The Amazon connection

Connect your Amazon seller account to MotherStock, next to ShipStation, and the app adds what ShipStation doesn't have: Amazon's own deadlines, the fees Amazon really charged, Amazon's returns, account health, payouts, and a check before you buy. This page explains what each part does, who on your team can use it, and exactly what data it reads, keeps, and changes.

In short

Orders still come in through ShipStation. The Amazon connection adds facts to them; it doesn't replace ShipStation.
It reads from Amazon. The only thing it can change on Amazon is the stock count on your listings, and only after an Admin turns that on.
It never asks Amazon for buyer names, addresses, phone numbers, emails or messages.
It never sends messages to buyers, confirms shipments, changes prices, or files claims for you.
Your connection is stored encrypted, can only be used for your company, and is never shown again after you save it.

Before you start

An Amazon Professional seller account in Seller Central (United States, Canada or Mexico).
An Admin in MotherStock: only Admins connect, change or disconnect Amazon.
Your seller ID (Seller Central: Settings, Account Info, Merchant Token). It is optional, but the Renewed check, sending stock and instant updates need it.

Connecting

In Seller Central, open Apps and Services, then Develop Apps.
Next to the MotherStock app, choose Authorize app, then Authorize.
Copy the refresh token. It starts with Atzr|.
In MotherStock, open Integrations, find Amazon, choose your marketplace, paste the token and (optionally) your seller ID, and press Connect Amazon.

MotherStock tests the token with Amazon before saving it. The first check starts within 10 minutes, or press Check now. Reports take a few minutes on Amazon's side, so returns, listings and account health appear on a later check.

During the pilot we connect it with you. Connecting more sellers needs MotherStock to be listed in Amazon's Selling Partner Appstore, which is on our list.

What it does

Amazon's ship-by and deliver-by dates

Every Amazon order: Ship by, Overdue, Shipped on time and Delivered on time use Amazon's own deadlines. The order says “From Amazon” under Ship by.

Who: Everyone who can see orders. How often: Each Amazon order placed in the last 30 days is asked for once.

What Amazon actually charged

Amazon fees on the order page, and Reports › Profit › Margin after shipping and fees, which uses them instead of a fee percentage.

Who: People with cost access. How often: Each completed Amazon order from the last 60 days, until Amazon posts its fees, then every 3 days so refunded fees come off.

Amazon returns, and starting a return from one

Amazon returns on the order page: return ID, reason, status, A-to-z claim, tracking back and refund. Start return puts the line on your Returns list.

Who: Everyone who can see orders sees them; Start return needs a role that processes returns. How often: Amazon's returns report, every 6 hours, for the last 30 days.

SAFE-T candidates

A SAFE-T candidate badge on Returns, on the return, and under Amazon returns, with the reasons. The Dispute packet's SAFE-T claim template fills in the facts.

Who: Everyone who can see returns. How often: Worked out from the return each time you open it.

Account health

The Amazon card on Integrations, and a line on the Dashboard that turns into a warning when a rate misses Amazon's target.

Who: The Dashboard line: everyone who sees the Dashboard. The full table: Admins. How often: Amazon's seller performance report, once a day.

Stock on your listings

The Amazon card: Amazon's quantity on each listing next to what you can sell. Optionally, the sellable count is sent to Amazon.

Who: Admins. Sending stock is off until an Admin turns it on. How often: Your listings report every hour. With sending on, up to 20 changed counts per check.

Check before you buy

Reports › Buy list › Check an Amazon model before buying: find the ASIN by UPC, model or name; see whether you may list it as Renewed, the Buy Box and lowest offers, and Amazon's fee at your price.

Who: People who see the Buy list. Amazon's fee and what you'd get need cost access. How often: Only when you press Check or Search. For your listings, a few are refreshed each check (Renewed weekly, fees daily, offers every 6 hours).

Amazon payouts

Reports › Amazon payouts: each month's payout split into orders and everything else (service fees, reimbursements, adjustments), deferred amounts, and Amazon's order fees next to the fees in MotherStock.

Who: People with cost access. How often: Amazon's transactions every 6 hours. The first read goes back 90 days.

Starting a return from an Amazon return

Under Amazon returns on the order page, Start return puts the order line on your Returns list. The floor then receives and grades it like any other return: Return Complete with a matching serial puts the unit back in stock.

It starts at Dispute Needed when the buyer filed an A-to-z claim, Refund Completed when Amazon already refunded, and Refund Needed otherwise.
The line is the one with the return's SKU, or the only line on a one-line order. Otherwise you choose the line.
Each Amazon return can start one return. The order shows who started it and when.
Nothing is sent to Amazon.

SAFE-T candidates

A SAFE-T claim is how you ask Amazon to reimburse you when Amazon refunded a buyer and you lost out. You file it in Seller Central; Amazon has no way for apps to file it. MotherStock flags the returns worth filing:

A different unit came back: its serial doesn't match the one you scanned at packing.
It came back damaged or not working, with parts missing, in a different condition, or still signed in to an account (from your return checks).
Amazon refunded the buyer and nothing came back 14 days after the return was requested.

The return's Dispute packet includes a SAFE-T claim template with the order, the serial that shipped, who packed it and when, tracking and delivery, the serial and condition that came back, and the reasons. Read it, attach your photos, and paste it into Seller Central. File within Amazon's SAFE-T window, which starts at the refund. If you already saved your own dispute templates, add it with Add SAFE-T claim starter.

