How to Handle High Amazon Sales Volume With EDI

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May 30, 2023

Selling on Amazon can increase your customer base and brand awareness. The website hosts more than 300 million customer accounts in over 180 countries, allowing you to optimize your reach. Whether you’re a small business owner or a massive global chain, Amazon supports your business and revenue goals.

As your brand popularity grows, managing high data loads and customer inquiries becomes more challenging. Transferring data manually can impede efficiency and accuracy. You can automate sales data across all channels and partners by integrating your Amazon marketplace with an Electronic Data Interface (EDI). EDI for Amazon can help enhance your selling experience on all fronts.

Challenges with High Amazon Sales Volume

As your business grows, you need to scale technology to keep up with new demands. Using only Amazon to manage high sales volume can become challenging due to problems such as:

  • Cashflow problems: Amazon pays third-party sellers every two weeks, making achieving healthy cashflow cycles challenging. You must maintain enough inventory to finalize orders, but you also need to pay for new stock before receiving income from previous sales. It’s important to keep sufficient cash on hand to ensure you can afford to restock or cover other expenses.
  • Excessive data: Data management can also be challenging for Amazon sellers. You must constantly move order and inventory data between your Amazon account and business system. The more popular your brand becomes, the more data you have to manage. Manually updating inventory levels is time-consuming and prone to human errors. These processes can also harm efficiency — administrative employees can spend hours logging and transferring data instead of working on higher-priority tasks.
  • Communication challenges: As your organization grows, you can also encounter communication difficulties. Attracting more customers also means managing more customer questions and requests. Positive and helpful customer interactions improve customer relationships and brand perception, but a large volume of inquiries makes crafting personalized responses challenging. You could also initiate more relationships with partners and distributors to help with increased orders. Handling new relationships can become overwhelming, especially when you transfer data manually.

How EDI Can Improve Your Amazon Sales

An EDI solution can help you address these challenges. You can integrate the EDI with your Amazon seller account, creating a comprehensive and seamless solution. The linked systems automatically sync data, eliminating the need for manual data transfers. When customers place orders, the data flows instantly to your business systems. You can enhance inventory accuracy, communication techniques, and employee efficiency.

EDI has many benefits for Amazon sellers, including:

  • Improved efficiency: EDI automatically syncs data between systems, removing time-consuming manual processes. You can automate many paper-based details, such as order data, inventory levels, financial transaction information, and product details. Reducing administrative loads can boost efficiency by freeing employees to work on high-priority tasks. EDI also assists with high-volume customer orders because it scales with your business growth. It can manage new order surges and prevent difficulties with data management.
  • Enhanced accuracy: Automated data syncing minimizes human error. Paper-based and manual processes such as illegible handwriting, lost mail, and typing mistakes can impair accuracy. Even minor mishaps can affect your organization’s records and inventory management. For instance, an error can reflect inaccurate stock levels, leading to over- or under-stocking. Improved accuracy can also help with efficiency — because everything is logged correctly the first time, you won’t have to spend additional time retyping entries or responding to errors.
  • Increased visibility: EDI provides an end-to-end view of your ordering processes, from the initial order request to the final distribution step. Viewing how each stage impacts the others can help you make more informed decisions about incoming stock. The increased visibility gives your company real-time insights into all processes. Instantly locate products, monitor transactions, view customer buying trends, and communicate with partners. These real-time updates help you make vital decisions without delays.

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How to Use EDI to Manage Amazon Sales

To set up an EDI for Amazon, you need to link your Amazon seller account with an EDI system provider. Your first step is to choose a provider that matches your preferences, business needs, and budget. Here are some tips for selecting an EDI provider:

  • Consider your budget: Providers can vary widely in their prices, so it’s best to have a budget in mind as you start browsing. You should ensure you can manage the additional cost before committing to it, or other business areas could suffer. However, you can also think about how an EDI solution assists with efficiency, which can boost your revenue and success overall. The extra benefits can be worth the additional cost each month.
  • Look at online reviews: Reading other users’ testimonials can help you understand an EDI supplier’s effectiveness. Previous and current users can provide pros and cons of the system, user experience, support features, and other crucial details. Unfiltered reviews often offer more truth than ones directly from a provider’s website.
  • Evaluate their customer service responses: EDI providers should support you during the initial purchase and regular use. If you reach out for a demo or more information, pay attention to the provider’s communication methods and levels of customer service. Providers with slow responses or a lack of helpful resources may not be as beneficial.
  • Ask about their product features: You should also research the provider’s complete EDI features and see if they align with your business goals. For instance, scalability could be important if your business is experiencing significant growth. You could ask providers about scaling opportunities within the system. Compare the full range of features with the cost and choose the provider that matches your preferences best.

When you choose a provider, you’ll need to connect your existing Amazon data with their system. This process requires crucial details, such as:

  • Product IDs and measurement codes
  • Sender and receiver IDs

Your provider can guide you through the installation process and should resolve any concerns.

person looking at a tablet in a warehouse

Combine EDI with Amazon

Using EDI to manage Amazon sales can help optimize your company’s success. You can boost efficiency and accuracy with real-time updates and a comprehensive view of all ordering operations. As your business grows, you can scale the EDI solution to meet new demands.

TrueCommerce offers EDI software and services. You can use these to optimize business growth and gain an end-to-end view of your operations. Boost efficiency and enhance development with an ideal solution. To learn more about how TrueCommerce can benefit your Amazon store, contact us today.

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