All you need to know about Amazon's Vendor Central EDI for Vendors

If you’re an Amazon vendor or you inspire to be, hopefully you understand that EDI is an absolute must for your situation. 
When you look at the process you have to go through every time a customer makes a purchase, you realize that there are so many warning signs, that the chance of a mistake is higher than you’d like to think and EDI is the only way to go. Here’s all you need to know about Vendor Central EDI.

Becoming a vendor seems to be the Holy Grail of Amazon sellers. After months of promoting, advertising and monitoring your product daily, Amazon is inviting you to sell more and work less - YESSSS!

But not all that shines is gold, and soon you might find that it’s more like “different work” and not so much like “less work”. 
While Amazon is doing all the promoting and selling for you, the part of processing and shipping is still your responsibility, with two minor changes: you have more sales to process and you have to comply with very strict rules dictated by Amazon, or else….

The “else” is not a small thing at all and it’s called Chargebacks. 
Chargebacks are what you get when you fail to comply with Amazon’s process of operating as a vendor. Chargebacks can get as high as 10% of the sale price that Amazon fine you for failing to deliver on time, failing to update the tracking number on time and a few more steps that have to take place in a certain order. 

When you were a seller, you received notice of sales on Amazon and shipped it to the buyer. True, you also had to update tracking and shipping information, but most of the process was done on your system, in your terms. 

As a vendor, you don't get to decide if you want to issue the invoice first and then the estimated time of delivery date, or the other way around. Amazon tells you exactly what you have to do first, second, third and so on. If you miss a step or fail to respond on time, you’ll be fined according to Amazon’s rules, and that’s a Chargeback. 

Vendors who are new to Amazon vendor central tend to get a lot of chargebacks, which can be very damaging to your final profit. After negotiating with Amazon on the price they will pay for your product, your margins might be a little tighter than before and you don’t want any part of it to be lost to a technicality. 

That’s where EDI comes into the picture and saves the day. 
EDI is a tool we use to automate the entire process of working as an Amazon vendor.
There are different levels of automation, and they also depend on the type of system you’re working with and the steps you have to take to send an order to a buyer. 
The important thing to remember is that you don’t have to understand exactly what EDI is, you just have to know what are the weak spots in your system that don’t integrate with Amazon’s demands from vendors and have us fix them for you. 

Finally, the most important part of upgrading your business to EDI is choosing the right service provider to work with. While there are probably quite a few ready-made programs out there, that use EDI to solve vendors issues, chances are they will never be enough for you. 

EDI Integration is and should be a custom made solution. There is no such thing as “one size fits all”. 
If you’re looking at Amazon Vendor Central as a step up and an opportunity to develop your business, then this is not the moment to make compromises. 

At Amosoft we take advantage of all the experience we gained with our former clients, combined with our understanding of EDI and the challenges of Amazon Vendor Central, and use it to sew the perfect custom suit for your business needs. 

Avoiding chargebacks and start working like a true professional Amazon Vendor, can only be achievable with EDI. Don’t get left behind, call us today.