The Amazon Integration plugin connects your Orbit Commerce store to Amazon Seller Central. It lets you prepare and publish Amazon listings from your Orbit Commerce products, and imports your Amazon orders into Orbit Commerce. It is intended for merchants who already sell, or plan to sell, on an Amazon marketplace alongside their Orbit Commerce store.
Features
- Listing builder: choose an Amazon product type for each product, prepare the listing, fill in anything Amazon still needs, then publish it through Amazon's Listings Items API. A product with variants can be listed as one parent with a child for each variant.
- Price and stock on publish: each listing is sent with the product's price and stock when you publish it.
- Order import: brings orders placed on Amazon into Orbit Commerce as native orders, with built-in de-duplication so the same order is never imported twice.
- Scheduled order import: once switched on, orders are checked on the interval you choose, and you can also import on demand.
- Marketplaces: connect a Seller Central account in North America, Europe (including the United Kingdom) or the Far East, and choose which of its marketplaces receive your listings.
- Fulfilment choice: works with both Merchant Fulfilled (MFN), where you ship orders yourself, and Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA).
- Sync history: each sync run is recorded with how many items it handled and how many failed.
- Dashboard widget: an at-a-glance Amazon sync status card on your Orbit Commerce home dashboard.
How many listings you can publish, and how many orders are imported each month, depend on your plan.
Before you start
You will need the following before connecting the plugin:
- An active Amazon Seller Central account, and permission to authorise third-party applications against it.
- Your seller account registered on the Amazon marketplace you want to sell on (for example Amazon.co.uk for the UK).
- Products in your Orbit Commerce store that are ready to list, each with a price in your Amazon marketplace's currency, photos, a brand and ideally a barcode (GTIN, EAN or UPC). Amazon asks for more details depending on the product type. A product without a SKU is given one made from its handle or ID.
Getting started
- Open the Orbit Commerce plugin store, find Amazon Integration, and install it. An Amazon entry appears in your dashboard menu.
- Open the Amazon section. The Connection tab opens first.
- Under Seller Central region, choose where your seller account is registered (Europe for Amazon.co.uk), then select Connect to Amazon Seller Central. A new window opens on Amazon.
- Sign in to Seller Central if prompted and approve the connection. The window shows Connection Successful and closes.
- The Connection tab then shows Amazon Account Connected with your Selling Partner ID, region and the date you connected, and a Marketplaces list. Switch on the marketplaces that should receive your listings and make one of them your default.
- In Sync Settings, choose your fulfilment channel, switch on Order Import if you want Amazon orders in Orbit Commerce, and select Save Settings. Then list your products from the Products tab (see below).
You can change these settings at any time on the Connection tab. To remove the integration, use Disconnect, which you will be asked to confirm. Disconnecting switches off Product Sync, Inventory Sync and Order Import.
How syncing works
Listings (Orbit Commerce to Amazon). On the Products tab, pick a product type for each product (search for one, or select Suggest), then select Prepare. The plugin builds the listing from the product's title, brand, description, price, stock, photos, barcode, weight and size. Fix anything marked under Edit, then select Publish. About 15 minutes later the plugin checks with Amazon and shows whether the listing is Live or Suppressed.
Price and stock. Price and stock are sent to Amazon when you publish a listing. To change them on a live listing, select Prepare and then Publish again. With FBA, Amazon manages your stock levels, so the plugin does not send quantities.
Orders (Amazon to Orbit Commerce). Orders placed on your default marketplace are fetched once Amazon marks them Unshipped or Shipped, and created as orders in Orbit Commerce. On the first run the plugin looks back over the previous seven days; after that it imports only orders newer than the last one it imported. Each Amazon order is matched against what has already been imported, so duplicates are skipped. Imported orders are tagged with a source of amazon and keep a reference to the original Amazon order ID. They do not include the buyer's delivery address, so use Seller Central for the address when you ship.
Scheduling. Once a sync type is switched on, it runs automatically on the Sync Interval you choose. The plugin also refreshes its copy of your Orbit Commerce products every hour, and when you change a product it refreshes that product, so the next Prepare uses the latest details. Deleting a product in Orbit Commerce does not remove its Amazon listing; end the listing in Seller Central.
Settings
The Sync Settings card on the Connection tab holds these settings:
- Fulfillment Channel: choose MFN (Merchant Fulfilled) if you ship orders yourself, or FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) if Amazon handles storage and shipping.
- Product Sync: sends a basic listing (title, condition and, for merchant fulfilled stores, stock) for every product. It can replace listings you published from the Products tab, so leave it off if you list from the Products tab. Off by default.
- Inventory Sync: updates stock on Amazon for products sent with Product Sync, for merchant fulfilled stores only. Off by default.
- Order Import: turn on to import Amazon orders into Orbit Commerce. Off by default.
- Sync Interval: how often switched-on syncs run: Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes, Every hour (the default), Every 6 hours or Daily.
- Default Product Condition: the condition applied to new listings: New, New - OEM, Refurbished, Used - Like New, Used - Very Good or Used - Good. Defaults to New.
Remember to select Save Settings after making changes.
The Marketplaces card lists the marketplaces on your Seller Central account. Switch on the ones that should receive listings and choose one with Make default. The default marketplace is the one orders are imported from. Select Refresh from Amazon if a marketplace is missing.
Troubleshooting
The connection window opens but never completes. After you approve the request, the window closes by itself. The Connection tab keeps checking for a completed connection for up to five minutes, so leave it open. If nothing changes, close the window, confirm you approved the request in Seller Central, and select Connect to Amazon Seller Central again.
Nothing is syncing. Listings from the Products tab are sent only when you select Publish. For orders, check that Order Import is switched on and that you have saved your settings, and confirm the connection still shows a status of ACTIVE. Import Orders Now on the Orders tab only works while Order Import is on.
A "Token Expired" badge is shown. This can show between syncs. It refers to Amazon's short-lived access key, which the plugin renews on its next call. If syncs keep failing with an authorisation error, use Disconnect, connect again with Connect to Amazon Seller Central, and switch your syncs back on.
Some products failed to list. Problems show on the Products tab as Needs attention or Error. Open Edit, read the Issues tab, correct the product or the listing details, then select Prepare and Publish again.
Support
For help with this plugin, visit the Orbit Commerce Help Centre (opens in a new tab), or use the Support link below.