eCommerce Automation is not binary. The scale from 0-to-1 has many steps along the way that are often manual.

Here we solve a specific problem with a specific solution.

At times we have clients that are selling ONLY case-packs as a sellable unit. This means the carton (unit) has an SSCC or GTIN associated, and we setup that case-pack as its own ASIN, then we activate variation between the case-pack and the single.

Most commonly we’ll setup both the single and case, then ship singles into the warehouse and sell cases on dropship.

For Dropship automation, there are a few communication steps that can be manual or automated:

• Inventory Feed (telling AMZN which items are “For Sale”)
• Order Entry (Pulling orders into YOUR order system)
• Pick/Pack (Grab inventory, attach a shipping label)
• ASN (Shipment Confirmed: Product handed off to carrier)
• Invoice (Push your Invoice Number back to Amazon)

PO Consolidation

PO Consolidation is default ACTIVE behind the scenes. If the customer orders 3-units, then you get a consolidated PO that contains 3-units. This is very normal. The problem is that Amazon also provides a default consolidated SHIPPING LABEL, which often is not useful. IF you’re selling casepacks, then you have to “add boxes” to every PO, which definitely slows people down.

So who is this for? Deactivating PO Consolidation is most helpful when

• You are selling case-packs (or fully prepped items)
• You are printing shipping labels directly from VendorCentral (This does not help if you are printing your own labels.)
• Your average order quantity is greater than 1

If you said yes to all 3 of these, this is a slam dunk.

How do we acheive this? We specifically ask Amazon to “deactivate PO consolidation” for a given dropship warehouse. They ask why, we confirm its slower for our use-case.

Once deactivated, a 3-unit Order for a single customer will be SPLIT into 3 unique POs, each with 1-unit and 1-box and 1-shipping label!

The benefit is that this skips the step of adding boxes and dimensions for each additional unit. Your warehouse can simply print with confidence that no boxes will need to be added.

Create A Case!

Order Number (required): NA
Subject: Please Deactivate PO-Consolidation.
Message:

We would like PO consolidation to be deactivated on our warehouse.

Default should be 1-unit per PO.

CS has to manually add boxes for each extra unit. This consolidation is slowing us down.

Then Amazon will respond with something like:

from:Amazon
message:
Hello Blair,

This is Steven from Amazon Direct Fulfillment Operations,

We only do this change in special circumstances.
Can you expand on the impact that the order consolidation has in your company?

Thank you for selling with Amazon,

Steven
Amazon.com Seller Support

And now you need to respond with something like:

From: [email protected]
message:

Yes absolutely.

Our items are SIOC compliant, ready to be shipped.
When an order arrives for multiple units, we are never going to consolidate them and ship together.

The Amazon PO consolidation causes 50% slower order entry on our side, because we have to "unconsolidate" each PO that contains multiple units.

Customers are getting orders more slowly because of this consolidation.
I understand you only do this in special circumstances and we are certain this is one of them.
We manage 25+ vendors and this is definitely one circumstance that PO consolidation should be disabled.

Notice the last sentence: I DO NOT recommend this to EVERYONE. MOST of my clients are NOT doing this, but some specific issues are fixed.