Please help me.
I need to know the number of hours it would take the average programmer to integrate the Amazon API into the average website.
We want to synch our inventory on our website with our Amazon web store.
I need to know if my developer is telling me the truth or not about the amount of hours to complete this task.
Thank you so much.
Brian…
Edited by: ShopBakersNook on Feb 10, 2015 5:20 AM
Average ? I don’t know there is such … or anyone here who would say XXX hours. Maybe I’m wrong on that but I never would. It’s all up to how much they understand the APIs and which they need.
> We want to synch our inventory on our website with our Amazon web store.
> I need to know if my developer is telling me the truth or not about the amount of hours to complete this task.
Better to post what they told you and ask if that sounds reasonable …
Overall that sounds reasonable to me … but an out-of-the-box solution might be cheaper. Offhand none come to mind but you can search the net.
Also … I should have asked if :
Site integration requires more than just Feeds … At a minimum you’ll need Feeds and Reports.
Here is the project We asking to be done.
http://docs.developer.amazonservices.com/en_US/feeds/Feeds_Overview.html
They use Amazon Hosting as part of their service SO I assume they are familiar with MWS already.
I will not give them our keys that is for sure.
The time the developer mentions is reasonable because they have to do all the plumbing work. They have to integrate with the API, write the upload and download code, handle errors, create batch programs that will run on a schedule, and probably more. All of this takes time and likely there will be surprises that will increase the amount of time it will take.
If you work with someone who already has all of this “plumbing” code in place, then they just have to bill you for the time it takes to do the integration work. They will already have all the basics in place. This is the first thing I talk about when discussing a project with a seller. Not to mention that if the developer has never worked with MWS before, they may struggle with issues that someone here has dealt with long ago.
Often a client who wants something like this done looks at the number of hours it will take to code when you may need to be more concerned with what it is costing you per hour. The questions you should be asking are 'Is it reasonable for my developer to charge me $X an hour for adding content. $Y for adding functionality and $Z for user and database interaction. Make sure you are getting charged a fair price but ALSO make sure and PAY a fair price. Yes this upgrade to your site might be expensive upfront, but I am going to guess that the reason you want it done is because it is either going to increase your revenue or decrease your operating costs and over the next 5 years how does that number stack up against the cost of having it done? If you still have concerns over the cost of the upgrade after that comparison you may want to re-evaluate your need for it.