With this interface, you can connect Xentral to Amazon to import sales orders from there into Xentral and manage your products sold at Amazon in Xentral.The connection is made via an API interface (shop importer).
As a seller at Amazon, you have two different ways of working:
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Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM): You ship your goods from your own warehouse.
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Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): Amazon ships the goods for you.
Both ways of working can be mapped into Xentral using the Amazon interface:
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When shipping from our own warehouse, the sales orders are picked up and then go through the entire shipping process in Xentral, whereby in addition to an invoice, a delivery note and - if desired - a parcel label are also generated.
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For a FBA sales order, on the other hand, the interface recognizes that you don’t need to do physical shipping, so all that’s generated is an invoice that can be automatically emailed to your customer if you wish.
Due to the design of the interface, you can also map a business model of combined shipping methods in Xentral, as the right process is automatically initiated for each sales order.
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You already sell your products on other platforms, but you also want to sell on Amazon (FBM / FBA). Xentral allows you to compare your inventory across platforms. You can also automatically import sales orders by status and report back the status for shipping to Xentral.
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You only sell on Amazon (FBM). With Xentral, you can optimize your processes by using warehouse management and auto shipping.
Functionalities included
With the Amazon Shop Importer, you can
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Import sales orders from Amazon (marketplaces) to Xentral
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Return status information including tracking number and shipping service provider to Amazon (FBM only)
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Submit stock numbers to Amazon
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Upload invoices (FBA/FBM)
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Use Amazon VAT Services
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Upload product data (partially) (as new installation)
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check the status of your interface and Seller Central account via System Health
Functionalities not included
The following actions are not possible:
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Full upload of product data (including prices) to Amazon
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Using Just-in-Time BOMs & FBA
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Transmission of credits (FBM) to Amazon
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Amazon Advantage Program Support
Important
Not all Amazon use cases can be mapped into Xentral with this one app. Check out other apps (e.g. Amazon Vendor DF, Amazon MFN, amainvoice) if you need more functionality.
In this section you will be explained the possible settings in the shop interface.
When you open the Amazon interface settings, you will first be in the Details > Interface tab.
Settings:
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Designation: Name freely selectable for the shop (shown e.g. in the product and in the import menu)
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Active: Check the box to make the interface active. You can set interfaces that are no longer needed to inactive
Note
If your token is invalid, your shop interface will be disabled and this information will be displayed in your System Health Dashboard.
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Project: Linking the shop to a project. In the project you can make the logistics settings
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Pickup Mode: You can pick up from a specific date at Amazon
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Date of: From this point on, sales orders are picked up, updates when you use the Pick Up Sales Orders function
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Interface start: No sales orders are picked up before this date
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Import Mode: Determines whether the sales orders from the shop should be imported manually (with the push of a button) or automatically
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Demo (for testing): The sales order status in the shop not changed, no products or stock numbers transferred
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Manual (with import control): The sales orders are not picked up until the Pick Up Sales Orders button is clicked
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Automatically (via process starter): The sales orders are picked up automatically by the shop on a regular basis. The shop importer process starter is required for this
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Only 1 sales order per request: Only 1 sales order per request is transferred from the shop
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Sales orders in intermediate table: When picking up the sales orders, the sales orders are not created directly, but are first stored in an intermediate table for viewing. Here you can decide which orders should be created and which should be imported later
Settings for shop or marketplace:
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SellerID: SellerID from Amazon Seller Central
Access data:
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AWS Access Key ID: With a developer account, an access key and secret key can be used for the connection instead of the MWS Auth Token
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AWS Secret Key: Only available with a developer account
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Time Zone: Amazon Main Store Time Zone
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Currency: Currency of Amazon main store
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Set Wishlist Date: Date when delivery should be made is imported from Amazon. If the lowest delivery date on Amazon is less than the number of days entered in the future, a new desired delivery date is set in the order
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Debug: If you check the box, the debugging mode is activated and the calls are stored in logs
FBA settings:
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Pick up FBA Orders: Check if you want to pick up FBA sales orders
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Own project for FBA: Here you can set a project for FBA sales orders
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Use Amazon invoice number (only with Amazon invoice service): Check if you want Amazon to use the invoice number
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Maximum days for reports: The maximum number of last days from which the reports are imported (typically 30)
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Set sales order to completed: Sales orders are imported directly with the gray "Completed" checkmark
FBM settings:
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Pick up FBM sales orders: Check if you want to pick up FBM sales orders
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Own project for FBM: Here you can set a project for FBM sales orders
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Gift packaging: A postage product must be entered here.
Invoice handling (invoice settings):
Note
Correctly configuring invoice processing with Amazon can be challenging, for Settings for different invoice scenarios (Amazon), we present useful settings for the different scenarios.
