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This introduction to Amazon Fulfillment Web Service is intended to give you a detailed summary of the web service. After reading this section, you should have a good idea of what Amazon FWS offers and how it can fit in with your business. For further information about the fulfillment process, go to the Fulfillment by Amazon web site.
The Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program allows you to use Amazon's world-class fulfillment operations. Amazon FWS is a set of APIs that takes advantage of FBA in a programmatic function. These APIs allow you to use the Amazon Fulfillment Network.
Using Amazon FWS you can integrate FBA functionality into an existing application by including specific functions to create inbound shipments to Amazon from your software. You can also create tools or software that connect shopping cart or ordering software directly to FBA. By linking to FBA, orders that you generate can also generate fulfillment requests directly to the Amazon fulfillment center. This means you can sell products on your own site and automatically generate fulfillment orders by sending addresses and shipping information to the Amazon fulfillment center.
Fulfillment by Amazon supports multi-channel selling by allowing you to request fulfillment shipments directly using your own shopping cart or order management systems. If you sell products on your own site, you generate fulfillment orders with the addresses and shipping information to an Amazon fulfillment center. At the same time, you can list your products for sale on Amazon.com and have Amazon fulfill from both your web site and Amazon.com.
The following image displays the entire workflow of Fulfillment by Amazon.
How it works
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You send your new or used products to Amazon.com’s fulfillment centers. |
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Amazon stores your products in our ready-to-ship inventory. |
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Amazon fulfills orders on your behalf. |
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Fulfillment by Amazon picks your products from inventory and packages them. |
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Amazon ships the products to your customers from our network of fulfillment centers. |
Amazon Fulfillment Web Service consists of three APIs—an inbound API, an outbound API, and an inventory API— that handle different aspects of the fulfillment process.
The inbound API deals with the first two steps in the fulfillment process: sending products to Amazon, and having Amazon store those products.
The inbound API is designed to help you get your inventory to one of Amazon's fulfillment centers. Once they are in a fulfillment center, you can sell your items on Amazon.com or you can sell them on another site. If you plan to sell only on Amazon.com, you only need to use the inbound API. Amazon.com handles all the outbound fulfillment for you. However, if you plan to sell on channels besides Amazon.com, you need both the inbound and the outbound APIs.
The outbound API deals with the last three tasks in the fulfillment process: telling Amazon about the items you've sold and where to send the items.
The outbound API is designed to help you integrate Fulfillment by Amazon with any payment processing application or inventory management system currently in use. Amazon FWS does not receive any payment information from your sales. Rather you use the outbound API to tell the Amazon Fulfillment Network to ship a set of items to a recipient. Use the outbound API if you sell on a channel other than Amazon.com or if you require fulfillment for something other than a sale (samples, gifts, or rewards).
![[Note]](images/note.png) | Note |
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If you only sell on Amazon.com, you don't need to use the outbound API. When your items are sold on Amazon.com, the Amazon Fulfillment Network automatically packs and ships the items to your customers. |
The inventory API lets you see what is available in your inventory. It's a real-time reporting mechanism that returns your current and/or recently changed inventory supply in the Amazon fulfillment network.
Amazon FWS provides the following major features:
Creating inbound shipments to the fulfillment center—You can streamline the process for creating and labeling the items you ship to a fulfillment center.
Checking status of inbound shipments—You can check to see if your shipment has reached a fulfillment center and, if so, whether the shipment has been processed.
Submitting fulfillment orders—By integrating with our API, you can enable your customers to submit orders any time. There’s no lag time while waiting for the merchant to process or batch orders.
Tracking and managing outbound shipment requests—The integration continues as orders leave our fulfillment centers. You can track shipments and keep your customers aware of arrival times.
