Selling on Amazon with the Channable app

To start selling on the marketplace, connect your store to Amazon through the Channable app from the App Market. With the app, you connect both your online store and Amazon accounts to Channable and then sync your online catalog with Amazon.

After you connect your online store via the Channable app, your online catalog appears on Amazon, so that shoppers can order your goods directly on the marketplace.

Requirements for selling on Amazon

To sell on Amazon with the Channable app, you need to meet the following requirements:

• Register an Amazon Professional seller account.
• Comply with the Amazon Selling Policies.
• Your country must be white-listed by Amazon to sell from.
• You have assigned EAN or GTIN codes to your products. That is mandatory for listing your products on Amazon with the Channable app.
• Do not sell handmade goods. For handmade items, Amazon has a separate marketplace called Amazon Handmade. Handmade items should be added to Amazon Handmade directly from the marketplace account since it can’t be integrated with third-party services.

Step 1. Connecting your store to Channable

At the first step, you connect your online store and catalog to Channable

To connect your store to Channable:

1. From your store admin, go to Apps → App Market.
2. Find the Channable app and click Install.
3. Click Open app.
4. You will be redirected to your Channable account where you need to login with your Channable credentials or create a new account. Please note that you can only use your business email to sign up to Channable.
5. Once you're logged in to your Channable account, you will be prompted to create a connection with your online store. Tick the checkbox and click Add connection:
   

   

6. In the Label field, enter the name for the connection. For example, My store on Amazon. Click Save.
7. Click on the Channable icon in the top left and then click Add new project to create a new project. In this project, you will create the connection between your store and Amazon.
8. You will be forwarded to the Setup page where you can import your product catalog. Select the Webshop option and name it. Then click Save. If there are some issues that require your attention, you will see the instructions on how to fix them.
   

   Channable imports each product variation as a single item.

That’s it. Products from your catalog are now uploaded to your Channable account. You can find them by clicking the Items section in the menu on the left in your Channable account. Clicking on an item will show you detailed information about it.

The next step is to connect and set up your Amazon account.

Step 2. Generating your Amazon API key

After you’ve connected your store to Channable, it’s time to connect your Amazon account. For this, you need to create your individual Amazon API key. Make sure you have set up and verified your Amazon account, otherwise you can’t generate the key. 

To get your Amazon API key:

1. Go to the following Amazon login page and login to your account.
2. Click Settings → Account Info → Your merchant token:
   

   

3. Authorize Channable as a new developer by going to Settings → User permissions → Third-party developer and apps → Authorize a new developer:
   

   

4. You will be redirected to a new screen to fill in the Channable developer information. In the Developer name field, enter Channable. The Identification number of the developer varies depending on your location: for Amazon Europe — enter 6553-1316-0844. For Amazon North America — enter 7448-9533-3156.
5. Click Next.
6. Go to Settings → Account Info → Your merchant token to see your token. It is used as a unique seller identification (seller ID).
7. Copy your seller ID and the MWS authentication token, you will need them when connecting your Amazon account to Channable.

Now when you have your token (or API key), it’s time to proceed to connecting your Amazon account to Channable. 

Step 3. Connecting your Amazon account to Channable

Before you start connecting your Amazon account to Channable, make sure you remove any old product listings if you have any. That will prevent your connection from potential errors. Still, there’s an option to use the Channable Amazon API to update existing product listings in your Amazon Seller account. In the Channable help center, you can learn more about deleting and updating old product listings →

Note:
Connecting your online store to marketplaces may require some time and technical skills. To get more visual clarity on each step, follow an interactive guide in the Channable help center.

To connect and set up Amazon with Channable:

1. In your Channable dashboard, click on your company name in the top right and choose Connections:
   

   

2. Click + Add a new connection and select Amazon.
3. Fill in the label for your connection, for example: Amazon.
4. In the Seller ID field, enter your merchant token.
5. In the Region dropdown, select Europe or North America.
6. Click Create.
7. You will be redirected to your Amazon Seller Central account. Login and confirm the authorizations.
8. You will then be redirected to your Channable account. Go to your project that you created for your Amazon connection, click APIs  →  + Add a new connection, and select the Amazon connection you have previously created by ticking the checkbox:
   

   

9. In the Name field, give your API a name. For example, Amazon.
10. In the Unique ID per item field, select id.
11. (optional) If you have created master rules in your Channable account, select one. If not, skip this step.
12. Click Continue.

Once you’ve created your Amazon API, it’s time to create your product listings so that your products appear on Amazon.

Step 4: Creating Amazon product listings with the Channable app

After you set up your Amazon connection, you can start listing your products on Amazon.

There are four parameters you have to create and set up:

1. Categories
2. Rules
3. Build
4. Attributes

Set up categories for Amazon

In your Channable account, go to your Amazon project and switch to the Categories tab at the top right to set up categories for your products. You can use the generate categories feature or create new categories from scratch.

Note:
To speed up the process, try the Smart Categorization that automatically matches your items to the most likely product category of Amazon.

Set up rules for Amazon

In your Amazon project in the Channable dashboard, switch to the Rules tab and create rules to optimize your product data.

In the Channable help center you will find examples of common rules that you can create.

Set up build for Amazon

In your Amazon project in the Channable dashboard, switch to the Build tab and click Start building product listing. You will see the preset template for the product listings. Fill it out by clicking on the field and selecting what information you want to send to Amazon. For example, the project field Title should display the title of your product, etc. After completing the template, click Save at the bottom of the page.

Set up attributes for Amazon

In your Amazon project in the Channable dashboard, switch to the Attributes tab to fill in the attributes per category. Select the category you want to optimize first. A more detailed explanation of what to do on the Attributes tab you will find in the Channable Attributes article.

Please note that a few attributes are mandatory by Amazon. So you may see a mandatory field that does not make sense for that category. You can leave these attributes empty when you first set up the API. For example: If you sell products in the Shoes category, the attributes "item_volume_unit_of_measure" and "Categorization/GHS pictograms" do not apply. They can stay empty when sending your products for the first time. If Amazon does need some of these attributes to be filled in, the API will return an error. You can solve the error later.

Step 5: Sending your product listings to Amazon

Before you send your product listings to Amazon, you can check it in the Result tab in your Channable account.

To send your product listings to Amazon:

1. From your Channable dashboard, navigate to APIs → your Amazon API → Settings and click Activate project:
   

   

2. Click Run to send your products to Amazon.

Solving errors in the Amazon API

After you have sent your product catalog to Amazon go to the Results tab and click Errors to check if there are any issues preventing some of your products from appearing on the marketplace. 

Clicking on an error code enables you to have a description of this error and possibly what is causing it. In the Channable help center, you will find a guide on how to solve errors for Amazon.

Processing orders from Amazon

When someone buys your product on Amazon, a new order will appear in the My sales → Orders section in your store admin. You will get notification about a new order with an email or a push notification in the mobile app for iOS or Android. 

By default, the orders are not synced between your store and Amazon, but you can sync them by using Channable order connection. When orders are synced, you change the status of the order in your store admin and/or add a tracking number, this information is sent to Amazon. And vice versa. As a result, you can manage the order processing both from your store or Amazon admin.