The following overview will help you understand the process we use to integrate your web site onto Amazon.com using our automated 'feed' process.

Every merchant has different needs, inventories and web site architectures, so please use this just as a general guideline. And of course, feel free to write to us or call 206-781-9762 for further information.

OVERVIEW
Sage builds XML generation scripts and admin screens needed to scan your database and create all of the feeds necessary to post your products and manage incoming Amazon orders.

We ensure that all of the XML feeds sent to Amazon conform to all the rules, standards, required values, and formats defined by the Amazon XSD. If you've worked with Seller Central flat files, you know how complex these rules and standards can be.

We also build the back-end web admin screens that allow you to manage the Amazon-ready product listings, ensuring that only allowed values can be entered in each field. We also build the automated Inventory Feed system that ensures that the inventory counts presented on Amazon stay in-sync with the inventory counts from your web site.

Placing your products on Amazon.com where customers can view and purchase them is only half the picture. To complete the system you will need a way to:

• Receive orders from purchases made on Amazon's web site.
• Inform Amazon / the customer that you have shipped their order.
• Receive payment for the order.

The communication between your site and Amazon is not just a one-way street. Amazon also transmits feeds to your site. It is your site's responsibility to poll Amazon at regular intervals to see if any feeds are waiting to be delivered to you.

Sage develops all of the scripts that process the incoming Order Feeds received from Amazon. The scripts extract all order details, and merge them into your existing order processing system. Sage also develops all of the back-end web screens your admin needs to view all order details, submit all shipping acknowledgements, and to make any necessary adjustments such as full or partial refunds.

Sage also builds your admin web reports, allowing you to view all of your Amazon settlement reports and to view historical reports.

COSTS AND BENEFITS ANALYSIS: CURRENT SELLER CENTRAL USERS
The bottom line for any business is cost and ensuring that expenses are justified. A project of this scope is a significant undertaking. We dedicate ourselves to the successful completion of the project and total satisfaction of our customers.

At least half of the project involves analysis: of your product database, Amazon's specific XML format requirements, and your web site's current product and order system. The other half of the project is the development of the web pages, scripts, program modules and other elements that all work together to automate the Amazon integration.

Benefits
There are significant benefits to automating your Amazon.com presence:

• Elimination of the manual processes associated with Seller Central's flat-file system.
• Increased flexibility and control in listing your products on the Amazon site

Elimination of the manual processes associated with Seller Central's flat-file system.
If you currently use Amazon's Seller Central to manage your product base, you know how confusing, tedious and time consuming it can be to fill out the Amazon template spreadsheet and upload to Seller Central. You need to manually enter in your product information, inventory, prices, and all the other data required by Amazon. You then need to upload the file to Amazon for processing.

With Sage's integration of your web site onto Amazon, all daily maintenance is performed automatically, at intervals you specify. Your products and updates are automatically delivered to Amazon - updated photos, pricing, inventory counts, product details, and more.

Further, all incoming orders are automatically received from Amazon and imported into your order processing system. From there you simply fulfill the order and at the press of a button, your order fulfillment is sent to Amazon and the buyer receives their shipping notice.

Increased flexibility and control in listing your products on the Amazon site
With the Seller Central system, any change to any product meant you had to modify your Amazon template spreadsheet with the new information and upload the template to Amazon. For any significant changes, this could require hours of scrolling through the spreadsheet, locating and editing information and setting values that you had to validate through the spreadsheet's validate macros.

With Sage's automated system, any changes made to your product listings, pricing, inventory and other settings are immediately and processed in the automated feeds sent to Amazon.

Summary
Below is a summary of the tasks we perform to integrate your site onto Amazon:

• We review your current database schema and the XSD provided to you by Amazon and design and build the XML scripts necessary to create the required feeds to be sent to Amazon.
• We build the Content Management System (CMS) screens necessary for your admin to make any custom changes and settings in the Amazon-formatted tables.
• We build the scheduled tasks used to launch the Amazon feeds and create any automated scripts used to send Inventory Feeds to Amazon at regular intervals.
• We install and configure the SOAP manager on your web server which manages the transmission and status checking of all feeds sent to, and received from Amazon.
• We develop all of the scripts that process incoming Order and Settlement Feeds from Amazon, merging the data into your order processing and reporting system.
• We build the back-end admin screens necessary for you to review the incoming Amazon orders and to respond to Amazon with the Order Fulfillment (shipping confirmation) Feeds.
• We build the back-end admin screens necessary for you to make any order adjustments (various refund types, etc).

As you can see, integrating your web site onto Amazon.com is not a trivial task. And the above just covers the major issues. The learning curve associated with Amazon integration is large, and the technical knowledge required to be able to analyze your web site's system and build the necessary components to communicate with Amazon and to process feeds is extensive.

The good news is that Sage Computer Services has the knowledge, experience, and project management skills needed to build a clean, efficient and effective Amazon automated XML interface for your web site.

To learn more about how Sage can integrate your web site onto Amazon.com, please write to sage@sagecomputerservices.com or call (206) 781-9762.