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Create Credits: Here you can choose whether or not to generate a credit
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Use Invoice Upload Service: Check this box so that invoices are transferred to the shop when shipping is reported
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Transfer invoices no later than x days after invoice date: After the entered number of days, the invoice will be transferred no later than
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Upload Start Date: Date from which the invoice is uploaded
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Accept VAT from: Date from which invoice numbers are adopted from VAT report
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FBA:
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Create invoice: Here you can set whether or not to create an invoice for FBA sales orders
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Send invoice by email: Check if the invoice is to be sent to customers by email
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Send credit notes by email: Check if the credit note is to be sent to customers by email
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FBM:
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Create invoice: Here you can set whether or not to create an invoice for FBM sales orders
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Send invoice by email: Check if the invoice is to be sent to customers by email
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Marketplaces:
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[Country] Checkbox: Activate a marketplace by checking the box next to the country.
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Price Group: Enter the price group that applies to the respective marketplace here.
Action:
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Check connection: Check the correct connection to Amazon
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Get Sales Orders: Get the sales orders from your store. This is necessary if you have set the import mode of the interface to manual.
Note
You should also make sure that the status messages for “Order open”, “Order in progress”, and “Order ready” are unique; the same status must not be used in multiple places.
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Shopimport intermediate table: Jumps to the intermediate table of sales orders from the shop. The intermediate table is only populated in manual import mode and when the option 'Orders in intermediate table' is enabled.
In the intermediate table, select between "Import", "Waste" and "Later" in the left column.
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Import: Sales order is imported directly
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Trash: Sales order ends up in the garbage and cannot be imported a second time
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Later: Sales order can be imported at a later date
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To the Amazon App: Redirects you to the Amazon Seller App
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Import old sales orders: Old sales orders are loaded into the clipboard where you can decide again whether the sales orders should be imported. Importantly, no simultaneous operation is possible (i.e. current sales orders and old sales orders cannot be imported simultaneously)
Information about this tab can be found here.
Information about this tab can be found here.
Note
Manual booking is required to book withdrawals from Amazon.
When you click Check Connection (Details > Interface), the interface imports all shipping service providers (carriers) available from Amazon. In addition to mapping with carriers, Xentral now also has a mapping for the product, so it displays the shipping service providers and the respective product ID.
You will then need to map the shipping methods you created to the appropriate shipping methods on the Shipping Methods tab. You will need to map this in every Amazon interface you create. There is a new mapping field called "Product Outgoing." Here you can enter the appropriate product ID for the shipping method for the mapping.
It is necessary that the mapping is performed in each Amazon interface so that when the tracking number of shipped sales orders is reported back, information can also be returned to Amazon about which shipping service provider was used.
If the shipping provider data changes on Amazon's part, you can retrieve the updated data at any time via the Check Connection button.
The log file of the shop interface lists all error messages regarding the assignment of shipping methods. The message "Carriers have not yet been retrieved from the store" is displayed if you have not yet added the shipping providers via the Check Connection button.
For more information on shipping method mapping, click here.
With the sub-shop mapping you can set a separate project with your own logistics procedure for each marketplace ID, or you can differentiate the sub-shops according to FBA and FBM.
To do this, you can create the sub-shops in the interface in the Sub-shop tab as follows: Marketplace (lower case) + underscore + FBA or FBM, for example:
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de_FBA for Marketplace Germany FBA
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it_FBM for Marketplace Italy FBM
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gb_FBM for Marketplace Great Britain FBM
Information about this tab can be found here.
Learn more about using Smarty in this Help Center article: Smarty at Shopimporter.
The ASIN is not relevant for Amazon - whether FBA or FBM - the associated seller SKU is relevant, which must be stored with external product numbers in the product. The ASIN is not unique for Amazon, as it can have different states like new, used or overhauled. In the Amazon interface under Details -> external product numbers you can also link the external product numbers of the FBA products picked up by Amazon by using the SKU to link the product number in Xentral or by using the SKU directly as Xentral product number.
The external product numbers table is populated from the Stocks table in the Amazon Seller app. Only products that are listed as FBA products in Amazon are picked up. You can then manage these in the Amazon Seller app. The external product numbers of FBM items must be created directly in the product master data.
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Create unassigned products → Amazon products that have not been linked are newly created in Xentral.
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Use SKU as WaWi product number → The SKU of the product will be created in Xentral as product number
By clicking on update product you save the entered links.
If you use the Xentral Amazon interface to import sales orders, products will be imported with name (title) and number only.
