Amazon's API Limitations

InventoryLab, as well as other third-party services, communicate with Amazon through their SP-API (Selling Partner Application Programming Interface). There are some limitations to the information Amazon provides to third-party service providers. 

In This Guide 

• Restricted Categories
• "Competitive" Offers
• When Amazon is the Merchant
• Warehouse Splits
• Shipments Split by Label Type
• Sub-Categories
• Expiration Dates
• Reconciliation

Restricted Categories

Reflecting restricted categories can be a limitation of Amazon's API. Here are a few tips to avoid listing restricted items. 

1. Check Restrictions with Amazon: Use the free Amazon Seller App or the “Add A Product” feature in Seller Central to check if an item has restrictions.

2. InventoryLab Product Alerts: Set up Product Alerts in InventoryLab, Scoutify, and ScoutX to receive automatic notifications if an item is restricted from being sold.

3. Hot Link: Click the hotlink to Seller Central within Scoutify and the button in InventoryLab's List and Scout areas to easily check restrictions.

For additional details, please see the following articles:

• Scoutify 2: Settings - Automatically Check for Amazon Restrictions
• ScoutX: Overview - Product Alerts
• How to Tell if an Item is Restricted or Gated

“Competitive” Offers

• Amazon only shows us offers that are deemed “competitive” and not necessarily all the lowest offers on a given product through their API.
• InventoryLab will show you the Buy Box Offer (also known as Featured Offer) and several other “competitive” offers
• If you need to see a full look at the offers in any given marketplace, view the prime comparison icon during product lookup.
• After searching for an item in InventoryLab, the current number of offers is displayed while listing and in Scout.

• If that number is greater than the actual offers displayed, you'll know that there are more offers on the listing.
• Click the Amazon Offer Comparison button to view them all.

• In Scoutify, the current number of offers is displayed in the Offers tab:

• If that number is greater than the actual offers displayed, tap the Research button and select the Amazon Prime link to take you to the detail page on Amazon for the product to see any remaining offers.

For more information, please see:

• Scout Why do I see fewer offers in the colorful box than what Amazon.com shows?

When Amazon is the Merchant

• InventoryLab makes an educated guess when Amazon is a merchant on a listing, but it is not always 100% accurate.
• Amazon does not provide merchant names, so InventoryLab cannot guarantee accuracy in identifying Amazon as the seller on an ASIN.
• If InventoryLab identifies Amazon as the merchant on an offer, you will see the Amazon logo next to it in Scoutify.
• There will be a button indicating Amazon as the merchant in the List and Scout areas of InventoryLab.

Warehouse Splits

• InventoryLab cannot control the warehouse destinations to which your items are shipped.
• InventoryLab provides an estimated destination, but the actual destinations are only shown after you complete item entry and reach the Proposed FBA Shipping page.
• Shipment destinations are subject to expiration after 48 hours, at which point Amazon may re-evaluate and adjust the destinations.

For more information, please see:

• Shipment Getting Split into Multiple Destinations

Shipment Splits Label Type

• When listing through a third-party service, Amazon will split shipments for any items that have different label types.
• They will not allow you to combine label types into the same shipment in InventoryLab, even if they are routed to the same warehouse.

For more information on this topic, check out:

• Labeing Preferences

Sub-Categories

• The API does not give sub-category-specific commission information for all parent categories during product lookup.
• The result is that the commission amounts can be off because we can not see the sub-category-specific commission rates.
• This is only temporary- After listing these items, you should see that the correct fees are shown on the sales once the orders are shown as Reconciled on the Accounting>FBA or Merchant Sales pages.

For more information, please see:

• What Does the Profit Status in the Sales Pages Mean?
  
  

Expiration Dates

• Due to API limitations, the expiration date Product Alert is only visible after clicking on a product to view its information in List. 
• It will not show in the results list when searching for items or in Scout, Scoutify, or ScoutX.

For more information regarding Expiration dates, check out: 

Amazon's guide on time-sensitive products

Reconciliations 

• For FBA Sales, accounting details are received once the order ships, and sales are updated to "Reconciled" on the Accounting > FBA Sales page.
• For MFN sales, shipping details are only available after receiving the settlement report, so sales are not marked "Reconciled" until the report is received (unless shipping amounts are manually added).
• Refund details are also synced only after receiving the relevant settlement reports

For more information, regarding refunds please see:

• Refunds