Amazon FBA overview
Overview
Find out about integrating Cin7 Omni with Amazon FBA.
Amazon FBA is Amazon’s third-party logistics (3PL) service.
Businesses worldwide ship their stock to Amazon FBA fulfillment centers for warehousing, and when they make sales, they have Amazon FBA dispatch their goods to customers.
If you use Amazon FBA for warehousing and fulfillment, you must set up an Amazon FBA integration in Cin7 Omni. The integration has two parts that enable you to keep track of your Amazon FBA inventory and manage your Amazon FBA fulfillments:
1. The FBA Shipments Dashboard: You’ll use the FBA Shipments Dashboard to sync your Amazon shipping plans with Omni, so that Omni has an accurate record of your stock at Amazon FBA fulfillment centers. You’ll either (a) create shipping plans in Amazon FBA and download them to Omni, or (b) create shipping plans in Omni and upload them to Amazon FBA.
2. The Amazon FBA dashboard: When you set up your integration or change your product catalog, you’ll use the Amazon FBA dashboard to link (or “map”) products in Amazon FBA to the matching products in Omni. And, if you use Amazon FBA to fulfill sales from channels other than Amazon Seller (Amazon calls this “Amazon MCF”), you’ll also use the Amazon FBA dashboard to send sales orders to Amazon FBA for fulfillment.
To get an idea of how you’ll use the Amazon FBA integration, we suggest reviewing the Amazon FBA user journey below. Then follow the instructions on how to set up an Amazon FBA integration.
1. Installation: dashboards and branches
To integrate Omni with Amazon FBA, you will need:
One FBA Shipments Dashboard
One Amazon FBA dashboard for each Amazon regional marketplace that uses Amazon FBA
One Omni branch for each Amazon FBA dashboard
First you’ll install the Amazon FBA integration, which comes with (a) the FBA Shipments Dashboard and (b) one Amazon FBA dashboard.
Then, because the Amazon FBA dashboard connects Omni to one Amazon regional marketplace only, you’ll install additional Amazon FBA dashboards for each additional regional marketplace that uses Amazon FBA.
Lastly you’ll create Omni branches to link each Amazon FBA dashboard to. Each branch will represent the regional marketplace of the dashboard it’s linked to (for example, if there’s stock at the branch, then there’s stock in that regional marketplace).
Once you’ve installed your dashboards and created your branches, you can configure your integration.
2. Configuration: branch links, product mappings, and stock levels
To configure your Amazon FBA integration, you will:
Link each new Omni branch to an Amazon FBA dashboard.
Connect each Amazon FBA dashboard to a regional marketplace.
Map the products in each regional marketplace to products in Omni.
Sync your mapped products’ initial stock levels.
Linking a branch to a marketplace (via an Amazon FBA dashboard) enables you to map the products in that marketplace to products at that branch, which in turn enables you to keep those products’ stock levels in sync in Omni and the marketplace.
For example, when you receive stock of some good at the marketplace, its stock level at the branch will increase, and when you dispatch that good, its stock level will decrease.
Now you can begin using your integration.
3. Use of Amazon FBA: shipping plans, stock levels, and fulfillments
Basically, once you’ve set up your Amazon FBA integration, your aim is to keep the stock levels at the branch in sync with the real stock levels at the linked marketplace’s fulfillment center(s). You may also send sales orders to Amazon FBA from Omni for fulfillment.
There are three ways your fulfillment center’s stock levels may change:
Incoming stock: Stock is received by the fulfillment center for warehousing.
Outgoing stock: Stock is dispatched from the fulfillment center to fulfill a sale.
Discrepancies: Stock is lost, damaged, or found at the fulfillment center.
To keep track of incoming stock, you’ll use your FBA Shipments Dashboard to sync your shipment plans between Omni and Amazon FBA. Amazon requires you to create a shipment plan every time you ship them stock for warehousing. You can either (a) create your shipment plans in Amazon FBA and download them to Omni (as purchase orders or branch transfers), or (b) create your shipment plans in Omni (as purchase orders or branch transfers) and upload them to Amazon FBA.
To keep track of outgoing stock, you’ll follow one of two processes depending on whether each sale is Amazon Seller or Amazon MCF (multi-channel fulfillment).
a. Amazon Seller sales
If you made the sale via Amazon Seller (that is, on Amazon.com), you won’t use your Amazon FBA integration to keep your stock levels in sync. Your stock levels keep in sync via your Amazon Seller integration instead, like this:
You make an Amazon Seller sale (that is, you make a sale on Amazon.com).
Amazon forwards the sales order directly to your Amazon FBA account for fulfillment, which reduces your stock levels at the fulfillment center.
You download the sales order to Omni via your Amazon Seller integration, which reduces your stock levels in Omni equivalently.
b. Amazon MCF sales
If you didn’t make the sale on Amazon.com, then you’ll keep your stock levels in sync by sending the sales order to Amazon FBA for fulfillment, like this:
You make a non-Amazon Seller sale (say, a Shopify sale).
The sales order reduces your Omni stock levels.
You send the sales order to Amazon FBA (via your Amazon FBA dashboard) for fulfillment, which reduces your stock levels at the fulfillment center equivalently, and instructs Amazon FBA to dispatch the goods.
Finally, because your stock levels at the fulfillment center may change unexpectedly if stock is lost, damaged, or found, you should occasionally import stock levels from the fulfillment center(s). If those stock levels differ from those in Omni, Omni will correct your stock levels by creating adjustments.
More information
This article outlined the workflow and primary functions of your Amazon FBA integration. Find more detailed information on Amazon FBA in the Cin7 Omni Help Center.