
Zinc – Order products with a few lines of code - FriedPickles
https://zinc.io
======
meritt
This fee structure (3-5%) will not work. Exactly why does Zinc need $50 to
process my HDTV order but only $0.15 for my banana slicer?

Funding has no transaction fees due to Dwolla transfers and Zinc is most
likely taking a cut from Amazon Affiliate program as well (which pays 5-15%
commissions depending on category)

Make it a fixed per-order fee.

~~~
FriedPickles
Thank you for your feedback. While we do not earn any commission on sales, we
are considering moving to a fixed-fee system.

I also want to point out that Zinc is free if you are placing fewer than 10
orders/month, which is most of our users.

~~~
meritt
Maybe I'm just having a tough time figuring out the use case for your free
tier, but if I make less than 10 orders/month, exactly why would I go to the
trouble of implementing an API?

~~~
siddboots
I'm guessing people that are just tinkering with the API for the fun of
automation. For example, I could use this to order new socks every few months.
Just because, yay, unexpected socks in the mail.

~~~
pine
It might be the case that people are just tinkering with this service for fun,
but the "yay, unexpected socks" use case seems like a solved problem with
Amazon Subscribe and Save lists
([http://www.amazon.com/Subscribe/b/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&...](http://www.amazon.com/Subscribe/b/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&node=979895011&pf_rd_i=subscribe%20and%20save&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=1542108682&pf_rd_r=2FB7714E2588456CAAE1&pf_rd_s=auto-
sparkle&pf_rd_t=301&tag=books07059-20)). To each their own, but I just don't
see myself reinventing the wheel with this API (not to mention paying an
additional 5%) to buy socks/paper towels, when Amazon has already done that
leg work for me.

I do, however, agree with meritt's sentiment above...zinc.io could be used to
create some valuable services for existing businesses (rewards programs, et
al), but as a user of this API, I think it'd be much more cost effective as a
fixed per-order fee structure.

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ceejayoz
As Amazon doesn't offer an API for this, how's it done? Scraping? Hordes of
low-wage folks filing orders manually? What's stopping Amazon from blocking
this?

~~~
infinitone
If its manually done... then this an example of how not to do automation.

~~~
SethMurphy
If done manually, it would also a great example of identifying a need before
building a product. As long as it looks automatic why would the API user care.

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FriedPickles
Thanks to everyone for your comments and feedback. As we shared on our site,
we've been automating ecommerce tasks for a while, but this is our first
attempt to open our tools up to the public--and we're learning.

We recognize that our current pricing might not make us suitable for all uses,
but we think it will work for enough applications to support us as we build
out a killer product.

We really appreciate your feedback as we work to improve what we view as a
very flawed ecommerce environment.

~~~
arbuge
Looks like a fascinating product. What do you envisage a typical use case to
be?

~~~
FriedPickles
We can't share all the specifics of what integrators are building, but some
are very clever and surprising. Some are automating business processes and
other are creating niche resale stores, but the most fun are the
creative/novelty uses we've seen.

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jdotjdot
How exactly do I identify the product I want to purchase? There can be many
slightly distinct versions of the same product on amazon. It sounds like I
would have to pre-select the products that my users would be purchasing,
because for them to search for what they want they'd have to use the amazon
website anyway.

I'm just having trouble seeing the value in this, except for the very specific
use case of regular, event-driven, identical, automatic orders (eg, I have my
lights hooked up to an intelligent system that notices that the bulb blows
out, so it then submits the pre-prepared order for the correct bulb via
zinc.io).

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johnnyg
I've been waiting for someone to build this for a while but wow, that's stiff
pricing.

~~~
jeffasinger
I'm surprised they're not able to give you money off on each order. Amazon
gives up to 8.5% of each order to affiliates (and at least 4%).

~~~
tc98103
I was thinking the same thing. Why isn't this a free service that collects an
affiliate fee instead. Seems like it would lower the barrier for adoption.

~~~
dangrossman
The end-user is not clicking through a referral link, going to the Amazon site
and making a purchase. How would Zinc earn the affiliate fee? If you're
suggesting they negotiate a custom referral arrangement with Amazon, that's
probably impossible at the MVP stage.

~~~
arbuge
They might be filling orders manually as some suggested. A Turker working for
Zinc.io and placing the orders via their affiliate links would do the trick.
No need for negotiations etc.

~~~
dangrossman
You can't refer yourself, else the program wouldn't work -- everyone would
sign up, everyone would click their own links, and Amazon would effectively
have dropped its prices across the board while adding a rebate-processing
overhead to every order. That's why program agreements virtually always
prohibit this.

~~~
arbuge
Amazon is careful about this with their affiliate program - but most other
retailers aren't in my experience.

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yangez
What's with all these startups taking so much design inspiration from Stripe?

[https://www.shirts.io/](https://www.shirts.io/)

[https://zinc.io/](https://zinc.io/)

~~~
jonknee
Stripe is a hit with developers because of their easy API and great
documentation. It's not a surprise that other "by techies for techies" API
startups are taking inspiration from a leader in the industry.

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jbrooksuk
Has anybody else noticed the similarities between this design and Stripe?

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VikingCoder
Why would you send "A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates" to
Norman Borlaug, the inventor of Dwarf Wheat? Is this some kind of hipster
pranking?

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rpicard
I can imagine a company using this to implement an employee incentive system
where employees can get any book from Amazon for free.

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brini
Front page needs an editorial review:

Zinc let's you build things... -> Zinc lets you build things...

(``let's'' = ``let us'')

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gadders
Nice to see a shout out to the great man that was Norman Borlaug in their
order.

And the book they chose looks like a fascinating read.

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dangerboysteve
the 3% and 5% fees seem like complete BS

~~~
yefim
I think they fill out the Amazon order forms manually so they're just trying
to recoup costs.

~~~
ozi
But what's stopping them from collecting the affiliate fee?

This narrows the use-cases for this quite a bit. Not only are they forcing you
to forgo collecting the fee yourself for somebody you referred to Amazon to
make a purchase (assuming this is a service/app you've created), you have to
pay _more_? So really, depending on the model, you'd have to mark up the
Amazon product ~10-13% just to cut even.

~~~
jonknee
Amazon Associate's TOS. You can't get affiliate fees for products you purchase
(technically they are still the purchasing agent--you even contact Zinc for a
return label).

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yefim
Why does `gift_ship` default to true?

~~~
Jake232
So the customer doesn't know the order came from amazon, or the true price of
the product?

I'm guessing this is aimed at resellers. They likely wouldn't want the end-
user knowing this info.

