Introduction
Seller Central is Amazon’s merchant dashboard for selling partners like you. From creating an order to order support, here is an introduction on how to use Seller Central for Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfilment (MCF).
In this guide, you will learn how to use Seller Central for:
- Order creation
- Order details and tracking
- Unbranded packaging
- Inventory
- Returns
- Reports
- Support
You can create an order with quick order creation or bulk order creation. Create fulfilment orders one at a time with quick order creation. This tool is great if you are interested in testing MCF or have low order volume. With bulk order creation, you can create multiple fulfilment orders at once. This is best suited for you if you have reoccurring orders, subscriptions, or if you have high order volume and aren’t able to integrate MCF into your ecommerce channel.
Quick order creation
There are two ways to easily begin quick order creation. To navigate to the “MCF Order Creation” page:
- Select the “Orders” drop-down from the top navigation.
- Choose the “Create MCF Order” option in the drop-down.
- Select the “Inventory” drop-down from the top navigation.
- Choose the products you want to create an order for and from the top menu choose “Create Fulfilment Order”.
- Provide your customer’s shipping address, items to fulfil and a shipping speed selection.
A. The customer will receive a link to Swiship to track their order if the email is added.
B. Choose from two shipping speeds, Standard and Expedited after you enter the required customer information.
C. Create a bulk order by clicking here.
D. See an estimate of your total fees and your estimated ship and delivery date.
Bulk order creation
To access the “MCF Bulk Order Creation” page:
- Go to the “MCF Order Creation” page.
- Click the “Create bulk orders” button on the top right corner of the page.
- Download the bulk order creation template, and follow the instructions to easily populate the file to submit multiple orders.
You can also use integrations to create an order. Use a prebuilt integration to connect your sales channels to MCF and automate your order entry. This option doesn’t require coding, and easily links you to popular ecommerce applications, like Shopify and BigCommerce. You can also create your own custom API by referencing the developer documentation.
Once you have placed an order, you can view all of your orders on the “Manage Orders” page.
- From the top navigation of Seller Central, select the “Orders” drop down.
- Select the “Manage Orders” option.
- Enter the order ID in the search bar to locate your order.
If you click on an order, you can see the specific “Order Details” page. On this page, you can check your order’s shipping details and if the order has been shipped, you can see the tracking number associated with the shipment. This page will also have a link to the Swiship tracking website, which gives tracking information for all carriers, and can be searched using the tracking number provided.
A. Use the Shipments tab to view tracking details and the Swiship link.
B. Use the Returns tab to place any returns for the order.
C. See the status of each item here.
Your orders are automatically shipped in unbranded packaging at no additional cost to you. You are automatically enrolled in unbranded packaging with no action needed from you. There are three steps in the unbranded packaging process:
- Inbound shipment creation: Send your inventory to Amazon fulfilment centres using the standard inbound process you follow. MCF will automatically place your inventory in the Amazon network for unbranded packaging fulfilment.
- Inventory visibility: Check the amount of inventory available to be fulfilled with unbranded packaging in your Seller Central account.
- Order routing: MCF orders will be prioritised to ship in unbranded packaging when inventory is available for unbranded packaging. When placing an MCF order, if you would like Amazon to fulfil orders using only unbranded packaging, select the option “only ship with Blank boxes” in step two, titled “Add items”. This allows orders to be placed with items that are eligible for unbranded packaging.
Note that – as of December 2022 – MCF’s unbranded packaging feature does not include non-sortable inventory that exceeds 45.72 x 35.56 x 20.32 cm and/or 9 kg.
Check your inventory levels by using the “Manage FBA Inventory” page.
- From the top navigation of Seller Central, select the “Inventory” drop-down.
- Select the “Manage FBA Inventory” option.
This page shows your total inventory for on and off Amazon orders. If you are an Amazon seller, you can use your FBA inventory to fulfil your MCF orders. Use this page to check which items are fulfilable. The inventory categorised as “Available” is ready to ship. The inventory marked as “Inbound” is fulfilable, but shipping will be delayed, since it is en route to a fulfilment centre. Roll your mouse over one of the inventory numbers to view a breakdown of the products and their inventory status.
A. Click on the inventory numbers in each column to get a breakdown of units ready to ship (Available) and units en route to a fulfilment centre (Inbound).
B. Create an MCF order directly from this page using the Edit drop down and selecting “Create fulfilment order”.
If you would like to initiate a return, determine if you would like the customer to ship the return back to Amazon. The return can be incorporated back into your Amazon inventory. You are responsible for shipping the return back to the Amazon fulfilment centre and for refunding the customer. You can create a return by following the steps below or by using an API.
To initiate a return to Amazon:
- Navigate to the “Orders” screen in Seller Central and open up the order details for your customer’s order.
- Click on the “Create Customer Return” tab.
- Select the return quantity for the item(s) your customer wants to return.
- Indicate the return reason for the item(s).
- The Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) form will be generated. The RMA contains the below two sections:
The Return Mailing Label is a label that contains the address of the Amazon fulfilment centre that will be receiving and processing the return. Ask your customer to affix the label on their return package to return back to Amazon.
Note: Postage is not provided on the return mailing letter. You or the customer are responsible for purchasing and producing the return label back to Amazon.
- The Return Authorization Slip is a form that contains a barcode and item description for the products being returned. The slip must be included inside the return package alongside the items.
- After initiating a return, check the “Return Status” tab within the Order Details page for details on the return. The page will indicate if the return has been received by Amazon, and what the disposition of the item is.
Use Seller Central fulfilment reports to gather insights about your business operations.
- From the top navigation of Seller Central, select the “Reports” drop-down.
- Select the “Fulfilment” option.
Here are the top reports:
- Use the “Amazon Fulfiled Shipments” report under Sales to see all outbound shipments.
- Use the “FBA Customer Returns” report under Customer Concessions to view all customer returns including your MCF returns.
- Use the “Multi-Channel Fulfilment Inventory” report under Inventory to view products specific to Multi-Channel Fulfilment, such as unbranded packaging, and current inventory levels.
There are additional reports you can use like restocking inventory level reports, payment reports, and more. To see your historical MCF fees in the “Reports” section of Seller Central:
- From the top navigation of Seller Central, select the “Reports” drop-down.
- Select the “Payments” option, and then select “All Statements”.
- Download your fees for your desired time period, and in the downloaded file, filter Column L to “Non-Amazon” to see only MCF fees.
To see fees for a specific order, click the “Payment Information” link in the Order Details page.