Question
I'm currently using your integration with my POS system and it's working great. I also have my website integrated with Amazon and that's working out well. However, I'm now ready to move to Fulfillment by Amazon but have no idea what that will do to my integration and how to send FBA orders down to my point of sale system. Can you please explain it to me?
Answer
Thanks for your kind words about our POS integration. Yes, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a little different from Selling on Amazon because of course you're shipping your goods directly to Amazon and Amazon is shipping the products to the consumer.
There's no change in how you add Products to Amazon. Products still flow from your POS system, to your website and then up to Amazon using ChannelUnity. However, we do have to change how Orders flow into your POS system. Instead of flowing into your WooCommerce website, we need to "divert" your FBA orders (1) so they no longer go into WooCommerce and instead get directed right to our Integration Middleware (2). From there we send them to a separate FBA location within your POS system (3). This is the same location you'll use to keep track of the inventory you send to Amazon.
ChannelUnity has a nice feature that I would like to point out. They allow you to pull from your FBA inventory first but default to the inventory in WooCommerce if you were to run out of inventory. Yes, Amazon gives preferential treatment to FBA inventory but this is really nice option because it at least gives you a chance to default back to Selling on Amazon when you no longer have FBA inventory. I suspect most retailers would opt for this option because who doesn't like making a sale.
Please let us know if you have any more questions about your integration by submitting a Support Request. Thank you.