Forthcast works with Amazon Seller Central

Direct answer: Forthcast connects to Amazon Seller Central to pull in your Amazon sales data alongside Shopify, so you can forecast demand across both channels in one place. This means your purchase orders reflect your complete sales volume, not just what's happening on Shopify.

Selling on multiple channels creates a forecasting problem. When your inventory planning only sees Shopify sales, you're missing half the picture. Amazon orders don't show up in your demand calculations, so you end up ordering too little stock or relying on spreadsheets to manually combine the data.

Forthcast solves this by connecting directly to Amazon Seller Central. Your Amazon sales flow into the same forecasting engine as your Shopify data, giving you accurate demand predictions that account for every sale you make.

How it works

1. Connect your Amazon Seller Central account to Forthcast using secure API credentials.
2. Forthcast pulls your historical Amazon sales data into the platform, matching products across channels where applicable.
3. The forecasting engine analyzes sales patterns from both Shopify and Amazon to calculate future demand for each product.
4. Purchase order recommendations reflect your total sales volume across both channels, so you order the right amount of inventory.

Why merchants use Forthcast with Amazon Seller Central

• See complete demand in one dashboard. You don't need to toggle between platforms or export CSV files to understand what's selling. All your sales data lives in one place, with forecasts that account for every channel.
• Order the right inventory quantities. When you only forecast based on Shopify sales, you're missing the Amazon volume that eats into the same inventory pool. With both channels connected, your purchase orders match your actual demand.
• Stop maintaining manual spreadsheets. Combining data from multiple sources by hand takes hours and introduces errors. The integration handles the data sync automatically, so you can focus on making decisions instead of compiling numbers.
• Identify which products drive sales on each channel. Some items perform better on Amazon while others sell faster through Shopify. When you see the sales breakdown by channel, you can adjust your strategy and stock levels accordingly.

Frequently asked questions

How long does initial setup take?

Connecting Amazon Seller Central typically takes 5-10 minutes. You'll need your Amazon MWS credentials or access to authorize the connection through Amazon's SP-API. Once connected, Forthcast begins importing your historical sales data, which processes in the background and is usually complete within a few hours depending on your sales volume.

How often does sales data sync from Amazon?

Amazon sales data syncs automatically every 24 hours. This keeps your forecasts current without requiring manual imports. If you need to see the latest data before the scheduled sync, you can trigger a manual refresh from the integration settings.

What happens if my Amazon connection gets disconnected?

If the connection to Amazon Seller Central is interrupted, Forthcast will alert you via email and in-app notification. Your existing Amazon data remains in the system, and forecasts continue using the last synced information. Once you reconnect, the integration automatically backfills any missing sales data from the period when the connection was down.

Do I need a specific Amazon Seller Central plan?

The integration works with Amazon Professional Seller accounts. Individual Seller accounts don't have API access, so they can't connect to third-party apps like Forthcast. You also need active MWS credentials or SP-API authorization, which you can set up through your Amazon Seller Central settings.

What if I sell the same product under different SKUs on Amazon and Shopify?

Forthcast lets you map Amazon SKUs to their corresponding Shopify SKUs, so sales from both channels count toward the same product's demand forecast. This is common when merchants use channel-specific SKU naming conventions. You can set up these mappings in the product settings, and the system will treat them as a single inventory item when generating forecasts and purchase order recommendations.