Amazon sellers often face time inefficiencies thanks to manual business process management. From order processing to inventory management and manual reconciliation of data across various systems – these manual processes often lead to errors and bottlenecks. And these errors can be costly – both financially and in terms of reputation. A study revealed that 34% of businesses experienced delayed shipping because the products ordered weren’t really in the inventory. And the same story happens with Amazon sellers who manage their inventories manually. This is where Amazon ERP integration steps in. It transforms error-prone manual tasks into error-free automated workflows.

Today it’s not just the big retail businesses that need integrating an ERP with the Amazon Seller Central.It’s a practical solution for businesses of all sizes looking to grow smartly. According To Capital One, in 2020, the average annual sales clocked by small and medium independent businesses (on Amazon US) was 160,000 USD. That figure increased to 250,000 USD in 2023. An ERP system becomes indispensable to sustain this growth. Amazon ERP integration functions as an automated system automatically keeping your inventory, orders, and business data in sync.

This guide will walk you through the “why”, “what” and “how” of Amazon Seller Central ERP integration. Let’s delve deeper and explore the benefits and challenges associated with the integration. McKinsey reports that only 20% of businesses are able to get more than half of the projected benefits from their ERP system. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 70% of recent ERP implementations will turn out to have failed in addressing business needs. The antidote to this lacklustre implementation strategy is – implementation with the help of iPaas software. Discover why businesses are increasingly turning towards integration platforms like APPSeCONNECT to simplify their Amazon ERP integration process paving the way for seamless integration with other services in the future.

Understanding Amazon Seller Central Integration with ERP

Amazon Seller Central acts as the central hub for sellers to list their products, manage inventory, monitor the financial side of things, process orders and fulfillment and so on… It’s a part of the Amazon ecosystem that’s indispensable for Amazon sellers. Here are the things that a seller can do with Amazon Seller Central:

• Inventory management and product listings
• Order processing and fulfillment tracking
• Customer communication and service management
• Performance metrics and business reports
• Advertising campaign management
• Financial transaction tracking

The Problem:

Amazon Seller Central is an amazing tool for sellers. Every aspect of selling through Amazon is taken care of by the platform. However, it is a standalone platform. This means that all your vital data is out of the reach of your other business management tools. Naturally, this separation of data leads to disjointed systems where you have to manually reconcile data. Or at maximum, you’ll be able to achieve a partial automation of business operations.

Samba Sports faced this problem of integrating its Amazon Seller Central with its legacy X-Cart based shopping platform and Netsuite ERP. Thanks to the integration of an EDI system, the company could finally share Amazon Seller Central data across all the sales channels. While using an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system is a clever way to deal with this issue, using iPaaS will make the integration solution more future-proof. Read on to know more.

Why Amazon ERP Integration Matters: Challenges in Manual Order Management

When Amazon Seller Central and your ERP system operate independently, you’re essentially running two parallel businesses. Why? Because each system records its own inventory level, orders, customer information, product information and so on.

This separation leads to several challenges:

• Manual data entry requirements
• Increased risk of errors
• Delayed updates between systems
• Limited visibility into real-time business performance
• Inefficient use of staff time
• Potential for overselling or stockouts

Common Use Cases of Amazon Seller Central and ERP Integration

So, which aspects of your business operations can be turned to a wholesome function with Amazon ERP integration?

Inventory Management:

Before the integration you might be working with two different inventory systems – one associated with your Amazon business, and the other associated with your other business channels. You can merge these disjointed inventory systems into a single cohesive one thanks to Amazon Seller Central inventory sync with ERP. The benefits? Real time update of inventory levels – irrespective of the platform and sales channel.

Amazon retailers take advantage of ‘fulfilled by Amazon’ and store their products in Amazon’s warehouse. They might also have their own inventory. When you integrate Amazon Seller Central with an ERP system, all your inventories – across all channels – remain synchronized and connected.

Order Processing

Integrating an ERP with your Seller Central leads to instant updates on order processing. These updates are displayed and reported by the central ERP system to automate Amazon Seller Central order management. As a result, you don’t need to keep visiting multiple dashboards of multiple sales channels to get updates on orders. While seemingly trivial, this streamlined shipping, tracking and order management dramatically improves your overall business operations.

