Details about ShipStation's Buy Shipping API integration. Includes requirements, how to enable, features, notes, and troubleshooting tips.
The Amazon Buy API allows you to create labels for Amazon Prime orders that have imported into ShipStation either from a connected Amazon store or ChannelAdvisor store.
Once enabled, the following will occur in your ShipStation account:
You will see Amazon Buy Shipping as a carrier in your Services drop-down menu and list any services you have available through the Buy API.
Seller Fulfilled Prime orders will start importing into ShipStation in the Awaiting Shipment status.
-
Seller Fulfilled Prime orders will be automatically tagged with an Amazon Prime Order tag.
Automatic tagging does not apply to orders imported from ChannelAdvisor, but you can create an automation rule to do this for you. Review the ChannelAdvisor and Amazon SFP section of our Amazon Seller Fulfulled Prime article for details.
Connection Requirements:
-
Your Amazon Marketplace store connected to ShipStation.
Must be the Amazon account approved for SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime).
Amazon Buy Shipping API enabled by ShipStation.
Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime orders imported from either an Amazon Marketplace or ChannelAdvisor store.
If you need help connecting your Amazon store, please review the Amazon Marketplace article.
Amazon Buy API Must Be Enabled by ShipStation
Contact ShipStation's Support team to enable the Amazon Buy API on your ShipStation account. You will then be required to accept the Amazon Buy API Terms & Conditions.
To enable Amazon Buy Shipping in ShipStation:
Contact the ShipStation Support team and request Amazon Buy Shipping be enabled for your account.
ShipStation will use your Amazon.com store API credentials to integrate Amazon Buy Shipping. That means there is no additional setup for you to do within ShipStation. However, you must log in to Amazon and agree to terms and conditions for any shipping carrier you intend to use.
If you want to use your own carrier account rates for Amazon Buy Shipping, you'll need to connect your carrier accounts within Amazon's Shipping portal.
Once enabled successfully, you will see Amazon Buy Shipping as a carrier in your Services drop-down menu, along with any services you've configured with Amazon.
To hide services you do not plan to use:
Go to
Settings > Shipping > Carriers & Fulfillment.Click the Services link for the Amazon carrier to show the selected services.
Deselect any services you do not wish to use.
Click Update.
Your Services drop-down will now only show the selected services.
ChannelAdvisor SFP Orders
If you'll be using your ChannelAdvisor account to import Amazon orders into ShipStation, you must still connect your Amazon store to ShipStation, but you can set it to Inactive so it doesn't appear in your Store list or attempt to import orders.
ShipStation's integration with Amazon Buy Shipping supports the following standard features:
Common ShipStation Features
Feature |
Supported? |
|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
End of Day (Electronic) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Below is a list of Amazon Buy Shipping services that work within ShipStation (the carriers and services that appear in ShipStation will depend on which carriers and services you've configured in your Amazon account).
|
|
Adding Amazon Buy Shipping to your ShipStation account is free. However, ShipStation will charge a $0.20 fee for each Amazon Buy Shipping label created within ShipStation. This is billed on a monthly invoice.
Amazon Buy Shipping can only be used for seller-fulfilled prime orders imported into ShipStation through an Amazon or ChannelAdvisor store connection.
-
If Amazon determines the selected service will not guarantee the shipment's arrival in the required time frame, Amazon will return the alert "Selected service is not compatible with other settings" and prevent you from creating the label for that order. In these cases, you will need to select a faster service.
Important
Give yourself enough time to pick, pack, and ship your orders!
The last pick-up time for each shipping service will impact the availability of the shipping service when you proceed to purchase a shipping label on Buy Shipping Services. You may not see your preferred shipping services on Buy Shipping if the label purchase time is less than an hour from the last carrier pick-up time defined by you.
End of Day forms (a.k.a. shipping manifests) are not currently supported in ShipStation for shipments created with Amazon Buy Shipping services. These shipments will display in
Shipments > End of Day, but cannot be closed or printed through ShipStation.You can print End of Day forms via Amazon's shipping portal.ShipStation cannot create multi-package shipments via Amazon Buy Shipping. Any multi-package shipments will need to be created directly through Amazon Seller Central.
Amazon will use the Ship To address they have on file for the order. Editing the Ship To address in ShipStation will not affect the address Amazon uses for the label.
-
If using ChannelAdvisor to import your Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime orders, the Amazon Buy Shipping integration will only function for orders from a single Amazon account.
ShipStation will use the most recently created Amazon store when determining which credentials to submit to Amazon in reference to ChannelAdvisor orders. See ChannelAdvisor and Amazon SFP for more details.
Here are some common issues, potential causes, and troubleshooting tips.
Issue |
How to troubleshoot or resolve |
|---|---|
Error: "Selected service is not compatible with other settings (package type, weight, size)" when getting rates or creating labels with Amazon Buy Shipping? |
This error message can occur for a few different reasons, but the most common are:
|
Error: "Resource Not Found" when getting rates or creating labels with Amazon Buy Shipping |
This error message will occur if ShipStation is able to communicate with Amazon but Amazon isn't able to find the order you are trying to ship in the Amazon account ShipStation is trying to access. This error message is most commonly seen when using a ChannelAdvisor store connection that is importing orders from multiple Amazon accounts. ShipStation relies on an existing Amazon store connection that contains the Amazon credentials needed to communicate with Amazon Buy Shipping. ShipStation cannot determine which specific Amazon store a ChannelAdvisor order originated from, so it will always attempt to use the credentials from the most recently connected Amazon store when communicating with the Buy Shipping API. This error message will display if the order in question does not belong to that Amazon store. To resolve this issue, you will need to create a new Amazon.com store connection in ShipStation that is linked to the Amazon account you will be shipping Seller Fulfilled Prime orders for. Then, make the store inactive so you can process the orders imported through ChannelAdvisor. If shipping Seller Fulfilled Prime orders for multiple Amazon stores, we recommend you use ShipStation's direct Amazon integration to import those orders instead of ChannelAdvisor. |
Orders stuck in Pending Fulfillment status |
If your Amazon Prime orders are still in Pending- Fulfillment status set the store-refresh date back and refresh the store. This will get those orders into Awaiting Shipment status. |
Error: Amazon Requires an email address to be specified on every label. Please specify an email address on your Amazon store in your ShipStation Account Settings > Selling Channels. |
The email address must be a verified email address for Amazon to officially recognize it. Go to A verified email address will display the text "This email address has been verified for your account" under the email field. |