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Do you already have experience with warehousing and fulfillment? That would seem like the hardest part to manage. You'll have to charge people a monthly fee t

by byoung2 16y ago

Do you already have experience with warehousing and fulfillment? That would seem like the hardest part to manage. You'll have to charge people a monthly fee to store their items, so work that into your pricing. Also look at Fulfillment by Amazon to see if that is cheaper or easier to manage. I know companies who have looked for services like these so I know there is at least a niche market. Another service you could offer is managing exhibit pieces for trade shows, though the problem with those is the setup and teardown, not so much storage.

route3 16y ago
I honestly have no experience with warehousing and fulfillment, but the inner hacker in me loves to think of cool applications for barcode scanners, sensors, some nifty Arduino/RFID projects, reporting and even "Smart Promo Distribution" where you could warned that the ZIP code you're about to send that Red Lobster gift card doesn't have a Red Lobster location within 50 miles You're right through...cool hacks aside, the physical act of retrieving an item from inventory, packaging, labeling and shipping has its own drawbacks. Storage fees are fair, I think. Think of the value: before even paying the cost to the carrier (USPS/UPS/FedEx) you've invested time and money in to that label printer that never works right, consumables such as ink/paper/packaging, your time packing these promotional items and God forbid you run out to get coffee when the UPS guy swings around to pick up! On a small, manageable scale, it sounds like an awesome operation for a programmer/tinkerer.
- byoung2 16y ago
  It looks like Amazon has an API for their fulfillment service: http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller/fba/fulfillment-by-amazon.html http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller/fba/fulfillment-by-amazon.ht... and http://aws.amazon.com/fws/ http://aws.amazon.com/fws/ could work as the foundation for your application. Your API could sit on top of Amazon's the way Crowdflower sits on top of Amazon Mechanical Turk.

by byoung2 16y ago

route3 16y ago

I honestly have no experience with warehousing and fulfillment, but the inner hacker in me loves to think of cool applications for barcode scanners, sensors, some nifty Arduino/RFID projects, reporting and even "Smart Promo Distribution" where you could warned that the ZIP code you're about to send that Red Lobster gift card doesn't have a Red Lobster location within 50 miles You're right through...cool hacks aside, the physical act of retrieving an item from inventory, packaging, labeling and shipping has its own drawbacks. Storage fees are fair, I think. Think of the value: before even paying the cost to the carrier (USPS/UPS/FedEx) you've invested time and money in to that label printer that never works right, consumables such as ink/paper/packaging, your time packing these promotional items and God forbid you run out to get coffee when the UPS guy swings around to pick up! On a small, manageable scale, it sounds like an awesome operation for a programmer/tinkerer.

byoung2 16y ago
It looks like Amazon has an API for their fulfillment service: http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller/fba/fulfillment-by-amazon.html http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller/fba/fulfillment-by-amazon.ht... and http://aws.amazon.com/fws/ http://aws.amazon.com/fws/ could work as the foundation for your application. Your API could sit on top of Amazon's the way Crowdflower sits on top of Amazon Mechanical Turk.