Amazon is the most successful e-commerce business in the world, and if you’re serious about selling online you have to consider it as a sales channel.
As one of the 6 million third-party sellers using Amazon’s marketplace, you’ll need to manage several areas of e-commerce operations including:
- Inventory management
- Pay-per-click advertising
- Customer support
- Expense tracking
Most Amazon sellers use spreadsheets like Excel or Google Sheets to create dashboards that help them effectively run their business. Google Sheets in particular is a great choice, because it allows you to collaboratively work with your team whether they are in the same room or halfway across the world.
Why Integrate Amazon Seller Central With Google Sheets?
A major pain point for Amazon sellers using Google Sheets is getting reliable, up-to-date data into their spreadsheets. Amazon provides hundreds of reports, all of which have to be requested and downloaded individually.
If you’re going to be creating a dashboard for inventory management, for example, you’ll need to export and download reports for FBA inventory, orders, and returns. Then you’ll upload each report into your Google Sheet. Within a few days, this data will be stale and you’ll need to repeat the process.
That’s why many sellers turn toward software products that allow them to automatically sync Amazon Seller Central data directly into Google Sheets.
Can you Sync your Amazon Sales Data to Google Sheets?
Yes. Synchronize.com is a tool that allows you to use your Amazon data in Google Sheets. It was developed by a group of e-commerce sellers with tens of millions in combined sales and integrates with sources like Shopify, Facebook Ads, and you guessed it: Amazon.
To set up Synchronize and sync Amazon to Google Sheets, first create an account. Then add your Amazon Seller Central storefront as an integration:
As soon as your integration is connected, your historical order and inventory data will start to sync. Then head over to the Google Workspace Marketplace and download the Google Sheets Add-on.
Once your integration is connected, initial data is synced, and you have the add-on installed you are ready to use your Amazon data directly in Google Sheets. Your spreadsheets will now be powered up with custom functions like this:
The functions from Synchronize update daily, so you’ll always be working with data that is fresh and reliable. If you’re trying to automate or manage parts of your Amazon e-commerce business in Google Sheets, it’s a very useful tool.
Why Would you Want to Sync your Seller Data to Google Sheets?
Many developers are creating business intelligence software to help small and medium-sized enterprises make better decisions. These applications can help business owners gather data, analyze it, and then transform their findings into business insights. This can help with making data-driven decisions and improving processes throughout a business.
Areas that syncing Amazon sales data can help with include:
- Inventory management
- Stock control
- Data analysis
- Historic sales data
- Reduce costs
- Increase profits
Inventory Management and Stock Control
If you are using multiple sales channels, it can be tricky to keep your inventory data accurate. Having a way to import data from all channels to Google Sheets means you have everything in one place.
As a small online retailer, you need to have stock to meet demand or risk losing not only sales but customers. Retaining customers can be more profitable than finding new ones.
Current and Historic Sales Data
This can help you to understand customer trends, and what products may be falling out of fashion. This can help with promotions, culling lines, and altering prices and stock levels.
Cost Control and Cash Flow
The Business Bank of Canada published an article on the impact of inventory on profitability. It was noted in this article that every $1 of surplus stock held by a business helps to generate up to 30% of additional costs.
Having too much inventory also reduces cash flow as more liquid assets are tied up in unsold products. Cash flow is critical for any business, and even more so for smaller businesses.
Syncing data to Google Sheets with the right tool can also help to analyze sales campaigns and expenditures through Google Ads and Facebook ads. Without this type of data analysis, there is no way to effectively judge ROI on your advertising.
Summary
For those third-party sellers who are just setting up shop on Amazon, it could be time to broaden your digital skills. You’ll need some basic spreadsheet skills to build e-commerce dashboards in Google Sheets, but once you’ve got them set up they are sure to help you run your business effectively.
By importing your Amazon sales data along with current inventory figures into Google Sheets you can keep on top of many areas of your business. There are some complex systems such as ERPs for monitoring and analyzing inventory and shipping data. But, unless you are making tens of millions a year, it may be better to stick to simpler reporting systems like spreadsheets.
Syncing Amazon data to Google Sheets can help to provide better customer service, reduce costs, and hopefully improve sales through better inventory management.