Amazon has added a new service to help online sellers fulfill goods: the Amazon Fulfillment Web Service (Amazon FWS) allows merchants to tap in to Amazon's network of fulfillment centers and expertise in logistics. Amazon FWS builds on the company's existing Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service by adding "programmatic access" to the fulfillment process.
There are two sets of APIs. The Inbound service gives merchants the ability to create and send shipments to an Amazon fulfillment center (FC). The getInboundShipmentPreview function is used to locate one or more Amazon FCs to receive a particular product. The putInboundShipment function is used to inform Amazon that the merchant will be shipping the product to the indicated FCs. Once the products have been shipped, the setInboundShipmentStatus function is used to inform Amazon that the product is actually on its way.
The Outbound service gives merchants the ability to ship products from Amazon FCs to their customers. This service revolves around the concept of a fulfillment order. The order contains a destination address, a shipping speed, and a list of item/quantity pairs to be shipped. The createFulfillmentOrder function is used to initiate the shipping process. There are also functions for listing all orders, canceling orders, and getting the status of an order.
Amazon has added a new service to help online sellers fulfill goods: the Amazon Fulfillment Web Service (Amazon FWS) allows merchants to tap in to Amazon's network of fulfillment centers and expertise in logistics. Amazon FWS builds on the company's existing Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service by adding "programmatic access" to the fulfillment process.
