In this Article
Overview
Amazon is an online marketplace with separate retail websites for the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Japan, China, India, Mexico, and now Australia. Online retailers as well as Amazon themselves sell just about anything through their websites direct to customers the world over.
Amazon operates differently from other online marketplaces, allowing multiple sellers to offer the same product and only displaying one listing per product barcode (ASIN, UPC / EAN / ISBN).
When more than one seller lists the same item, they compete for the Buy Box. When a seller 'wins' the Buy Box they become the primary seller in the search results. Buyers can still find other sellers and purchase from them, but winning the Buy Box greatly increases the chances that shoppers will buy from you. Amazon buy box criteria can be found here.
When Maropost Commerce sends your data to Amazon, it is processed in batches. It make take some time for Amazon to start working on the data, and then send back an updated listing status.
Important: Amazon sales order billing and shipping addresses cannot be changed in Maropost. These fields are set to read only to comply with
Amazon's acceptable use policy. If you encounter issues with a customer's address details we recommend completing consignment through your shipping carrier's portal.
How Amazon Australia Integrates with Maropost Commerce Cloud
As an omni-channel platform, Maropost Commerce integrates with the Amazon Australia marketplace, giving you the ability to:
- Maintain your Amazon listing’s stock level and price in Maropost Commerce.
- Upload tracking information back to Amazon, so customers can see when their order is dispatched.
- Process Amazon orders in Maropost Commerce using the same process as other sales channels. Note that orders which are cancelled in Maropost must also be manually cancelled in Amazon.
- Manage Amazon customers alongside customers from other sales channels.
- List products from Maropost Commerce using Amazon's catalogue information.
- Register new products in Amazon's catalogue.
The following diagram outlines the key points at which Maropost Commerce integrates with Amazon Australia:
Amazon Buy Box
Amazon uses a box on a Product Detail page where customers can begin the purchasing process by adding items to their shopping carts. This is referred to as the Buy Box.
The Buy Box is a point of purchase on the Amazon Australia website. The Buy Box appears at the top right-hand side of the Product Details page and makes your offer significantly more visible to Amazon customers. It’s the first choice for customers looking to purchase an item and having your product in this box is an obvious advantage for you.
When more than one seller lists the same item, they may compete for the Buy Box for that product (as long as it can be shipped to the customer's address). When a seller ‘wins’ the Buy Box, they become the primary purchase location in the search results. Buyers can still find other sellers and purchase from them, however winning the Buy Box greatly increases the chances that shoppers will buy from you.
To give customers the best possible shopping experience, sellers must meet performance-based requirements to be eligible to compete for Buy Box placement. For many sellers, Buy Box placement can lead to increased sales.
Whilst not explicitly stating what targets are required to win the Buy Box, there are four key areas that sellers need to excel in to qualify:
Price
-
Price competitively. Customers trust that they will find low prices on Amazon.com.
-
Watch your competition to stay competitive. View the price of the offer that is currently winning the Buy Box. On the Manage Inventory page within your Amazon account, click the Preferences button (in the Seller Central section) and select Show when available for the current Buy Box winning price. Buy Box winning prices are displayed for New condition listings only.
Availability
-
Keep stock available. If you have no current stock for a product, you cannot win the Buy Box. Use inventory planning best practices and keep up to date with Maropost Commerce Cloud Inventory to keep your popular products in stock.
-
Use the stock management settings in Maropost Commerce to keep stock levels up to date and accurate. Customers who submit orders for products that are not in stock are likely to leave negative feedback, especially around the holidays. To ensure that buyers cannot place orders for out-of-stock items, consider adding a stock buffer.
-
Plan holidays in Amazon's Seller Central. If you are going to be away, make sure that customers are not left waiting for orders to arrive.
Fulfilment
Customer service
Variation Products
Amazon Australia supports variation products based on size, colour, or size and colour together, in certain categories. The Amazon integration allows you to configure Amazon to list variations in the Variation Theme field.
