If it were me explaining Amazon.com to John Lennon, I would say, “Hey John. First of all, it’s amazing to meet you. Thanks for the song “Imagine,” and for swinging down for a moment to meet me. Amazon is the world’s local store, John. You go to it for clothes, guitars, toys, and games. Whatever you need, really. But you don’t need to leave your house. Once you know what you want, you tell Jeff Bezos, and he’ll find it for you. You pay him, and – like magic – some nice person will just drop it on your porch next Tuesday.” 

Amazon is magic. We’re all pretty used to it, but when you take step back, it is wild, isn’t it? 

 

Amazon is as important to many North American consumers as their local store is.  And so, sellers want to be on it.  It’s a no brainer for the bottom line.  To sell on Amazon, sellers need to have good products and flawless customer service.  If they don’t, the world will hear about it, and they’ll slide down the search results and eventually right off Amazon entirely.

 

The answer is simple: top sellers are magically flawless because they get help.  They have super duper reliable vendors, integrated systems and efficient processes.  

While everything at Amazon (even for sellers) is self-service, a simple Google search or a search on the new Amazon API marketplace reveals countless third-party vendors. Some help with efficient shipping.  Some with optimizing advertising spend.  Some even with keywords.  And some help to integrate critical business systems together so data updates and syncs.  

 

Critical system integrators, specifically those for Amazon sellers, must:

1. Boast 99.9 % system uptime

2. Transfer and translate data around new sales orders in near real time

3. Update inventory levels across the mant channels the seller sells on 

4. Quickly create a new customer in the ERP, and get a shipping # back to them, fast

 

Critical systems to top Amazon sellers often are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.  The most commonly chosen are NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, SAP or Epicor.   

Ensuring that data flows from their ERP to Amazon, and back, is imperative to merchants. Also important is the ability to automate document exchange with the warehouses storing their goods. An integration vendor makes all of this possible, and hassle-free for the Amazon seller.