E-commerce Company Saves $43K/Year on Data Aggregation
The Full Story
This e-commerce fulfillment operation was scaling fast but their data infrastructure wasn't keeping up. They worked with multiple 3PLs and regional warehouse providers, none of which talked to each other. Every morning started with the same ritual: log into five different portals, export yesterday's data, paste into a master spreadsheet, and pray the formulas didn't break.
The real challenge? Most of these systems had no API. They were legacy WMS platforms and small 3PLs with nothing but a web portal. We built a hybrid solution: API integrations where available, and Playwright browser automation for the rest. The system logs into each portal automatically, navigates to the right reports, extracts the data, and normalizes everything into a single database. The operations team now has real-time visibility across all fulfillment partners without touching a spreadsheet.
The Challenge
Operations team spent 3+ hours daily manually pulling fulfillment data from 5 different systems: custom 3PLs, regional warehouse management systems, and carrier portals. Most had no API, just web portals requiring manual login and export. Data lived in spreadsheets, was always outdated, and reconciliation errors cost thousands monthly.
Our Solution
Built a hybrid data pipeline combining API integrations with browser automation (Playwright) to pull data from systems that only offered web portals. Data flows into a unified schema with real-time dashboards and automated exception alerts.
Automated Data Pipeline
How we unified 5 data sources (3PLs, WMS, carriers) into a single dashboard
Custom 3PLs, regional WMS, and carrier systems
- -Mix of APIs and web-only portals
- -Each system has different data formats
- -Authentication varies by provider
Pulls data via APIs or Playwright browser automation
- -APIs for modern systems
- -Playwright for legacy portals
- -Handles login, navigation, and extraction
Transforms varied formats into unified schema
- -Maps carrier-specific fields to standard format
- -Handles edge cases and exceptions
- -Validates data integrity
All shipping data in one queryable location
- -Real-time sync across all carriers
- -Historical data for analysis
- -Instant search and filtering
Instant notifications for shipping exceptions
- -Delayed shipment alerts
- -Failed delivery notifications
- -Cost anomaly detection
Real-time visibility into all shipments
- -Live tracking across carriers
- -Cost analytics and trends
- -Performance metrics
The Result
3.5 Hours Saved Daily
“We went from drowning in spreadsheets to having a single source of truth. The ROI paid for itself in the first month.”