7.8.1. How to Integrate with Amazon?
This "How to" should provide you with the necessary steps to implement a working integration with Amazon from scratch using Babelway.
Amazon suppliers are split in two categories: sellers and vendors. Amazon vendors are considered direct Amazon suppliers while sellers are third parties which use the Amazon platform to sell their goods (with more or less Amazon support for shipping etc.). The business terms are different and the integration is different as well:
Table 6.1. Amazon Suppliers
| Message Format | XML | Edifact (EU) or X12 (US) |
| Communication | Web services | AS2 |
| In Babelway | Amazon Marketplace gateway with an XML message definition | AS2 or SFTP gateway with Edifact or X12 message definition |
You're an Amazon supplier looking to integrate your IT systems with your Amazon marketplace account.
Babelway integrates with Amazon Marketplace using the Amazon Marketplace Gateway IN and Amazon Marketplace Gateway OUT ). You will find the xsd's you need to build your message definitions in the Gateway documentation. These gateways will allow you to implement the following business flows:
- Retrieve orders from Amazon Marketplace
- Send Price and Inventory and Product messages to Amazon Marketplace
You're an Amazon supplier looking to integrate your IT systems with your Amazon vendor central account. If you haven't already, log in to your vendor central account.
- Amazon.com: https://vendorcentral.amazon.com
- Amazon.de: https://vendorcentral.amazon.de
- Amazon.fr: https://vendorcentral.amazon.fr
- Amazon.co.uk: https://vendorcentral.amazon.co.uk
- Amazon.it: https://vendorcentral.amazon.it
- Amazon.es: https://vendorcentral.amazon.es
Basic Setup
Upon logging into vendor central and going to the EDI Self-service setup menu, you will find a flow to get started. No Babelway effort is required during this step. This will allow you to determine your identifiers and provide some sample data Amazon can use in test files.
Configure and test your connection
1-Once your basic setup is complete, you should see you're free to set up a connection and begin testing message processing, go to "EDI" and click on "Self Service Setup", as shown below.
2-Click on the "View EDI set up" button, as shown below.
3-Click on the "Connection dashboard", as shown below.
4-Click on "Add production connection" button, as shown below.
5-Select "Connect directly to Amazon via AS2" then click on the "Select" button, as shown below.
6-Now we will need to fill the below information regarding the Babelway AS2 connection, as shown below.
7-To get this information login to your Babelway system then go to "Gateways" page and select any AS2 connection, and if this is the first AS2 connection then you can create a new one with a dummy configuration, as shown below.
8-After that you will download the AS2 Specification file which has all of the needed information, as shown below.
9-When we open the AS2 specification file we will see the PDF file which has all of the needed information regarding your AS2 connection from the Babelway side and the needed certificate to be used, as shown below.
10- Add this information to the Amazon account and upload the Babelway certificate, Then click on the "Save connection" button, as shown below.
11-now we will see the Amazon AS2 connection information and certificate, as shown below.
12- Go to your environment in the Babelway system and create a channel that will receive messages from Amazon then create "Gateway In" of type AS2 by using the AS2 information from the Amazon account and upload the Amazon certificate, as shown below.
13-Then create a channel that will send messages to Amazon then create "Gateway out" of type AS2 by using the AS2 information from the Amazon account and upload the Amazon certificate, as shown below.
14-Deploy your Babelway environment in order to push this changes to production by clicking on the "Deploy channels" button, as shown below.
15-Now go to the Amazon account and click on the "Test connection" button, as shown below.
16-To send a test message from Amazon to Babelway click in the "Receive test file from Amazon" button and then to see the result click on the "Refresh" button, as shown below.
17-We will see not the the test is successful, as shown below.
18-By checking the Babelway system we will see that we have received the test message successfully, as shown below.
19-Now we want to send a test message from the Babelway system to test the connection, In this case as for the channel to send the messages to Amazon I've created a "Gateway In" of type internal then we can click on the "Resubmit" button for the test message we have received from Amazon, as shown below.
Note: For the two channel I've used "Message In" and "Message Out" of type note defined and transformation of type "No transform" and for the other gateways I've used Null and internal which you will replace then with the requested gateways for your partner, and also you will replace the "Message In" and "Message Out" of type note defined with the requested "Message In" and "Message Out" for your partner.
20-Now we will upload the test message we will send to Amazon and then select the channel that will process this message, as shown below.
21-Now to see the result of the processing click on the "Refresh" button and we will see that the message is send successfully to Amazon, as shown below.
22-Now go to your Amazon account and click the "Refresh" button, as shown below.
23-Now we will see that the message is received successfully, as shown below.
24-Now when we go to the "Connection dashboard" we will see that both of the "Test" and "Production" AS2 connections are tested successfully, as shown below.
Now all what you will need to do from your side is to select which messages you'd like this connection to manage. The EDI messages you can link are:
- Purchase Order
- Purchase Order Acknowledgment
- Advance Shipment Notification
- Invoice
- Sales Report
- Cost Inventory Feeds
You can create separate connections for different message types if necessary but a given message type can only use one connection.
Configure and test your messages
Amazon provides a zip with all their EDI documentation. You can find such a zip in the Amazon Resources page (Using this link https://vendorcentral.amazon.de/gp/vendor/members/downloads/download) has the latest one which you can find at Vendor central Technical Amazon EDI Specifications Package English, as shown below.
Note: You will need to be logged in to your Amazon account order to be able to download the Amazon EDI Specifications Package English file.
For each message type you will try to exchange you will face the same kind of survey process as you did for your initial setup. The goal of the survey is certain that your message content meets Amazon's basic requirements. Note that using Babelway, you will transform your messages to the proper format, but their survey remains totally relevant. If you don't have the information logically inside your messages no EDI provider will be able to infer it.
You can configure your Amazon X12/Edifact message definitions using their sample information.
The rest of the set up is essentially connecting Babelway to your own systems and mapping your files to Amazons'.
This documentation is based on our integration projects but we'd love to enhance and update it with your own feedback and experience: support@babelway.com.