If you use the Xentral Amazon SellerApp additionally, the following information can be imported:
'Publisher', 'Studio', 'ProductGroup', 'ProductTypeName', 'Size', 'Color', 'Manufacturer', 'Label', 'Model', 'NumberOfItems', 'Brand'. Additionally a thumbnail will be imported as a group picture.
If you have specified a price group in the shop interface, the product price will be imported as a group price, but this will only work if you are selling on a marketplace.
Once the Amazon interface is initialized, you have linked the product to the interface, and you have the Amazon Seller App, a new storage location called "Amazon" is created, where the stocks of the FBA items are loaded into the system via API.
Note
For the interface to be fully initialized, you must set the import mode to manual import.
You can learn more about importing products here.
Learn how to export products from Xentral to Amazon here.
There is a special feature of stock count matching to Amazon. You need to maintain all external product numbers in the products, as the Amazon interface collects them in a list and transfers the stock counts of all products at once. So it could happen here that the whole list is not updated if the external product number of a product is missing.
Note that reservations made on a product will affect the reported stock level.
Learn more about stock quantity synchronization here.
Note
In demo mode, stock numbers or sales order data are not sent and no invoices are uploaded, whereas VAT reports and inventory reports are picked up.
The following drop-down menu shows you which different import modes are available.
To test the pick-up, we recommend the "Demo Mode", because here only the last sales order is picked up and the status at Amazon is not changed.
Afterwards, you only have to click on the Pick up Orders button. If you have selected the option " Sales Orders in Intermediate Table", then you will be shown an intermediate table after the pick-up process, in which you can confirm the import again, cancel it or postpone it until later. Otherwise, the order will be loaded directly into the order overview under Sell > Sales order.
You also have the option to manually reset the start pick-up date to "yesterday" via a button if the interface warns that the start pick-up date was way back.
Sales orders with the following order statuses can be picked up by Amazon when FBM is shipped:
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unfulfilled
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partially fulfilled
All other sales order statuses are currently ignored and not imported. If they are FBA orders, we will pick up any status.
For more information on importing sales orders from online stores click here.
When picking up sales older orders, it may happen that not all sales orders can be imported.
Note
Old sales orders can only be imported if they are max. 89 days before the current date.
Reporting sales order status is only possible with FBM, and only open and unshipped sales orders are reported back to Amazon.
For FBA and FBM, it is possible to automatically upload invoices to Amazon starting with version 20.1. To enable the invoice upload service, check the Use invoice upload service checkbox. The time trigger for uploading the invoice is the arrival of the shipping information (tracking number) in Xentral. In addition, you can set a time difference to ensure that invoices are loaded to Amazon after a defined number of days at the latest, even if no tracking code has been received. Note that only invoices that have “sent” status are uploaded. You can also set this via the project settings or when creating invoices from the Transfer module.
With the help of the date in the field "Upload start date" you can also retroactively transfer already created invoices to Amazon.
The following explains how to create invoices and credits for Amazon in Xentral.
Amazon offers the possibility to have invoices and credit notes created directly by Amazon (VAT Service). This means that the data for the invoice (invoice number, VAT, amounts, etc.) comes from Amazon and not from Xentral. If you want to create the invoices and credit notes based on the VAT Service also in Xentral, up to version 20.2 our Amazon Seller App was necessary. From version 20.3 onwards you no longer need it for the use of the Amazon VAT Service. If you use the VAT Service you do not need a V2 report. If you use the VAT Service from Amazon, do not create invoices or credit notes for the corresponding sales orders in Xentral, as these are transferred from Amazon.
Note
In Xentral, you can only map the normal Amazon VAT service, but not the Amazon VAT service light. With the VAT service light, only the calculation of VAT is handled by Amazon, whereas the invoice must be created by the customer himself and uploaded to Amazon.
You have the option to create invoices and credit notes from the sales orders in Xentral.
You can also avoid generating invoices and credit notes for imported sales orders, for example if you use Amainvoice or Amazon VAT Service to create invoices.
The V2 billing report is required to create FBA credits, and if the V2 billing report does not exist in your Amazon account, you must have it activated through Amazon Customer Support.
Note
Credits are created by default with the payment date, not the import date.
In order to ensure a distinction between FBA and FBM products for Amazon, it is imperative that you maintain the external product numbers correctly. For Amazon FBA products, you must use the designation SKU_FBA and for FBM products, the designation SKU_FBM. In the tab External Product Number in the product master data, you must enter the corresponding Amazon SKU and select the Amazon interface as a shop. Instructions for importing external product numbers can be found here.
You can also offer an product as an FBA and FBM product by using the "Add another state" option on Amazon.
It's important that you don't switch back and forth between "Shipping by Seller" and "Shipping by Amazon" frequently with the offers and the associated item, but always add another state to it.
