Description how OT platform works
The sources of goods in our system are various international marketplaces. We call them providers.
The following providers are currently connected to our system: Taobao/Tmall, 1688, Alibaba, AliExpress, Ebay, Amazon, JD, Pinduoduo, Shein and Trendyol.
We developed our own system (OT platform) that allows you to receive, store and transfer product information, as well as keep collected data up to date.
Scheme how OT platform works:
clients -> OTAPI -> … -> data storage <- data collectors from providers <- providers
In our system, we use two active initiators to get product information — OT platform users and our background collectors.
OT platform users include owners of OpenTrade Commerce IT solutions, as well as buyers of their online stores.
Collectors are our special development that allows you to get information from various popular marketplaces.
The central part of OT platform is data warehouse which provides product information to users on request, and collectors add and update information.
Thus, there is no direct communication between users’ requests and providers. Operation of sites based on OT platform doesn’t directly depend on the current state of providers. This ensures stable and uninterrupted operation of the entire system. Therefore, if any of the providers fails, the sites connected to it will continue to receive information.
Let’s consider the detailed advantages and disadvantages of how OT platform works.
Advantages how OT platform works:
- Any problems with providers don’t slow down or stop your sites based on OT platform.
- Goods are searched exclusively in our database, its speed and functionality depend only on us. All providers have the same settings. Photo search is available.
- Speed depends only on us. The product is issued almost immediately if it is already available in our database. Speed decreases when new information is received, which is not available in our database. We are constantly working to reach maximum speed of our platform.
- Prompt resolution of performance problems in case of their occurrence, since the system does not depend on marketplaces operation.
- Simplified process of connecting new providers to OT platform, regardless of their native functionality. Any new provider will get exactly the same functionality as others in our system. We are constantly monitoring e-commerce trends and developing providers according to their market demand.
Disadvantages how OT platform works:
- If the product has never been in our database, it may take significant time to receive it than it was before. To speed up the process of receiving goods, we have introduced the ability to display incomplete information about the product, and made automatic retries of attempts to receive goods in OT Box. Thus, we maximally compensated for the speed decrease of obtaining information about new products.
- In case of problems with the provider, the speed of updating information in our database is reduced. At the same time, this practically does not affect the work of sites created on the basis of the OT platform: the search will work, all the products in our database will continue to open. That gives us time to look for ways to restore work with the provider.
- In the case of long-term problems with providers, buyers can create orders based on outdated product data: changes in prices, configurations and other information necessary to complete the order. Such situations did not arise during our work.
We are constantly working on improving OT platform work, increasing speed, introducing new ways of obtaining information, increasing data relevance and solving other issues that will eliminate or compensate for existing shortcomings.
Working with OpenTrade Commerce IT solutions, the following features of OT platform should be taken into account:
- Goods search is carried out in our database and according to our algorithms. Therefore, issuing of goods in our system and on the original site will be different. They can’t be compared, it is possible to evaluate goods relevance.
- OT platform has a queue of goods to receive and update with different priorities. Newly opened products and products in carts get the highest priority.
- The process of checking baskets is waiting for product update if its term has exceeded 8 hours. This guarantees relevance of data at the time of ordering.
In some cases, if the provider allows, then so-called direct product search is applied: search request is sent to the provider and exactly its results are returned. And if direct search is impossible, unavailable, or for some reasons did not work, our internal search will be performed using the same parameters.
- Pluses: all issued goods are up to date.
- Minuses: the functionality of search itself is limited compared to our internal algorithms.
- Providers list and conditions for using direct search is constantly changing. Currently, direct search works in the following cases:
Trade provider | Direct search |
Taobao/Tmall |
|
Ebay | always |
AliExpress (any) | any parameters except search by vendor |
Amazon (any) | always |
Pinduoduo | if search is carried by text or by category |
Shein | if search is carried by text |
1688 | don’t have direct search |
Alibaba | don’t have direct search |
Trendyol |
Internal search capabilities in OT platform:
- Search by text, category, vendor is supported;
- Sorting (besides basic) by price and sales volume is supported;
- Filter by price, by discount, by sales volume is supported;
- Issuance of clarifying categories with the number of goods in each is supported;
- Filters by characteristics are supported;
- Photo search is supported;
- There is sorting and filter by vendor’s rating;
- Issuance of filter options by characteristics is available.
- Issuance of filter options by characteristics is available.