Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20 Use Case Guide

Use the Selling Partner API for Fulfillment Inbound to develop applications that create and update inbound plans to ship inventory to Amazon's fulfillment network, where Amazon can fulfill your customer's orders. You can also request lists of inbound shipments or inbound shipment items based on criteria you specify. After your inventory has been received in the fulfillment network, Amazon can fulfill your orders regardless of whether you are selling on Amazon's retail website or through other retail channels.

For details about API operations and associated data types and schemas, refer to the Fulfillment Inbound API reference.

Key features

• Create an inbound shipment: The Fulfillment Inbound API accepts POST operations to create new inbound plans and select shipping modes and transportation options to determine the shipments.
• Retrieve details about inbound shipments: The Fulfillment Inbound API accepts GET operations to return detailed information about an existing shipment.
• Update inbound plans: The Fulfillment Inbound API accepts POST operations to update one or more individual attributes for an existing inbound plan, such as updating the inbound plan name or tracking ID.
• Delete inbound plans: The Fulfillment Inbound API accepts a PUT operation to delete an existing inbound plan.
• Interoperability: Plans created with the Fulfillment Inbound API can be accessed and edited on Amazon's UI, Send to Amazon (STA), once placement and transportation options are confirmed. You can also use the API to access plans that were created in STA after you confirm placement and transportation options.

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Tip

Use generatePlacementOptions to generate new placement options and generateTransportationOptions to generate new transportation options. If you switch from the API to STA before you confirm your options (with confirmPlacementOption and confirmTransportationOptions), new options are generated in STA and all previous options are discarded.

Considerations

Creating shipments for the following destination marketplaces is not supported:

• Brazil
• Turkey

The following v0 operations are not deprecated:

• getLabels
• getBillOfLading
• getPrepInstructions
• getShipments
• getShipmentItemsByShipmentId
• getShipmentItems

Of these, getLabels and getBillOfLading are necessary to create shipments, as you use them to print a box label, pallet label, or bill of lading.

Tutorials

There are two main processes that a seller can follow to create a shipment:

• Create a shipment when the seller knows the carton-level information up-front.
• Create a shipment when the seller does not know the carton level information up-front. This is only available for LTL shipments.

In most cases, we expect that sellers would know the carton-level information, but there are situations where this information isn't readily available.

The following diagram shows the steps to ship inventory to Amazon's fulfillment network. This is an illustrative example and does not include all of the optional operations.

Ship inventory in the India marketplace

For details on how to ship inventory in the India marketplace, refer to Ship Inventory to Amazon Fulfillment Centers in India.

More specific ways to create shipments

1. Small Parcel Delivery (SPD) with an Amazon-partnered carrier (PCP): Sellers can create inbound shipments using Amazon's partnered carriers for small parcel deliveries (that is, individual boxes).
2. Small Parcel Delivery (SPD) with a non-partnered carrier (nPCP): Sellers can use non-partnered carriers (that is, their own transportation carriers) for small parcel deliveries. Sellers can choose their preferred shipping carriers and still have access to the benefits of FBA.
3. Pallets (LTL/FTL) with an Amazon-partnered carrier (PCP): For larger shipments, sellers can create pallet deliveries using Amazon's partnered carriers. This method is ideal for bulk shipments that require less-than-truckload (LTL) or full-truckload (FTL) services.
4. Pallets (LTL/FTL) with non-partnered carriers (nPCP): Sellers have greater control over the logistics of larger shipments by using their own non-partnered carriers.
5. Pallet deliveries with the Pack Later option: Sellers can create pallet deliveries even when carton or box packing information isn’t provided upfront. This “Pack Later” flexibility enables sellers to finalize packing details later.
6. Retrieve inbound plan details: Sellers can retrieve detailed information about their inbound plans through GET operations, which allows them to track and manage their shipments.

For guidance on use cases 1-4, refer to the following tutorials:

• Inbound shipments with an Amazon-partnered carrier (PCP)
• Inbound shipments with a non-partnered carrier

Additional functionality

The Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20 also includes several operations that are not mandatory for every shipment creation. Additional Functionality describes these operations, which offer the following functionality:

• Retrieve a list of existing inbound plans
• Retrieve a list of items in an inbound plan
• Retrieve a list of pallets associated with inbound plans
• Cancel an Inbound Plan
• Update shipment name
• Update inbound plan name
• List shipment pallets
• List shipment boxes
• Create marketplace item labels
• List shipment items
• Retrieve preparation instructions for an MSKU
• Set preparation instructions for an MSKU
• Update information in a shipment
• Create a listing and convert it to FBA

The Amazon-Recommended Packing Option

Pack groups are groups of SKUs that can be packed together. SKUs that cannot be packed together are separated into different pack groups. Each pack group should be packed and labeled separately. When you create a new inbound shipment, there are multiple pack groups to choose from in the listPackingOptions response. Sellers can get customized pack groups tailored to their specific inbound shipment and receive a fulfillment discount by following Amazon's packing recommendations. The recommended packing is only available when you pack in small parcel deliveries with each parcel weighing less than 15 KG (LTL/FTL not supported).

If you select Amazon's recommended packing method, you do not need to split the shipment more than usual. You can ship your inventory in as many small parcels as needed, as long as the parcels contain the correct SKUs and the Amazon-recommended quantities for each pack group. If the seller selects a partnered carrier, meaning that destinationType is AMAZON_OPTIMIZED, then the destination fulfillment center address may differ from the actual address, or this field may be empty. Refer to the carton label for the correct address.

Amazon-recommended packing options are available in the following marketplaces:

• Spain
• UK
• France
• Germany
• Italy

For more information about the Amazon Recommended Packing options, refer to Help for Amazon Sellers. To learn about how to access these options via API, refer to Determine which SKUs can be packed together in the Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20 Use Case Guide.

Sample code application

The Fulfillment Inbound Sample Solution Code App includes detailed code samples and all the necessary resources to deploy a fully functional SP-API application that uses the Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20. You can adjust the code to fit your specific requirements.