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Amazon Upload Instructions

 


 

 

  

 

Amazon upload only works in versions 3.6 or later. 

 

To change settings on the Amazon tab in BookTrakker for Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk go Here, then return to this page for upload instructions.

 

1. Set up new Amazon service   REQUIRES AMAZON EMAIL ADDRESS

2. Amazon Upload File Formats

3. Set Amazon Field Mapping

4. Set upload options

5. Uploading to Amazon

6. Upload failure

7. Checking your upload status  

8. Purge/Replace  

9. Minimum and Maximum Pricing

 

 

Setting up a new service for Amazon using the Online Service Wizard.

 

Click the Online button at the top of your screen:

 

 

Click the New Service button at the bottom left of your screen:

 

 

The Online Service Wizard form will appear. You want to click the dropdown 
button on the upper right for the new service:

 

 

Notice there are three choices for Amazon.

1. Amazon CA is Amazon.ca Canada Marketplace
2. Amazon UK is Amazon.co.uk UK Marketplace 
3. Amazon US is Amazon.com United States Marketplace

 

Place your cursor over the Amazon selection:

 

 

Left Click once. You should get:

 

This method applies for whatever Amazon selection you choose to use, or 
even if you setup multiple Amazon accounts.

 

Amazon uses a fixed URL that cannot be changed by the user, thus the field 
for this, which is visible for the other services, disappears when Amazon is 
selected. Click the Next button, lower right corner:

 

 


Click Finish to setup the Amazon Service.

After you click the Finish button you will see Amazon appear in the 
Online Services table below:

 

 

To set Amazon as an Active service, place your cursor over the check box in the 
Active column, and left click once to activate the service.

 

AMAZON MWS REGISTRATION: IMPORTANT!

After setting up your Amazon service (s) for upload you close BookTrakker and register each Amazon service with Amazon MWS:

Double click the App Manager icon on your desktop to open it. It will load in the lower right corner of your taskbar, with a message asking you to click it to open. Do so.

App Manager opens. At the lower left is the Amazon MWS Seller Account Registration button. To the right is another button leading to online help for this if necessary. Click the Amazon MWS Seller Account Registration button. The AmazonMWS form appears. The selection defaults to Amazon US, if this is where you list click the Register with Amazon button at the bottom. Otherwise select a different Amazon and click the Register with Amazon button. (If you sell on multiple Amazon sites you have to do this for each service.)

The Sign in page opens up, fill in your Amazon email and password and click the Sign In button. The Amazon license page will open. Both check boxes on the left side need to be checked to go onto the next step. Reading the license/page is optional. Check the boxes, click Next.

A new page opens explaining that BookTrakker can now access Amazon. A success message pops up confirming this. Click the OK on the message, close the page and close the AmazonMWS form. (If you have more than one Amazon service then select it and click the Register with Amazon button at the bottom and repeat the registration.)

 

 

Amazon File Formats (Templates)

 

During ordinary operation BookTrakker uploads to Amazon using up to four upload file formats found in the C:\BTPro\Transfer folder:

Inventory Loader: For all product lines, a tab-delimited file type for loading inventory to match to existing product pages in the Amazon.com catalog. 

AmazonUpload_1.txt is the name of the Inventory Loader file. CA or UK added to the name for Amazon.ca or Amazon.co.uk.

If you have an ASIN or ISBN then BookTrakker uploads that plus the Condition set on the Amazon tab, subject if selected, your shipping choices, your Rec# (SKU) and whatever you set for the Comments on Amazon via Amazon Field Mapping. (see below)

CAVEAT: Your upload record MUST match the product detail page for the ASIN or ISBN you are using. Amazon buyers are NOT required to read Seller's Comments, so if you list something that is different from the product detail page you may have to accept a return and issue a refund, and possibly suffer bad feedback as well. To avoid this happening to you search Amazon for the correct ASIN or ISBN, then use that in BookTrakker in the ASIN or ISBN field during New Record data entry. 