Product Information

If the product descriptions of your products aren’t the same across all the channels, it will result in a decrease in the trust that people have for your brand. Or worse, if the price of the same product varies from channel to channel, it’s regarded as a red flag. ERP integration helps you avoid these pitfalls. An ERP maintains the product master data. You can change this centralized information which triggers auto-update of product description and price across all your sales channels and platforms.

Financial Reporting:

Amazon retailers often have multiple sales channels aside from Amazon. And the number of sales channels is directly proportional to the complexity of financial reporting. Keeping track of your revenue, profits and losses can become too overwhelming if you have multiple sales platforms. When you integrate Seller Central with ERP, the financial report is generated in a centralized way taking the accounting reports pertaining to every sales channel into account.

Proper integration eliminates these gaps creating a unified system where data flows automatically between platforms. This synchronization does not just save time, but it also provides better visibility into your business performance and enables more informed decision-making.

Core Features of Amazon Seller Central-ERP Integration

Each feature of Seller Central – ERP implementation is tied to the purpose of making your business operations more cohesive and wholesome.

Real-time Inventory Synchronization

One of the most important features and purposes of the ERP integration with Amazon is making your Amazon-related inventories and other inventories work together as a team.

• Centralized inventory-level updates
• Multi-warehouse and multi-channel inventory allocation
• Seasonal inventory planning based on historical Amazon performance
• Automated low-stock alerts based on integrated data

This kind of cohesive inventory system ensures smart inventory management leading exceptional customer service.

Order Processing Automation

Order automation streamlines your fulfillment operations from end to end:

• Instant order transmission from Amazon to your ERP
• Automatic creation of picking, packing, and shipping documents
• Status updates that flow back to Amazon and to customers
• Batch processing capabilities for high-volume periods
• Exception flagging for orders requiring special attention
• Priority handling based on shipping method selection
• Integration with FBA and multi-channel fulfillment options

These automations significantly reduce order processing time while minimizing human error.

Price and Promotion Management

Sellers compete against each other to capture the “Buy Box” on Amazon. A seller needs to proactively update the prices of their products to stay on top of competition.. However, this proactive tweaking of price data can lead to pricing inconsistencies. An ERP powered Amazon Seller Central system can largely solve this issue:

• Scheduled price updates based on your inventory costs
• Competitive price monitoring and adjustment rules
• Promotional pricing synchronized across systems
• Bundle and volume discount coordination
• Amazon fee calculation and profitability analysis
• Automated repricing based on inventory levels or age

Establishing Consistency In Customer Data

When multiple systems use the same updated customer data, the business can serve them in a more personalized way:

• Customer purchase history irrespective of sales channel
• Centralized management of customer information
• Hyper personalized marketing and promotions
• Flawless usage of demographic details

Reporting and Analytics

Amazon ERP integration makes sure that you don’t need to analyse separate reports generated by separate channels.

• Unified sales dashboards incorporating Amazon and other channels
• Profitability analysis including all Amazon fees
• Performance comparisons across marketplaces
• Inventory turnover and forecasting
• Return rate analysis and quality control
• Shipping cost optimization

These core features create a wholesome operational environment where data is not stored across multiple disjointed systems, where operational tasks can be automated and where tracking financial reports doesn’t get overwhelming.

Popular Integration Approaches: How to connect Amazon Seller Central with ERP?

Businesses typically choose among three primary approaches when integrating Amazon Seller Central with their ERP systems:

Manual Data Entry

Nothing is automated in this scenario…

• You need to manually enter Amazon order details in your ERP system.
• Inventory counts are manually updated – periodically.
• Price updates require separate entries in each system
• Sales, financial and other reports are generated AFTER combining reports generated by each of the two systems – Seller Central and your ERP.

This approach isn’t sustainable and scalable.

Custom API Development

Some organizations opt to build proprietary connections between Amazon Seller Central and their ERP:

• Developers create custom code that connects directly to Amazon’s API
• The solution is tailored to specific business requirements
• Integration features can be prioritized based on business needs
• Updates and maintenance are handled by internal IT resources

This approach is quite scalable. But is it sustainable? You need to depend heavily on developers to build and update API. Any change in the Amazon backend or your business workflow will necessitate modification of the API.

