Automated Marketplace Demand Generation and Re-pricing Technology Solution

1. www.sigmainfo.net
Improved Profit Margin per Sale for an Online
Retailer of Video Games through Automated
Marketplace Demand Generation and Re-pricing
Technology Solution

2. The Client
The client is an online retailer of video games for all major platforms
ranging from PC, Nintendo, Wii, Xbox to Playstation 3 and PSP.
Business Case
The client retails video games on popular marketplaces like Amazon
and eBay. They source games from multiple vendors and push it to
these market places. The client wanted an automated system that
could aggregate:
1. Cost versus game information from different suppliers
2. Demand of all games on the two marketplaces
Using this information, the system would run a cost-benefit analysis
and opportunity rank analysis to recommend the best price for
each game. They further wanted to build on this data to automate
game ordering process which could be further integrated with their
inventory management system.
Also, in order to ensure the price-freshness of each game listed,
the client wanted a system to check for various trends on each
marketplace for each game and then automatically reprice them for
optimized sales. With this vision, the client partnered with Sigma
Infosolutions.
Challenges
The wholesale games suppliers send information in different formats
ranging from pdf to .XLS.Also, the format in which each supplier sends
information varies from time to time. Therefore, due to the lack of
standardization, tracing the origin of the document to debug an issue
took a lot of time. However, this never crippled Sigma Infosolutions
to roll out functionalities as per the schedule and budget.
The system interfaces with Amazon and eBay in order to build
intelligence on each game. Therefore, it was a challenge for Sigma
Infosolutions’ team to build a system which could work seamlessly
with Amazon and eBay APIs even while they were undergoing version
upgrades.
Executive Summary
The client is an online
retailer of video games for all
major platforms ranging from
PC, Nintendo, Wii, Xbox to
Playstation 3 and PSP. They
source these games from
wholesalegamessuppliersand
then retail them on Amazon
and eBay market places. The
client wanted to leverage
the wealth of information
provided by these market
places and games suppliers
to build market intelligence
to improve profitability per
game without compromising
on the sales numbers.
Sigma Infosolutions leveraged
its expertise in areas like
web technology, analytics,
and intelligence to build a
technology solution. The
solution would automate data
aggregation from distributed
and disparate applications
and build unprecedented
analytical information to
drive informed business
decisions.
sales@sigmainfo.net

3. Repricer application
The Solution
The client selected Sigma Infosolutions for its in-depth experience
in web technologies and retail domain. The team provided its
expertise on building specifications, new application development,
and testing.
Following are the key applications developed to facilitate the kind of
automation envisioned by the client:
1. Supplier aggregations: The application automates the weekly/
monthly data aggregation process from multiple wholesale
game suppliers to gain visibility into each supplier and the
games they provide at the best cost.
2. Marketplace demand generation: An analytics system that
provides unprecedented visibility into opportunity, margins,
pricing, competition, and popularity associated with each
game that is to be listed on Amazon and eBay. Based on these
Technology
Sigma Infosolutions used the
following technology for this
project:
• Python 2.5.2
• Django 1.2.1 with other
plug-ins
• LXML and BeautifulSoup
parsers, XLS parsers
• Mysql DB 5.0
www.sigmainfo.net
The whole engagement with the client was carried out without an
onsitepresence ofSigmaInfosolutionsteam.Theteam wasinteracting
with the client’s CTO, who was the guiding force behind this project
but was traveling quite often. Hence, it was a challenging task to
coordinate with the CTO. This also made collating and documenting
inputs at various stages of the engagement quite an uphill task.

4. parameters the engine also recommends the best price for
each game to ensure maximum profitability and sales.
3. Automated order management: Based on the analysis derived
from both supplier aggregation and market demand generation
systems this application automates the games ordering
process. It generates an order receipt and then notifies the
client which games in how much quantity are being ordered
to which supplier.
4. Repricer application: An automated price management
application which enables the client to adjust prices of the
games listed on online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
The client can schedule automated repricing for all or specific
games based on the comparisons made with other competing
prices, conditions, seller rankings etc. within the price range
specified by the client.
Sigma Infosolutions team integrated the automated order
management and repricer applications with the client’s existing
inventory management system. Once, the client receives the
order from the supplier, they manually clear the order receipt in
automated order management application from where the inventory
management system automatically gets updated and then the
games are directly listed on Amazon and Ebay marketplaces. Also,
the repricer application interfaces with the inventory management
system to feed it with the re-pricing information on all or specific
games for automatic re-listing or deletion from the market places.
While working on this solution, Sigma Infosolutions also recommended
the client to aggressively adopt open-source technologies and
frameworks to further improve their profitability. Since, Sigma
Infosolutions understood the nuances of the client’s business
extremely well and this engagement had already reaped its benefits,
the client chose Sigma Infosolutions as trusted technology partner
for future development needs.
Business Benefits
The client enjoyed the following
business benefits:
• Real-time insight into
demand generation for each
game on each marketplace
• Accurate price management
based on real-time
comparative analysis of
each game listed on each
marketplace
• Supplier-wise pricing
comparison for each game
• Achieved a real-time supply
chain
• Trusted technology partner
for future functionality
development
• Increase in profit margin per
sale by almost 30%
www.sigmainfo.net
Opportunity rank analysis report

5. Sigma Infosolutions LLC-USA, California
2082 Michelson Dr.
Suite 100
Irvine, CA 92612
Telephone: (714) 717-1826
Fax: (866) 405-6750
Toll Free No.: 1-888-861-7360
Sigma Infosolutions Ltd.-India,Bangalore
Sigma Towers
#66/A, 13th Cross
6th Main, JP Nagar
3rd Phase, Bangalore- 560078
Telephone: +91-80-40865100
About Sigma Infosolutions
• Sigma Group, an Indian conglomerate has more than 4 decades of experience in Mining, Chemicals Manufacturing &
Export, Handicrafts Manufacturing & Export, and Software Development
• Sigma Infosolutions is a TUV certified ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 27001:2005 company
• Headquartered in US with presence in India
• Some of our esteemed customers include Airtel, Zyme Solutions, Yodlee, Celerity Consulting, Resolution Economics,
Birla Global Asset Finance, Fosroc Chemicals, Surgery Planet etc.
• Sigma Infosolutions’ services comprises of application development, application management, IT consulting, offshore
testing, and website and portal development
Accurate price management based on real-time
comparative analysis of each game listed on
each marketplace
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Items repriced on a marketplace