Times for innovation and growth with e-commerce

These days everything transforming is part of Eurogama’s history, the wholesaler seeking to strengthen its e-commerce area. On its way to digital transformation, it decided to broaden its line of business when netGEB saw an opportunity for innovation in the SDK of GeneXus for connecting to “Mercado Libre”, an e-commerce platform similar to eBay and Amazon.

netGEB is a Software House in Uruguay with a proprietary Management System –an ERP applicable to all fields, though specializing in e-commerce. It functions online and in real time, with the automation of the corporate activities including Acquisitions, Imports, Storage, Sales-Invoicing, Incidents, Accounting, Reports and Queries, Audits, and Security.

In turn, Eurogama is an experienced imports firm in Uruguay, and the official agent for several brand names such as TECSYS, Boss Audio Systems, DracmaStore, Razer, and La Compra Perfecta.

The Challenge

Eurogama’s shops amounted to twelve branches distributed throughout Uruguay, with its sales team –in charge of their three Mercado Libre accounts and two official Stores– working from different locations. The lack of synchro and centralized data forced the duplication of tasks and tests and resulted in complications for attaining their sales objectives.

However, an even more serious problem for achieving their goals was the impossibility to publish their line of products in full, which included 4,000 by then. With the resources they had at hand, they were only able to publish and manage 350 products on each account, so maintaining their e-commerce became their weak spot, despite their great efforts. This inability to achieve their shared purposes generated strong frustration.

Benefits from working with GeneXus: standardization, agility and practicality.
 
“With GeneXus we can implement our ideas in a very agile manner. You think about the business and you accomplish it. We use tools for standardizing ourselves as well as our customers that help us with more agile answers for all needs. Had we not used GeneXus, then we would not have arrived in time for implementing the integration solution. We have shortened the time required for development incredibly!”.

Digital transformation:

“Sooner or later, we are all impacted by digital transformation, and if we are not prepared for it, we can end up in a difficult situation. The company for which we work in Uruguay is a sales store that had twelve physical branches. Now they have less branches and are more focused on electronic commerce, thanks to the empowerment they gained with the possibility of being integrated with Mercado Libre. GeneXus aids us in our evolution due to its evolving proactive philosophy. Moreover, what is more important than software is in fact the human capital behind GeneXus. They are always searching for innovation, where the greatest opportunities can be found”.
Eric Lugaro / NETGEB Having the technology to innovate and grow
 
Mercado Libre is the region’s top-selling e-commerce store. Undoubtedly, the solution should come with their permanence there. But how could technology aid them to achieve their objectives and increase sales?

Tempted by the possibility of helping their customers with GeneXus’ novel SDK, netGeb carried out a research, in combination with Eurogama, on how to publish on Mercado Libre, and on how to convert situations and other things oriented at making sales more effective.

They started by focusing on the automation of as many processes as possible. Then they generated tools for the massive management of products, with background and parallel publication methods, and a notifications system in real time, all aiming at an enhanced user experience.

So they finally integrated netGEB’s ERP system with Mercado Libre. netGEB developed an SDK –inspired in the one devised by GeneXus- for managing WooCommerce the free plugin of WordPress for e-commerce, which provides a single publication platform for customers. By applying the same concept used by GeneXus in relation to a single knowledge base, they impact the sales channels that users opt for, without the need for learning how such sales channels operate.

Now Eurogama is currently managing the three Mercado Libre accounts and the two official Stores, where, instead of the 350 products per account, they have over 17,000! This means that they now have more than 100,000 products on line, in addition to five e-commerce, all managed from a single platform, also with possibilities for further expansion in the short term. This transformation implied more improvements in the business, since their main line of wholesale is now accompanied by another line for invoicing in the retail field. The possibilities that this solution has brought along enabled a migration and the discovery of new business opportunities.

Regarding this satisfactory experience, Eurogama’s Sebastián Penna expressed: “Now we can digitalize, publish, and share our products fast. We implemented almost 1000 SKU, (stock-keeping units), the identifiers used in a business to keep track of the products and services offered to customers in a systematic manner. Each SKU relates to an object, a product, a brand, a service, charges, etc., with which we generate numerous publications –up to six thousand– in real time, and benefit from the work done to multiply it immediately. This connection has enabled us, in the first place, to re-convert ourselves by expanding our business from a wholesale importer to a retail vendor with five simultaneous e-commerce. We have been able to improve our work performance as well as our invoicing capacity. Our sales have been growing week after week”. And he added: “When Eric Lugaro rom netGEB- came to us with their proposal for the implementation, he said to us: ‘‘Our goal for today is to come up with 30 publications;, and I would tell him: ‘But, Eric, that is quite impossible due to the design and implementation costs and because we need to link all that with the Mercado Libre accounts;... ¡And today, we reached 1,000 in just one weekend’s time! This tool is brilliant.”

Following their successful implementation in Uruguay, they are now planning to establish an e-commerce company in Argentina, as well as other stores within the region.

GeneXus Meli SDK
Developers Mercadolibre

Partner Center

www.netgeb.com