FBA Shipments Manager Overview

The FBA Shimpents Manager Tab in SellerEngine Plus helps you create and manage shipments outbound for FBA warehouses. You can find this tab in the lower half of the application screen, between the Price Check and Quick Add tabs:

Add items to FBA Planning 

Select one or more items from Inventory, then click the Send to FBA Planning button from the second main toolbar, or right-click on selection and click on the Send to FBA Planning option. If you want to scan items one by one and add them to FBA Planning at the same time, use the Quick Add tab.

Items added to FBA Planning will have assigned an initially estimated warehouse destination and will be grouped together based on these destination assignments but these are sometimes volatile and can be automatically updated when you later request a shipment plan from Amazon.

NOTE 1: If you scan items in one-by-one, you must refrain from packing up your shipments based on the estimated assignments. Instead, start preparing your shipments only once they're in Working status.

NOTE 2: The maximum number of SKUs which can be added is 200, meaning you should only add up to 200 SKUs in FBA Planning before requesting a shipment plan. This is a Amazon SP-API limitation.

Estimated → Planned → Working → Shipped!

When items are being added to FBA shipments, they are now included in Estimated status shipments in the FBA Planning tab. Here, items are initially grouped in shipments based on the Amazon's response to a shipment plan for added items.


Keep in mind that:

- The grouping is based on the same combination of warehouse, label type, and if cases are required.

- If all items of an Estimated shipment are part of the same Amazon Shipping Plan (they were all in the same planning request) then the shipment status will change to Planned automatically.

- The plan from Amazon may change depending on various criteria such as the quantity used in a plan request - Amazon may split items with multiple quantity to several warehouses.

- When other items are included in the same plan request, Amazon won't usually split the quantity of an item as much as when the plan is made for a single SKU with multiple quantity.

- Amazon currently has a limit of only 200 SKUs which can be included in a Shipment Plan so for now you can only Send to FBA Planning up to 200 SKUs. In other words, it's currently not possible to add more than 200 SKUs in one FBA Planning session.

How it works:

1) Once finished adding items to FBA Planning, a final plan can be requested from Amazon using the Request Shipment Plan button - this will result in a new set of shipments, all of them having the Planned status.

2) Use the Accept Shipment Plan button if you like the new plan and want to discard the old (Estimated) shipments;

2.1) If you don't want to go ahead and send shipments created based on the current shipment plan, use the Reject Shipment Plan button to undo the new Planned status shipments and reactivate the previous ones - you can wait for a while and then request another shipment to see if the new plan is different and more convenient.

3) Register each of the Planned shipments you want to send off as soon as they're created. A plan and the Shipment IDs allocated at SKU level will expire after 48 hours, only during this time frame Planned status shipments can be Registered with Amazon - this will change the shipment status to Working.

You will need to register shipments one-by-one. Open each shipment, then click the Register Shipment button:

NOTE 1: Adding other items in a Working shipment is not supported by the Amazon SP-API. Once in Working status, the only shipment operations allowed are to change the quantities, to delete items, or to change the status of the shipment to Shipped or Cancelled.

NOTE 2: Amazon now allows users to make changes to the contents of a Working status shipment only for a duration of 24 hrs starting from the time when a shipment was initially registered as Working. Once this time frame is closed, the button becomes grayed out to prevent users from sending shipment update requests that would be rejected by Amazon. This explains why sometimes the Register shipment button is sometimes grayed out for some Working status shipments.

4) Upload all items in each shipment after registering it, this way you won't end up with stranded inventory.

5) Final tasks:
- If you didn't add items one by one using Quick Add, print individual FBA labels and sticker each item;
- Box the shipment, go to Seller Central to print your preferred shipping carrier labels, and set the status to Shipped in the process;
- Once a shipment is Shipped, you can update these shipments in the FBA Shipments Manager by using the Retrieve from Amazon button:

Once that's done, you can manage and reprice your new FBA inventory. You will need to run a price check to refresh the listed state of these items within the inventory grid.  

All tabs available in the FBA Shipment Manager 

In the FBA Shipments Manager view you will notice there are 5 separate tabs: FBA Planning, which shows you the Estimated and Planned status shipments you are currently adding to, and 4 tabs for every possible status a shipment can have once it's been registered with Amazon: Working, Shipped/InTransit, Closed, and Cancelled.

FBA Planning
This tab shows you all Estimated and Planned status shipments to which items can be added. Any new shipments that get created are automatically included in this tab.



The tab's toolbar provides the following buttons:

[ ? ]: Opens the About FBA Planning Info window;

[ Rename ]: Allows you to rename a shipment

[ Open Selected ]: Opens the shipment currently selected from the tab list;

[ Delete Selected ]: Deletes the shipment currently selected from the tab list; 

[ Set Status ]: This option is active only for Working shipments;

[ Request Shipment Plan ]: Sends a query for warehouse assignments for each of the items currently included in the FBA Planning tab; once the request is complete, Estimated shipments are updated to Planned, and you get the two following options:

- [ Accept Shipment Plan ]: use this option if you like the new plan and want to discard the old (Estimated) shipments;

- [ Reject Shipment Plan ]: use this to undo the new Planned status shipments and reactivate the previous ones - this allows you to request a shipment plan again at a later time to see if the new plan obtained then is different and more convenient.
 

Working
In this tab you see all Working status shipments which have been updated from the Planned status after registering them with Amazon.

The tab's toolbar provides the following buttons:

[ ? ]: Opens the About FBA Planning Info window;

[ Rename ]: Allows you to rename a shipment

[ Open Selected ]: Opens the shipment currently selected from the tab list;

[ Delete Selected ]: Deletes the shipment currently selected from the tab list; 

[ Set Status ]: This option allows you to either register a shipment as Shipped, or to Cancel it. Status updates made using this option will automatically update the shipment in Seller Central to the selected status.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you set a Working shipment to Shipped using this option, you will no longer be able to print your preferred carrier labels from Seller Central. Updating a shipment to the Shipped status needs to be performed directly within your Amazon seller account.

[ Retrieve from Amazon (Working) ]: This retrieves from Amazon your Working status shipments as they are within your Seller Central account 

Shipped/Transit
Here you can track the progress made on shipments that have already been sent. Shipments in this tab will go from Shipped to In Transit, to Processing, then they will follow their course until they are Closed. To update the shipments in this and all other tabs you will need to use the "Retrieve from Amazon" button. 

Closed
This tab shows you all shipments that have been received and closed.

Cancelled
In this tab you can see all your cancelled shipments.

Shipments Manager Grid

Shipment Information & Shipments of SKU

This box found to the right of the FBA Shipment Manager shows you a summary of the selected shipment. The SKU search field included here will show all the current shipments containing quantity of a the looked up SKU. You can choose between looking at all shipments and just the ones FBA Planning.

FBA Shipments toolbar

This toolbar appears below the Reprice toolbar whenever you open a shipment, and it contains the following buttons: