Straight answers.

What is Hopper?

Hopper is a web-based tool that connects to your Amazon and Walmart seller accounts and gives sellers and 3PLs the ability to print FBA, AWD (Amazon Warehousing & Distribution) and WFS shipping labels in real time, straight from a scan at the packing table. It eliminates the Where's Waldo label search.

Every box in those shipments needs its own exact shipping label. Get it wrong and shipments can be rejected, fined, or lost.

Hopper is the software at your packing table. Your team scans whatever barcode is already on a packed box, Hopper matches that scan against the shipment you are actually packing to work out which shipment box it is, and prints that box's exact label, in under 2 seconds. Exact match, or the scan stops.

It covers the whole floor job around that: which boxes are done, which are not, who packed what, what printed and when, and loading the truck at the end.

Who is Hopper for?

Sellers and 3PLs that ship inventory into Amazon FBA, Amazon AWD, or Walmart WFS. If your floor prints marketplace box labels at a packing table, Hopper is built for you.

That covers a brand prepping its own shipments on one station, a prep center running a crew across several stations, and a 3PL labeling client-packed cartons for many seller accounts. Same product, same scan, same print — sized by plan, not by seat.

How fast is it?

Under 2 seconds from the scan to the printed label. The scan resolves the box, Hopper confirms the match, and the label comes out of the station printer while the packer is still holding the box.

That is the time from scan to printed label. It is not a claim about how long it takes to pack a box — Hopper does not decide what goes into a box, and it does not pack it.

What is the Station App?

A small Windows program that turns a matched scan into a label on an exact printer.

The normal setup is one Windows PC running the Station App with every warehouse printer installed on it. A dedicated bench is the same setup with one printer enabled. Both use the same app and the same routing model.

Why does it exist? Why not just print from the browser?

Because browsers cannot print a label properly. A browser can open a print dialog; it cannot send a label straight to a specific thermal printer, at the right size, with nobody clicking anything.

The Station App can. That is the difference between a label appearing and a packer stopping to deal with a dialog on every box.

Is Hopper an inventory or warehouse management system?

No. Hopper does not hold your inventory counts, manage bin locations, or replace a WMS. It is the execution layer at the packing station and the dock.

Does Hopper buy, sell, or ship anything for me?

No. Hopper does not create orders, negotiate rates, buy postage, or move freight. It prepares and labels your boxes and records what happened.

Does Hopper change anything in my seller account?

No. Hopper reads from your marketplace account — shipments, items, and the labels the marketplace generates. It does not create, edit, or cancel orders, and it does not change your listings or your inventory numbers.

Everything Hopper needs, it asks for. Nothing it does writes back.

Amazon FBA

Supported. You connect your Amazon seller account yourself from inside Hopper — sign in with Amazon, approve the access, done. Hopper pulls your inbound shipments and the box labels Amazon generates for them.

Amazon AWD (Warehousing & Distribution)

Supported, through the same connection as FBA. AWD uses a different label and a different identifier on the box, and Hopper handles that difference for you — your crew scans and prints exactly the way they do for FBA.

Walmart WFS

Supported and live. Walmart is not a one-click connection: you need a Walmart developer profile and developer keys (a client ID and client secret), which you enter inside Hopper. A step-by-step how-to for obtaining them is coming. Hopper then pulls your WFS inbound shipments and labels alongside Amazon.

Can I run more than one marketplace?

Yes on a paid plan. The free trial is limited to one marketplace so the trial stays simple — see the trial section below.

What is an alias?

An alias is any code that points at the same product. A UPC, a GTIN, an ASIN, an FNSKU, a seller SKU, or your own internal part number — different codes, one item.

That is what lets your crew scan whatever is physically on the box instead of hunting for the “right” sticker. Hopper already knows those codes belong to the same thing.

If you prep for more than one seller, an alias can be kept to a single client or shared across your whole account.

Where do aliases come from?

Most of them come from your marketplace account — Hopper picks up the identifiers the marketplace already holds for each product when it syncs.

You can add your own, and codes seen at the station can be put forward for you to confirm. Nothing is treated as a known code until someone approves it.

What is the optional upload?

If you hold product data the marketplace does not carry — your own part numbers, case-pack information — you can upload it as a spreadsheet. CSV or XLSX.

It is optional. Hopper works without it; the upload is there for the details only you have.

Uploads are preview-then-commit. You see exactly what would be created or changed, row by row, before anything is written.

What is Loading / TMS?

The second half of the job. Labeling a box is not the end of it — the box has to get onto a pallet, the pallet onto a truck, and the truck out of the yard with the right paperwork. Loading / TMS is that half.

