EDI for Amazon
Covid-19. Are you coping with the increased volume of Amazon orders?
Amazon Business Integration:
A fully automated and integrated Amazon EDI messaging solution for Amazon Merchants.
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 (EDI) based approach.
As an Amazon Merchant, you'll be aware of just how demanding their order fulfilment process can be.
Whilst Amazon provides various methods of exchanging process related business transactions, strict time-based process 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”. Their purpose is solely to assist Merchants to engage with Amazon, view and download orders, return confirmations and other Order-to-Cash (OTC) transactions.
The portals are widely used but were never designed to integrate with a Merchants internal business applications. As a consequence, fulfilling Amazon orders can be a highly resource intensive, manual operation with higher costs and the possibility of error and risk.
As business volumes grow, Merchants may elect to migrate to a more integrated and formalised method of exchanging business transactions – the most common of which being Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a standards based communications technology. 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 Merchants internal business systems and applications.
Fulfilling Amazon orders can be a highly resource intensive, manual operation with higher costs and the possibility of error and risk.
A low cost, pragmatic solution is now available from AdvanceFirst Technologies.
Designed specifically to help merchants transition from manual processes to the fully integrated, that is, migration from Amazon’s web-based messaging portals to a fully integrated EDI solution linking Amazon transactional data with Merchants internal IT systems. The solution will appeal to those looking to expand their presence with the marketplace, undoubtedly one of, if not the, fastest growing internet commerce sites globally.
The solution is called “Amazon Business Integration” (ABI) and includes everything Merchants need to automate their business relationship with Amazon with end-to-end, integrated messaging.
Are you ready to take the next step?
Follow the link below to provide some basic contact information and details of your current business relationship with Amazon. A member of our specialist Amazon team will be in touch to advise how best to proceed.
Why do this and what are the benefits?
Amazon has become one of the fastest expanding global on-line 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 on-line purchasing.
Equally, consumer expectations are becoming increasingly challenging, demanding better service, quality, lower prices and near instant availability. It’s 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 on-line 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.
The solution will appeal to those looking to expand their presence with the marketplace, undoubtedly one of, if not the, fastest growing internet commerce sites globally.
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 rekey all the data to and from Amazon.
- 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.
- Have considered the EDI route as an alternative but see this to be complex and costly - it doesn't have to be with AFT Solutions!
- You lack the expertise, infrastructure and internal knowhow to implement EDI with Amazon and possibly beyond to your wider supply chain partners.
Are you ready to take the next step?
Follow the link below to provide some basic contact information and details of your current business relationship with Amazon. A member of our specialist Amazon team will be in touch to advise how best to proceed.
FAQ's
Most frequent questions and answers
Yes, ABI will deliver Amazon orders in a data format ABI 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 ABI messaging engine in a format the Subscribers business systems can export and ABI 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. 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.
ABI is offered through a simple monthly subscription based on the number of messages ABI Subscribers elect to exchange with Amazon. Subscriptions start from as little as £200 per month with a £300 one-off set up fee per message type. There are a number of business messages defined by Amazon including inbound orders and response messages such as Order Acknowledgements, Advance Shipment Notifications (ASN’s), Invoices, Credits, Sales Reports, Inventory Reports and so forth, but in truth, most Subscribers start with Orders and Acknowledgement (and possibly Invoices). Further message types can be added at any time or when needed.
No. ABI compliments them by automating the messaging element of both portals removing the need for Subscribers to manually monitor and/or respond to Amazon orders or re-key data into their internal business systems. Even with ABI in place, Subscribers can always revert to Vendor Central at any time should the need arise. The benefits arise by automating the Amazon “Order Lifecycle”, repurposing manual resources in to perform more value-added or customer focused activities whilst reducing costs, the time to respond, minimising data errors and non-compliance risks.
Your ABI subscription will be available within a few days from the point of signing the ABI service agreement. Amazon has highly structured processes governing the exchange of messages which need to be observed to avoid penalties or non-compliance fines. It’s therefore extremely important to test each message type thoroughly before obtaining the authority from Amazon to go-live. The “time-to-live” very much depends therefore on the number of messages to be implemented and the ABI Subscribers attentiveness to a few relatively simple dependent tasks during the testing period. 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 the AFT ABI 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. ABI and the support teams at AFT 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. ABI provides inclusive support during normal business hours or if needed, extended 24×7 support (subject to additional cost and a contractual terms).
You can contact the AFT ABI implementation team by Phone to: 01932 230024) or Email to: (ABI-registrations@advancefirst.com), or alternatively complete the enquiry form on here. The data you submit will be held securely in accordance with GDPR regulations and will not be shared, sold or otherwise disclosed to any unauthorised third parties. Our implementation team will analyse your particular circumstances and will then be in a position to advise you on the optimum solution for your needs.
Customer reviews
What people say
AdvanceFirst Technologies worked closely with Bryson Products to integrate EDI with Amazon into our operations and automate what was hitherto a highly inefficient and predominantly manual process. The solution fully integrates data from the Amazon order flow with our internal IT systems and order fulfilment processes, including those of an external supplier who are now fully EDI enabled with us as an integral part of our extended enterprise. The solution has enabled us to confidently increase our volume of business with Amazon without adding costs, and also remove a significant amount of manual and administrative overheads.
Mark Chedgey
Commercial Programme Manager - BRYSON PRODUCTS
The future of EDI Software, EDI Outsourcing & Managed Services, EDI Consultancy & The Home of Intercept-400 the world’s best EDI solution for IBM iSeries and AMOS.Net.
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