Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

Details about ShipStation's integration with FBA. Includes integration requirements, connection process, features, inventory, and troubleshooting.

Fulfillment by Amazon is Amazon's branded fulfilment service program. In this program, Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships your products for you! You can use FBA for products sold through the Amazon Marketplace, as well as most other selling channels you may use.

When your customers purchase a product through your Amazon Marketplace, and that product is also set to be fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon handles the fulfilment internally with no additional action needed from the merchant.

When your customers purchase products from other selling channels, ShipStation imports those orders as usual, and you can then use the ShipStation Send to Fulfillment workflow to send the fulfilment requests to FBA. Once the order ships, FBA notifies ShipStation and ShipStation notifies the original selling channel automatically!

You can currently connect FBA by Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.co.uk. Amazon FBA for other countries is not yet available in ShipStation.

FBA for Amazon Marketplace Orders

For Amazon orders also fulfilled by Amazon, you don't need to take any actions in ShipStation. Amazon will handle these orders internally.

However, ShipStation can import these orders so you can view them in ShipStation along with all of your other orders.

FBA Integration Requirements

Connection Requirements:

  • An active account with Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, or Amazon.co.uk that is registered for the Fulfilment by Amazon program.

  • Your Amazon Seller ID

  • Your Amazon Marketplace ID

  • Your MWS Auth Token

Connect an FBA account to ShipStation

To connect your FBA account to ShipStation:

  1. Select the Fulfilment by Amazon tile for the Amazon country account you wish to connect.

    Amazon Fulfillment tiles in the Fulfillment Provider connection screen
  2. Click Connect and log in to your Amazon Seller Central account.

    You will be redirected to a screen to authorize ShipStation to access information about your FBA orders.

  3. Check the box next to I direct Amazon to provide ShipStation access to my Selling Partner account and related data. I am responsible for any actions taken by the application, then click Confirm.

    Amazon Authorization screen with the authorization checkbox highlighted.

You will be returned to ShipStation, where you can now send orders to Fulfillment by Amazon.

One FBA Account per Country

You can only connect a single instance of each FBA account type to your ShipStation account.

This means, you can have both Fulfilment by Amazon.ca and Fulfilment by Amazon.co.uk connected to the same ShipStation account, but you cannot have two Fulfilment by Amazon.ca accounts connected to the same ShipStation account.

Available Features for FBA

The ShipStation integration with Fulfilment by Amazon supports the following standard features:

Additional Features for the FBA Integration

The ShipStation integration with Fulfilment by Amazon allows for the following additional features:

Feature

Description

Rejected Fulfillment status

If FBA rejects the fulfillment request for some reason, the order will move into the Rejected Fulfillment status in ShipStation.

Workflow: FBA will reject the order > alert ShipStation about the rejection > ShipStation will send an email notification to the email on file for the account > ShipStation will set the order to Rejected Fulfillment status.

Currently, there is no way to disable these email notifications. If you do not want to receive these updates, we recommend you set up filters within your email account to filter out the rejection emails. Emails are sent to the address you used to create your ShipStation account.

Enable emails through Amazon

This setting can be toggled on the Carrier Settings page.

When enabled, ShipStation will include the customer's email address in the request we sent to FBA so that they can email the customer upon shipment, based on your settings within the FBA account.

Displays Stock Count

When FBA is selected as the Ship From for a shipment, ShipStation will display the available stock count in FBA for the products within the shipment.

Support-enabled Features for the FBA Integration

In addition to the features listed above, the following can be enabled by ShipStation Support.

Feature

Description

Use Structured Order Number

When creating FBA fulfillments, ShipStation must include a unique Order Number value which is used to identify the request in FBA. By default, ShipStation will use a randomly generated unique string.

If this setting is enabled, ShipStation will instead create the Order Number string based on the order number from the marketplace and some ShipStation-specific internal values.

The carrier can be used to create domestic shipping labels.

The carrier can be used to create international shipping labels.

ShipStation will submit international customs declarations electronically to the carrier.

The carrier can be used to create domestic return labels.

ShipStation will display estimated shipping rates for the carrier based on the connected account information and shipment details.

Shipment insurance, provided by the shipment's selected carrier, can be added to the shipment in ShipStation. This insurance would be in addition to any default coverage already provided by that carrier.

Shipping labels created for this carrier will include a tracking number that can be used to view the shipment status on the carrier's tracking website. Tracking may not be available for all shipping services.

When tracking is available, ShipStation will automatically track the shipment status and update the tracking status on the Shipments tab. This feature allows for other advanced ShipStation features like delayed notifications and the Branded Tracking Page.

ShipStation can close the day's shipments for the carrier and submit the manifest electronically. The End of Day process may be mandatory or optional, based on the carrier and your account with them. A printable file may or may not be available when submitted electronically - see End of Day (PDF).

ShipStation can close the day's shipments for the carrier and create a printable PDF of the manifest to provide to the carrier. The End of Day process may be mandatory or optional, based on the carrier and your account with them. The file may or may not be submitted electronically - see End of Day (Electronic).

ShipStation can print the store's logo on shipping labels created for this carrier. Label branding may not be available for all services supported by this carrier.

ShipStation can print information on the label as a label message (configure in Label Document Options). The carrier may or may not support all 3 label message fields and label messages may not be available for all services supported by this carrier.

