Vendor Central Shipping Workflow

Overview

Vendor Central is Amazon’s program for qualified vendors to become suppliers of merchandise to Amazon. In this program, you, as the supplier, will ship the order to Amazon. This article explains the shipping process in Sellercloud for Vendor Central orders, including routing, carton labels, shipping labels, tracking, and invoicing. Click here for instructions on setting up the connection to Vendor Central, importing orders, and sending acknowledgments.

Definitions

Initial steps

1. Contact Sellercloud Support to enable the following two App Settings:
   1. VendorCentralCheckQtyDoNotSplitOrder
   2. EnableVendorCentralShippingAgenda
2. Add an EDI contact in Vendor Central: Click Settings > Contacts > Add an EDI Contact for each vendor code that you will be integrating with Sellercloud.
3. Ensure the Vendor Central setting page (Settings > company > Toolbox > Vendor Central Settings > General Settings) is configured correctly, including:
   1. Freight Type – choose either Prepaid or Collect.
      1. For Collect shipping, you will also need to enter Amazon’s UPS and FedEx account numbers, as well as the UPS Postal Code of the third-party bill-to.
      2. Regardless of how you are shipping, you will need to have your carrier API credentials (for UPS and FedEx) set up in Sellercloud. For more info, click here.
   2. When to authorize payment, which causes the system to reserve the inventory. Choose either:
      1. Authorize Payment When Creating Orders to have the orders reserve inventory immediately.
      2. Authorize Payment When Checking Availability to have the orders reserve inventory only once they are confirmed.
   3. GS1 Code – the prefix assigned to your company by GS1 (required for printing SSCC carton labels).
   4. The settings in the Remit To Payment Information section (required for the 810 invoice).
   5. Choose the Default Warehouse For Shipments (optional).
   6. Set the Terms Net Days (required for the 810 invoice).
   7. Select the Amazon Reference field to use for products when communicating with Vendor Central, either ASIN or UPC.
      Based on your choice here, a product level field for ASIN or UPC will be displayed on the Vendor Central Properties page (found in the product’s Toolbox), which will be specific for Vendor Central and not related to the general ASIN or UPC saved on the product. However, if no Vendor Central specific reference value is set, the general ASIN or UPC will be used.
4. Set up the ship from address on each Sellercloud warehouse that you will be shipping the orders from. This is the warehouse address that will be used on the carton labels and on all documents sent to Amazon for this shipment. If you need to use different addresses per company, or a different address than the default one saved on the warehouse, follow the instructions here.
   1. In Sellercloud, navigate to Settings > Warehouses. Click Edit on each warehouse you will be shipping from.
   2. Fill out the address details, making sure to include a first and last name as well as a company name.
   3. Click Save.
   If the warehouse address is not set up correctly, the default address from the Return Settings – in the company setting toolbox – will be used.
5. Obtain the Address Number from Vendor Central for each warehouse you will be shipping from:
   1. Log into Vendor Central and navigate to Settings > Warehouse Settings.
   2. For each warehouse address click Edit.
   3. Either enter an Address Number or leave the field blank and save the page. If you save the page without entering a value for the Address Number, Amazon will generate one for you. (The first time you click “Edit” on the warehouse, Amazon will generate the Address Number, but you must save the page in order to be able to use it.)
   4. Copy the Address Number – See Step 6b below.
6. Set up Vendor Central Warehouse Mapping in Sellercloud.
   1. Click Settings > company > Toolbox > Vendor Central Settings > Warehouse Mapping.
   2. For each warehouse, you will be shipping from, paste the Address Number from Step 5d above into the the Address Number column on the warehouse mapping page in Sellercloud.
   You must enter the unique Address ID from Vendor Central for each warehouse you will be shipping from. This is NOT the warehouse code, but an address ID (see Step 5 above).

Importing orders

Follow these steps here to set up the connection to Vendor Central, download orders, and acknowledge them.

Managing shipping agendas

After checking availability on an order, the order will automatically be added to a shipping agenda and you will be directed to that shipping agenda’s page.

To access the Vendor Central Shipping Agenda list (not from the Check Availability page), click Orders > Vendor Central Shipping Agenda.

Next to the list of shipping agendas, there will be a list of open orders that have not yet been added to an agenda.

Orders going to the same fulfillment center can be added to the same agenda. The destination warehouse is displayed on both the shipping agenda list and the open order list for easy reference. You can filter the open orders grid by destination warehouse by typing in either the warehouse code, the city, or the state initials, and then pressing enter on the keyboard.

Adding and removing orders to/from shipping agendas from within a specific agenda

1. In the Shipping Agendas List, click the ID for the desired agenda to open up the shipping agenda details page. The fulfillment center will be displayed on the top of the Agenda Details page.
2. Enter the Order ID in the textbox on the top-left corner of the page, and click either Add Order or Remove Order.

