Last week Amazon announced a new web service called FWS (Fulfillment Web Service). FWS is an add-on to Amazon’s existing fulfillment system which allows any developer to interface directly with Amazon’s inventory management system using open APIs. This service allows you to programmatically print shipping labels for your inventory which you then send to Amazon. They store it until your app issues a shipment request at which point your web service call causes some human (or perhaps a robot) to pick and pack your product and then ship it out to your customer.