Inventory Automation

Hi everyone! I am Joshua from AutomaticInventory.net. I am not here to write about our service per se, but rather looking for some input. Though I want to explain some things so to give some background.

AutomaticInventory.net is e-commerce inventory source management software

There is a problem in e-commerce having to do with inventory, especially for stores who use dropship type distributors. The issue is keeping your inventory updated so that:
A. You do not lose sales/customers for out of stock products
B. You do not waste advertising dollars for products that are out of stock
C. Cost (time, money, etc) of keeping a live inventory are manageable
D. You have unique descriptions that are more useful than your manufacturer's "default" descriptions
E. You have unique content so that search engines do not view your store as "duplicate content"

AutomaticInventory addresses all of those issues to some level. (If you want to check it out, free accounts have full access to the data feed tool, but can only download the first 100 products in their output file)

However, there is a hang up. AI can convert/generate your distributor data to the proper format (easypopulate or any other for that matter) but there is not a module (to my knowledge) that automates the import process to zen-cart. Due to security, legal, and other reasons, AI is not setup to both push the data to your store and install it at this time. (It can be done, but I believe that automating this part of the process from an external company poses too many unnecessary risks for store owners)

If you are interested in developing a module to automate easypopulate for your Zencart version(s) please contact me via PM here on the Zen-cart forums. I may be able to get you a free subscription (upgraded account) to the full automation services at automaticinventory.net if you were to somehow mention automaticinventory.net in the module somehow.

I can develop the modules myself, however, my time is limited with the software launch and I wanted to reach out to the community for contributions if anyone is interested.

Joshua
AutomaticInventory.net

Hi Josh

As you have alluded, it is probably better to not use a SaaS automation system, for reasons of security.

Many modules that advocate automated processes (EG: SitemapXML and Google Merchant Centre) contain instructions for the user in setting CRON jobs.

So it may be an idea to instruct users about setting up a folder into which datafeeds can be sent via secure FTP, and which runs a CRON at specified intervals on the loaded file.

Yes I agree Schoolboy. So far I'm thinking the module will:

-Allow user to set the file location to be imported, type of import, etc...

The script that automates EP would essentially be a script to run via cron that authenticates and then posts to the easypopulate.php file for the import, based on the user config. The script's default name might be 'autoeasypopulate.php' but would not work unless it were renamed to something else (that way only the store owner would know the name of the script too) and for even more security, give instructions to place the script in a secure folder as well.

There is definately value to automating the process, but security is the primary obstacle.