Amazon? According to Jungle Scout research, 76% of Amazon sellers say their business is profitable, and 63% say it only took a year. And when it comes to online sales, the Amazon marketplace is a giant as it firmly holds 40% of the U.S. ecommerce market.

Or maybe Shopify? With how many features the platform has for helping you launch and manage your own store, it’s often the first pick both for those starting out but also large established brands.

Actually, do you even have to pick one or another? You don’t! Whether you are just starting or already having an active Shopify store, you can easily integrate with Amazon to sell on that marketplace as well. And in this article, we are going to tell you why you should do it – and how.

Connecting Shopify to Amazon – how does it work?

On the internet, you’ll come across numerous articles and discussions comparing “Shopify vs Amazon – which is better for new businesses” or debating whether it’s preferable to start dropshipping on Amazon or Shopify. Undoubtedly, this decision holds significant importance for any seller. Choosing between Shopify and Amazon can be particularly challenging considering the contrasting nature of both platforms.

Amazon offers access to an immense customer base and takes care of most logistics tasks. Additionally, you can leverage features like one-click Amazon Pay or Prime shipping. However, establishing a brand name and customer base on Amazon isn’t a walk in the park, as the platform provides limited branding options, especially if they handle your deliveries. Moreover, Amazon enforces strict policies, and failing to meet their requirements may result in your products not appearing in listings or, worse, your shop getting blocked.

In contrast, Shopify welcomes aspiring entrepreneurs who want to build their own brand and provides an array of tools to customize their shop and products according to their preferences. However, everything, from promoting the Shopify store and finding customers to management and shipping logistics, rests solely on the seller’s shoulders. Despite Shopify’s growing popularity, it still attracts only a fraction of the customer base that Amazon boasts.

But what if you could combine the best of both worlds by integrating the two platforms? Is it worth connecting Amazon to Shopify?

Why is Shopify Amazon integration a good option for your business?

Handling two shops on two entirely different platforms can seem like a hassle, though – wouldn’t that mean double the work? Well, while you will need to work a bit on finding the right method to connect Shopify with Amazon and optimizing the products for Amazon requirements, there’s also a list of benefits you can get from the joint stores.

The biggest one is obviously the access to millions of Amazon users and buyers. The marketplace is more than well-known for having a large customer base – according to recent statistics, Amazon has 310 million customers worldwide. What’s more, the marketplace is actually the most popular search destination for consumers, used more often than even search engines (66% of consumers start their search from Amazon). With so much traffic there every day, there are plenty of opportunities for you to promote and sell products there.

For various reasons, there are also plenty of customers who are far more likely to trust a new store that works on Amazon rather than on a separate website. If those customers shop, then it’s on Amazon.

By showing your Shopify products to those users, they’re more likely to find and purchase from you through the sales channel they’re already comfortable with. That way, Amazon can also help you build a base of customers that will eventually start buying on your Shopify e-commerce store as well.

How to sell on Amazon using Shopify?

Connecting Shopify to Amazon used to be quite straightforward in previous years. You just needed to open the Shopify account, go to admin settings and, on the “Sales channels” page, add Amazon as your chosen new sales channel. Then you could manage everything related to the Amazon sales channel straight from the Shopify admin page.

Plenty of “Shopify Amazon integration for your store” guides still recommend this way as the “Best Shopify Amazon integration” method.

Last year though, Shopify announced that it would no longer support the “Amazon as a sales channel” feature and removed the option from its platform. Why they did that isn’t exactly clear – one theory says it’s because Shopify was losing money and customers to Amazon. Another is that with how many and how often changes Amazon adds to their platform, updating the native connector was requiring far more effort than it was worth it. And the third one is saying that Shopify simply saw there’s far more for them to gain from promoting third-party connectors to Amazon than on giving the feature for free.  

Either way, you now need a third-party app if you want to connect Shopify to Amazon. Thankfully, you have a lot of options here, thanks to multiple Amazon connectors available on the Shopify app store.

What steps do you need to take to connect Shopify with Amazon?

Before you pick an app through which you will join your online stores, you need to do a few technical tasks. The first one is checking the requirements for Amazon listings and preparing all necessary information – especially product ID’s or GTIN (Global Trade Item Numbers). If the items you want to sell belong to restricted categories (more on that in a sec), you’ll also need to prepare all documents confirming that the products you sell are genuine.  

Once that is ready, you can start with the actual Shopify Amazon integration steps:

Create an Amazon seller account

If you don’t have an active professional seller account on Amazon yet, then the first thing you need to do is to open an account there. On the Amazon seller central website, you’ll have the option to sign up and create an account. But before you click on the “Sign-up” button, there are a few things you need to prepare to make the account creation process faster:

• Business name and address
• Phone number
• Credit card details
• Bank account information
• Tax ID issued by the government

Amazon will also ask you to pick one of two pricing plans – individual (where you pay $0.99 for every item) and Professional ($39.00 a month + selling fees). You can only link Shopify store when you are on the Professional plan though, so you don’t exactly have a choice here.

Check whether the products you want to sell on Amazon will require the platform’s permission first

For some products, Amazon might ask you to show them product documentation before they allow you to add the listings – to ensure that the products you sell are genuine. If you plan to sell beauty products or books, then you don’t need to ask for approval. But if you want to offer jewelry, watches, or artwork, then you must fill “Request for approval” form first and send all required documents to Amazon before you can list the products. You can check all products for which you will need category approval from Amazon on this page.

For handmade products, Amazon has a special website – Amazon Handmade. But here, you’ll need to be verified by Amazon too though, before you can list your products – and the verification process might take up to 2 weeks.

Install the Amazon Integration app in your Shopify store

Since the native integration isn’t available any longer, you need an app to actually connect the Shopify store to Amazon. One idea is to simply install one of the Shopify Amazon integration apps available – like Amazon Integration Plus. Since those can be added to your Shopify website like any other Shopify plugin, you shouldn’t have many problems with the setup process. The app will then ask you to connect the Amazon seller account with the app. Once you do it, the app will start importing the data and synchronizing both stores.  

If you don’t know though which Shopify app you should pick or you worry that something might go wrong while importing the data, then it’s a good idea to contact either a development company who can handle the integration for you or a provider of the app you picked. If neither of the apps available on the market has the features you need to have, then reaching out to a development company is your best bet, as they can also write a custom integration app for you.

Conclusion

If you already run a successful store on Shopify, you should definitely consider integrating it with Amazon as the new sales channel. With the integration, you get all the benefits the Amazon platform can offer, while you can still build your brand the way you want it – and not simply be one of the millions of sellers.

Just make sure that before you start the process, you do your homework. Check the requirements Amazon has for product listings, prepare all necessary details and spend some time comparing different connector apps to find the one that is the most useful for your online store.

Once you complete these steps and integrate Shopify with Amazon store, you’ll open yourself up to millions of new customers, which can only benefit your online business. And if you’ll need any help while preparing for the integration, WeCanFly will be happy to assist you to make sure the integration will be a success.