Entrepreneur mag April ‘08 issue (on the stands now) continues our story with a customer profile.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/ma.....91638.html

YouYap.com

If you want to compare Amz to something check out SHIPWIRE.

We even offer a free trail. Don’t need a credit card to try it. shipwire.com/trial

Pricing is straight forward and only. Starts at $30/month

We’ve had XML API’s for a long time for order submission, rates, tracking and inventory updates. Lots of carts have already integrated our APIs.

There is also integrations with PayPalbuy now buttons, eBay auctions, Google Checkout. All set up and ready to go.

We’ve got warehouses in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and UK (beta).

We have multiple warehouses so that merchants can save money and have faster order delivery by storing inventory closer to buyers. Using the whole network means 1-2 day delivery for the price of ground.

To see what multiple warehouses can do we released a new widget. Go to our pricing page and hover over the “shipping” section (little orange tab). A pop-up will expand that allows you to input your location and Shipwire will calculate how much you will save in time and money using multiple warehouses.

Jon
http://dreamclue.com … get the message!

Raza Imam
http://SoftwareSweatshop.com

Plus, most EDI transactions are made with terms. In that case the EDI transaction is just to convey payment information (as opposed to actual payment) verifying the transaction to give the vendor legal standing if the receiver doesn’t pay. Obviously this doesn’t do anything to solve that.

I’m obviously just getting hung up one barely relevant sentence but, if I’m right, I’d just hate for someone to go around saying this is some kind of EDI replacement when I don’t think its anywhere close.

(which isn’t to say it isn’t good for people who don’t need that kind of inventory control btw)

I know it’s their first release, but it doesn’t seem like the customer gets a ton of robust warehouse interface features you would expect from a 3PL. I read the release notes and it seems like pretty simple inbound (purchase orders) and outbound (customer shipment) requests. I quickly looked at the outbound APIs, and I don’t see how you can set bill to information on an order, just a shipping address (DestinationAddress)? Billing Info is kind of important for gift orders.

And what about returns? Maybe that is considered an inbound request, but they need to be handled differently since that inventory is usually inspected before it’s made available to sell.

Mom and Pop type operations don’t care too much about miscellaneous transactions (inventory adjustments due to cycle counts, damage, etc…), but most retailers need this type of feed, too. And how about inventory snapshots (ATP and not)?

I think amazon could do really well with this offering. Almost everyone in retail has had a nightmarish experience with a crummy distribution group!

You’re right. EDI blows. That said, EDI does include fulfillment and catalog, and yes, also frequently includes invoicing (and Amazon supports EDI here, too). It is data exchange for the supply chain. But it’s old world technology that remains because it was such a pain in the rear to set up in the first place. Even when parties are using the same version, there can be variation in its output. It’s barely human-readable.

If Amazon is opening up an API, that’s gotta be a plus. I must imagine that it will be more efficient than traditional EDI, which can take months to set up, and cost loads of money for two trading partners. Let’s hope they’re eliminating the VANs, too, and not charging their vendors those data conversion fees.

I guess all web businesses really do devolve into the same differentiators: customer acquisition and conversion rates.

This is truly innovative on their part. They have a great mind for finding opportunities by extending their internal resources to other businesses.

I sell media on amazon using their warehouse/shipping services, amazon takes a 20% cut out of my income before expenses. That pretty much leaves only a few items in which i can turn a profit.

Post Script. ebay sucks monkey D@#K