InventoryLab, and all other third-party services, communicate with Amazon through their Merchant Web Services (MWS) Application Programming Interface (API). 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
Amazon does not give InventoryLab live information about a product being restricted until after the feeds have been processed. This means that you have no way of knowing whether a product is restricted before listing it in Stratify.
In order to avoid sending in something that you cannot sell, we recommend scanning items with the free Amazon Seller App or looking up the item using the “Add A Product” feature in Seller Central when you are 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.
We have added a hotlink to Seller Central within Scoutify as well as a button in the List and Scout areas of Stratify to make this easier.
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 MWS 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 Review
The MWS API prevents items from showing if a product is under Hazmat review during product lookup, although InventoryLab does block items under Hazmat review while you are listing in Stratify.
For more information, please see- Under Hazmat Review
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 MWS 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
Amazon does not give InventoryLab live information about a product requiring an expiration date until after the box content feeds for shipments have been processed. This means that you have no way of knowing whether a product requires an expiration date if InventoryLab's Box Content feature is turned Off, or prior to that point in the workflow when Box Content is turned On.
If you send box content feeds for a shipment that contains an item that requires an expiration date, but was not provided one, you will receive an error in Stratify. From there, you can edit the box content information in order to add the missing info, then resend the box content feeds to Amazon as detailed here- Expiration Date Error
We also recommend referring to Amazon's guide on time-sensitive products when creating batches in Stratify so the expiration dated and be entered as items are added to batches.
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?
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