Completing a shipment in the STA Workflow (Send To Amazon)

Amazon has begun migrating sellers to the new STA workflow. This article will walk you through completing a shipment in the new STA workflow.

Converting the shipment or keep as API Shipment

 You will also not be able to remove items from the shipment. This is why we strongly recommend ensuring the shipment is 100% complete before converting the shipment to the Send To Amazon Workflow.

Amazon used to present two options "Return to the old workflow" and "Convert to Send to Amazon", Amazon now asks either "Keep as API Shipment" or "Convert to Send to Amazon".

Keep as API shipment essentially means do not convert to Send to Amazon because there are still changes I would like to make to the shipment. Pressing this option will return you to the shipments queue.

Converting the shipment

To convert the shipment press Convert to Send to Amazon

Amazon's Send To Amazon workflow has a “feature” of casepack templates where if you are creating a casepack shipment directly through seller central you must create and select premade casepack templates. This is intertwined with the STA shipment creation process. It is for this reason that all Seller Chain shipments whether Casepack or not, will be brought in as individual units.

You will have the opportunity when inputting the box content at the next stage to specify case pack configurations if necessary.

Step 1: Choose inventory to send

The inventory was already selected (as the shipment was created on Seller Chain). No edits or selections can be made on this page. You can print the FNSKU labels step. Once ready press “Pack individual units” to proceed to step 1b. If an item requires expiration dates or battery information that is entered on this page. 

Step 1b – Pack individual units

This step is the most time-intensive step. Where in the old workflow the Web form was streamlined and available for all-size shipments, in this new workflow the Web form is only available for shipments with less than 10 boxes.

Box content options

A) Amazon manually processes box contents ($0.15 per unit), Box count, Box weight, and Box dimensions required.

B) Enter through a web form ( 10 boxes or less), Box contents, Box count, Box weight, and Box dimensions required.

C) Use 2D barcodes, this is using a third-party 2D box content label provider to provide Amazon with box contents,  Box count, Box weight, and Box dimensions required.

D) Upload Excel File (.xls), 

This fourth option is the principle option and therefore I will give a step by step by guide on how to fill out the sheet.

1) Enter the Total Box count (This box count is an estimate. You can modify it in the Excel file by a maximum of 10 boxes above or below this estimate.) Generate the Excel file.

2) Open the Excel file and fill it out. The Excel sheet will contain 2 pieces of information, the quantity per Box and Box dimensions. All the information has to be filled out. 

The Excel will have two axis columns B 5-(amount of SKUs) will list all of the shipment SKUs in alphabetical order. Columns M-(amount of Boxes) will list the specified total number of boxes in the shipment. The goal is to fill out the sheet until you reach the end.

*Boxes cant exceed 50 pounds in weight or 25 inches in dimension

Filling out the sheet quickly 2 methods

1. Open your Excel spreadsheet and select the cell that you want to copy.

2. Press the "Ctrl" key and the "C" key simultaneously on your keyboard to copy the selected cell.

3. Select the range of cells where you want to paste the copied cell horizontally. For example, if you want to paste the cell across cells B1 to F1, select cells B1 to F1.

4. Right-click on the selected cells and click on "Paste Special" from the menu that appears.

5. In the "Paste Special" dialog box, select "Transpose" and then click "OK". This will paste the copied cell horizontally across the selected range of cells.

Here's a simple step-by-step guide on how to use the drag-to-copy method in Excel:

1. Open your Excel spreadsheet and select the cell that you want to copy.

2. Hover your mouse over the bottom right corner of the cell until it turns into a crosshair.

3. Click and hold down the left mouse button, then drag the crosshair across the cells to which you want to copy the data to. You should see a preview of the data as you drag.

4. Release the mouse button once you've selected all the cells you want to copy to.

5. You should see that the original cell data has been copied to the cells you dragged across.

3)  Save the filled out excel sheet, once validated press "Confirm and Continue"

Step 2 Confirm shipping

1)Select a shipping date

2) Choose SPD or LTL as the shipping option, If you choose small parcel you will be able to select Amazon partnered carrier of Non- Amazon partnered carrier at this stage. If you select LTL Step 4: Confirm carrier and pallet information is where you will make this choice.

If you select SPD this will be irreversible and you will not be able to switch to LTL after confirming.

Press confirm shipping destinations to proceed to the next step.

Step 3 Print Box labels

Print box labels

You can also adjust quantities and add boxes.

Step 4: Confirm Carrier and pallet information (LTL Only)

1) Choose Amazon partnered carrier or Non-partnered carrier (use your own carrier)

If you selected Amazon partnered carrier, the workflow will construct the pallets based on the box dimensions entered in the box content stage. It is editable.

Final step tracking details