Book Loader: For booksellers who want to create product detail pages in bulk or who don't have ISBNs in their inventory records and want to take advantage of Amazon's automatic title matching feature. The Book Loader File also allows sellers to upload special listing attributes and offer-specific images for Collectible books. Book Loader instructions for BookTrakker. 

AmazonUploadBL_1.txt is the name of the Book Loader file. CA or UK added to the name for Amazon.ca or Amazon.co.uk.

No ASIN or ISBN uploads the same data as above plus Author, Title, Publisher, Cover and Date. Edition and Illustrator are optional. See Book Loader instructions

BookTrakker can also upload in Book Loader format a record that has an ISBN not found on Amazon to create a new product detail page the that ISBN. See Book Loader instructions

Listing Loader: For uploading images for New or Used if Image URL is selected in UploadIt on the Online page.   Listing Loader allows for up to six images as long as a full URL is in the ImgURL field on the Optional tab in BookTrakker and the record has an ASIN or ISBN.. You do not need to create additional image URL's for Amazon. Images must be uploaded to your hosting site prior to the Amazon upload.

AmazonUploadLL_1.txt is the name of the Book Loader file. CA or UK added to the name for Amazon.ca or Amazon.co.uk.

In normal operation BookTrakker will upload to Amazon first using Inventory Loader for ASIN or ISBN records, followed by Book Loader when and ASIN or ISBN is not present, followed by Listing Loader if Image URL is checked in UploadIt.

After a successful upload of all three files the success message for Amazon might look like this: 

Inventory Loader: 4 Records Uploaded-> 3 New 1 Modified ; BookLoader: 11 Records Uploaded-> 8 New 3 Modified ; Listing Loader for Amazon Images: 3 Records Uploaded-> 2 New 1 Modified 

There is a fourth file that is only used when GrabIt is used for repricing Amazon records:

Price & Quantity: A file that can be used to modify the price or quantity of existing inventory quickly by supplying only SKU, price and/or quantity fields. The Price & Quantity file is not used for creating new listings.

 

Amazon Field Mapping

 

Next, you need to set up the Export Field Mapping for Marketplace. Default 
Mapping is supplied with 3.7. Click the Inventory button at the top of your 
screen:

 

 

Click on File at the upper left, then Export, followed by Amazon Field Mapping:

 

 

To get this:

 

 

This dialog box allows the user to set up Field Mapping to map various Inventory 
Fields into the Amazon Item Note Field (Seller's Comments) in the Amazon 
upload file, AmazonUpload_1.txt. (AmazonUploadCA_1.txt for Canada and
AmazonUploadUK_1.txt for the UK)

If you use the Item-Note field on the Amazon tab for this purpose then BookTrakker 
ignores the Amazon field Mapping and gets the Item-Note content 
(Seller's Comments) for the upload file from the Item-Note field on the Amazon tab. 
Most users who have imported from either an Amazon Open Listings Report or Seller 
Engine will start out using the default Item-Note field on the Amazon tab, you only 
need the Amazon Field Mapping if you use the other fields in BookTrakker, and do 
not update the Item-Note field on the Amazon tab for new listings. This is NOT 
automatic on manual data entry.

A variety of fields may be mapped for concatenation into the Amazon Item-Note field 
in the Amazon upload file by clicking on the dropdown arrow at the right of the column 
in the grid.
You can also use the up and down arrows to move a selected field to a different

location in the list.

To delete a field from the mapping simply click on the gray square on the left of the 
row to be deleted and press the 'Delete' key on the keyboard.

The Field Separator provides a Text Box to indicate what character should be inserted between fields.

 

The Amazon Item-Note button will create a Catalog definition in Catalogs named Amazon Item-Note

that will replace the List View Template in Tools > Options > Records that defines what you see in the

large field at the bottom of List View. Clicking the Amazon Item-Note button will enable an Amazon

seller to see a close approximation of what their Seller’s Condition Description will look like on Amazon,

in the large field at the bottom of List View, when in Browse Details mode. 