Account health

Amazon judges sellers on a few rates and can restrict an account that misses them. MotherStock shows each one with Amazon's target:

Order defect rate (your own shipments, not Fulfilled by Amazon): under 1%.
Late shipment rate: under 4%.
Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate: under 2.5%.
Valid tracking rate: over 95%.
On-time delivery rate, when Amazon reports it.

These are Amazon's usual targets; the app shows the target Amazon sends in the report. A rate is marked at risk when Amazon says so or when it misses its target, even on a day Amazon still says Good.

Payouts

Reports › Amazon payouts adds up Amazon's transactions by month, in your warehouse's time zone. On orders is sales and refunds on orders. On no order is everything else Amazon charged or paid you, such as the subscription and other service fees, reimbursements, and adjustments; the profit report can't see these, so they're listed one by one. Deferred is money Amazon is holding and pays later. When Amazon's fees on orders differ from the fees in MotherStock, the month shows it.

Stock on your listings

For each listing you ship yourself whose SKU matches one product, sellable is your available units less units already on open orders and not yet packed. Amazon's own pending orders are already off Amazon's count, so a unit is never offered twice. Listings Fulfilled by Amazon are shown but never compared or sent.

Sending stock is off until an Admin turns on Send sellable stock to Amazon (it needs your seller ID). Then each check sends up to 20 counts that changed. Turning it on or off is recorded in your audit log.

The data, in detail

What MotherStock reads from Amazon

Data	What it is	Kept
Order dates	The latest ship-by and deliver-by day for each Amazon order.	On the order, until you disconnect.
Order fees	Each fee Amazon charged on the order (referral, closing and others), less fees given back on a refund.	On the order, until you disconnect.
Returns report	Return ID, SKU, ASIN, item name, quantity, reason, status, resolution, return type, in or out of policy, A-to-z claim, request and delivery dates, return carrier and tracking, label cost and who pays it, refunded amount. Plus who started a MotherStock return from it, and when.	One row per return and SKU, updated as the report changes.
Listings report	Each listing's SKU, ASIN, title, quantity, price, status and who ships it (you or Amazon).	Replaced each hour; a listing gone from Amazon is removed.
Market data on your listings	Whether you may list the ASIN as Renewed (and Amazon's reasons), Amazon's fee estimate at your price, the Buy Box and the lowest price per condition, and the number of offers.	On the listing, refreshed as above.
Account health	Your account status and rating, and the order defect (your own shipments), late shipment, cancellation, valid tracking and on-time delivery rates, with Amazon's targets, periods and A-to-z claim count.	The latest report only.
Payout transactions	Each transaction's type, status, description, date, amount, the order number when there is one, the payout (settlement) it belongs to, and Amazon's top-level breakdown (for example product charges and Amazon fees).	One row per transaction.
Order change notices (optional instant updates)	Amazon's notice that an order changed or a report finished.	Nothing but the order number it names, which starts a fresh check.
Check before you buy, catalog search	The ASIN you ask about: Renewed approval, offers, fee, or catalog title, brand, model, color, size and UPCs.	Nothing. It is shown to you and discarded.

What it never reads

Buyer names, shipping addresses, phone numbers and emails. The connection doesn't ask for Amazon's restricted buyer data at all.
Buyer-seller messages.
Your Seller Central password. The refresh token you paste lets MotherStock make these calls only; you can revoke it in Seller Central at any time.

Orders that come in through ShipStation carry the ship-to details ShipStation gives us for shipping. That is the ShipStation connection, not this one; see our privacy notice.

What it changes on Amazon

Only the quantity on listings you ship yourself, and only with Send sellable stock to Amazon turned on.
Nothing else: no prices, no listing content, no shipment confirmations, no messages, no claims.

Where it's kept and who sees it

Everything is kept in your company's workspace. The database only returns rows for the signed-in company, so another company can never see your Amazon data.
The refresh token is encrypted, sealed to your company so no other workspace can read it, never shown again, and never written to logs.
Inside your company, your roles decide who sees what: fees, fee estimates and payouts need cost access, and the connection itself is Admins only.
Connecting, changing and disconnecting Amazon, starting a return from an Amazon return, and turning stock sending on or off are recorded in your audit log.
MotherStock doesn't combine your Amazon data with other sellers' or sell it.

Disconnecting deletes your Amazon data

Disconnect deletes it at once. When an Admin presses Disconnect on the Amazon card, calls to Amazon stop and everything that came from Amazon is deleted straight away: Amazon's dates and fees on your orders, Amazon returns, listings and prices, account health and payouts. MotherStock asks you to confirm first, and it can't be undone.
If your token stops working, it's deleted after 30 days. When Amazon refuses the token (for example, it was revoked in Seller Central), the Amazon card and the Dashboard warn you with the date. If Amazon is still refusing it 30 days after the first refusal, MotherStock disconnects Amazon and deletes the data. Authorize the app again and paste the new token before that date to keep it.
After deletion, Amazon orders go back to ShipStation's ship-by and deliver-by dates, and profit goes back to your estimated marketplace fee. Your orders, units, serials and the returns your team worked stay.
Backups age out within 14 days, so deleted data leaves them too.

Good to know

Amazon's data can lag: fees post days after an order ships, reports take minutes to build, and the check runs every 10 minutes (sooner with instant updates).
When Amazon limits how fast we can ask, the check stops that part and carries on next time. Nothing is lost.
A part Amazon refuses because the app is missing a permission stops on its own; the rest keeps working and the Amazon card says so.
A refused token shows on the Amazon card with the date your Amazon data will be deleted. Authorize the app again in Seller Central and paste the new token before then.
Catalog search shows no product images: the app only loads images from MotherStock itself.