Variation theme tells Amazon what type of variation products you're listing. Amazon has strict requirements for acceptable values in this field. To see what Amazon will accept, click the "i" icon next to the variation theme field. Acceptable values differ between product categories, so be sure to check each one.
For this reason, we recommend that you create a custom product field called "Amazon Variation Theme", and populate all variation products with an accepted value.
The image below shows the "Clothing & Shoes / Men / Clothing / Shirts / Casual Shirts" Amazon category, and the accepted values for variations of Color, Size or sizecolor. You can also see that the custom field "Amazon Variation Theme" is mapped.
Below is a product that will list into the casual shirts category, with "sizecolor" entered into the custom field. The mapping will grab this info and pass it to Amazon when listing, so that Amazon knows the product includes both size and colour variations.
Customer Information
The Amazon data protection policy requires that all 3rd party integrations (such as the Maropost Commerce Amazon integrations) remove personally identifiable information (PII) within 30 days of order fulfilment.
In accordance with this policy, Maropost Commerce will automatically delete customer information from sales orders and the customer card 30 days after the order is dispatched or cancelled.
Tip: Sales orders in pick, pack, or on-hold will not be affected until 30 days after they are cancelled or dispatched.
The following information is removed:
- Company name
- First name
- Last name
- Street 1
- Street 2
- Phone number
- Email address
In addition, Amazon sales order billing and shipping addresses cannot be changed in Maropost. These fields are set to read only to comply with Amazon's acceptable use policy. If you encounter issues with a customer's address details we recommend updating their information in Amazon and completing consignment through your shipping carrier's portal.
Get Started
Amazon Australia was launched in Australia on the 5th December 2017.
Maropost Commerce integrates with the Amazon Australia marketplace so that you can:
- Maintain your Amazon listing’s stock level and price in Maropost Commerce.
- Process Amazon orders in Maropost Commerce using the same process as your other sales channels.
- Upload tracking information back to Amazon, so your customers can see when their order is dispatched.
- Manage your Amazon customers alongside customers from other sales channels.
- Register your products in the Amazon Australia catalogue.
Before you start the Amazon Australia integration wizard, examine the preparation checklist below to ensure you're ready to sell on Amazon Australia.
-
Sign up to Amazon Australia.
Important:
Individual selling plans cannot be linked to Maropost Commerce as they cannot access Amazon's API. Only Professional selling plans can be linked.
You will need to authorise Maropost Commerce in your Amazon account, and vice versa during the set up process, so having the account up and running will save you time.
-
Add shipping to your Amazon Australia account.
-
Ensure each shipping service has a relevant name. When using the Maropost Commerce integration wizard, you will need to match your Amazon shipping services to Maropost Commerce shipping options to ensure orders are processed smoothly. Alternatively, you may wish to create new shipping options specifically for Amazon Australia, either by cloning an existing option, or creating a new option.
-
Check your product pricing in Maropost Commerce, and consider creating a price group specifically for Amazon Australia.
This will also mean that when customers purchase from you through Amazon, they will also be placed in this group, helping you segment your customers.
-
Prepare Maropost Commerce products by adding a barcode or ASIN into the UPC/EAN field of every item you intend to list.
-
Understand the Amazon Image Requirements and upload or modify your images in Maropost Commerce to comply.
-
Ensure your products have information in them to match the Amazon guidelines.
-
Some products and categories require approval to list on Amazon. If any of your products fall into these categories apply for approval once you've registered your account.
Cancel the Amazon Sales Channel
To cancel the Amazon sales channel in your Maropost Commerce subscription:
-
In your Maropost Commerce control panel navigate to the Addons menu.
-
Find the Amazon Australia add-on and click the Uninstall button.
-
Confirm by clicking the Uninstall button in the pop-up window.
The Amazon sales channel is now removed from your account. Contact Amazon directly if you need to shut down your Amazon account entirely.
Related Articles