Data Mapping is what we call the process of telling Amazon where to find the information it needs to list and sell your products. An example data mapping would be to tell Amazon that your product stock level can be found in the field called product_stock.
The flow of information
The information flow to Amazon takes the same route as information to your web-store. NscSync pushes any required data from your POS/NScPAM system to the NitroSell servers. This information is used to create your web-store. It is also used to feed Amazon.
The data on the NitroSell servers is given to Amazon in what we call feeds. Amazon acknowledges receipt of these feeds then processes them in their own time. The process is not an instant one. Once they have finished dealing with a feed they issue a report which we display on the Amazon reports tab.
This process generally takes between 15 and 30 minutes depending on the size of the feed.
A Mapping
At its simplest a mapping is simply matching an Amazon field to one of your fields. An example might be to map the Amazon product name field to your field Product/DescriptionData/Title = name.
Inheritance
To give flexibility and allow for products in different parts of your store being handled differently we allow you to enter mappings either at the top level (the entire store), at department level, at category level or at sub-category level. We call these store nodes.
Each store node will inherit the mappings of any higher store node if you don’t provide a local mapping. This allows you to say that product price is found in the price field but this special snowflake of a department has is price in the Price A field.
Overrides
Generally you will map a local field to an Amazon field. However there are times when you don’t need a field to be dynamic. A good example would be currency.
One of the required Amazon fields is currency, they want to know what currency their marketplace uses. So if you are selling on amazon.com you have to tell them that your pricing is in USD (US dollars). As such you can enter the override USD into the currency field.
When you enter an override any field mapping is ignored and the override is used instead.
Completion Status
Amazon requires a minimum amount of information for products before it lists product. The minimum amount of information required depends on whether the item is already in the Amazon catalogue or not and on the category the product is placed in. The integration will carry out a cursory scan of your mappings on each store node and report if that node has the bare minimum required fields complete. The status of each store node is marked with a green tick (required fields present) or a red cross (required field missing).
This article deals with the Data Mapping tab in the NitroSell Amazon interface.