IMPORTANT: Book/DJ must be present if you want either one, Book followed by DJ. (Book/DJ are stored 
in the main inventory table as numbers) If Book = VG and DJ = G then they will display in comments on 
Amazon as Very Good in Good dust jacket. If only one of the term is present in Amazon mapping then 
only the number in the inventory table is displayed. So if DJ = none than -1 is what the buyer sees. 

 

To set your Field Order for Marketplace listings do the following:

 

 

Select the first field you want to add into the Item-Note field in the upload file, 
followed by the next, and the next, and so on. An example of a finished field 
mapping is:

 

If you want to change the order of the fields themselves you select the field you
want to move by clicking into is, then click the up or down arrow until you have the
field where you want it.  If you want to delete a field name then select the field by
clicking the gray square to the left of the filed so the row is highlighted.
Then press the Delete key on your keyboard, then click the Yes button. 

 

NOTE: Amazon increased the Comments to 2000 characters, which for most users 
probably means you can use any or all of the larger description fields, as well as 
additional fields. A suggested order might be: Place, Publisher, Date, Edition, 
Printing, Size, Cover, Type, Book, DJ, Defects, Features. As long as the combination 
does not exceed 2000 characters then all of the information will be included in 
Comments on Marketplace. 

The purpose of Amazon Field Mapping for Marketplace is to provide the buyer with a description of the book you are listing. So you want to restrict what you put in here to descriptive fields ONLY. You do not need Author, Title, Subtitle, Status, ISBN or Price. Amazon supplies the first five, and Price is uploaded separately.

If you want to use Item-Note instead, you can. You want to confine your selection to 
that which will fit into 1000 characters and include what you consider most important 
from the viewpoint of a potential buyer. Condition should be included, but NOT from the Amazon Condition field on the Amazon tab, this is uploaded separately by BookTrakker.

Amazon will clip off from the end of this field any characters exceeding their 2000 
character limit for Marketplace. You have to decide what field is least important to 
you and make that the last field. Keep in mind that you are limited to 2000 
characters; so do not add in all of the available fields, since most will not be utilized 
by Amazon.

 

 

Amazon Defaults in Options

 

Click on Tools > Options:

 

 

To bring up the Options form:

 

 

Options are where you set many of the defaults for operations in BookTrakker. 
Click on the Amazon button in the middle to bring up the Amazon Settings form.

At the top is the Amazon Price Selection group. There are three choices, one each

for each Amazon service. Click the dropdown button to select 
which price field to upload to each Amazon service. (If you only upload to one 
then select for that one only. If you upload to more than one then you can 
select a different price field for the second or third choice, which allows you to 
use a different price because of currency differences or postage remuneration. 
We set the Retail field for default, since most users will use the Retail price for 
Amazon listings, either by design or because this is the field used when 
importing from an Active Listings Report.

 

 

Click the Close button at the bottom, then click OK at the bottom of the main

Options form, then Yes to close BookTrakker. Restart BookTrakker.

 

 

Uploading Your Book Records to Amazon

 

What should happen with a successful upload to Amazon and/or other services:

 

1. Click Online button
2. Click Process and Upload Records button.
3. Loading Amazon Upload Engine box appears.
4. Exporting Amazon Records box appears, Amazon Upload file(s) are created.
5. Uploading to Amazon box appears, upload goes through.
6. Export form appears, yellow bar moves across bottom of form.
7. Process ends, unless you have other active services, in which case:
8. BookTrakker connects to each service, uploads the file for that service, 
verifies success, and moves on to the next service.
9. When the upload is done BookTrakker takes you to the Export Log screen
so you can check the success of your uploads.

