This guide explains how to set up and configure the Amazon connection. For information on how to launch Inventory Planner, please see the launch guide.

This guide is focused on configuring Inventory Planner with Amazon. If you have multiple connections with Inventory Planner beyond Amazon, please refer to the following specialized guides:

When you connect an Amazon store to Inventory Planner, the FBA warehouses within the same region appear as options you can enable or disable in Account > Settings > Connections & warehouses. FBM (seller-fulfilled Amazon) for the region also appears as its own warehouse, allowing you to view your FBA and FBM data separately. Only enable warehouses that you need to evaluate independently for forecasting and replenishment planning purposes.

For warehouses that don't need to be independently evaluated, you can create a combined warehouse to aggregate sales (and/or stock) information from multiple warehouses into a single view. Doing so allows you to generate forecasted needs and replenishment recommendations based on totaled data.

In this example, the stock and sales are combined from all FBA locations in North America, along with stock and sales from our main Shopify warehouse. FBM (Amazon seller fulfilled) sales orders are captured in the "combined warehouse" view for forecasting and replenishment planning purposes, but the stock in FBM is irrelevant in this case since the FBM sales are fulfilled from our Shopify warehouse.

Here are some videos and resources to reference related to forecasting, replenishment, purchase orders, and reports in Inventory Planner.

Replenishment and Edit Forecast are the key areas of Inventory Planner to configure and generate your forecast and replenishment recommendations. Use the Replenishment Report for variant/SKU level forecasting and replenishment analysis, and to create purchase orders using replenishment recommendations. Replenishment is an output of your forecast method and settings, forecast edits, and your planning period (lead time + days of stock).

The Edit Forecast section shows a monthly breakdown of forecasted sales. Select the date range in the top right for your Report, then click on Columns (using the gear icon in the top right) and Filters to see the information you need. Metrics are calculated at the Variant (SKU) level. Use the top left dropdown to aggregate reports and/or override forecasts in different dimensions (e.g. by category, by vendor, etc).

How is the forecast and replenishment calculated?

When you create a purchase order (to vendor) or a transfer order (between warehouses) in Inventory Planner, and you have an FBA location selected as the destination warehouse, you will see an option appear after you create the order, allowing you to save it to Amazon. Clicking the button initiates an FBA shipment in Amazon, which can be managed and completed there.

Once Amazon receives the shipment, the order status and stock levels will automatically update in Inventory Planner during the daily sync.

Once the prompt appears to save a purchase order (or transfer order) to Amazon, specify whether or not shipments should be split based on Amazon's requirements.

Learn more: Why is my purchase order split into two shipment plans when syncing with Amazon Seller Central?

Purchase orders and transfer orders that have been successfully synced with Amazon will be marked with a label in the Stock Orders report. These orders are locked for editing, and must be edited directly in Amazon. Any changes in Amazon will sync back to Inventory Planner during the next sync.

By default, all existing FBA shipments are pulled into Inventory Planner as purchase orders. They will have an unknown source, since Amazon doesn't provide this information.

You can filter for these orders at any time in the Stock Orders report, then use Bulk Actions at the bottom to "Set source".

You can also configure the default method for classifying future orders we pick up from Amazon in Account > Settings > Connections & warehouses, then clicking "Connection settings" to the right of the Amazon warehouse. Here, you can set the inbound shipment order type and a source warehouse.

To exclude unreceived FBA shipments from the calculation of the forecast, you can go to Settings > Purchase Orders > Platforms, enable "Ignore unreceived FBA shipments" and specify the number of days that need to elapse after a shipment's "expected date" before it is excluded.

Learn more: Purchase Orders / Transfer Orders

Planning for assemblies (pre-kitted goods) should only take place in warehouses where there are forecasted sales and accurate stock levels. If components are stocked and/or assembled in a different facility from where customer orders are fulfilled, configuring a combined warehouse allows you to aggregate the stock and/or sales information from multiple warehouses into a single warehouse for assemblies replenishment planning.

Whether you create a new purchase order, assembly order, or transfer order using recommendations from a combined warehouse or an individual warehouse view, you can select the 'true' destination warehouse once the new order is created.

Understanding forecasting and how replenishment is calculated for any item is key to understanding replenishment recommendations for assemblies and variants (components). Learn more about forecasting for assemblies here.

In order to calculate replenishment for assemblies and generate a schedule, the planning period and cycle details must be defined:

Learn more about bundles and assemblies.

Explanations of metrics, columns/filters, or other features:

Visit the integrations page for a full list of details Inventory Planner syncs from every integration, or experiment with features anytime in the Inventory Planner demo store.

Feel free to contact Inventory Planner directly at [email protected] or to schedule a call to review any other questions.