Middleware/iPaaS Solutions

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solutions like APPSeCONNECT offer purpose-built connectors with ready-to-deploy functionality:

• Pre-configured connections to major ERP systems and Amazon Seller Central
• Visual configuration tools requiring minimal coding knowledge
• Built-in monitoring, error handling, and logging capabilities
• Regular updates to maintain compatibility with platform changes
• Scalable architecture designed for growing transaction volumes

This is the most practical implementation approach for most businesses. You might still need the help of a developer who understands business logic and creates integration workflow accordingly. But you’re no longer heavily dependent on the developer. The setup is scalable and sustainable.

Key Benefits of Amazon Seller Central – ERP Implementation

Now that you have the answer to how to Connect Amazon Seller Central with ERP, let’s find out the benefits:

First, when you integrate Seller Central with an ERP system, your Amazon ecommerce business stops feeling like an island – separated from the main business.

Secondly, thanks to the integration, your team no longer needs to waste their precious time manually entering and reconciling data. No matter whether you sell through FBA or your own inventory, order details are recorded in a centralized platform ensuring superior order processing workflow. Lastly, Amazon ERP implementation leads automated and centralized inventory-level updates. You no longer need to manually reconcile inventory levels.

All these, result in better business insights. You’ll no longer feel like you’re managing multiple businesses with the same name! Everything just falls in place!

Amazon ERP Integration Strategies – Best Practices

Using an ERP for Amazon Sellers Central is an amazing business decision. But its success depends on how correctly the integration is done. Each phase of the integration process is crucial.

The Planning Stage:

Before diving into implementation, take these essential preparatory steps:

• Audit your current workflow and business operation carefully. Identify all the manual touchpoints and bottlenecks.
• Now focus on priorities. Which pain points do you want to address with Amazon ERP integration? This could include streamlining order processing workflows or consolidating fragmented inventory systems.
• Identify your integration priorities – what are your most pressing pain points? Is it maintaining inventory accuracy? Is it increasing the speed and efficiency of order processing? Or it may be something else.
• Set measurable success metrics (e.g., reduction in oversells, processing time improvements, labor savings)
• Determine which historical data needs migration and which can remain in existing systems
• Assess your team’s readiness for change and plan appropriate training

This planning stage is really useful. A clear roadmap is the first step towards integration-success.

Choosing the Right Integration Solution

Not all integration platforms will serve your needs. Before selecting a solution, consider these:

• The platform’s ability to provide prebuilt Amazon ERP integration connectors
• The depth of ERP-specific knowledge and certified integrations
• Assess if the platform can be scaled up as your business grows
• Flexibility to accommodate custom fields and business-specific processes
• Visual mapping tools that reduce technical complexity
• Monitoring capability and logging for troubleshooting
• Platform security – it will be handling sensitive information
• Available support tiers and implementation assistance

The right platform significantly reduces implementation complexity while ensuring future growth.

Data Mapping

It’s possible that your ERP doesn’t use the same terms or metrics used by Amazon. Data mapping ensures correct flow information to and from systems:

• Create detailed field mapping between Seller Central and your chosen ERP system
• Sometimes your ERP system might not be able to support the data format used by Amazon Seller Central. Identify them, and create rules for data transformation to maintain consistency.
• Define how product variations and bundles translate across platforms
• Determine how customer information will merge with existing records
• Configure rules for specifying how to treat special cases and exceptions

Testing and Validation

Your integration is almost ready. In this stage, you’ll be testing the integration. While testing philosophies differ, it basically involves creating a sandbox and imitating real world use cases. Instead of going full in, do a partial roll out to identify and remove bugs (which will obviously be there). Create and test scenarios to assess the strength of the integration. Lastly, don’t forget to do a simple user acceptance testing in order to test the waters.

Training The Stakeholders For a Friction-Free Adoption

Successful integration depends on extensive training of the users who’ll be using the system…

• Provide role-specific training on new workflows
• Create documentation with visual workflows for common processes
• Make sure that stakeholders have access to dedicated communication channels for questions and feedback
• Measure adoption and address resistance points proactively

At the end of the day, it’s not the actual integration that matters. What matters is whether your purpose is served or not, whether your team feels at home with the new workflow or not…

Common Challenges

Even well-planned Amazon ERP integrations encounter obstacles. Making sense of these challenges helps you select the right solution to overcome them.

