Building API Platform for Sellers on Noon eCommerce Marketplace

Role: Project Lead

Problem:
Sellers on the platform were manually creating products, updating inventory, prices, and receiving orders. This reliance on dedicated manpower led to human errors, incorrect information, and irregular updates, causing inefficiencies for both sellers and the marketplace.

Solution:

Research:

Conducted a primary survey with over 1000 responses from existing marketplace sellers to understand their needs.
Held focused interviews with large sellers to gather insights on their operations with other marketplaces.
Benchmarked automation tools used by major players like Amazon and Flipkart, which offer seller automation solutions.
Development:

Collaborated with the platform engineering team to build two automation tools:
FTP Channel: For small and medium-sized sellers, offering time-based automated file transfers for easy product updates and order management.
API Channel: For large sellers needing real-time integration between Noon's platform and their ERP/OMS systems, ensuring efficient data exchange.
Partnerships:

Identified and integrated leading ecosystem enablers like ChannelEngine, Increff, Unicommerce, and Browntape to help sellers implement automation tools.
Negotiated attractive pricing for Noon sellers using these integrators, making the service accessible across seller scales.
Results:

Over 10 large sellers adopted the API-based automation tools.
More than 500 SME sellers started using the FTP-based automation tool.
The automation platform now handles over 80% of stock updates and order exports, significantly reducing manual errors and improving efficiency for sellers across the marketplace.