Automating Amazon Direct Fulfillment ASN Submission
Reference Scenario: In Amazon’s Direct Fulfillment (DF), vendors must provide Advance Shipment Notices (ASNs) upon shipment for orders. ASNs are crucial not only for giving Amazon visibility into the supply chain but also for ensuring compliance and efficient operations.
However, controlling the submission of ASNs presents a number of challenges:
- System integration complexities: Different ERP/WMS systems will output data in various formats, yet Amazon requires a very specific ASN structure.
- Timing: ASNs must be sent within Amazon’s strict timeline, or sellers could face shipment penalties or performance strikes.
- Manual workload: The manual process of creating and posting ASNs is both prone to errors and resource-consuming.
Accordingly, many suppliers are now in the market for a completely automated ASN submission solution.
Why Automate ASN Submission?
- Error reduction: Reduce rejections due to wrong file formats or missing fields.
- Save labor cost: Reduce manual, repeatable tasks to free up teams to do more with less.
- Better performance: Ensure all ASNs are in Amazon’s required format and submitted on time.
- Increased productivity: Real-time ASN release allows orders to be fulfilled sooner.
The Windingflow Advantage
Among the alternatives, Windingflow is a strong automation option for Amazon Direct Fulfillment ASN generation, offering several key benefits:
- Integration with your systems: It readily integrates with popular OMS, WMS, and ERP systems and auto-creates ASNs.
- Native validation: It is compatible with Amazon’s native EDI and API specifications to guarantee the correct format.
- Live data feed: It automatically submits ASNs, eliminating downtime.
- Visibility & monitoring: It provides easy-to-understand tracking UIs and error notifications that facilitate quick troubleshooting.
- Scalable: It works with multi-account, multi-warehouse, and multi-scenario setups.
Measurable Benefits of Using Windingflow
- Labor efficiency: It decreases manual labor by as much as 70%.
- Reduced errors: Automated submission checkboxes cut down on the number of ASN rejections.
- Better adherence: It ensures timely submissions to help avoid penalties and impacts on your performance score.
- Operational expansion: It improves the Amazon partnership and fulfillment dependability.
Conclusion
In the Amazon Direct Fulfillment model, the timely and accurate submission of your ASN is a crucial part of doing business with a vendor. By using Windingflow’s ASN automation application, companies can reduce manual labor and costly oversights, and stay regulatory compliant, all while improving supply chain efficiencies.
For suppliers who find the error- and labor-intensive ASN process to be cumbersome, Windingflow provides a proven roadmap to automation and business process excellence.
