The ability to acquire, manage and utilize product data is crucial to the success of your marketplace. Marketplace operators are currently being offered a wide range of eCommerce APIs. What do the best eCommerce platform APIs have to offer and which of these are most suited to your needs?

Leading enterprises such as Amazon, Walmart and eBay have developed outstanding eCommerce APIs. Let’s take a look at their features and understand how your marketplace can benefit from them.

What are product data APIs?

Product data APIs are a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses that allow them to access product information and other relevant data from a variety of sources. Essentially, an API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of protocols that enable different software applications to communicate with each other. In the context of eCommerce, product data APIs allow businesses to easily access product information, including price, availability, and other relevant data, from a variety of sources, such as suppliers or other eCommerce platforms.

Benefits of product data APIs for eCommerce marketplaces

Improved efficiency

One of the primary benefits of using product data APIs is improved efficiency. By automating the process of accessing and updating product information, businesses can save time and reduce the risk of errors. For example, instead of manually entering product data into your eCommerce platform, you can use a product data API to automatically import product information from a supplier’s database. This can save a significant amount of time and resources, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business.

Enhanced customer experience

In addition to improving efficiency, product data APIs can also help enhance the customer experience. By providing accurate and up-to-date product information, businesses can improve the customer’s online shopping experience, leading to higher conversion rates and increased customer loyalty. For example, if a customer sees that a product is out of stock or has an incorrect price, they may become frustrated and abandon their purchase. By using a product data API, you can ensure that your customers always have access to accurate and up-to-date product information, improving their overall experience with your brand.

Increased profitability

Product data APIs can also help increase profitability by providing businesses with valuable insights into product performance and trends. By analyzing data from a variety of sources, businesses can identify which products are selling well, which products are underperforming, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their product offerings. Additionally, by automating the process of accessing and updating product data, businesses can save time and resources, allowing them to focus on other areas of their business, such as marketing and customer service.

Amazon’s Product Advertising and MWS API 

With 310 million monthly users, Amazon has massive appeal for sellers and buyers alike. Free Amazon MWS data can be used to create listings, fetch orders, get payments, produce reports, and more. MWS API data enables sellers to increase selling efficiency, reduce manpower expenses, and improve response time. By studying eCommerce data attributes, applications can be developed to list products for sale, set product prices, retrieve information for order fulfillment, generate reports, and more. 

The Amazon Advertising API automates scales for affiliates, and optimizes advertising results. This API yields campaign and performance data for sponsored products, brands, and display, with programmatic access for campaign management. Advertisers have the ability to manage ads or ad groups based on predefined conditions.

Walmart’s Open API

The Walmart Open API provides access to the marketplace’s extensive product catalog, thereby enabling digital distribution partners to earn affiliate revenues from customer referrals. Walmart is very restrictive in providing access to that API and it’s nothing but open.

Developers can utilize a variety of APIs to acquire crucial Walmart API data, promote sales, and improve the user experience:

Lookup API –  This product price API features the price and availability of each item. 

Search API  – This product lookup API enables a text search to be conducted on the Walmart.com catalogue, which returns matching products on sale. 

Taxonomy API – This API reveals Walmart.com’s category taxonomy which is used to categorize items.

Trending API – This eCommerce API features trending items on Walmart.com.

Reviews API – This API provides user reviews of products.

eBay’s Buy and Sell APIs

eBay currently has 177 million active monthly users. Its free Sell APIs provide sellers and third-party developers with all the capabilities needed to manage the vendor’s end-to-end eBay business. Sell APIs are focused on product catalogs (structured data), inventory on-boarding, and management capabilities. It employs a SKU-driven approach to manage purchase orders, fulfillment and returns. 

eBay’s Buy APIs enable vendors to create buying experiences outside of the eBay.com site. Users can search for, select, and buy eBay items based on eBay API data. Sellers can mirror and display the contents of the items in an eBay category, provide marketing data to drive conversions, and track orders, all from within the seller’s own website. eBay’s Buy APIs offer shoppers the option to buy eBay sellers’ items at any location including social sites.

Optimal Data Synergy with the Cluster Platform

Our AI-based marketing analysis platform enables online vendors to achieve superlative marketplace performance by integrating seamlessly with a wide range of product data APIs. The platform constantly draws crucial data related to products, prices and competitive markets, enabling sellers to dynamically build automated product catalogs and display their wares to the best advantage. 

Cluster is a platform for eCommerce marketplaces, brands, retailers, and sellers. We leverage ML & AI technology that provides the Retail/eCommerce community with demand forecasting, competitive market share information across multiple platforms, improved product matching capabilities, catalog data enhancement, optimized catalog rankings based on demand analysis and data-driven pricing.

