Warehouse Management Software 3PL

I’ve been doing just about all of my Christmas shopping online. Orders I have placed have been mainly from Amazon and Walmart. When I order from Amazon, I prefer to order new items from Amazon themselves. They sell a lot of items from third party retailers. Sometimes the price is a little cheaper. I picked up a Star Wars Clone Trooper laptop for my seven year old for $26 through a third party retailer. Normally it sells for around $40. It was too good of a deal to pass up. I know my Star Wars fan will like it, so I took a chance and bought it from a third party dealer.
A few things to note when ordering from Amazon. If the description says “Ships from and sold by xxxxxx”, the third party retailer sells and ships the item. They are just using Amazon as a platform to sell their product. If the description says “Sold by xxxxxx and Fulfilled by Amazon”, the third party retailer sells the item, but has Amazon ship it. They have shipped the item to Amazon, who stores it for the third party in their warehouse. I discovered that when I clicked on the ‘have one to sell’ button.
I went through the process of listing an item, but didn’t submit it. It seems like Amazon charges pretty high fees. I think you pay less fees selling on ebay. Amazon takes out .99 per item sold, a referral fee which is a percentage of the sale price based on what the item is, and a variable closing fee which is based on the referral fee. If I sell an item for $27, I will end up with $26.63 minus what it will cost me to ship the item. In the end what you make turns out to be slightly less than the sale price, plus whatever it costs you for shipping.
With their own inventory and inventory from third party retailers, Amazon must have quite a system of storing items. I’ve ordered from them for years and have only had one order with a problem. They sent the right item, but the wrong invoice. They must have some sort of warehouse management software that they use to keep track of all the inventory. One such third party logistics software is from a company called 3pl. They provide web-based warehouse management software to companies to help them run more efficiently. Since it is web-based, there are no installation fees, no software upgrades, no new hardware and no consultants. The software helps provide customers with real time information. Profits are increased thanks to the automated process. Billing is more accurate. The 3pl software costs less than $500 per month. You can pay for what you use with no long-term contracts. You can also add and inactivate customers and warehouses as needed. The software can be customized to use your company logo.
Even though I will be sticking with ebay for selling, I still prefer to buy from Amazon.