As a high-volume eCommerce software provider, you need to be able to seamlessly integrate your own system with all the major marketplaces out there. Whether you're a provider of ERP, shipping, WMS, order management, inventory management, or pricing software, you need to develop marketplace API integration to reach millions of potential customers selling their products online.
In 2021, the surest way to gain an edge over the competition is to expand your software capabilities and offer exquisite services to your target niche. To do that, you need to perform flawless integrations with Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Walmart, and all the other top eCommerce marketplaces.
API Integration in the eCommerce Sphere
In the eCommerce sphere, integrations are considered vital. Using API or Application Programming Interface, eCommerce software providers can work and manage their clients’ online store data.
An API can be used for seamless integration with marketplaces by any software company. Basically, using an API allows you to connect your system with eCommerce solutions such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Walmart, and gain unrestricted access to data related to products, orders, clients, categories, baskets, and other information.
Developing an API integration with marketplaces is definitely a beneficial operation for any eCommerce software. However, it’s also a very tedious and time-consuming task. The eCommerce data integration pitfalls you need to overcome include:
- Huge integration time of over ten weeks.
- High cost of over $10k for just a single integration with a specific marketplace (you need 4x more to integrate your business with Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Walmart).
- Each integration requires further updates and maintenance
- Each integration is unique and comes with its own security risks
Let’s take a deeper look into the specific integration processes with four of the most important eCommerce platforms today.
Amazon API
Amazon is now by far the largest eCommerce marketplace with over 310 million monthly visitors. More than 16 million webshops are listed on it.
For you, as a high-volume software company, Amazon could prove to be a goldmine. However, to reach all those users, it becomes mandatory for you to perform a marketplace API integration with Amazon.
Amazon API is a fully managed service that can enable developers to create, publish, and monitor its data easily. Once connected to Amazon API, you will be able to programmatically exchange data on orders, listings, reports, payments, inventory, etc.
The drawback of this API is that it’s pretty old and outdated. Amazon API documentation is quite complicated to use and requires specific skills. Working with product data is only possible using XML or CSV files, which is certainly not a pleasant experience for high-volume software companies that want to automate their tasks.
To top it all, the customer support team from Amazon is not as responsive as it should be. In this case, a manual marketplace API integration with this platform should be out of the discussion.
eBay API
eBay is another major eCommerce marketplace, surpassed only by Amazon's expansion. With over 177 million users and over 1 billion product listings, eBay is the number one choice for selling and buying products in almost every country in the world.
eBay RESTful API is quite complex, coming with many guides, tutorials, and documentation info. Using eBay API, developers can set up multiple streams of information to display data related to products, view items, retrieve lists of product prices, and perform other similar tasks.
Unfortunately, eBay API is not uniform and uses different formats for various resources. For example, working with customers or orders may require an XML format, while working with products and inventory may require JSON. Because of this, finding the right information for a proper marketplace API integration with eBay is a truly tedious task.
Etsy API
With more than 43 million online shoppers and 2 million sellers from over 234 countries, Etsy stands in its niche as the best eCommerce marketplace for handmade goods and products. Etsy allows its users to personalize their sites and increase sales with best-in-class marketing tools.
The Etsy API uses the RESTful interface with lightweight JSON formatted responses. With the Etsy API, developers can easily send information to the platform and collect data from their customers' shops.
Nonetheless, integrating your business with Etsy presents some challenges. First, the Etsy documentation doesn't include all the necessary information, making it difficult for inexperienced developers to perform a quick marketplace API integration. Second, the Etsy API lacks the ability to provide a connection between images and product variants.
Walmart API
US-based businesses are well aware of Walmart, the largest physical retailer in the country. Ever since they hit the digital market, they’ve managed to become a serious competitor to Amazon or eBay.
Even though the Walmart API is one of the easiest to find, being very similar to the Etsy API and using the same RESTful infrastructure, the Walmart API has its pitfalls. Investing in a stable integration could take weeks and cost you over $10,000 in the long run.
Nonetheless, once you're integrated with Walmart, you can take advantage of all the perks offered by this platform: unrestricted connection with their 150k stores, access to product data, the ability to suggest new functionalities to your customers, and a larger market share in the US.
How to Develop API Integration with Multiple Marketplaces?
As a high-volume eCommerce software provider, you want to reach as many customers as possible, from different countries and on multiple platforms. You also want to benefit from exquisite automation capabilities to save both you and your customers time. To achieve that, you need to find a way to develop strong marketplace API integrations with Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, and eBay.
The trick is that establishing a connection with each of these marketplaces takes a lot of effort, time, and money. Add to that the fact that each connection requires constant improvement, bug fixing, maintenance and updating.
The easiest way to develop a trustworthy API integration with several marketplaces at all, with minimum time and financial investment, is to use API2Cart. For high-volume eCommerce software providers, an even better choice is using API2Cart Enterprise on-Premise solution. This bespoke solution offers you the following benefits:
- Premium customer support, with 24/7 help and streamlined communication with API2Cart dedicated account manager
- The capability to greatly expand your software possibilities using a single point of access
- You can choose your favorite platform for connecting with API2Cart, including Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud
- Save up to 8 weeks of integration, cut costs on escrow, and minimize your TCO
- Connect with not just Amazon, Etsy, Walmart and eBay, but also with 40+ other shopping platforms
Conclusion
Winning high-volume eCommerce software vendors are smart when it comes to marketplace API integration, looking to make the most of their time and reduce the cost of each process. You should also automate their API integrations and connect seamlessly with Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, and eBay.
Connect with these marketplaces and gain an edge over your competition by expanding your software capabilities and offering exquisite services to your target niche.