 

1. Click on the Online button at the top of your screen:

 

 

2. Over on the right, center, you will see a large, turquoise green button:

 

 

Below this button is a list  of Upload Options followed by check boxes. For your 
first upload using the OneClick upload system you should place a check in 
the top option, All Online Inventory, then click the Process and Upload Records 
button. (This presumes that you have your Amazon services set up and checked 
as Active in the table below and to the left)

You may want to also check the Purge/Replace Amazon check box, as your records 
out of BookTrakker may have different record numbers then what you have on 
Amazon, and may also be in a different format.

Both of these choices are done just once, in the future you need on click the 
Process and Upload Records button without checking any of the boxes, BookTrakker 
will "know" which records to upload.

 

 

3. After you click the Process and Upload Records button the Loading Amazon 
Upload Engine file box will appear, followed by another box indicating that 
BookTrakker is exporting your records to the Amazon upload file:

 


 

4. Followed by:

 


 

This usually takes a lot less time than creating the upload file; there is less work 
to do. But sometimes it seems like it is going to take forever, especially if you 
already did an upload and want to follow with another. Uploading directly to Amazon 
using HTTP has limitations:

1. Bandwidth - sometimes a lot of booksellers are all uploading at the same time, 
so your upload may not get through.
2. Repeating or doing another upload on the heels of the first upload - Amazon 
does not seem to like this.
3. Internet errors between BookTrakker and Amazon.

With experience gained through uploading to Amazon you will get a pretty clear 
idea of how long any given upload should take, and if it seems like it isn't working, 
then it probably isn't.

If you think the upload is not going to go through then click the Cancel Upload button:

 

 

Like so:

 

 

And the upload process to Amazon will be aborted. It probably would not have worked anyway, this saves you time waiting and waiting. You will have to test this by trial and 
error, all systems are different, and uploads depend not only on what processor and 
memory you have but connection speed as well.

 

5. After you either allow an upload to finish or you cancel, the Exporting Records form appears:

 

 

This is the actual process that clears out your database of records to be uploaded during 
this upload session. The Amazon file has already been created.

After this form goes away BookTrakker will proceed to upload to any other services you list on, one after the other, until you get a completion message in the middle window on the Online page:

 

 

If your upload was successful you can verify this by clicking on the Export Log tab along the left side of your screen:

 

 

The first line says you started the Amazon upload process, followed by confirmation of the Amazon upload. Then BookTrakker began the upload process for other services you might be listing on, in this case ABE. Placing your cursor over the message across from Amazon Upload Processed and waiting a few seconds brings up a tool tip explaining what was in the Amazon upload file(s). In the example the first file that went to Amazon was the Inventory Loader, being ASIN/ISBN records without bibliographical information. The second file was the Book Loader file, with or without ASIN's or ISBN's, but including full bibliographical data for matching or new product detail page creation. (You must have CheckIt installed for the second upload file to work.) 

 

Amazon Upload Failure

 

If the Amazon upload failed then select the Amazon service:

Then click the  Reupload File to Selected Service button above. The Loading Amazon Upload Engine will reappear, followed by Uploading to Amazon. Keep in mind that under normal upload circumstances there may be one to three upload upload files: AmazonUpload_1.txt, AmazonUploadBL_1.txt and AmazonUploadLL_t.txt. (Add CA or UK to the name for CA or UK files) You need to upload all that you find. After doing the first file you can click in the field where is says AmazonUpload_1.txt, click the dropdown button to the right, then select AmazonUploadBL_1.txt and Reupload that file as well. Repeat for AmazonUploadLL_t.txt if you uploaded image URL's in your last upload.

 

 

 

Verifying Your Amazon Upload Results

 

If your upload to Amazon through BookTrakker was successful, then you need to connect to your Amazon account to confirm your upload success, or click on the Browser button in BookTrakker:

 

 

Then click on the a to bring up the Amazon upload page, after you login. This may take a few moments, but once you do get to the Amazon Upload Results page you click View Processing Report for more information about your upload.

 

You can also get to this page via the Go to Upload Processing Page on Amazon button in CheckIt. Click Online in BookTrakker, then select CheckIt from the Plugins dropdown list.

