Amazon SKU, ASIN and item numbers in Business Central

Amazon SKU, ASIN and Business Central item numbers: the mapping that decides whether the integration works

An Amazon order says:

SKU: DK-BLUE-XL-2

Business Central says:

Item No.: 105433

Is that the same product?

To a human being with product knowledge the answer is perhaps obvious.

To an integration the answer is no, until the relationship has been defined.

That is why SKU mapping between Amazon and Business Central is one of the most important parts of an Amazon integration.

ASIN and seller SKU have different roles

Amazon works with, among other things, the Amazon catalogue and the seller’s own listings.

The seller SKU is used to identify the seller’s listing, while the ASIN identifies a product in Amazon’s catalogue.

At the same time, Business Central has the company’s own item numbers.

That is why an integration should not assume that one identifier can automatically replace another.

The Amazon Listings Items API provides programmatic access to seller listings and SKU-related listing information. Amazon Developer Docs

Why do companies use different SKUs?

There can be good business reasons.

An item can, for example, be sold as:

• a single unit in Business Central
• a 2-pack on Amazon
• a 6-pack on another marketplace

Then the relationship is not 1:1.

The same applies to bundles.

The Amazon SKU:

STARTER-KIT-01

may for instance consist of three separate Business Central item numbers.

The integration’s job therefore becomes more than mapping.

It has to understand the product logic.

Variants make it even more important

Colour and size are classic examples.

Business Central may have one particular variant setup, while the Amazon listing is structured differently.

That is why the mapping should be documented and managed systematically.

Not in the head of a single employee.

Not in a spreadsheet nobody dares to change.

But as a defined part of the data model.

Which system is the master?

One of the first questions should be:

Where is the product identity created?

Business Central?

PIM?

Amazon?

Another master data system?

Amazon also offers the Product Type Definitions API for retrieving the current data and attribute requirements for product types in Amazon’s catalogue. Amazon Developer Docs

That underlines the fact that product data on Amazon can have its own structure and its own requirements, which do not necessarily match the ERP system directly.

What happens when the mapping is wrong?

The consequences can be serious.

An incorrect mapping can lead to:

• the wrong item on the sales order
• the wrong stock write-down
• the wrong cost price
• the wrong replenishment
• the wrong reporting

That is why unknown SKUs should not simply fall back to some random item.

The integration should stop, log and make the problem visible.

The mapping has to be maintainable

New products are launched.

Old ones are discontinued.

Amazon SKUs change.

New marketplaces are added.

That is why mapping is not a one-off project.

It is a maintenance process.

A strong integration makes it clear:

• which SKUs are mapped
• which ones are missing
• what they match
• when the mapping was last changed

The connection to orders and stock

SKU mapping is the foundation beneath both.

If the product key is wrong, all downstream data becomes wrong.

That is why product mapping should be one of the first things reviewed in an Amazon project.

The key takeaway

Integration is very much about APIs.

But sometimes the most important task is as mundane as:

“Do we agree on which item we are talking about?”

If the answer is not unambiguous across Amazon and Business Central, it should be resolved before the rest of the integration.

Get your Amazon and Business Central product mapping reviewed