Amazon Services
Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) Documentation

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Amazon Marketplace Web Service (MWS) will no longer be available after March 31, 2024. All MWS developers must migrate to Selling Partner API (SP-API) to avoid service disruptions. Refer to the Migration Hub for more information.

Amazon MWS Documentation

Using an Amazon-partnered carrier for your inbound shipments

Sellers in the EU region (the France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and UK marketplaces) and the US marketplace can take advantage of discounted shipping rates by using an Amazon-partnered carrier for their inbound shipments.

Important:
  • Before using an Amazon-partnered carrier for an inbound shipment, you must read the Seller Central Help about Amazon's Partnered Carrier Program to help ensure that you successfully follow the program instructions and guidelines (Europe) (US).
  • In the EU region, before using an Amazon-partnered carrier for an inbound shipment, you must first review and accept the terms and conditions of the carrier and the terms and conditions of Amazon's Partnered Carrier Program. You can do this on Seller Central. If you attempt to use Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) to create an inbound shipment using an Amazon-partnered carrier before accepting these terms and conditions, the service returns an error.

To use an Amazon-partnered carrier for an inbound shipment, begin by following the first four steps of the Shipping inventory to Amazon's fulfillment network section. After you create an inbound shipment you can request that your shipment be shipped by an Amazon-partnered carrier.

See the following steps for creating and shipping an inbound shipment using an Amazon-partnered carrier:

Step 1 - Submit carton content information

Step 2 - Submit the transportation information

Step 3 - Request that an estimate is generated for the shipping costs

Step 4 - Get an estimate for the shipping cost

Step 5 - Confirm the transportation request

Step 6 - Request package labels for your inbound shipment

Step 7 - Request pallet labels or bills of lading (LTL/FTL only)

Step 8 - Send your shipments to Amazon's fulfillment network

Parent topic: Common tasks

Step 1 - Submit carton content information

Submit carton content information using the FBA Inbound Shipment Carton Information Feed (_POST_FBA_INBOUND_CARTON_CONTENTS_) of the Feeds API section. For more information about this feed, see Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) feeds.

Important:
  • Retain the CartonId values that you specify using this feed, as you will need them to specify which package labels to print in Step 6. Also, retain a record of the correspondence between each package and its CartonId value. This is so that after you get your labels in Step 6, you will know which packages to put them on.

Step 2 - Submit the transportation information

Call the PutTransportContent operation and specify either PartneredSmallParcelData or PartneredLtlData, depending on whether your inbound shipment is a Small Parcel or a Less Than Truckload/Full Truckload (LTL/FTL) shipment. This provides the information that an Amazon-partnered carrier needs to provide an estimate for shipping costs. It also provides information that an Amazon fulfillment center can use to forecast and plan for the arrival of your shipment.

Step 3 - Request that an estimate is generated for the shipping costs

Call the EstimateTransportRequest operation to request that an estimate be generated for an Amazon-partnered carrier to ship your inbound shipment.

Step 4 - Get an estimate for the shipping cost

Call the GetTransportContent operation to get an estimate for the cost to ship your shipment with an Amazon-partnered carrier. The estimate is returned in the PartneredEstimate response element. Note that the estimate will not be returned until the TransportStatus value of the inbound shipment is ESTIMATED, CONFIRMING, or CONFIRMED. Because the GetTransportContent operation returns TransportStatus values, you can use this operation to monitor the progress of your inbound shipment. If a PartneredEstimate value is not yet available, retry the operation later.

Step 5 - Confirm the transportation request

Call the ConfirmTransportRequest operation to accept the Amazon-partnered shipping estimate, agree to allow Amazon to charge your account for the shipping cost, and request that the Amazon-partnered carrier ship your inbound shipment.

Important: After confirming the transportation request, if you decide that you do not want the Amazon-partnered carrier to ship your inbound shipment, you can call the VoidTransportRequest operation to cancel the transportation request. Note that for a Small Parcel shipment, you have 24 hours after confirming a transportation request to void it. For a Less Than Truckload/Full Truckload (LTL/FTL) shipment, you have one hour after confirming a transportation request to void it. After the grace period has expired your account will be charged for the shipping cost.

Step 6 - Request package labels for your inbound shipment

Call the GetUniquePackageLabels operation to request unique shipping labels for your inbound shipments. For Amazon-partnered, Small Parcel shipments, this operation also returns carrier labels.

Important: Before calling the GetUniquePackageLabels operation, use the Feeds API section to submit the FBA Inbound Shipment Carton Information Feed (see Step 1). This provides information to Amazon about the carton contents of your inbound shipment, which helps to ensure that your shipment is processed at the Amazon fulfillment center quickly and accurately. You must submit this feed before calling the GetUniquePackageLabels operation, otherwise the operation returns the NoPackageContentInformation error.

Each shipping label returned by the GetUniquePackageLabels operation should be affixed to the package in the shipment that it corresponds to, so the labels indicate the package contents. This helps to ensure that your shipment is processed at the Amazon fulfillment center quickly and accurately.

To get shipping labels on the right packages, do the following for each shipping label:

  1. Get the Package ID, which is the string located directly below the bar code of the shipping label. This ID matches one of the CartonId values that you included in the FBA Inbound Shipment Carton Information Feed that you submitted in Step 1.
  2. Determine which package to affix the shipping label to using the record of the correspondence between CartonId values and packages that you created in Step 1.
  3. Affix the label to its corresponding package.

Information included on shipping labels

In all circumstances, the GetUniquePackageLabels operation returns shipping labels that include a unique bar code and Package ID (the string located directly below the bar code). Depending on the contents of the packages in your shipments, the labels can also include an ASIN and an expiration date.

Shipping labels include an ASIN and an expiration date in either of the following situations:

  • Every item in the shipment shares the same ASIN and expiration date.
  • The shipment includes multiple ASINs, but every package in the shipment contains items that share the same ASIN and expiration date.

Shipping labels include an ASIN and no expiration date in either of the following situations:

  • Every item in the shipment shares the same ASIN. The ASIN does not have an expiration date.
  • The shipment includes multiple ASINs, but every package in the shipment contains items that share the same ASIN. The ASINs do not have expiration dates.

Shipping labels do not include an ASIN or an expiration date when the shipment contains at least one package with items that do not share the same ASIN and expiration date.

Step 7 - Request pallet labels or bills of lading (LTL/FTL only)

For Less Than Truckload/Full Truckload (LTL/FTL) shipments, if you don’t create your own pallet labels or bills of lading, you can use the following operations:

  • GetPalletLabels - Returns labels for the outside of the shrink-wrapped pallets of your inbound shipment.
  • GetBillOfLading - Returns a bill of lading for your inbound shipment.

Step 8 - Send your shipments to Amazon's fulfillment network

Do one of the following:

For more information, see Fulfillment Inbound Shipment API.