I would like to sell stuff via amazon fulfilment where you send all the stuff to an amazon warehouse it then gets uploaded on to their website and hopefully sells. My question is regarding Shabbos you can not switch of your stuff from the website once it is on (unlike if you have your own ebay shop or if you are selling it yourself on amazon) if so is this a problem of selling on shabbos? I will point out that you only receive the money from sales in to your bank account once every seven to fourteen days not straight away unlike ebay (but this could work out to be on a shabbos possibly) Thank you very much Y Gross
Answer:
This is not a problem in halachah, and it is permitted to sell via Amazon, even if the item might be sold on Shabbos.
Under certain circumstances, the Sages permit making a sale on Shabbos, and the money from such a sale is permitted, and not sechar Shabbos.
The problem will selling on Shabbos is that usually, it is not permitted to engage in commerce on Shabbos. In this case, you are not of course engaging in any commerce, and therefore there is no prohibition. As for the money, no prohibition will apply (which is why it is permitted to operate a slot machine even if it works on Shabbos).
Please see here for more details.
Best wishes.
There is another question regarding selling on Amazon. Amazon requires sellers to respond to customer emails within a 24 hour period. This can potentially create a problem every shabbos, and even more so when yom tov falls out beore or after shabbos, sometimes creating more than a three day delay in responding to messages. Is there any solution to this by employing a goy to respond to messages? I was told by a Rabbi that even if I were to employ a goy to respond the entire week and would give him a commision for every response it would still be prohbited. I assume the reason for this is, that once hiring him to respond within the 24 hour time frame, it is considred that I hired him for responding to a message that comes in right after kabolas shabbos – on shabbos, since he has to respond to the message on shabbos. Therefore I would like to know if there is any workable solution in accordance with halacha?
Could you create an automatic response, saying you will respond in another 24-48 hours, is that sufficient for Amazon? The automatic response going out in Shabbos is not a problem.
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