Together with the packing station it closes the chain of custody: from the moment a box is scanned at packout to the moment the truck pulls away, every box has a recorded place.

How do pallets work?

As you pack a shipment, boxes are scanned onto a pallet. That means you always know which box is on which pallet — not from a clipboard, from the scan itself.

You are not asked to do a separate palletizing pass. It happens while the shipment is being processed, at the same station, by the same person.

Is there a screen for trucks?

Yes, its own. Trucks are checked in when they arrive and checked out when they leave, on a screen built for the dock rather than a corner of the packing screen.

What about the bill of lading?

For Amazon, Hopper fetches it for you. When a BOL is available for a shipment, Hopper pulls it in rather than making somebody go and find it, and it is there against the load when you need it.

You can also attach one yourself if the paperwork came from somewhere else.

Which plans include it?

Loading / TMS is included from Prep Plus up — that is Prep Plus and the Site license. The smaller plans cover the packing station itself.

How many users do I get?

Unlimited. Invite your whole crew — packers, supervisors, the office. Hopper does not charge per seat and there is no user limit on any plan.

Then what am I paying for?

Label volume, marketplace-account capacity, and the modules your building needs — not seats, Station App installs, or printers.

Every paid plan can run one shared Station App or one per bench. Mobile scanning on handhelds is included only with the Site license; it is not sold as an add-on.

Can I control what people can do?

Yes. People have roles, and stations have their own sessions, so you can tell who packed a box and at which station without giving everyone the same access.

What do I get?

3 complete shipments, free, with no credit card. Not a demo and not sample data — your own shipments, your own boxes, your own printer.

Full feature access on one marketplace: Amazon or Walmart. You pick which when you connect.

Why only one marketplace?

So the trial is a fair test of the thing you actually do, without asking you to set up two integrations before you know whether you like it. The first marketplace you connect is the one the trial runs on.

What counts as a shipment?

One shipment is one shipment as your marketplace defines it — however many boxes are in it. A shipment counts once you start packing it, and finishing it does not cost you a second one.

What happens when the trial ends?

Nothing disappears and nothing is deleted. Hopper stops you starting a NEW shipment and asks you to pick a plan. A shipment already open on the station finishes normally — the box on the scanner always finishes.

Your data stays where it is. Pick a plan whenever you are ready and carry straight on.

Do I have to pick a plan up front?

No. You start the trial without choosing anything and without a card. You choose a plan from inside Hopper once you have used it.

What is a label?

One label printed for one box. That is the unit Hopper counts, because it is the unit of work — one box, one label, one slot.

How many do I get?

Every building has its own included label allowance per month. Starter includes 10,000 labels; Site License is unlimited. On the three smaller plans, labels beyond the allowance are billed separately. The full table is on the pricing page.

Am I charged extra if I go over?

On the three smaller plans, yes. Labels beyond your building’s included allowance use the rate shown on your plan: 4¢ on Starter, 3.75¢ on Prep, 3.5¢ on Prep Plus. Site License is unlimited, no overage. Reprints are excluded.

So what happens when I reach it?

Your plan keeps printing; the additional labels are billed at your plan's rate. Review your usage in Settings and compare plans when a higher allowance or more features would be a better fit.

It does not upgrade you quietly. Somebody with the authority to spend money has to say yes — you will never find out you changed plans by reading an invoice.

Does work stop dead?

No. Going past the included label allowance does not stop an active plan; the extra labels are billed at your plan's rate. Payment and account status still govern access. An upgrade keeps the current billing period and everything already processed.

Do I need a call with sales to start?

No. Hopper is built so you don't need one: create the account, connect your marketplace, add a station, run the free trial, and pick a plan when you're ready. If you'd rather talk first — a multi-building setup, or you just want to see it before you start — book a 30-minute review. It is there if you want it, not required.

Do I need special hardware?

No. Hopper works with the label printers and barcode scanners you already have. A station is a computer and a label printer.

What is the mobile application? (Site only)

Hopper's mobile application runs on a PDA — a rugged Android handheld scanner your crew carries instead of standing at a fixed station.

With mobile scanning, the same pack-and-print workflow runs on that handheld, so someone can work down an aisle or at the dock rather than carrying every box back to a station. It is the same Hopper, on a smaller screen — nothing about how a scan is checked changes.

Included with the Site license, and only that plan.

What about my existing barcodes?

Scan whatever is on the box. UPC, GTIN, ASIN, or your own part numbers — Hopper resolves the barcode that is physically there to the right shipment box, so nobody has to relabel anything first.

What if a scan does not match?

The scan stops and nothing prints. The exception is recorded and shows up on the floor view, so a supervisor can deal with it instead of a wrong label going out the door.