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. The key limitations are listed below.
Shipping Box Weight & Dimensions
Restricted Categories
To avoid sending in something you cannot sell while listing, we recommend checking items with the free Amazon Seller App or looking up the item using the “Add A Product” feature in Seller Central when unsure. While it is not always 100% correct, it is the best way to check on your restrictions on products you intend to list on Amazon.
To help, you can set up Product Alerts in Stratify, Scoutify, and ScoutX to automatically show you when you are restricted from selling an item.
For details, please take a look at the following articles:
- Product Alerts
- Scoutify 2: Settings - Automatically Check for Amazon Restrictions
- ScoutX: Overview - Product Alerts
We have also added a hotlink to Seller Central within Scoutify and a button in Stratify's List and Scout areas to help check restrictions.
For more information, please see- 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, but if you need to see a full look at the offers in any given marketplace, please view the prime comparison icon during product lookup.
After searching for an item in Stratify, the current number of offers is displayed on the Listing Details page and in Scout:
If that number is greater than the actual offers displayed, you'll know that there are more offers on the listing, and you can 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, tapping the Research button and selecting the Amazon Prime link will take you to the detail page on Amazon for the product to see any remaining offers.
For more information, please see- Why do I see fewer offers in the colorful box than what Amazon.com shows?
When Amazon is the Merchant
While InventoryLab does try to make a very educated “guess” as to when Amazon is a merchant on a listing, it is not always 100% correct. Amazon does not provide details on merchant names, and therefore InventoryLab is not 100% accurate when showing when and when not Amazon is a merchant on an ASIN.
If InventoryLab guesses that Amazon is the merchant on an offer, you'll see the Amazon logo next to it in Scoutify as well as a button in the List and Scout areas of Stratify:
Hazmat Product Alert
Due to API limitations, the Hazmat alert is only visible after clicking on a product to view its information in List, Scout, and Scoutify. It will not show in the results list when searching for items.
For more information, please see:
Product Alerts - Check For Hazmat
Scoutify 2: Settings - Hazmat Alerts
Warehouse Splits
InventoryLab is unable to control the warehouse destinations your items are shipped to. When working in the Private Workflow, we will make our best guess as to where Amazon may route the items, but the actual destinations are not shown until you finish adding items and are on the Proposed FBA Shipping page with the batch. In addition, the shipment destinations are subject to expiration after 48 hours, in which Amazon will re-evaluate the destinations.
For more information, please see:
- Proposed FBA Shipments: Create Shipments – Private Workflow
- Shipments Getting Split Into Multiple Destinations
Shipments Split by Label Type
When listing through a third-party service such as InventoryLab, Amazon splits the shipments for any items that have different label types. They will not allow you to combine NO_LABEL, AMAZON_LABEL, and SELLER_LABEL into the same shipment in Stratify, even if they are routed to the same warehouse.
If you are unsure what label types you have, you can see this in a few different places.
1. Immediately after adding a product to a batch, the label type is displayed.
2. On the Proposed FBA Shipping screen for Private Batches, the label type for each shipment is shown.
3. The label type is also displayed for each shipment on the Box Content screen.
4. Under Working Shipments on the List>List & Prep page, the label type shows for any shipments in working status at Amazon.
By default, Amazon has a setting turned on in a Seller's account to use the Manufacturer Barcode for their items. This is also known as Stickerless Commingling. With this setting, commingled eligible items will appear as NO_LABEL, and items not eligible will show SELLER_LABEL.
For more information on this topic, check out the resources linked below:
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.
The good news is, 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 (Estimated or Reconciled) 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.
We also recommend referring to Amazon's guide on time-sensitive products.
For more information, please see:
Shipping Box Weight & Dimensions
Due to API limitations, Stratify is only able to communicate weight & dimensions for up to 110 boxes per shipment. LTL shipment box weight and dimensions need to be done in Seller Central.
In addition, if you are not using a partnered carrier or are shipping hazmat items, your box weight and dimensions will need to be entered in Seller Central.
For more information, please see- Why aren't the weight and dimensions for my shipping boxes going through to Seller Central?
Reconciliation
For FBA sales, we usually get all of your accounting details right away once your order is shipped. At that time, the sales will update to show as Reconciled on the Accounting>FBA Sales page.
However, for MFN sales, we cannot get shipping details until we receive the settlement report for the timeframe of the sale. Since shipping is part of MFN orders, we do not update them to show as Reconciled on the Accounting>Merchant Sales page until the settlement report is received (unless the shipping amounts are added manually to the Merchant Sales page.)
In addition to shipping costs, Refund details cannot be synced prior to receiving the settlement reports containing them.
For more information on this topic, please see the following links:
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