Supplier inventory software for data processing automatic uploading to eBay

Extra notes: *Please download the attached PDF for an easier read.

My intention to post this listing is to have software written which will perform actions to streamline a process.
We are an automotive company that supplies parts to the trade over a trade counter and are moving things online to established marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. We have user accounts already set up with these two platforms and have experience trading on them. This is predominately written for compatibility with eBay.

Currently, we have in-house software that will provide the products we intend to list. These are listed in the format of CSV files. The information in the spreadsheets is being updated on an hourly basis with changes based upon data from suppliers. These files can be used for post-processing tasks, which the proposed software will be designed to achieve. In brief, the product information spreadsheets will be will contain information such as the product title, description, part number, SKU, price, stock levels, image URL etc. This information may vary between suppliers, but the core data will be available to satisfy mandatory information required in marketplaces. There is typically one spreadsheet per supplier or category of product.

The software we are proposing going forward will draw upon the available data in the spreadsheets and complete the full process via the following stages:

1. Once the data has been dumped into CSV files, the proposed software should automatically read the information and inject this into a pre- prepared HTML template that will be used to list the item on eBay. It will also inject the mandatory information into the eBay bulk upload spreadsheet (supplied by eBay) ready for upload.

2. Once the spreadsheet has been populated fully, it will now be ready for upload onto the eBay platform via the File Exchange service. This needs to be an automated task, that is, the software needs to be able to do this itself whenever this ‘data processing’ between the two spreadsheets is complete.

3. The most important element of this process is that the software should be able to automate this to repeat at a specified given time to ensure the latest information is online (repeat from Step 1).

There are some requirements or ‘rules’ that the software needs to fulfil the objective and deliver the desired output:
• The software must take action on stock levels. We cannot offer a product that is not in stock from our supplier to our customers. Our in house software will record in the spreadsheet it generates whether something is ‘in stock’, or ‘out of stock’. It will dump this information for the relevant product in a separate column. The proposed software needs to take action on this information.

• All information to be copied whenever the software is executed. As the product information template will continually update, product data in all columns is to be assumed to have updated since the previous execution. Thus, title, description, price, part number etc. must be re- copied into the eBay spreadsheet.

• Different variables may apply for different product information spreadsheets. As there will be multiple product information spreadsheets, each containing specific data which may also feature different variables/columns, the software must be configurable to be adjusted to read and process individual source CSV spreadsheets. For instance, a ‘CSV File A’ may have an MPN number instead of a part number featured in ‘CSV File B’; ‘CSV File C’ may have a barcode number which no other CSV file features, and this barcode number must be entered into the eBay spreadsheet as it is mandatory.

• It needs to be robust to handle thousands of products. Initially we will test the end product to process across a few hundred products and observe how it manages with updating information, particularly actioning stock level changes. The end goal is for the software to manage monitoring thousands of products. It can do this via a batch process if need be.

• The software needs to be able to be expanded upon. It is very likely that once we have this fundamental process in place, we will need to expand it to account for future functionalities. Some of these may be specific to a certain supplier. It would be helpful if the programmer can annotate where possible, so the source code can be understood by a third party.

• Regular execution as determined by user. The software needs to update eBay on a regular basis. Thus as the product CSV are updated, the proposed software should execute accordingly to relay the updated information online.

I will discuss the language and approach of the software with the potential programmer that is best suited for this work. I have access to a web server, and can set up a 24/7 desktop PC that this can run on.