Method and apparatus for hierarchical inbound shipment order configuration

A method for configuring a hierarchical inbound shipment order, comprising:

• receiving, at an interactive hierarchical inbound shipment order configuration tool of an order fulfillment server, input from a merchant to configure the hierarchical inbound shipment order which corresponds to a hierarchical inbound shipment to a warehouse, the hierarchical inbound shipment order including a product level and a plurality of container levels;
• the interactive hierarchical inbound shipment order configuration tool configuring the hierarchical inbound shipment order by performing at least the following operations:
• including, via receipt of merchant input, one or more product type objects in the product level, wherein each product type object represents a physical product type in the hierarchical inbound shipment, including, via receipt of merchant input, one or more container objects in each of the plurality of container levels, wherein each container object represents a set of one or more physical containers in the hierarchical inbound shipment,
• associating, via receipt of merchant input, each of the one or more product type objects with one or more container objects at a lowest one of the plurality of container levels of the hierarchical inbound shipment order, wherein each association between one of the product type objects to one of the container objects at the lowest level represents an amount of the physical product type per the set of physical containers represented by that product type object and that container object respectively,
• for each of the plurality of container levels with an exception of a highest one of the plurality of container levels of the hierarchical inbound shipment order, associating, via receipt of merchant input, each container object at that container level to a container object at a higher one of the plurality of container levels of the hierarchical inbound shipment order, wherein each association between container objects represents an amount of the set of physical containers represented by the container object at that container level per the set of physical containers represented by the container object at the higher one of the plurality of container level, and
• marking, via receipt of merchant input, one or more of the plurality of container objects as representing one or more shippable container packages, wherein each shippable container package is a physical container that will potentially be shipped to a customer without a modification of the contents of that physical container;
• automatically generating a packing list for the warehouse based on the configured hierarchical inbound shipment order, the packing list including a listing of one or more of the physical containers that are shippable packages;
• and
• communicating the packing list to the warehouse.