 

 

To find out what the Amazon Error messages mean, please go here.

 

 

Amazon Purge/Replace using BookTrakker.

 

Check Purge Amazon and All Online Inventory on the Online page in BookTrakker, select Amazon in your list of services, then click Process/Upload to Selected Service. This is the brute force Purge/Replace method, it rarely works well. 

If you are going to do a Purge/Replace on Amazon then you should make sure ALL records have an ASIN or ISBN, otherwise you run the risk of creating new records on Amazon that do not match what you have in BookTrakker. 

This is for Pro or Network users only: Run CheckIt to download and process ASIN's and ISBN's into BookTrakker. 

Since the usual Purge/Replace often fails on Amazon you may need to do it by doing the Purge followed by Replace with one listing that is already on Amazon. Once you  are down to one listing you can then upload your Available Amazon inventory by checking All Online Inventory and do a second upload.

Do your usual upload to all services, to clear the database of records set for upload, then go back to Inventory, find a record that is Available and has an ASIN or ISBN on the Keywords tab and the Marketplace box is checked or one of the CA or UK shipping choices is selected, other than No CA or No UK. (Amazon.ca or Amazon.co.uk sellers only)

Make sure the same record with the same SKU is in your Amazon inventory account online. If it is go back to BookTrakker:

Press A on your keyboard, followed by Enter if your Rec# is numeric, or CTRL-A, followed Enter if your Rec# is alphanumeric. This sets that record for upload. Then do the following:

1. Set Amazon as an Active service (Should be checked at all times by default) 
2. Select Amazon by clicking on the service name in the list, so the black arrow is pointing to Amazon > .  
3. Place a check in Purge Amazon.
 


 4. Click the Process/Upload to Selected Service button:
 

 
5. Loading Amazon Engine box appears, followed by Exporting to Amazon,
 then Uploading to Amazon. May happen so fast you don't see it all.
 6. Export form appears, yellow bar moves across bottom of form.
 7. Export Log screen appears, so you can check the success of your upload.

 Check your Inventory account on Amazon to make sure only one record is 
 present.

 8. Because Amazon cannot process more than 6000 uploaded records per 
upload you need to set records for upload via an Action Hit List.

Create a Hit List via these instructions that totals ~6000 records. Once you
have them set for upload do the next step:

 9. Go back to Online Control Panel page in BookTrakker. With the Amazon 
service selected, click the Process/Upload to Selected Service button. 
 This will upload the ~6000 records set for upload from step 8. 

Wait for the uploaded records to process on Amazon before doing another upload.

Repeat steps 8 and 9 as necessary to get all your records onto Amazon.  

 

 

Minimum and Maximum Prices for listings.

Amazon now requires all sellers to set Minimum and Maximum prices for all listings. From Amazon Help:

Starting on January 14, 2015, you will not be able to use the Seller Central preferences to select a blanket “opt-out” from all potential low- and high-pricing error rules. This is aimed at reducing price error risks to sellers and avoiding potentially negative customer experiences. Instead, you will need to set a minimum and maximum allowed selling price for each product in your inventory. If you do not chose pricing limits, Amazon’s default potential pricing error rules will apply to that product.

We will notify you when we detect any potential pricing errors in your Amazon.com listings and deactivate the affected listings.

We have added Minimum and Maximum prices for each Amazon service in Tools > Options > Pricing in BookTrakker. The default prices are .01 and 100000. The purpose of Minimum and Maximum pricing is to protect you from listing an item at too low or too high a price. Zero is not allowed. 

Users can reload the affected records individually, or if they are Pro or Network users they can run CheckIt off the Online Apps button to find records in BookTrakker that are not active on Amazon, and set them for upload. All records in an upload to Amazon will include the Minimum and Maximum prices. You can also do an All Online Inventory upload to Amazon. 

 

 

 

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Last Modified:  January 03, 2015