Being an Amazon Vendor Central, working in the Amazon Vendor Direct Fulfillment program is not easy. If you are a part of it, there are a few things you need to untangle. 

Amazon Vendor Central Consulting platform gives the power to boost conversions and your business in no time. But to access it, we have to go through a challenge – Amazon has a set of rules for vendor criteria that need to be met for EDI and API Integration. 

Amazon Vendor Consulting allows you to exchange information about purchase orders, shipments, and invoices with the help of EDI. Recently, Amazon Vendor also introduced a new Vendor API with similar benefits and functionality as EDI. 

What Is Meant By Amazon Vendor Central?

Amazon Vendor Central Consultant gives manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers a path to explore the opportunity of selling their products on Amazon. This means Amazon itself buys products from you and then lists them.

By taking the help of Amazon Vendor Central Consultant, you can get your items sold on Amazon without dealing with customers directly. But what is the need to integrate with Amazon Vendor? The paperwork process is tiring for people, especially if working as an Amazon Vendor. So to reduce this workload from our shoulders, Amazon introduced the process of EDI integration. 

Let’s discuss what EDI is.

What Is EDI? 

EDI is the Electronic Data Interchange, allowing data exchange between two organisations. Here, the exchange usually involves the purchase of orders and invoices.

Amazon EDI Integration will have a friendly connection with your vendor account manager. But before setting it up, you should know how EDI integration benefits you.

Different Benefits Of EDI Integration

An integrated EDI solution helps in increasing efficiency through automation and saves money on postage, paper, and physical document storage. However, the best part is that you do not need to re-enter the data to handle paper documents.

But it’s a few limitations that stop us from:

  • creating, uploading, and editing a catalog through integration
  • updating the status of stocks more than once in 24 hours

So far, you must be thinking about what is best for you, EDI or API. Let’s find out the best for you.

Which One Is The Best – EDI Or API?

Let’s discuss both of them one by one.

  • Via EDI- it uses XML messages to transfer the orders and acknowledgments.
  • Via API- it uses an API connection to set up an integration system.

What’s the exciting part? 

EDI connects two systems, but the great advantage of API is it is a web-based protocol that enables the connection between multiple systems.

So, according to your firm, you can choose whichever suits you best. There are some documents you need if you go for EDI Integration.

EDI Documents Required In Amazon Vendor Central

Several documents needed in the Vendor Central Portal are:

  • Invoice EDI 810
  • Inventory EDI 846
  • Purchase Order EDI 850
  • PO Acknowledgement EDI 855
  • Shipment EDI 856

Amazon Vendor Central Consultant will ask you to do a survey to provide each document and ensure you test them in the same portal for uninterrupted EDI Integration.

But the most important thing is, how much will it cost you? Let’s explore.

Cost Needed For Integrating Amazon Vendor With EDI

This is the main thing in your Amazon Vendor Integration that you must note. 

A basic ERP system downloads purchase orders and can be set up in 3- to 4-figure amounts, while a high-level setup with more information exchange will cost you a 4- or 5-figure budget. 

It might take enough time to integrate your Amazon Vendor account with EDI as it depends on the system and the amount of information exchanged.

Conclusion

Automation, seamlessness, and scalability are some of the benefits of integration. The first step is to identify your business workflow’s weak areas and fundamentals, and integration costs range based on your business and project difficulty. 

The process of Amazon Vendor Integration with EDI only gives you various benefits: reduced paperwork, error detection, cost management, etc. Consider it a big win if you think of doing a one-time investment in it.