Automated price comparison from multiple suppliers

Purpose

1. Automate the gathering of real-time price data from multiple aquarium accessories suppliers for efficient procurement decisions.

2. Streamline comparison operations by automating extraction from supplier portals, catalog APIs, and emails.

3. Eliminate manual spreadsheet entry by automating price tracking and logging for each product-SKU across vendors.

4. Automatically notify purchasing managers of price changes or optimal deals, ensuring rapid response to fluctuating supplier rates.

5. Maintain an automated reference of supplier terms, availability, delivery times, and exclusivity to optimise restocking.

Trigger Conditions

1. Automated schedule (e.g., daily, hourly, or real-time triggers using cron jobs or webhook events).

2. Manual initiation for spot-checks via a dashboard interface or trigger endpoint.

3. Automated detection of new product listings from supplier data feeds.

4. Automated email receipt with attached or inline pricing updates from suppliers.

5. Automated alert on predefined price change thresholds for specific SKUs or categories.

Platform Variants

1. Microsoft Power Automate

• Feature: HTTP action, Excel Online connector; configure scheduled HTTP GET with supplier API, auto-log results.
  

2. Zapier

• Feature: Webhooks by Zapier, Formatter; set up automated GET requests to supplier endpoints, parse, and push to sheets.
  

3. Integromat (Make)

• Module: HTTP, Google Sheets; automate pulling prices from supplier APIs and compare in real-time table.
  

4. UiPath

• Activity: Data Scraping, HTTP Request; automate browser-based extraction or direct REST API polling.
  

5. Salesforce Flow

• Element: Scheduled Flow, Apex Action; automate API calls to suppliers, write to custom object for procurement review.
  

6. Google Apps Script

• Service: UrlFetchApp; automate periodic fetching from supplier APIs and synchronise with internal sheets.
  

7. AWS Lambda

• Service: Scheduled event, API Gateway trigger; automates invocation of functions for multi-supplier comparison, output to S3/database.
  

8. Azure Logic Apps

• Connector: HTTP, Office 365 Excel; automate integration with supplier API and update shared Excel document.
  

9. Google Cloud Functions

• Service: Pub/Sub trigger; automated function pulls supplier pricing and triggers downstream automation.
  

10. Shopify

• App/Extension: Shopify Flow, GraphQL Admin API; automate vendor price import/comparison for product listings.
  

11. Odoo

• Module: Purchase Management, External APIs; automate fetching and comparing vendor prices for reordering.
  

12. SAP Integration Suite

• Service: Open Connector, Workflow; automate supplier integration and price comparison workflow.
  

13. QuickBooks Online

• App: Reports & APIs; automate updates of supplier prices to inform procurement cost projections.
  

14. Freshservice

• Workflow: Orchestration; automate price extraction from supplier tickets/emails using parsing logic.
  

15. Mailparser

• Action: Automated parsing rules; automate extraction of price data from supplier emails and forward to reporting endpoint.
  

16. Airtable

• Automation: Scheduled scripts; automate supplier API calls and auto-update base fields with current pricing.
  

17. Monday.com

• Integration: HTTP integration or Zapier connector; automate price, stock import, and visual comparison board updates.
  

18. Oracle Integration

• Adapter: REST Adapter; automate data flow between supplier pricing endpoints and procurement modules.
  

19. Apify

• Actor: Scraping actor; automate extraction from supplier web catalogs and push to comparative data store.
  

20. ServiceNow

• Flow Designer: HTTP step; automate scheduled polling of supplier APIs and auto-compare in workflow tables.
  

Benefits

1. Saves time by replacing manual price checks with automated supplier data pulls and matching.

2. Automates accurate, up-to-date price comparison, reducing the risk of missed savings or overpayments.

3. Enables purchasing managers to make faster, data-driven decisions with automated alerts and dashboards.

4. Enhances procurement transparency by automating historical price and vendor performance tracking.

5. Easily scales to add new suppliers or change logic, as automatable flows are centrally configurable.

6. Automates reduction of human errors in price logging and supplier communication.

7. Supports strategic negotiations with automated visibility of supplier pricing trends over time.

8. Frees staff to focus on high-value tasks by automating repetitive comparison activities.

9. Automates compliance with procurement policies by maintaining an auditable trail of all comparison actions.

10. Accelerates response to supplier promotions or stockouts with automated notifications.