This carrier can be used to create multi-package shipments, where multiple labels are created for a single shipment and the individual packages are linked together in a single shipment record with a master tracking number.

You can connect this carrier to ShipStation multiple times using different accounts and choose which account will be used to create each shipment.

Check FBA Inventory Levels

Our FBA integration lets you check your FBA stock levels on a per-order basis, in either the Shipping Sidebar or Order Details screen.

  1. Select or search for the order that contains the FBA product.

  2. Check that FBA is the selected Ship From location in the Ship From drop-down menu.

    Shipping sidebar with FBA selected as Ship From

As long as you have FBA selected from the Ship From drop-down menu for the shipment, ShipStation can display the Total Supply and In Stock values as reported by FBA for the SKUs (or Fulfilment SKUs) associated with those line items.

Here's what this looks like on the Order Detail screen:

Order Details screen with the Available and On Hand fields showing in the Stock column for the ordered items

... and within the Order Sidebar:

Shipping Sidebar with Items section open and Stock Levels field highlighted

Knowing these FBA inventory levels before you send fulfilment requests can save you time and clicks!

Additional Details about the FBA Integration

  • ShipStation does not determine the specific shipping carrier, shipping service, or package type that Fulfilment by Amazon will use to deliver your products to the customer. Amazon will choose the optimal shipping carrier, service, and package based on the products being shipped, their destination, and your Fulfilment by Amazon account settings.

  • ShipStation can only receive and store a single tracking number for an FBA fulfilment. If FBA used a carrier that supports multi-package shipping, ShipStation will receive a master tracking number for all packages in the shipment. If FBA used a carrier that does not support multi-package shipping, ShipStation will only store and use the first tracking number.

FBA Troubleshooting Tips

Here are some common issues, potential causes, and troubleshooting tips.

Issue

How to Troubleshoot or Resolve

Error: The request must contain the parameter Item.SellerSKU" or "Value XYZ for parameter Items.SellerSKU is invalid. Reason: InvalidValue

When trying to get rates or submit a fulfilment request with FBA

What it means: FBA could not identify the SKU sent by ShipStation in the fulfilment request. Usually, this occurs because the SKU used on the selling channel does not match the SKU that is used by FBA.

What to do: Edit the product defaults for the product and set the Fulfilment SKU to match the Merchant SKU in FBA.

Be sure to select Apply changes to open orders!

Standalone product details window with the Fulfillment SKU field highlighted

Error: Product SKU doesn't match the Fulfilment by Amazon or Shipwire SKU

What it means: Your product SKU doesn’t match the Amazon SKU for FBA or other fulfilment provider.

What to do: Update the product details in ShipStation with the correct Fulfilment SKU for your products.

Matching Fulfillment SKUs Across Channels

This information only applies to those using FBA as well as other fulfilment providers integrated with ShipStation. If you're using multiple fulfilment services in ShipStation, make sure they all use the same Fulfilment SKU for each product.

For FBA, be sure to use the MSKU value for the product as listed in your Amazon account.

Single Fulfilment SKU: Follow the steps in the Update Product Fulfilment SKU section of the Troubleshoot Fulfilment Issues article.

Multiple SKUs in Bulk: Use the product CSV import to import all of your products and update them together. Enter the Fulfilment SKU into the FillSku field to be sure all of your products have valid SKUs for your fulfilment provider.

Error: Value toomanyitemsinorder for parameter itemquantity is invalid

What it means: Amazon has introduced new inventory limits. Sellers can now only send 200 units of a new product into fulfilment centers.

What to do: To clear the error, set your limit to 200 units or less. See the Amazon's Inventory Limit article for more details.

The carrier can be used to create domestic shipping labels.

The carrier can be used to create international shipping labels.

ShipStation will submit international customs declarations electronically to the carrier.

The carrier can be used to create domestic return labels.

ShipStation will display estimated shipping rates for the carrier based on the connected account information and shipment details.

Shipment insurance, provided by the shipment's selected carrier, can be added to the shipment in ShipStation. This insurance would be in addition to any default coverage already provided by that carrier.

Shipping labels created for this carrier will include a tracking number that can be used to view the shipment status on the carrier's tracking website. Tracking may not be available for all shipping services.

When tracking is available, ShipStation will automatically track the shipment status and update the tracking status on the Shipments tab. This feature allows for other advanced ShipStation features like delayed notifications and the Branded Tracking Page.

ShipStation can close the day's shipments for the carrier and submit the manifest electronically. The End of Day process may be mandatory or optional, based on the carrier and your account with them. A printable file may or may not be available when submitted electronically - see End of Day (PDF).

ShipStation can close the day's shipments for the carrier and create a printable PDF of the manifest to provide to the carrier. The End of Day process may be mandatory or optional, based on the carrier and your account with them. The file may or may not be submitted electronically - see End of Day (Electronic).

ShipStation can print the store's logo on shipping labels created for this carrier. Label branding may not be available for all services supported by this carrier.

ShipStation can print information on the label as a label message (configure in Label Document Options). The carrier may or may not support all 3 label message fields and label messages may not be available for all services supported by this carrier.

This carrier can be used to create multi-package shipments, where multiple labels are created for a single shipment and the individual packages are linked together in a single shipment record with a master tracking number.

You can connect this carrier to ShipStation multiple times using different accounts and choose which account will be used to create each shipment.