they do through on-line Marketplaces is constrained due to the overheads with manual fulfilment processes and therefore recognise the need to move to an automated, fully integrated approach.
As an Amazon Merchant, you’ll be aware of just how demanding their order fulfilment process can be. Whilst Amazon provide various methods of exchanging process related business transactions, strict time-based processes have to be observed if non-compliance penalties are to be avoided.
As a starting point, Vendors and Sellers alike have the use of Amazon’s web-based transaction portals, namely “Vendor-” or “Seller-Central” whose purpose is to assist Merchants to engage with Amazon, view and download orders, upload listing (catalogue) data, return confirmations and other Order-to-Cash (OTC) transactions. The portals are widely used but were never designed to integrate with a Merchant’s internal business applications. As a consequence, fulfilling Amazon orders can be a highly resource intensive, manual operation with higher costs and greater risk of error. This is where Amazon EDI comes in.
As business volumes grow, Merchants can, if they choose, migrate to a more integrated and formalised method of exchanging business transactions through standards-based communications technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as well as other exchanges through the data feeds available within the Amazon MWS (Marketplace Web Service) API’s. This can be done gradually to minimise risk, message by message with the objective of formalising the structure and content of data exchange with Amazon with full end-to-end integration into and out of the Merchant’s internal business systems and applications.
Amazon brought in
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in sales revenue in the first quarter of 2020
There are now
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distribution centres across the UK
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desktop and mobile website visits to amazon.co.uk in November 2020
- Statistics source: https://www.statista.com/topics/5592/amazon-in-the-uk/
The Solution
AAIS is a low-cost, pragmatic solution which is now available from AdvanceFirst Technologies.
Designed specifically to help merchants transition from manual to fully integrated processes. That is, migration from Amazon’s web-based messaging portals to a fully integrated data solution linking Amazon transactional data with Merchants’ internal IT systems. The solution will be of value to Amazon Merchants looking to expand their presence with the Amazon marketplace – one of, if not the, fastest growing internet commerce sites globally.
The service is available now at a low, fixed cost annual service subscription and includes everything a Merchant will need to automate their business relationship with Amazon.
Why do this and what are the benefits?
Undeniably, Amazon has become one of the fastest expanding global online marketplaces with $billions worth of net sales and revenues. A trend predicted to continue as the volume of consumer spending shifts from traditional high-street retailers to online purchasing. Equally, consumer expectations are becoming increasingly challenging, demanding better service, quality, lower prices and near instant availability. It is critical, therefore, that retailers embrace these challenges by aligning their business process and IT systems with the Amazon Marketplace to meet the demands of an ever increasing volume of online trade.
- Fully automate resource dependent manual processes.
- Fully integrate Amazon Order to Cash process data with internal business systems.
- Reduce Costs.
- Reduce Risks.
- Increase your Amazon presence and scope of products sold through the Amazon Marketplace.
- Repurpose manual staff to more customer facing, value added activities.
Amazon has become one of the fastest expanding global online marketplaces with $billions worth of net sales and revenues.
This solution is right for you if...
- You are already an Amazon Merchant using either Vendor or Seller Central, Amazon’s self-serve web-based portals.
- You are using up too much of your precious resources, time and people by having to manually extract or manually rekey data between Amazon and your internal business applications
- You are now at a stage where you need it to be fully automated and are looking for an easy solution to do this.
- You are finding the web-based solution is restricting the volume of Amazon orders you can process with existing resources.
- You have restricted the number of products you sell through the Amazon marketplace simply because you cannot manage an increase in order volume.
- You have the need to automate the upload and management of product related catalogue data.
- You would like to take advantage of other data services and feeds now available through the Amazon MWS API data feeds.
- You have considered the EDI route as an alternative to using either Seller or Vendor Central but see this to be complex and costly - it doesn't have to be with AdvanceFirst Technologies flexible messaging solutions.
- You lack the expertise, infrastructure or possibly internal knowhow to implement EDI with Amazon and possibly beyond to your wider supply chain partners.
Are you ready to take the next step?
FAQ's
Most frequent questions and answers
AdvanceFirst Amazon Integration Solution (AAIS) is a subscription based service which automates the exchange of business related information and messages between an Amazon Merchant’s IT systems and the Amazon Marketplace.
Any Amazon merchant who lists and sells products through the Amazon Marketplace, including Sellers who fulfil orders directly to customers and Vendors who supply goods to Amazon. The service is particularly useful for Merchants who are now experiencing a higher volume of orders and transactions as a result of changing market conditions and circumstances.