API Limitations + Connectivity Issues

Amazon’s API imposes certain restrictions that can complicate integration:

• Rate limits that constrain data transfer speeds
• Periodic downtimes during marketplace updates
• Changes to API structure that require adaptation

Data Consistency Challenges

Maintaining consistent data across systems presents several hurdles:

• Handling of special characters and formatting differences
• Product variation structures that differ between platforms
• Conflicting information when updates occur simultaneously

System Downtime Management

Planned and unplanned outages can disrupt business operations:

• ERP maintenance windows creating synchronization backlogs
• Amazon Seller Central updates affecting integration points
• Network disruptions interrupting data flows

Performance Optimization

As businesses grow, integration performance can become a bottleneck:

• Increased order volumes straining system resources
• Batch processing requirements during peak seasons
• Growing product catalogs requiring more efficient synchronization

Being Compliant WIth Data Protection Regulation

Integrating Seller Central with an iPaaS solution can introduce challenges pertaining to data protection. For example, an ERP system might have more broader data storage and processing capabilities. Businesses need to make sure that only the necessary data is processed. Also, businesses need to be able to delete or modify customer data across the entire ecosystem – if a customer requests. So, a business that has integrated seller central with an ERP must comply with such a request across its entire business process management ecosystem. An ERP system bridges the gap between Seller Central and other business systems. This means, access to Seller Central data becomes easier. Businesses need to implement strict access control measures to stay compliant with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA. Naturally decision makers are increasingly on the lookout for Seller Central-ERP integration tool with built-in data protection mechanisms.

APPSeCONNECT: Turning Integration Challenges Into Business Advantages

APPSeCONNECT is purpose-built to address these integration challenges head-on. As a complete integration platform, APPSeCONNECT offers:

• Intelligent handling of Amazon’s API constraints with advanced queuing and retry mechanisms
• Built-in data transformation workflow ensuring consistency across all your systems
• Persistent queue architecture that loss of data during system outages
• Auto-scaling capabilities that grow with your business volume
• Comprehensive error management with proactive alerts and self-healing protocols
• Low-code configuration that adapts to your changing business requirements

APPSeCONNECT is the bridge between your Amazon marketplace and your ERP. Your Seller Central will no longer feel like an island. Furthermore, APPSeCONNECT democratizes Amazon-ERP integration. With prebuilt integration scripts, your reliance on developers to automate Amazon Order Management will be minimal.

Real Case Study: Learn how Eurofer Used APPSeConnect to connect Amazon, Magento and SAP Business One and streamlines its inventor process.

With APPSeCONNECT managing your integration, your team can focus on growth strategies rather than troubleshooting connection issues or manually transferring data between systems.

Why Choose APPSeConnect Over Traditional Enterprise iPaaS Solutions

It’s the age of the agile work process. More than two decades after the Agile Manifesto was published, businesses still suffer from a painfully slow integration process. APPSeConnect aims to change the scenario with quick integration and user friendliness – all the while providing more functionalities than a traditional integration tool to automate Amazon Order Management. Let’s compare APPSeConnect against traditional players:

The main USP of APPSeConnect lies in its ability to bring user friendliness, quick setup capability and agile work process together. Here’s why you should consider choosing APPSeConnect over other traditional iPaaS platforms:

1. Enterprise Grade: With military-grade encryption, role-based access control and compliance with relevant laws.
2. Rapid Setup and Deployment: With pre-built connectors along with visual integration workflow that’s as easy as drag and drop.
3. Simple But Not Simplified: While APPSeConnect is capable of simplifying integrations, for businesses needing custom integration solutions, it offers a feature-rich visual integration builder for creating complex integration workflow.
4. Cost Effective: Dramatically decrease total cost of ownership with APPSeConnect. Cherry on top? Minimal dependency on expensive custom integration developers.

With APPSeCONNECT, retailers are able to achieve 100% real time bidirectional data flow. Integration workflows created with APPSeCONNECT can increase business productivity by as much as 70%.

Explore How APPSeCONNECT Enables Rapid Integration With Ready To Use Templates

The Bottomline

The integration of Amazon Seller Central with an ERP system isn’t just a technical decision – it’s a strategic decision that can fundamentally transform your e-commerce operations and automate Amazon Order Management. As online competition intensifies and customer expectations continue to rise, businesses that unify their systems gain a significant competitive advantage.

Transform your Amazon Seller Central operations with seamless ERP integration. Book a free demo today to see how APPSeCONNECT can simplify your business.

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