The core competency of our technology is the ability to identify every product available online based on user-generated content (for example, users on Facebook Marketplace listing their used products), build a complete and structured product entity with up to 300 attributes as well as its regional GTINs, identify the product offerings in various websites across countries and channels and extract market price, estimate and predict sales volume per channel and even provide accurate sales-related costs such as shipping, marketing, tax and VAT, etc.  

To learn more about marketplace optimization through seamless integration with Data APIs, book a demo now. 

In today’s digital world, eCommerce is the new norm. The Internet has revolutionized the way businesses operate and consumers shop, making it easier for companies to reach a much larger audience. As eCommerce continues to grow, businesses are increasingly looking for ways to streamline the buying and selling process. This is where an eCommerce API  comes in. An eCommerce API is a set of tools that allows developers to integrate eCommerce functionalities into their own applications and websites.

APIs, or application programming interfaces, play a crucial role in modern web development and digital commerce. They provide a bridge between different software systems, allowing them to communicate and exchange data with one another.

What is an eCommerce API?

An eCommerce API is a set of programming tools and standards that allow developers to integrate eCommerce functionalities into their own applications and websites. It essentially allows businesses to interact with their customers and provide them with a seamless shopping experience. APIs are generally used to facilitate the integration of third-party services into an existing application. Businesses may use an eCommerce API to integrate a payment gateway, shipping provider, or customer service software into their own website.

By using an API, developers can build applications that interact with an online store’s platform and functions, such as product listings, customer accounts, and checkout processes. This allows developers to create applications that can provide a seamless shopping experience for customers.

For example, let’s say you have a web store that sells clothes. You can use an eCommerce API to create a mobile app that allows customers to browse your store’s inventory, complete their purchases, and even track their orders. This would be an example of how an API can help to provide a better shopping experience for your customers.

Why Should Businesses Use an eCommerce API?

There are many advantages of using an eCommerce API, more than simplifying the integration of third-party services into a business’s website or application. 

Improved User Experience

API integrations help to improve the user experience by allowing for seamless navigation and a more intuitive user interface. This is because API integrations help to integrate different software systems and bring together all of the different elements of the website into a single, cohesive platform.

Increased Efficiency

API integrations help to streamline operations and automate certain processes, which in turn leads to increased efficiency. For example, an API integration between a website and a payment gateway can help to automate the process of processing payments, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.

Better Data Management

API integrations help to ensure that data is consistent and up-to-date across all systems. This is because the API acts as a bridge between the different software systems, ensuring that data is passed back and forth accurately and in real-time, it can help businesses to stay up to date with the latest trends and technologies, as APIs are constantly being updated to include the latest features and services.  

Enhanced Security

API integrations can help to enhance the security of an ecommerce website by allowing for secure communication between different systems. This helps to reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents. By using a secure eCommerce API, businesses can ensure that customer data is kept secure and private. 

Save Time and Money

By using an API, businesses can avoid the need to manually integrate third-party services, which can be time-consuming and costly. APIs also help online retailers get more insight into their customers so they can offer them products customized to meet their needs.

Types of eCommerce APIs

There are several different types of eCommerce APIs available. 

• Payment API, which allows businesses to securely process payments and accept credit cards, PayPal, and other payment methods. Another type of API is the Shipping API, which allows businesses to integrate shipping providers, such as UPS and FedEx, into their own website. 
• Inventory API is another popular type of API. This API allows businesses to keep track of their inventory and automatically update the inventory count on their website. The Customer API is another popular type of API. This API allows businesses to keep track of customer information, such as order history and customer profiles. 
• Analytics API is a type of API that allows businesses to track and analyze customer data. This data can be used to make informed decisions about marketing strategies and product development.
• Shipping APIs: These APIs allow for integration with shipping carriers, enabling real-time shipping quotes and order tracking on an e-commerce website.
• Product APIs: These APIs allow for integration with product catalogs, enabling the display of product information and images on an e-commerce website.
• CRM API: This type of API integration helps to integrate an eCommerce website with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. This helps to automate the process of managing customer interactions, reducing the risk of errors and improving the overall customer experience.

How to Choose the Right API for E-commerce Website Development

When choosing an API for e-commerce website development, there are several factors to consider, including:

• Integration: The API should be easy to integrate with other systems, such as payment gateways and shipping carriers.
• Security: The API should have robust security features to protect sensitive information during transactions.
• Scalability: The API should be able to scale to meet the needs of a growing e-commerce website.
• Support: The API provider should offer excellent support and documentation to assist with integration and troubleshooting.

How Can Cluster Help?

Build and enhance product data efficiently to understand insights from channel to channel. Complete solutions from catalog integrity and assortment to seller onboarding and more. If you’re ready to start growing your store with the most accurate cross-channel eCommerce data in real-time, book a demo with us today!