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Comment by DanielN | Hacker News Reader

How would you streamline the shipping process?

It would seem that the next wave of movement to web services will be SAAS services that address larger business side services like shipping and piece-meal manufacturing, but I'm not sure how that is going to be done.

/thread-highjacking.

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Amazon does this. It works well from what I've heard.

http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon....

There's a full API:

https://developer.amazonservices.com/gp/mws/index.html/177-6...

Actually I tried this.

I sent Amazon one pack of candy and then shipped it through them to see how it would work and what it would cost. Had no trouble with the service itself, but it adds a slight cost for me since I have to ship to Amazon and then pay for shipping again.

I sold a pack of candy there for $9.90. After Amazon's fees I got $5.60. Someone bought it from Amazon.com instead of me dispatching it through the API, which would have cost more. The cost for me to buy that candy was $2.05 and shipping it to Amazon cost $4.20.

Of course in reality I would ship much larger amounts, but then there would be new fees too since I would need to clear customs and pay import taxes.

Also it seems we have to attach some kind of label with a bar code to each individual candy because they don't have a normal UPC code so that the Amazon system can deal with it. Biggest killers for me from using this is having to clear customs and that they won't send you the money for your sales unless you have a US bank account.

The barcode you mention links your specific merchant account to the physical product's UPC/ASIN in order to properly track your inventory. Amazon can also handle the labeling of the inbound inventory for an added fee.

(Disclaimer: I work for Amazon doing FBA Ops)

The checklist on the packing slip seems to indicate that I need to do something for each item: http://i.imgur.com/yyJXf.png

The first item is "ALL items are covered with the correct FBA stickers". So actually that is not necessary, and if I just buy a huge pack of candies and ship it to you with only this single packing slip on the big box containing many candies, then you can still sort things out?

If you are subscribed to the labeling service, absolutely. If not, the fulfillment center may do it as a courtesy. The most important issue is what the FC expects from your shipment. Any unplanned or unexpected prep activity will cause your items to be sidelined in order to continue the inbound process for all of the other shipments. If a massive shipment comes in that isn't labeled/labeled correctly the FC may elect to ship it back due to things like space considerations or man power needs to handle the prep.

Sorry for the delay in replying. Feel free to pm if you have any other questions.

Personally, I wouldn't because it's too specific to the particular goods being sold and thus can't easily be abstracted. Coffee is going to need to be handled v differently to candy or women's shoes.

I would offer a service up to the point of providing the labels and packing slips to the merchant and let them execute the fulfillment themselves.

My guess is that for most 'normal' people the website, payments and subscriber management aspect is the most difficult part of the operation to run so it seems best to focus there.

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