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Connect to Amazon Business

This howto describes how to connect Storefront to Amazon Business. Connecting Storefront to Amazon Business is required even if you only use it as a headless system.

Prerequisites​

  • You have successfully set up your Amazon Business account (see step 1).
  • You have the credentials of your Amazon Business account (see step 2) at hand.
  • Your users have a matching user account (email address) on Amazon Business. For this howto, we only really need one user with an Amazon Business account.

Step 1: Create your Amazon Business account​

If you don't have an Amazon Business account already, you can sign up your organization here.

Signing up is free, however certain features of Amazon Business come with an additional price tag.

Step 2: Find Amazon Business credentials​

Once you've setup your account and logged in you can find all settings of on the homepage of your business account.

note

The actual links we use here are based on the US version of Amazon Business. If you use a different language and/or marketplace, the links may vary. Starting on business.amazon.com and finding your way up from there most likely brings you to the desired page.

Click on "Amazon Business settings→System integrations→Purchasing System" and you will end up on a page that describes the punchout connection to Amazon. On that page, you should see the following credentials:

  • "From Identity" in cXML
  • "Shared Secret" in cXML
  • Punchout URL
  • Purchase order request URL

Copy these credentials to a safe vault. You will need them later in this howto.

Step 3: Create a vendor for Amazon​

In this step, we will create a vendor for Amazon Business in Storefront.

note

Only administrators of your Storefront account have the permission to create vendors. So please ensure you have the right credentials to sign in to your Storefront account with a user in an administrative role.

  • Sign in as an administrator into your Storefront installation
  • Go to Administration→Vendors and click New
  • Enter a vendor name, e.g. "Amazon" or "Amazon Business"
  • Click "Create"

We now have a vendor that we can use to finally create a connection to Amazon Business.

Step 4: Create and connect Amazon catalog​

After setting up the vendor, we need to establish the connection to Amazon Business. We do this by means of a catalog.

  • Sign in as an administrator into your Storefront installation
  • Go to Administration→Catalogs and click New
  • Create a catalog "Amazon Business" of type "Amazon".
  • Mark the catalog as "Active"
  • Pick the right region. Amazon only supports a limited set of regions: DE, FR, ES, IT, UK, US, CA, and JA.
  • Pick a sensible language, e.g. for region DE pick German.
  • Enter the "From Identity" in cXML as Identity and the "Shared Secret" in cXML as Shared Secret from the secrets that we saved in step 2
  • Click "Create"

We now have created a catalog capable of being used to purchase products on Amazon Business through Storefront. However, Amazon wants us to proceed with a final step to confirm the connection.

  • Go to Administration→Catalogs and click the catalog we just created
  • Click the "Connect with Amazon Business" button with the Amazon logo right next to it.
  • You will be forwarded to a page to sign in to your Amazon Business account. You need to sign in with your administrative Amazon Business account user.
  • Follow the steps through. On the final page, Amazon will redirect you back to the Storefront administration. The connection is successful if the catalog states that the "Catalog is successfully connected to your Amazon Business account". You can re-connect at any time.
caution

There are a number of things that can go wrong when trying to connect your Storefront with Amazon Business. Make sure to connect with an account that has proper permissions to connect. Also make sure that you sign into Amazon with your business account, not your private account; only business accounts can be connected. Finally, also make sure that the region you selected for the Amazon Business catalog matches the region that you've chosen for your Amazon Business account.

Finally, a few notes on Amazon Business catalogs. While you can have multiple Amazon catalogs it doesn't make much sense to connect multiple Amazon Business accounts to a single tenant as a tenant in Storefront is meant to be used in a single region.

Make sure you pick the right region. Amazon Business only supports a limited set of regions, as of now they are: DE, FR, ES, IT, UK, US, CA, and JA. Also pick a sensible language, e.g. for region DE you should pick German.

Step 5: Add the Amazon catalog to a view​

Catalogs of type "Amazon" can be added to a view just like any other catalog, e.g. those for local content. By doing so, you can manage which users have access to Amazon Business for purchasing. Adding a catalog to a view simply makes "Amazon Business" available to users with access to the view.

  • Sign in to Storefront as an administrator
  • Go to Administration→Views and select a view
  • Tick off the newly created "Amazon Business" catalog

Step 6: Search on Amazon​

If you have access to the newly created "Amazon Business" catalog through your view, you can finally start searching and purchasing on Amazon. To do so, do:

  • Go to the landing page
  • Enter a search query, e.g. "iphone"
  • You will see two tabs, one for the results from your local catalogs and another with results from Amazon
  • Click the "Amazon" tab
  • Click the first result
  • You will see results from Amazon, including all offers available.
  • Click "Go to Amazon" to open Amazon, put the item in the shopping cart, and return the cart from Amazon. The process ends with the item from Amazon in the shopping cart on Storefront.
note

If you do not see the "Amazon" tab in the search results, there are two possible reasons why you can't see them:

  1. Double-check that the newly created catalog of type "Amazon" is available in the view of your currently signed-in user.
  2. The connection to Amazon was not successfully established.
note

If you see an "Amazon" tab in the search results but you instead of results you'll see a message stating that you don't have an Amazon user account, make sure to create a work account on Amazon (as described in the message) with the exact email address that you use in Storefront.