The Challenge
When Amazon buys from you, you are playing in a different league. Our client is a large importer that brings goods from China to Germany and trades in such volumes that Amazon itself acts as the buyer. Amazon orders directly from the merchant, not the other way around.
That means thousands of purchase orders per day, strict delivery windows, carrier requirements set by Amazon and zero tolerance for late shipment confirmations. Any delay in order acknowledgement or shipping notification leads to penalty fees (chargebacks) and puts the business relationship at risk.
The previous process of manual exports and uploads could no longer keep up with the growing order volume.
Our Solution
We developed a complete Amazon Selling Partner API (SP-API) integration that automates the entire order-to-ship process:
Purchase Order Processing
Automatic receipt and processing of Amazon purchase orders:
- Vendor Orders API: automatic retrieval of new purchase orders
- Order creation: immediate transfer into the inventory management system
- Validation: check against stock levels and ability to deliver
- Acknowledgement: automatic order confirmation to Amazon with delivery commitment or partial delivery
Shipment Confirmations
Amazon requires exact and on-time shipping confirmations:
- ASN generation: automatic creation of Advance Shipment Notifications
- Carrier mapping: assignment of the carrier codes specified by Amazon
- Tracking transmission: automatic feedback including tracking numbers, package weight and carton count
- Batch processing: thousands of confirmations processed per hour
- Retry mechanism: automatic retries on API errors or timeouts
Inventory Management
Real-time synchronization of stock levels with Amazon:
- Automatic inventory reporting to Amazon
- Stock adjustment after goods arrive from China
- Safety stock rules to prevent overselling
- Transparency on committed vs. available quantities
Import Workflow
Mapping of the China import process:
- Container tracking and expected goods receipts
- Automatic stock release after goods receipt and quality inspection
- Customs clearance via ATLAS integration (German customs system)
The Result
- 99.8% on-time shipment confirmations (previously under 90%)
- Chargebacks reduced by 95% through on-time ASN transmission
- Processing time cut from 6+ hours of manual work to under 5 minutes
- Scalable for Amazon's continually growing order volume