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Part of How eBay and Amazon order sync differs for UK multichannel sellers
How eBay and Amazon order sync differs for UK multichannel sellers
This article explains how eBay and Amazon orders differ, what stock and fee data a sync must capture, and where VAT records stay when choosing a master system.
What to take away
- eBay and Amazon deliver orders in different shapes. eBay sends one sale when payment clears. Amazon splits the same business across seller-fulfilled and Fulfilled by Amazon channels that need separate handling.
- VAT does not change because the sale came from a marketplace, but the figures your sync records do change when the platform accounts for the tax itself.
- Fee reconciliation is the wider gap. eBay reports close to order level, while Amazon settles over a period, so software that pulls orders only leaves month-end work.
- Use the marketplace you sell most on as the primary system of record and sync the other into it.
How eBay orders and Amazon orders differ
An eBay sale usually appears when the buyer pays. The seller keeps the stock, sets the dispatch window and chooses the carrier. That model, described in the Wikipedia entry on eBay, means an eBay sync is mostly about stock levels, dispatch notices and tracking numbers.
eBay vs Amazon order flow
eBay
- Order trigger
- Payment confirmation
- Stock direction
- Push out, read back
- Fulfilment
- Seller keeps stock
- Dispatch
- Seller sets window
- Carrier
- Seller chooses
Amazon
- Order trigger
- Payment confirmation
- Stock direction
- Push or read only
- Fulfilment
- Seller or FBA
- Dispatch
- Seller or Amazon
- Carrier
- Seller or Amazon
Amazon routes the same kind of sale through two systems. A seller-fulfilled order behaves like an eBay order and lands in your software as a normal dispatch job. A Fulfilled by Amazon order is picked inside Amazon's network, so the sync has to read FBA quantities back out rather than push them in.
What the sync must capture
eBay
- Order trigger
- Payment confirmation
- Stock direction
- Push out, read back
- Fee reporting
- Payment report per order
- Returns
- Seller-managed or managed returns
- Identifier
- eBay item number and SKU
Amazon
- Order trigger
- Payment confirmation, split by channel
- Stock direction
- Push for seller-fulfilled, read only for FBA
- Fee reporting
- Settlement report per period
- Returns
- FBA returns handled by Amazon
- Identifier
- ASIN, SKU and FNSKU
Amazon's referral, storage and fulfilment fees arrive on a settlement report that covers a period rather than a single order. eBay's payment reports sit much closer to the order. Software that imports orders but not fees will leave you reconciling charges in a spreadsheet at month end.
What the sync must capture
eBay
- Order trigger
- Payment confirmation
- Stock direction
- Push out, read back
- Fee reporting
- Payment report per order
- Returns
- Seller or managed returns
- Identifier
- eBay item number and SKU
Amazon
- Order trigger
- Payment, split by channel
- Stock direction
- Push seller-fulfilled, read FBA
- Fee reporting
- Settlement report per period
- Returns
- FBA handled by Amazon
- Identifier
- ASIN, SKU and FNSKU
VAT sits separately from that. For domestic sales you remain the seller, so your VAT records and invoices stay your responsibility. Where a platform is treated as the supplier for VAT purposes, the platform accounts for the tax and your own records need the net figure, not just the gross.
Order data is personal data. Names, delivery addresses and contact details move from the marketplace into your order management system, and you are the controller for what you then store and how long you keep it. The ICO's guide to data protection for organisations sets out the retention and record-keeping duties.
Four steps to a sync that holds
- Build one product master and map every identifier into it: your own SKU, the barcode, the Amazon ASIN and the eBay item number. Duplicate listings nearly always start with an unmapped identifier.
- Set the direction of stock writes. Push quantities from the master to both marketplaces, and pull FBA stock back as a read-only feed with a buffer sitting in front of it.
- Bring fees and payouts into the same pipeline so margin appears beside the order. That single change removes most of the manual work at month end.
- Test with 20 to 30 SKUs across both channels, including one FBA item, before you move the rest of the catalogue across.
Choosing the master system
Most UK sellers are better served by one-way sync. Your shop or ERP holds the product record, writes stock and price out, and reads marketplace stock back. It is easier to debug and cheaper to run.
Two-way sync suits sellers who create listings inside Seller Central or eBay and treat the marketplace as the original record. It needs conflict rules for stock, price and order status, which is where most of the cost sits. The wider case for joining channels up is covered in the Wikipedia discussion of multichannel retailing.
If Shopify runs the catalogue, pick the Shopify product feed plugin before wiring up orders, because the same tool usually owns listing feeds and order imports. Choosing it later means migrating both.
Common questions
Does sync software replace my accountant?
No. It gives you order-level figures that tie back to marketplace reports. Your VAT return still comes from your own records, and marketplace-collected tax has to be shown separately.
Can one tool handle eBay, Amazon and my website?
Usually yes, provided it has a documented connector for each marketplace and writes stock in one direction. Ask for the mapping screen on a demo, not the dashboard.
Is a Meta catalogue part of the same job?
Often, because identifiers and stock come from one master. Missing fields and mismatched identifiers cause the Meta catalogue feed errors that most retailers see, and the same gaps break order matching on marketplaces.
How often should stock sync run?
Every 15 minutes is a common setting for sellers under 500 orders a day. Busier catalogues need event-driven updates, because a fixed interval plus a queue creates overselling.