Amazon provide web-based communications platforms to both Sellers (Seller Central) and Vendors (Vendor Central), although these require manual interaction with no direct links to the subscriber’s internal business application. AAIS provides full automation and integration of Merchants’ data, directly to and from their internal business applications to the Amazon Marketplace, with AAIS providing the necessary routing and data format translations to the standard formats required by Amazon. The benefits to be gained through automating data flows include a significant reduction in manual overheads, time and costs, the ability to respond more quickly to higher volumes of orders and reducing potential errors associated with manual processing as AAIS can, where needed, validate data for consistency, content and accuracy.
Typical data flows might include inbound customer orders, and the messages Merchants are required to return in response, product data uploads and management, FBM/FBA related messages, tracking information and event notifications, reports or indeed any data feeds provided through Amazon’s Marketplace Web-Services (MWS). All messaging interfaces and data feeds are supported within AAIS with new ones added as they are released from time to time.
Yes, AAIS will deliver Amazon orders in a data format Subscribers can import directly into their business systems without the need to rekey. Data can be forwarded in a format of the Subscribers choice or other standard EDI or XML formats. The same applies to the messages Subscribers need to send back to Amazon in response such as Order Acknowledgements, ASN’s and Invoices. These can submitted to the AAIS messaging engine in a format the Subscribers business systems can export and AAIS will take care of the reformatting and routing of messages to and from Amazon. The only dependency is that the Subscriber provides the minimum (mandatory) data required by Amazon’s message specifications. Amazon publish documentation on the content and structure of the data they require for all messages – otherwise known as “MIGs” (Message Implementation Guidelines) and are available to download directly from Vendor/Seller Central.
Equally other forms of data can be automated through AAIS directly to/from your internal business applications or web-servers including product related catalogue data, FBA messages and Alerts and Notifications Amazon make available to you from time to time.
AAIS is offered through simple, low cost monthly subscriptions based on the number of MWS Data Feeds required. A more accurate view on costs can be provided once we understand your specific needs and requirements.
No. AAIS actually compliments them by automating certain functions within Seller or Vendor Central such as removing manual tasks associated with exchanging order related business transactions, uploading or maintaining catalogues for example. Even with AAIS in place, subscribers always have the option to revert to Seller and/or Vendor Central at any time should the need arise.
Your AAIS subscription will be available within a few days from the point of signing the AAIS service agreement. The time it takes to implement will obviously depend on the number and complexity of MWS Data feeds required by each AAIS subscriber. For the exchange of Order related messages for example, Amazon has highly structured processes which need to be observed to avoid penalties or non-compliance fines. It is therefore extremely important to test each message type thoroughly before obtaining the authority from Amazon to go live. As a rule of thumb, an average implementation should take no longer than a couple of weeks to complete. Once you’re up and running, the whole process should work with minimal manual intervention with the assurance that AdvanceFirst’s AAIS support team are there to help you should any issues arise.
No, other than people who know your internal business systems and how to import and export data. AAIS and the support teams at AdvanceFirst will take care of the rest.
We recognise issues can arise from time to time which is why our support teams are here to help. AAIS provides inclusive support during normal business hours or, if needed, extended 24×7 support subject to additional cost and contractual terms.
Contact the AdvanceFirst AAIS implementation team by phoning: 01932 230024 or Emailing: enquiries@advancefirst.com with your contact details and a brief summary of your immediate areas of interest. We will then arrange a free, no obligation consultation with one of our business automation specialists to identify where AAIS can make a real difference to your business operations.
Why AdvanceFirst
AdvanceFirst are a leader in intelligent messaging solutions with over 350 man years of experience in delivering solutions tailored to the needs of individual supply chain orientated businesses. We help businesses of all sizes communicate with their supply chain partners and develop solutions to achieve 100% communications connectivity – either directly or through the leading online marketplaces and industry specific trading portals.
As a certified Amazon Developer with PII (Personal Identifiable Information) authority, we are proud of our continued ability to provide very simple or complex solutions to our clients, on time and within budget. Utilizing powerful ‘state of the art’ software tools, together with a specialist team of highly experienced implementation and project management consultants, we consistently deliver supply chain focused solutions, bringing value to complex business processes. The solution, open to Amazon Merchants, uses a simple technical procedure to seamlessly exchange business transactions with Amazon, directly to/from internal business applications, together with all the guidance and advice needed to ensure full compliance with Amazon’s transactional processes.
Contact Us
If you recognise the need to Automate your Amazon business processes, Integrate your internal business information with your Amazon Marketplace merchant account(s) or Eliminate unnecessary costs, overheads and risks then we would be delighted to talk to you about a solution which can be tailored to your specific needs.
Call us on +44 (0)1932 230 024 or email to enquiries@advancefirst.com with your contact details and a brief description of what you are looking to achieve through automation and one of our AAIS team specialists will get right back to you.
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