29 Dec Amazon Vendor ASNs: What They Are and Why They’re So Important

• As a Vendor, you have to send your products to Amazon’s warehouses, but this process is not trivial and ASNs are essential for everything to go perfectly.
• This is evidence that a shipment addressed to Amazon has been created, with one or more orders, and must contain various information about the items, such as the quantity or characteristics of each one.

When you have a seller account, it is normal for you to work with your logistics service provider in a simple and straightforward way: they pick up the goods at your warehouses, or you take them to their offices to deliver them to the address of the final buyer. But, when you have a Vendor account, it means that you work as a supplier for Amazon and that you have to deliver the products that they request from their warehouses.

Logically, this process must have numerous standardized procedures that ensure and guarantee the correct functioning of the entire chain. Amazon works with thousands of suppliers who supply it with an endless number of products of all kinds and therefore it is necessary to have an exhaustive, precise and agile control system of the goods that arrive at the warehouses.

And this is where the ASN comes in, but what exactly is it and how do you do it? Below, we explain it so that you always do it correctly.

What is an ASN and what is it for?

An Advanced Shipping Notification or ASN is basically proof that we as a Vendor have shipped all products previously agreed with Amazon. This is mandatory for all shipments destined for your storage centers.

Visually, it is a label with a barcode on it that attaches to orders. This way, when a truck arrives at Amazon’s warehouses with your merchandise, they simply scan it and see that it corresponds to the PO (Purchase Order).

It is very important that ASNs include all the essential information about the products associated with them, such as their own dimensions, whether they have an expiry date, whether they need to be treated in a certain way or whether they are fragile.

In this way, Amazon operators will know how to treat and process all the orders that come to them so that the final buyer receives them in perfect condition at home.

How is it performed?

At Nozama Solutions, as experts in Amazon account management, we have two ways to do it: an automatic one, which is done through EDI, which is Vendor Central’s Electronic Data Interchange system; and another manual.

In both cases, the process is identical. The first step is to confirm the order with the quantities we want to send, obviously after having agreed with Amazon on the number of products.

Next, the goods must be sorted, i.e. the packages must be placed according to their characteristics and conditions in each box and on each pallet (for example, if they have a similar expiry date or if they have to be at a certain temperature), always trying to optimise space.

Finally, the ASN tags are generated and affixed to each order.

What if there’s something wrong?

Any error in this section results in the application of a chargeback, which is a financial penalty that Amazon applies to you for non-compliance with its Vendor account regulations.

There are many points where this policy can be violated, for example by not including or incorrectly setting the expiration date of a product, if the label is lost during the logistics process, if the data or quantity does not correspond to the goods, etc.

If you have a lot of financial penalties, it may happen that the order ends up not being profitable, so it is essential to be very strict and meticulous with this process.

One thing to be clear about is that the ASN cannot be deleted, although it can be modified. Despite this, you can only modify the distribution of the products in the boxes or on the pallets, but never change the quantities to be sent, as this is something previously agreed with Amazon.