Adding orders to shipping agendas using the open orders grid

1. In the Open Orders Grid, select the desired order(s).
2. Click Add Order(s) to Shipping Agenda.
3. The Vendor Central Shipping Agenda Add Orders page will be displayed, with the option to add the open order either:
   1. To an existing shipping agenda: by selecting the checkbox for the existing agenda, then clicking Add to Agenda.
   2. To a new shipping agenda: by clicking Add to New Agenda.
4. Before the order will actually be added to the agenda, you will be redirected to the Check Availability page to confirm the order. Clicking Save will add the order to the agenda you specified (or to a new agenda).

Adding items to new or existing shipments

At the top of the shipping agenda page, there is a list of orders and items that have not yet been added to a shipment. Each item will show the total confirmed qty as well as the remaining qty that has not yet been added to a shipment.

In the Items grid is a list of Orders, Product IDs, Total Qty, and Remaining Qty from all orders on this Shipping Agenda. A line item with multiple units can be divided into different shipments, and different orders can also be split among different shipments. The shipments display in the Existing Shipments grid and the remaining qty in the items grid will be updated as the units are added to shipments.

1. On an item row enter a Qty To Add, and then choose New Shipment or an existing shipment from the Shipments drop-down. Click Add to add a specific row to a shipment or click Add All to add all the items at once.
2. If you are adding all the items to a shipment at once, make sure all the rows are completed correctly prior to clicking Add All.

Routing & shipping steps

Routing request (EDI 753)

Before sending out any shipment, you will need to request routing details from Vendor Central. The routing request includes the PO information, weights, dimensions, and ship from location, and based on that Amazon will tell you how it should be shipped.

Routing needs to be requested per shipment. Before sending a 753 routing request, you must edit the shipment details and set up pallets/cartons.

1. Click Edit in the Existing Shipment grid. In the pop-up window complete the following fields:
   1. Ship From Warehouse
   2. Stackable
   3. Freight Class
   4. Commodity Code
   5. Freight Ready Date
   6. Shipment Type
2. Click Save Shipment.
3. Set up the package configuration with pallets (if applicable), cartons, box content, weights, and dimensions. Detailed instructions can be found here.
4. Once the routing information and the cartons/pallets are set up, select the shipment and choose Generate Routing Request and Upload. (For testing, choose Generate Routing Request and Download).
   Once an EDI 753 is sent for a shipment, Amazon will ignore additional routing requests for that shipment. If you need to make changes to a routing request that was already submitted, you will need to contact Vendor Central to have them change it manually.

Receive routing instructions (EDI 754)

This is Amazon’s response to the EDI 753 message. Amazon does not send the 754 Routing Instructions until the Freight Ready Date sent on the 753 (set in the “Edit” window on the shipment in Sellercloud). The 754 will be automatically imported by the Vendor Central service, and the SCAC Code (carrier code) and Amazon Reference Number will be saved to the shipment.

You can also import a 754 file manually from the shipping agenda page:

1. Click the Choose File button on the top right corner of the page and select the file from your computer.
2. Click the Import Routing Instructions (754) button.

Print carton labels

You can print carton labels anytime after setting up the pallets and cartons. Each label will have a unique Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) .

By default, carton labels cannot be printed before Amazon provides routing instructions. To enable carton label printing before receiving the routing instructions, open a ticket with Sellercloud Support to enable the AllowVendorCentralPrintSSCCLables_Without754Info App Setting.

To print carton labels:

1. Go to the Shipment Details page.
2. From the Actions menu, click Print SSCC Labels. A PDF document will be downloaded with one label for every carton.

Shipping

Small parcel shipments:

1. In the Existing Shipments grid, click on the Ship link beside (near the ship date on the right side of the grid).
2. You will be directed to the Vendor Central Shipping Agenda Labels page where you can see all the labels generated for this shipment. Click on the Create New Label link.
3. A page will open with the details of the label that will be generated. The Ship From Address is populated from the warehouse set on the shipment (see Initial Steps #4), and the Ship To Address is the Amazon Fulfillment Center. Clicking on the number of cartons link will allow you to view and edit the cartons and contents that have been set up.
4. Select the options on the bottom (Amazon usually requires delivery confirmation) and click Generate Label. You will be directed back to the label history page where you can download the label PDF.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments:

1. Select the shipment and choose Print BOL from the action menu. A BOL PDF will be generated and be downloaded with an empty space for the PRO Number/Barcode sticker (which you will receive from the driver).
2. Once you have the PRO Number, click Ship on the shipment (near the ship date on the right side of the grid) and enter the PRO Number (and trailer and seal numbers if available).
3. Click Update to save the PRO Number and mark the shipment as shipped. The ASN will be sent automatically, usually within about an hour. If you would like to send it immediately, choose Update and Send 856 ASN instead.

Advance shipping notification (EDI 856)

The ASN is used to send the shipping and tracking information to Vendor Central. Sellercloud will automatically send an ASN for every shipment shortly after it is marked as shipped, even if it only includes part of an order. When the rest of the order is shipped, a separate ASN will be sent for those items.

To manually push an ASN for a specific shipment:

1. Select the shipment from the Existing Shipments grid.
2. Choose Generate ASN Tracking and Upload from the action menu.