With Xentral, you can create products in Amazon. After linking to the marketplace, another Amazon Settings button will appear, where you can fill in various settings. Essentially, you can fill in "Basic Data" (or are passed on by Xentral). Additionally, you will need to select a category, whereupon other Amazon-specific mandatory fields will appear.
Minimal is supported by Xentral:
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Product name
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Bulletpoints
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Weight
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EAN
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Product description
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Product size
You can no longer create products directly in the product master data as before, but as follows:
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You can access the Amazon Importer via Administration > Shop Interface > *Amazon*.
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Then click on the tab Create product (BETA)
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There you click on +New entry
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Select the appropriate flat file (template) and click the Next button
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Now enter the product number in the "Product" field in the overview that appears and wait for the result
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Currently the product data is not yet loaded into the form, but must be entered manually (beta).
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The displayed product is to be added via the Save button at the end of the field
There is a section in the System Health app that lets you monitor the status of your Amazon interface and Seller Central account, and you can find the System Health app as follows:
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In Xentral NextGen: Administration menu > System messages
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Classic Design: At the top of the page next to the search bar
The app displays the following for Amazon in the Online Stores section:
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sellingPartnerApiRefreshToken
This message appears when one of your Amazon Shop interfaces has been disabled due to an empty token. The affected Shop ID is displayed in square brackets, e.g. Sales Channel [12].
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Amazon_shopID_MarketplaceID
This message will give you information about the current state of your Amazon Seller Central account. Each Marketplace ID will have its own entry that looks something like this: Amazon_1_A1PA6795UKMFR9, where the values for the Shop ID and Marketplace ID may differ.
The message is structured as follows: [Marketplace ID] from sales channel [x] is [Status].
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The [Marketplace ID] lets you see which of your marketplaces is affected. For example, the Marketplace ID for Germany is A1PA6795UKMFR9.
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The [x] after sales channel shows the shop ID of the affected shop-importer in Xentral. All shop IDs are displayed on the far left of the overview table of the online shops app.
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The [Status] field can have the following three statuses:
Status in Xentral
Status in Amazon API
ok
Normal
warning
At risk
error
Deactivated
If you receive a message other than "ok," please check your Amazon Seller Central account to identify the issue. Your account may be considered vulnerable if you fall under Amazon's performance guidelines due to a negative customer review, for example.
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Shadow offers at Amazon occur when an FBM offer is converted to an FBA offer without the stock being set to zero beforehand.
Similarly, a shadow supply can arise if new stocks are transferred for an FBA supply.
Another possibility is that the wrong external product number designation was selected in the external product numbers tab, for example if the designation SKU_FBM is used for an FBA offer.
Valid values for the external product number designations are exclusively:
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SKU_FBM
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SKU_FBA
Follow these steps to delete shadow offers:
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Navigate to Amazon Seller Central > Stock > Manage Stock.
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In the upper search box, enter the appropriate ASIN and click Search.
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On the right side you will see a small box next to Edit with an up arrow and a down arrow. Click on this small box.
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Select the option Change to shipping by seller. This change may take a few minutes due to the system. Please be patient.
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Cancel any open shipping through merchant sales orders (FBM) that you cannot or do not want to fulfill, otherwise this inventory will reappear in the system. This change may take a few minutes due to the system. Please be patient here as well.
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Set the stock of the offer to 0.
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Convert the offer back to Amazon (FBA) shipping by using the Change to shipping by Amazon option.
By removing the stock, as well as by back and forth conversion, the shadow supply in the system is removed.
If the import of sales orders does not work properly, please check the following:
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Does the shop-import process launcher show an error? If so, restart the process launcher. The Amazon process launcher is not relevant for importing jobs.
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Are there any corrupt or locked jobs in the intermediate table? You can check the intermediate table by clicking on Shopimport intermediate table in your Amazon interface.
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Does the problem occur on a specific date? Change the import date to a newer date and set the import mode to Manual (with Import Center). If this works, set an earlier date and repeat the process until an error occurs in the import process.
Check that day's sales orders in your Amazon Seller Central.
If certain information is missing from the sales order, not all relevant information may be included in Amazon’s report, e.g. if the billing and shipping addresses are different.
Follow these steps to add more information to the report:
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Log into your Amazon Seller Central.
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Navigate to Sales Orders > Sales Order Reports .
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Click Add or Remove Columns in the sales order report.
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Activate the corresponding column. In case of missing billing address. activate billing in the Optional Columns area.
Note
Not all optional information can be transferred from Amazon to Xentral, as the information may not have an equivalent in the system.
The information is now added to all new jobs. It cannot be added to old jobs after the event.